Caretaker

by Zauberelefant

Chapter 2

"... and that's when we left Sugarcube Corner and went back to the castle."

"I see", Twilight says as she scribbles down some notes about what you just told her, "Is there anything you'd like to add, Derpy?"

The pony in question looks up from her food, though the confused look on her face makes you think she wasn't really paying attention to what Twilight just said.

"I'll take that as a no", Twilight concedes when it's clear that she won't get an answer other than some light chewing noises.

Derpy meanwhile doesn't seem to care all that much, promptly going back to messily eating the sandwiches you made for her.

Not that you can blame her. If you hadn't eaten anything for more than a day you probably wouldn't be paying attention either. It still amazes you how such a little pony can eat so much.

"Anyways", you say as you look back at Twilight, "where do we go from here?"

"Well", Twilight begins as she closely double-checks her notes, "if what we've gathered so far is correct, we'll definitely need to contact the Ponyville Guard about this. Whether or not it's by intention, a pony going missing is definitely a serious issue, especially when they've taken on such serious responsibilities."

You briefly glance at Derpy when she's being mentioned but she probably wouldn't understand what Twilight meant even if she wasn't busy stuffing her face with sandwiches.

"So considering that Spike is currently unavailable I'll go ahead and report things to the guard while you should stay here and keep Derpy company."

You nod.

"Alright, sounds like a plan."

"Until later, then", Twilight says as she powers up a teleportation spell, disappearing only a moment later.

The small bang and bright flash of the spell make Derpy look up again, apparently now done with her sandwich.

"Where did Twilight go?", she asks as she curiously looks around the room.

"She went to go look for Mr. Hoofington", you say, noticing the small crumbs of bread stuck on Derpy's snout, "Do you want another sandwich?"

Derpy just seems to notice the bread crumbs around her mouth as well as she quickly picks them up with her tongue before giving you an enthusiastic "Yes!".

Picking up the plate in front of Derpy you quickly leave the room towards the nearby kitchen where you find that you've already used up your entire supply of daisies.

Whatever, you doubt that Derpy is overly picky right now.

You quickly grab a cucumber from the fridge and start slicing it up.

As with most things in Twilight's household the act of buying ingredients has been optimized to the point where absolutely nothing is wasted, though that also means that there is only enough regular food for the people Twilight planned for. All of her meals are thoroughly planned, at least making it relatively easy to cook for her.

You've done a lot of that recently, haven't you? It's pretty much your only way of repaying Twilight for letting you stay in one of the castle's empty rooms, and you're glad there's something you can do at all, but making food for a purple pony princess is certainly not what you aspired to do in life.

Back on earth you were a physicist, now you're a mere cook.

You notice that you've accidentally stopped slicing up the cucumber and you quickly pick up again, this time focusing on your task to make sure your thoughts don't drift off again. Once you're done with the cucumber you put the pieces between two slices of bread and make a simple, but quick sandwich. When you carry it back to where you had left Derpy, you find that she has moved from where she had sat earlier to look at a pile of handwritten notes, stacked up neatly next to Twilight's place at the dinner table.

"What's this?", she asks as she looks up at you with her big, golden eyes.

"I'm studying unicorn magic", you explain as you walk up to her, "And I'm letting Twilight read my notes so she can see how I'm doing."

"Why are you studying unicorn magic?", Derpy asks as you put down the plate in front of her, "You're not a unicorn, you're a ..."

Derpy looks at you quizzically, apparently just thinking about how you're a weird alien from another dimension.

"I'm a human", you say, "And while I can't do magic, I hope to get at least a theoretical education in Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns."

The demand for theoretically focused unicorns is so high that you're bound to get hired with a degree from that school.

Derpy meanwhile has gone to just blankly staring at you in response, apparently not understanding what you just said. She then looks back at your notes though and comes up with another question:

"Why are some of the words red?"

"Twilight is going through my notes when she eats breakfast and when she notices that I've done something wrong she marks it with red ink."

"There's a lot of red", Derpy remarks, probably not meaning to be as cynical as she sounded just now.

Unfortunately she is right though. Despite your best efforts your understanding of unicorn magic is still very limited. The underlying mathematical concepts are almost completely alien to you and since you've only recently arrived in Equestria your intuition is completely wrong.

Twilight is being very patient with you, seeing as you're willing to learn, but you just feel so humiliated every time she corrects one of your mistakes and you don't even understand why you're wrong. It's your first year of college all over again.

"Anyways, here's another sandwich", you say sullenly, trying to change the subject.

Despite your tone of voice being more negative than you intended, Derpy's face immediately lights up when her gaze falls onto the food in front of her. Overly happy for no discernible reason she quickly reaches for it with one of her hooves, but in the process she seems to somehow throw herself off balance.

She tries to regain balance by extending her wings but in the process accidentally sweeps one of them across the table, missing the plate, but scattering your notes across the floor along with the ink pot Twilight used earlier. Just as your luck would have it the ink is splattered all over your notes rendering the better part of them unreadable and useless.

"Can't you be more careful!?", you hiss through clenched teeth, audibly annoyed.

"I'm sorry!", is all that Derpy manages to get out before she breaks down crying again, curling up on the floor in front of you.

You just stand there, dumbfounded by this turn of events. Earlier when you pushed her and actually yelled at her you could sort of see why she'd break down crying, but what you just did definitely doesn't warrant that sort of reaction. You also notice that just like earlier she wraps her hooves around her head as if to protect it.

Just what has she been through?

Realizing that you've done nothing but stand there and watch her cry you quickly reach down and gently use your hands to pick her up, soothingly rubbing Derpy's back in the process. The small pony in your arms seems eager to be forgiven, rubbing her face into your chest as she almost incoherently mumbles the words "I'm sorry" over and over again. You tell her that it's okay, and that you're not angry, though with Derpy's head that close to your nose you're abruptly reminded that there's something else that you need to take care of.

Making sure that you've properly taken hold of her small frame you carry the small, crying pony towards the bathroom.

Comments

[General_Rommel]

i love how Derpy is so clumsy, but when she dose something wrong, she dose anything to make that person/pony completely feel like she's sorry

[Texus]

Once you're done with the cucumber you put the pieces between two slices of bread and make a simple, but quick sandwich

I think simple but nice sandwich might fits there better than simple but quick. It sounds like difficult, but slow made sandwich.
It sounded like you meant to put something nice for the second part there.

I speak german, so maybe I could explain it better to you that way if you should have understood it and speak german too.

You just stand there, dumbfounded by this turn of events. Earlier when you pushed her and actually yelled at her you could sort of see why she'd break down crying, but what you just did definitely doesn't warrant that sort of reaction. You also notice that just like earlier she wraps her hooves around her head as if to protect it.

It looks like her condition is that bad, that she annoyed the bad Stallion so much that she got hit by him or others and probably thinks that she deserves it somehow.

7987818
I'm somehow not entirely sure if I understand your comment the right way mostly the last part, but I like it to read about characters like her with this or a similar personality.