The Waiting Game
by Shamrock95
I still don't own Friendship is Magic. I haven't even asked about it.
The brave and fearsome armour-clad warrior by the name of Rumble the Undefeated looked at the forbidding mountain range ahead of him through eyes of chipped granite. Through the thick mists that swirled around the mountaintop, he could just about make out the outline of the dreaded Castle Gorehall. Many ponies trembled at even the mention of the name, but Rumble felt no fear. He turned to his companion, the ever-faithful mage named Dinkandriah.
"This is it, my loyal companion," he said in a deep, authoritative voice. "Once we conquer Castle Gorehall, nothing can stand between us and finally bringing light to this blighted land!"
Dinkandriah held up a hoof, a look of startled fear on her face. "Hold, fair Rumble!" she said in a whisper. "I sense that somepony or something approaches us."
Rumble placed a hoof on the steel axe at his side and tensed his body, ready to fight off whatever it was. The figure slowly approached them through the mist...
"Hi, guys! Having fun?" Derpy Hooves cheerfully asked her daughter and her friend. "You've certainly gotten into your pretend games lately."
"Mo-om!" Dinky Hooves said exasperatedly, feeling mortified that her mother was talking to her like that in front of Rumble. "We're not pretending, we're role-playing! There's a huge difference!" Behind her, Rumble, wearing a cardboard box styled to look like a helmet and using a plastic toy axe, managed to suppress a laugh.
"Mm-hmm," Derpy said, seemingly oblivious to her daughter's discomfort. "Listen, muffin, I hate to interrupt your playtime, but I need you and Rumble to head inside for a while."
"What? Why?" Dinky asked. "We were just getting to the really cool part."
"I know, sweetie, but the Doctor's supposed to be bringing me a very important package today, and I need somepony to be in the house when it arrives. I don't want him to take it away because he thought there was nopony home."
Rumble spoke up. "How come you can't wait for it yourself, Miss Hooves?"
Derpy shook her head. "I've got to go to work. I'm late enough getting on the mail run as it is. Thanks, guys. I'll see you later!" And with that, Derpy had flown off to the post office, leaving a despondent Dinky and Rumble behind her.
Rumble groaned. "Now what are we gonna do?" he said to Dinky. "We can't role-play indoors, we've already conquered half the garden."
"Hey!" Dinky said, her eyes lighting up. "Just because we have to wait for the Doctor doesn't mean we have to go inside. We just have to find a way of hearing the doorbell from out here."
"Alright," said Rumble, "but how are we gonna do that?"
"Follow me," said Dinky, a smile on her face. "I've got an idea."
"Okay," said Dinky, dropping the screwdriver on the ground. "I've rewired the doorbell so it'll be loud enough for us to hear it from the back garden. Now we'll be able to hear it no matter where we are."
"Are you sure this'll work, Dinky?" asked Rumble, looking skeptical. "You don't exactly have a lot of experience with electronics. Remember that time you melted a circuit board at school?"
Dinky tutted. "That happened once, Rumble, and it was an accident." She paused. "But maybe we should give it a test run just to be sure."
"Alright, then." Rumble reached out and pressed the doorbell. There was a loud bzzt-crack! noise.
"Yow!" Rumble yelped, pulling his hoof away and sticking it in his mouth. "Something shocked me!"
"Uh-oh," Dinky said, frowning at the doorbell, which now had a thin plume of smoke coming from it. "I think I short-circuited it. Maybe it was blue wire to red, not red to black."
"Gee, ya think?" Rumble said sarcastically.
Dinky sighed. "Okay, if anypony asks, we have no idea how the doorbell got broken. Got it?"
"Say," Rumble said. "Why don't we just role-play in the front garden instead of the back? That way, we'll be sure not to miss the Doctor!"
"Hey, good thinking, Batmane!" Dinky smiled.
Fluttershy walked down the street with a collection tin for the Ponyville Animal Shelter hanging from her teeth. She was feeling pretty pleased with herself, having gotten some very generous donations from the ponies she'd talked to. I should call on Derpy while I'm here, she thought. A kind-hearted pony like her's sure to make a donation. With that, Fluttershy trotted up the path of the Hooves residence and raised a hoof to press the doorbell.
"YOUR TIME HAS COME, WEAKLING!" a voice roared, right before a pony burst out of a hedge wielding an enormous axe. Raising it above his head, he charged yelling towards Fluttershy.
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!" Fluttershy screamed, before dropping the tin and turning tail and fleeing from the crazy axe-pony at a speed that would have impressed the Wonderbolts themselves.
Rumble looked in confusion at the terrified yellow pegasus running shrieking down the street. Dinky came up beside him, looking equally perplexed. They both looked down at the abandoned collection tin, which had been thrown into one of Derpy's flowerbeds.
"Um..." said Dinky after a long pause, "I don't think role-playing in the front garden's going to work either, Rumble."
"Darn it," Rumble cursed. "What now? Should we just head inside?"
"I gue-" Dinky cut herself short, as her eye caught sight of what lay right across from the Hooves's backyard fence -- the Ponyville bell tower. The gears turned in Dinky's head as a grin slowly spread across her face.
"Rumble," she said, "we're gonna need a long rope."
Through a lot of hard work, the two prolific ponies had managed to thread a long length of rope from the top of the bell tower, over the roof of Dinky's house and dangling before the front door. Dinky placed a sign on the rope saying "Pull here for attention."
"There!" she said triumphantly. "There's no way we won't be able to hear this bell!"
Rumble shook his head in wonder. "Dinky, you're something else."
"I know, I'm awesome," Dinky smiled. "Now, where were we?"
About half an hour later, the Doctor walked towards the Hooves residence with a saddlebag slung around his flanks, containing the important package he was meant to give to Derpy. He stopped when he got to the front door and saw the rope.
"What's all this?" he said to himself. "I didn't know that Derpy had gotten a new doorbell." Shrugging, the tan stallion took the rope in his teeth and gave it a tug.
The good news was that the rope was strong enough to pull on the bell.
The bad news was that the wooden rafters holding the bell in place in the tower had been weakened from old age, and they chose that particular day to give way and send the bell falling to the bottom of the tower.
The even worse news was that the bell had enough momentum for the rope to pull the Doctor into the air and send him catapulting over the roof and into the forest beyond the bell tower.
The Doctor couldn't scream with the rope in his mouth, and when he was sent flying, his screams of terror were drowned out by the bell hitting the ground with a colossal CLANG!
"Hey, that's the bell!" Dinky said. She rushed inside and opened the front door, ready to greet... nothing?
"Oh, come on!" she shouted. "Now there's nopony here at all!"
Later on, Derpy came in the front door and saw Dinky and Rumble sitting on the couch in the living room watching TV. "Well, did my package arrive?" she asked.
Dinky shook her head. "No, Mom. You must've gotten the wrong day."
"Really?" Derpy frowned. "I could've sworn that the Doctor said he'd deliver it today. Oh dear, now I feel awful for making you wait inside all day."
"It's okay, Mom," Dinky said cheerfully. "No sweat." She gave Rumble a quick wink, and the two friends shared a private little laugh.
Later that night, a certain tan earth pony was hanging from one of the highest branches of a large oak tree.
"Hello?" he called for the hundredth time. "Is anypony there? I'm a bit... stuck."
When there was still no reply, the Doctor realised that he'd probably be up there until morning at the least. He groaned.
"This sort of crap never happened on Varos..." he muttered.
Author's Note
Another quick comedy fic -- this was more to flex my literary skills than anything else. I hope you like it! Be sure to leave a comment or any feedback you might have.
