• Published 17th Nov 2011
  • 6,600 Views, 234 Comments

Pony Shorts - Miyajima



A collection of short stories about our favourite pastel-coloured Equines.

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Derpyganger

As the sun began its slow descent and red and orange tinted the sky, a slate-grey pegasus with golden eyes made her way back to her home in Ponyville, yawning and subsequently colliding with a lamppost. She slid down the iron pole and hit the ground with a thump, peeling off from the metal with a 'pop'. She shook her head and her eyes went in all directions as they righted themselves to their ordinary, lop-sided position. A passing earth pony winced and leant over, looking concerned.

"You okay there, Derpy?" he asked as he checked both her and the lamppost for structural damage.

"Yup! Just fine! That thing came outta nowhere!" she chirped back, leaping back into the air and hovering. Her ordinarily messy mane had suddenly gained a quiff from its impact, but she was otherwise unaffected. Yawning again, she stumbled back to all fours and smiled. "Worn out after today's mail run. I've gotta get back. Have a good evening!"

She flew away with a wave to the earth pony, who just smirked, shrugged his shoulders, and carried on walking.

Derpy managed to get back to her home without further incident, and managed to unhitch the catch on the second attempt. She stumbled through the door and closed it behind her with a kick from her back hoof, and let out a breath in relief. Stifling another yawn, she drew the curtains and lit the lamps, then collapsed on her sofa in front of the fire.

"Finally," she muttered, as a small spark of light formed at her forehead. It worked its way down across her head, revealing a dull black carapace where previously there was grey coat and blonde mane. Her ears sharpened and a pointed horn appeared between her eyes as they changed from their golden hue to light blue compound spheres. Her teeth sharpened into fangs as the glow rushed down the rest of her body. Her hooves gave way to ragged appendages and her wings became translucent and torn. Finally, her golden tail disappeared and was replaced by a translucent tuft.

Her wings flickered, buzzing, as she drew herself off the sofa and stumbled towards the kitchen. Levering open a cupboard, she grabbed a bag of sugar by her fangs and tore it open, quickly chowing it down as it poured from the packet. She smiled, revitalized, and flopped back onto the sofa, picking up a small pile of letters addressed to her.

Opening the first, she found it to be an invitation to a party, one of Pinkie Pie's many. She could taste the threads of friendship on the card, taking a moment just to savour it. Smiling, she set it aside, and opened another. This she found to be a letter from a pen-friend she corresponded with in Manehattan. Reading the letter was like a delicious banquet for her, better than any material food, as the warmth, friendship and love that flowed from the words fed her.

She leant back and looked at a photo on the mantelpiece of her posing in front of the post office in town, and smiled happily to herself. She remembered, before coming to Ponyville, how she used to have to take form after form for scraps of feeling and emotion from passing acquaintances or travellers. But one day she saw a little pegasus foal, in a city far away, with a grey coat, blonde mane and tail, and the most beautiful golden eyes. Somehow, the sight captivated her: her, a cold and unfeeling changeling. Something about the colours, the simplicity of it. How happy she looked.

She copied the colours, she copied the messy, unkempt mane and long tail, but she could never quite get the eyes right. It had always been the eyes that gave her away in other towns. They knew she wasn't a real pony.

But then she'd found Ponyville. Tired and starved, using the last of her strength to keep up the illusion, she'd fallen into the town and met an exuberant pink pony who instantly befriended her. True friendship. The first she'd ever tasted in her life. It was incredible, and enough to bring her back from the brink.

She'd got a job. She'd rented a room, and slowly, slowly she had made friends. Real friends. They teased her for her eyes, but it was friendly teasing, and she could even find the fruit in that. Her natural clumsiness, accentuated by having to concentrate to keep the illusion going all day long, earned her a nickname, 'Derpy Hooves', and it had stuck.

She had been living in Ponyville for years, right under everyone's noses. A changeling in the form of a pony.

But she loved them all. And she knew that they loved her, too.