The good Dr. Crazystein, chapter 1
The Rise of Dr. Crazystein
Winter was considered a peculiar fluffy even as a young foal, though he was never sure why. With pale blue fur, red eyes and a light grey (almost white!) mane and tail, he figured that he looked just like any other fluffy. And yet…
“Mummah, something nu wight with babbeh,” his mother would say, so often it became ingrained in his memory. “Babbeh nu chiwp.”
And when he was a little older, he remembered a huge man in white, looking him over and turning his little body this way and that, saying how quiet and well-behaved he was. “There’s not a thing wrong with him physically, he can speak and chirp just fine. He just isn’t doing it.”
But it was all more or less irrelevant to him – the first defining event of his life was with his new human mother. See, she didn’t know much about caring for fluffies, and she was oh so curious about if fear would make Winter scream like it did all others. So, with the young fluffy on her lap, she decided to watch a marathon of horror movies. It was nearing Halloween after all, so each day they had a theme, and today’s theme was mad science.
Winter was apprehensive at first, but he was too cozy to leave his spot and as he watched the movie, it dawned on him just how happy the scientist seemed to be. A strange person, doing strange things. Marvels of science! Delightful things, impossible things made possible! Stitching together pieces of things to make a whole new thing! And all the while yelling and laughing and sounding so absolutely happy!
His owner had left to refill some snacks, and she returned to find Winter laughing right alongside the figure on the TV.
“Hey, Winny, what’s up?” she asked and looked to the screen, where a mad doctor was singing about the terrible experiments he would perform. Winter didn’t even hear her, half trying to sing along and half just giggling, but she was intrigued enough to let it slip and so she simply let him watch the rest of the movie. And the next… and the next. Winter was transfixed by it all, so much she had to remind him to eat or do his business at all, and eventually she fell asleep with him on the couch and with the TV still on.
The next morning, Winter was nudged awake by his human mother with a bowl of food, and briefly wondered how long he had slept. In fact, he wondered when he had fallen asleep, since that particular memory seemed to escape him. Dreams of science and happy laughing people were still on his mind even now.
“Stayed up a bit late yesterday, huh Winny?” asked his mother with a chuckle, and he paused. Winter? Doctor Winter? No, that wouldn’t do, not at all.
“Nu am Wintah!” he declared, sitting up. “Am a doctah!” What would a good sciencey name be? Oh, what were the other doctors and scientists called? It was something on -stein, he was sure of it, but what else were they all called? … And then it dawned on him and he laughed. “Am Doctah Cwazystein!”
His owner was staring at him in silence, but just when he begun to wonder if he had said something bad she chuckled. “Well, that’s new. So you’re a doctor now, huh?”
“Yus!” The newly renamed Dr. Crazystein felt his chest swell with pride, and then he recalled that his neatly groomed mane did not at all fit the scientist look, ruffling it into a big mess with his hooves. What else was he missing? If he was going to be a scientist, then … of course!
“Mummah! Doctah Cwazystein need toows!”
His mother simply chuckled and patted his head, mistaking the good doctor’s enthusiasm for a phase, but as the days passed she found that he was incredibly stubborn. He utterly refused to respond to either Winny or Winter anymore, and while he had never been excited about his toys now he seemed to find them downright boring. He just kept asking for doctor’s tools.
And, being a kind-hearted woman, his mother eventually obliged. She found a children’s chemistry set at a flea market, priced cheaply and guaranteed to be child safe, and she figured “well, a fluffy is basically a child, so it’s probably fluffy safe too”. As stated, she did not know much about caring for fluffies.
Dr. Crazystein was utterly delighted when she showed him the kit, and as soon as it was set up he started playing with it. There was so much to do, so much he could create! He could barely decide what he wanted to do first, and so he didn’t notice when his mother left the room, much less her warning to be careful. It was only after several minutes of mixing together various colors to make more colors that he managed to decide.
Namely, he decided that he would not need to be afraid of the dark nor need a night light if he could see in the dark. He would make a potion that would give him night vision!
Of course, being a fluffy he didn’t exactly know anything about science, so he decided to make a random color that would probably give him the intended effect; purple. None of the materials included in the chemistry set could give him the right color no matter how he mixed, though, so in his genius he picked up one of his discarded crayons and gnawed off a piece, which he mixed into the potion until he got the purple color he desired.
He watched the purple concoction for a moment, ensuring it was the color of night-vision, and then promptly poured the potion into his right eye. The reaction was immediate, and terrible. Everything started hurting all at once, and he cried out as he dropped the vial and tried to wipe his suddenly burning eye, which really only rubbed the unholy mix further into it.
“Winny?! What happened?!” he heard his mother cry out, and then he was swiftly whisked from the floor. He tried to explain himself, but his words had some trouble getting through his ragged breath and half-whimpers. There was swearing, and someone pushed his hooves away, and then there was a sharp sensation as cold liquid splashed directly into his hurt eye and the little doctor let out another yell.
“Stay still!” the human hissed, though he couldn’t reply through the shock and confusion filling his mind, much less obey. It felt like an eternity until the liquid – water, he was held under water, he realized – finally stopped and a swab of something soft and white dotted at his eye. It felt so awful, so incredibly awful, and as the shock begun to fade he found himself staring up at the angry face of his mother.
“What were you THINKING?” she asked, and her expression told him all the rage she was carefully keeping herself from unleashing. Cautiously he tapped his front hooves together.
“Science?” he suggested. “Wan see in–”
“Science is not pouring random shit into your eyes!” she cut him off. “Jesus, Winny, do you have any idea what you’re doing? Do you want to kill yourself?”
“Nu… just wan see in da dawk.” Dr. Crazystein frowned. Actually, now that he thought about it, something about his sight was different. He closed his left eye, and his frown deepened. “…Nu can see…”
“No wonder,” sighed his mother. “We’ll have to see a vet, maybe they’ll be able to fix this…”
She kept half-mumbling to herself as she carried him somewhere, picking up one of her human toys and pressing several buttons on it before putting it to her ear. “Hey. I have a fluffy… Yeah, a foal… No, it’s not a broken limb. He poured something in his eye and now he can’t see. … Wait, one moment.” She pulled the toy away and looked down at him. “What did you put in your eye?”
Dr. Crazystein furrowed his brow as he tried to remember. “Wesse… wed, and yewwow, and bwue, and den Doctah Cwazystein added cwayon. And thewe was anothah bwue too.”
She watched him for a moment before returning her attention to the toy. “It was a mix of several things, including crayon. … Yes, that should be fine, thank you. Alright, I will.”
With a sigh, she pressed a button on her toy again and put it down. “Well, we’re going to the vet.”
“What’s a vet?” asked the good doctor innocently as he was carried back to the big water room, where his mother put a big, soft and fluffy thing over his hurt eye and taped it in place. He tapped at the item a bit, but it felt somewhat nice and so he let it be.
“It’s like… a kind of doctor,” the woman replied absently. “I need to get rid of that kit too, I guess, gonna have to take along the bottles so they know what they are…”
Dr. Crazystein’s heart sank. He couldn’t let her take away his science things! He had to find a way to cure his broken eye! “Nu! Pwease! Doctah Cwazystein need toows!”
She shot him a look that conveyed very well just what she thought of that. She didn’t even have to speak, but she did anyway. “Why, so you can ruin your other eye too?”
“Nu! Nu wan bweak othah eye, just wan to make huwtie eye bettah again! Pweaaaase, mummah!”
The grip on his fluffy body tightened briefly, then there was a sigh. “… Fine, but on one condition,” she muttered. Dr. Crazystein nodded. “If I find you using ANYTHING from that kit on yourself, ever again… Or, hell, if you try to do any science on yourself at ALL ever again, then I’m taking all your science tools away. Understand?”
The fluffy sat there, frozen. How could he possibly fix his eye if he wasn’t allowed to even try? Then again, he tried and got the wrong color, and that was what broke his eye in the first place…
He absolutely had to keep experimenting, to find an eye cure.
And he didn’t want to get hurt doing it, plus he couldn’t do it on himself.
And then it dawned on him exactly what all the happy mad scientists on TV had done, but that he had gotten wrong. They had test subjects! He wasn’t supposed to experiment on himself, he had to find other fluffies! His dilemma solved, Dr. Crazystein smiled wide and nodded.
“Otay! Doctah Cwazystein nu test anything on Doctah Cwazystein evah again!”