The Doctor's Daughter and the Baker's Boy
Many, many years ago, long before Luna’s Banishment, there lived a unicorn. Like many unicorns she realized at a young age that she was gifted with her own unique form of magic. She would often run crying to her parents about something she had seen happen to her or her friends only to realize that it had not in fact happened. Over the years she began to understand that her visions were a form of magic that showed her glimpses of something that may happen in the future or something that could have happened differently in the past.
At first she had almost no control over her magic, spending as much of her time lost in her visions as she spent in the real world. But with practice she was able to keep her mind focused on the present and her visions only came to her during times of great excitement when her emotions got the better of her.
Despite her troubled childhood she grew up to be a lovely young mare with long purple braids and the clearest, bluest eyes anypony had ever seen. She lived a quiet life with her loving parents and three beautiful older sisters.
It had been over a year since she’d had her last vision and she was beginning to forget that she had ever had them at all. When she pointed out to her parents how long it had been they smiled proudly and told her she was old enough to go out on her own. Her mother handed her a small sapphire and said, “Why don’t you go to the market and pick up everything you need to bake a cake. Tonight we’re going to celebrate how grown up our littlest filly is.”
Of course she was very eager to leave the house on her own and she was very happy that her parents were finally trusting her with a little bit of responsibility. With nopony to slow her down, she skipped all the way to the market with a basket hanging from her mouth and the gem held securely in her hoof. By the time she arrived she was nearly panting and her cheeks were glowing from the exertion, but she had never been happier.
She soon found her way to the baker’s stand, where she knew she could get all the ingredients she needed to bake a cake from scratch. As soon as the baker noticed her coming he welcomed her. “Good morning, young miss. And what a good morning it is indeed,” he boomed, looking to the sky where there was hardly a cloud to be seen. “What can I do for you?”
“I’d like to buy everything I need to bake a cake,” she said, glowing with pride that she was handling this all by herself.
“Well then you’ve certainly come to the right place!” the baker guffawed, bending over his huge frame to reach underneath the counter, then spryly resurfacing and slamming a bag of flour onto the counter along with some sugar, salt, eggs, and a few other select ingredients the young unicorn required. “That there’ll make one fine cake,” he announced.
“Thank you very much, sir. Will this be enough?” she asked politely, hoofing him the sapphire.
“Oh, absolutely, little miss. In fact I’ll throw in some extra flour, sugar, and a half dozen eggs to even the difference. Ya never know when it’ll come in handy. You can make a whole lot o’ things with flour, sugar, and eggs. You can make some nice bread, some cookies, maybe a few cupcakes,” he prattled away as he stowed the sapphire and gave the unicorn her extra ingredients. Eventually he paused to take a breath and the young mare took the opportunity to finish the transaction.
“Thank you very much, Mr. Baker,” she grinned enthusiastically. “I’m sure it’s going to be a wonderful cake.”
“Ain’t no doubt about that, little miss. Thank ye for stoppin’ by!” he waved. “Now don’t forget to use those extra ingredients for some nice pancakes, or a pie crust, or maybe pizza dough...”
The sound of his voice died off as she walked away, her basket loaded full of baking ingredients. She was giggling to herself thinking about his strange obsession with simple baked goods when a voice broke in on her thoughts.
“Hey, I know you!” a young earth pony stallion about her age stopped as he passed her and cried out in excitement.
“I’m sorry,” she smiled apologetically, “I don’t think we’ve met before.”
“Oh, right,” the stallion grinned bashfully. “I guess I don’t really know you, exactly. But I see you and your sisters walk by on your way to school every day.”
“That’s strange. I don’t seem to remember noticing you,” she said with a curious expression on her face. After a moment she gasped and blushed in embarrassment, then said hurriedly, “I mean, goodness, I’m not trying to say that you aren’t memorable! I just, well, I don’t think I ever saw you. I tend not to notice things when I’m walking, but it’s entirely my fault for not noticing you! I’m sorry I--”
“Please!” the stallion laughed kindheartedly. “Ya don’t have to go on apologizing! It’s not your fault I’m not much to notice. Besides, I kinda blend in with the grass, since I’m green an’ all.”
He lied down in the dirt to demonstrate how his green coat made himself hard to see in the grass. His antics earned a stifled laugh from the young unicorn.
“Goodness! I can hardly see you!” she grinned, genuinely impressed by his camouflage. “No wonder I hadn’t noticed you before.”
“Yup, that’s what I’m good at. Not being noticed and not bothering anypony. Well, that and baking. I’m the baker’s boy, by the way.”
He stood back up cheerfully and offered her his hoof. She took it in kind and shook it with an unwavering smile.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m the doctor’s daughter.”
“Hey! Quit delayin’ our customers! Can’t ya see the little miss has somewhere to be?” The baker yelled from his stand.
“Oops, gotta go!” The stallion released the unicorn’s hoof and ducked his head as if he instinctively hid from his father. “It was real nice to finally get to know you.”
“It was nice for me as well,” she answered in kind. “I’ll be sure to say hello if I manage to spot you next time I’m headed to school.”
“Get over here!” the baker continued to shout from afar.
“Okay, see ya!” The stallion darted away.
“Farewell!” she shouted after him, watching as he joined his father at the booth. She saw the baker give his son a short scolding and then return to his usual customer service expression. The younger stallion saw the unicorn still watching and grinned sheepishly, waving goodbye. She waved too and then turned to head back home.
Even with a basket full of cake ingredients she couldn’t resist the urge to skip all the way home. Somehow her day had gotten even better and a radiant smile was blossoming on her features when she arrived back at home.
With the help of her family she baked the cake and set the table for their celebration. Over the scrumptious dessert she told them all about her first trip to town on her own and how she’d met a wonderful stallion. Of course her mother and sisters knew immediately what was happening and they asked all sorts of questions like how he looked and how polite he was. She didn’t mind one bit and was more than eager to answer all their questions.
The next day on their way to school the four daughters ran into a young stallion waiting by the side of the road.
“Good morning, ladies,” he greeted them kindly. The three eldest sisters merely looked at their youngest sibling and giggled at how she blushed. They rushed on ahead, leaving the youngest sister alone with the young stallion.
“Hello again,” she beamed. “I thought I’d have to look a little harder to find you, but here you are!”
“Yup! I thought I’d make myself a little easier to spot so I could give you this.” He rummaged around in his saddlebag then proudly presented her with a gingerbread pony with a horn and two eyes of the bluest frosting the young unicorn had ever seen.
“It’s… me!” she laughed aloud as she graciously accepted the gift. “Why, nopony’s ever given me a gingerbread version of myself before.”
“We had some extra gingerbread last night, so I figured I could put it to good use. You don’t think it’s weird, do you? I mean, does it seem strange to eat a cookie shaped like yourself? I’m not trying to say you’re… well… you can eat it if you’d like! It’s up to you.”
“Oh, I’ll most certainly eat it! It smells delicious. Or, should I say, I smell delicious,” she laughed, realizing too late that it wasn’t exactly normal for a pony to declare herself delicious-smelling. Luckily the stallion seemed to find it genuinely amusing and he laughed along with her. With a hint of a blush shading her cheeks she said, “I’d better be going. I don’t want to be late.”
“Please, don’t let me keep you,” the young stallion fretted, not wanting to cause his friend any inconvenience.
“Thank you very much for the cookie,” she placed her hoof on his shoulder and smiled. “I’ll let you know exactly how delicious it is!”
Then she turned away and ran to catch up with her sisters, who were waiting a little ways up the road chatting amongst themselves. They welcomed her back with delight, eager to hear exactly what had been said.
For many days the same thing happened each morning. The young stallion would be waiting for the unicorn on her way to school, each time surprising her with a new baked treat. Soon enough the unicorn asked her mother if it would be okay to go to town once she finished her chores and she said yes, allowing the unicorn to skip to the market and visit her new friend.
The two of them spent more and more time together as their feelings blossomed into young love, though neither dared yet to admit it to the other. Soon enough Hearts and Hooves Day was upon them and the unicorn was especially eager as she was getting ready for school in the morning. Everypony in the unicorn’s family was secretly hoping that the baker’s boy would confess his feelings so that they could finally be together, but none wanted it more than the unicorn herself. She took extra care when braiding her purple mane and she put some little red bows at the ends which everypony agreed were simply lovely.
The young stallion was waiting nervously in his usual spot as the four sisters passed him. The older sisters went ahead and the young unicorn was left alone with her friend. The two of them stood silently looking at each other, each terrified and tremendously hopeful at the same time. The blushes on their cheeks could have rivalled a fire ruby in redness. Finally the stallion ventured to speak.
“I like your bows.”
“Oh, thank you.” Somehow her cheeks grew redder. “I pinked them especially for today.”
“They’re… really nice,” he stuttered, then suddenly ducked his head into his saddlebag. “I made you this,” he blurted, holding out a strange item. It looked like a flat sort of cookie folded over itself. She took it from him curiously and found that it was very light, as if it was hollow.
“Thank you,” she said distractedly. “Um, what is it?”
“We call them fortune cookies. But, um, you should wait a little bit to eat it,” he glanced nervously about like he was looking for an escape route.
“Of course. I can wait.” She was thoroughly confused by his behavior.
“Alright, uh, just let me know if you like it. Is that my dad calling me? I think I hear my dad calling me. I’d better go and, uh, see what he wants.”
As quick as a whip the stallion was gone, leaving the unicorn alone, confused, and more than a little disappointed. She wondered if he had somehow forgotten that today was Hearts and Hooves Day, or if maybe he didn’t feel the same way she felt about him. Doubts plagued her normally cheerful mood as she trudged along the road to her sisters. She wasn’t in the mood to talk and instead of answering their questions she just kept looking at the strange cookie.
The first half of the school day was painfully slow and the unicorn couldn’t focus on anything her teacher was saying. When lunch time came she’d given up on figuring out the meaning of the cookie and disappointedly told herself that the stallion must not share her feelings.
Her stomach growled and she took a bite of the cookie. It turned out to be very crunchy and it cracked in half between her front teeth. She couldn’t help but feel like the same thing had happened to her heart. Her lips brushed against something that felt particularly un-cookie-like and she spat out the dessert, alarmed about what she had just been about to eat. To her astonishment she discovered that the cookie lay broken upon the table along with a small slip of slightly soggy paper.
Perplexed, she picked up the paper in her hooves and noticed that something had been written upon it. As she made out what it said word by word her depression melted away, overpowered by waves of joy and elation.
“Will you be my special somepony?” it read.
“Oh, of course! Of course I will!” she screamed in her head as bliss returned to her features. It suddenly all made sense to her. It seemed foolish to her now that she had ever doubted the stallion’s affections, and she was more overjoyed than the first time her mother had let her go out alone.
But then a feeling nearly forgotten returned to the ecstatic mare. It was not a feeling of happiness, nor sadness, nor anywhere in between. It was a feeling of magic, and with it came a rush of fear as she recognized the long-resisted sensation. Her horn flared purple and her eyes turned completely blue. She saw the world in a magical haze, constantly shifting and changing.
She watched herself return to the stallion after she finished her chores and throw herself into into his arms, telling him that nothing would make her happier than to be his special somepony. She observed the two of them enjoying a beautiful sunset and sharing their first kiss. She saw them together on the altar, forever sealing the eternal love they both already knew burned deep within them. She witnessed their twin daughters growing into the most beautiful, compassionate mares she could ever have wished for. Then she watched in awe struck terror as their house burned to the ground with her husband and children still trapped inside. She looked down upon the charred remains of her home. Everything was deathly quiet.
She snapped back to reality with a terrible scream. With an expression of pure horror she threw the note in her hooves to the ground and ran home as fast as she could. Her mother was worried that she was home so early, but the young unicorn pushed past her and locked herself away in her room. There she remained for the rest of the day, crying and whimpering, trying to think of anything but what she had seen. However the terrible vision would not release her, and she could not even think of the stallion without the image of the flames filling her mind. She swore that day to never again speak to the stallion for fear that her vision would come true. It was the only way, she thought, that she could protect him from that disastrous fate.
For many, many years she lived a lonely life. With the help of her family she was able to cope with everyday life, but her cheerful attitude was never the same. She seemed to have lost a part of herself when she had that vision. She lived under the constant oppression of fear that something she did would cause an appalling turn of events in the future.
At first the stallion came to the house frequently, hoping to see the unicorn again, but her family sent him away each time. Eventually they explained to him what had happened, but he refused to listen to their pleas. He said he didn’t care if he would die someday for loving the unicorn. He told them it would have been worth it. But with heavy hearts the family told them that the unicorn’s answer was still no.
He kept coming to visit for many years, never being allowed in to see his love. Still, he remained resolute. He declared that he would return every day to win back her love until the day he died.
Shortly after that, he stopped coming.
One of the unicorn’s sisters went to town to ask him why he had stopped, and she returned with grim tidings. Asking around the market, she learned that that baker’s house had gone down in flames, along with the baker, his wife, and his son.
Upon hearing this, the unicorn broke down in tears. Despite all their time apart she had still loved him. She gave up all hope as she realized that her efforts to protect her love had all been in vain, and along with the utter despair came that familiar magical feeling. Only, this time it brought no fear, for the unicorn thought she had nothing left to lose.
In the strange haze she saw the house she had lived in with the stallion and her daughters in that brief glimpse of the future she’d seen so long ago. After all these years she realized that this vision was no longer a sight of what would be, and was instead what could have been.
She saw herself, desperate to save the ponies she loved most of all in the whole world, charge bravely into the roaring flames. Smoke filled her senses as the oppressive heat grew nearer on all sides. Through the haze she could not make out what was happening. After a minute she had just enough time to see herself dragging the unconscious bodies of her two daughters away from the fire before she ran back inside.
After what seemed like an eternity, she once again emerged from the collapsing house with her husband thrown over her back. She bore him away from danger and laid him down next to her daughters before she too fell to the ground and blacked out.
When she saw herself awaken, her husband and children were crowding around her, trying to see if she was okay. She watched herself smile, her face a portrait of perfect relief to see that the vision she’d had all those years ago had not, in fact, come true.
But then she found herself back in her old house with her sisters and parents crowding around her, all wearing concerned expressions. As the glowing light faded from her eyes, she began to cry. Her sisters hugged her and cried with her.
Her mother asked, with the sort of tenderness only a mother can possess, “What did you see, honey?”
“I...” the unicorn sniffed, stifling another sob. “I was wrong. All this time I thought I was protecting him by preventing our love, but it turns out that loving him is the only way he might have been saved. Oh, if only I had not been so foolish as to let an uncertain fear of the future stop me from doing what I felt I should have in the present.”
A beautiful, simple funeral was held for the bakers. Many of the townsfolk attended, including the unicorn and her family. At the stallion’s gravestone, the unicorn laid a small slip of paper on the ground which gave the stallion the answer he’d waited for through all those years.
The paper read, “Of course I will. I will always be your special somepony.”
The unicorn left the paper and turned and walked away. From that day on she never again feared or tried to prevent her visions, for she had learned not to dread the future but to focus on living in the present.
Author's Note
I wrote this for the Equestria Daily Writer's Training Ground #015. The prompt that I was going for was "Learning happens in all sorts of weird and wonderful ways in Equestria, as this one pony finds out."
I'm going to pretend this story counts because it's about a pony who learns about the future with magic.
I had a very different ending to the story planned originally, but when I reached a certain point I was just too tired to keep writing so I gave up and made up a shorter, much worse, ending. I don't like it. I'm sorry if you don't like it either.
Either way, thank you for reading!
