What Friends Are For
“Hey Thunderlane!”
There was a rustle of wings and a solid body landed beside the stallion, drawing him out of the sulk he’d put himself in after ditching Flitter and Cloudchaser.
He’d been so mad at them that he hadn’t paid much attention where he was going and that was how he’d found himself in the park, hunched up beneath the branches of the same linden tree he and Derpy had shared breakfast under only a couple days before.
The canopy of green was as good a place as any to sulk and Thunderlane had done just that, drawing his limbs close to his body and resting his chin on his forelegs. He was a champion pouter and had always been so, from the time he was small. It drove his mother nuts, seeing him moping about, lower lip stuck out, eyes big and watery – It was especially bad, since he was still doing it and he’d long since grown from an adorable colt to a strapping young stallion.
Blossomforth had seen The Sulk many, many times over the years. She and Thunderlane were old friends; their mothers had grown up together and the two had been playmates as foals. He’d tried using The Sulk on her to get his way when they were small –he’d been such a whiny colt!- and she’d built up an immunity to it over the years.
Besides, seeing that silly pout on the face of a fully grown stallion was kind of really hilarious.
“Hi, Blossomforth.” Thunderlane’s head rose and he turned to look at his friend, forcing a smile to replace the mopey frown that had been stretched across his face, “What’s up?”
The mare looked at him, head tipped to the side, pink and green bangs sliding across her forehead. “Why,” she blinked sparkling blue eyes, glancing up at the branches and leaves above them, “are you sitting under a tree, pouting?”
“Because Flitter and Cloudchaser are insensitive jerks.” He grumbled, letting his chin fall to once again rest on his front hooves, “They don’t even care that Derpy could’ve been hurt when she crashed in the pond. They still think it’s funny.”
Blossomforth was quiet for a moment, looking at her friend sadly. The dark grey stallion looked so down in the dumps, with his wings folded limply by his sides, ears pinned back against his skull. Even his usually perky mane looked limp and droopy.
She couldn’t really blame him, though. He’d been friends with the twins almost as long as he’d been friends with her, and though they were sometimes mean and catty, they weren’t entirely bad ponies. The four of them had always got along well, and had a good time together.
It must have hurt a lot, knowing two of his closest friends didn’t like his special somepony.
“That’s terrible!” She finally blurted out, a scowl crossing her own face, “There’s nothing funny about it.” And she meant it; even if she hadn’t liked the other mare, she never would have found amusement in a potentially dangerous situation like a freefall into the pond. For anypony to laugh about that was just plain mean.
But it didn’t surprise her in the least that the twins of all ponies were the ones to laugh about it.
They were kind of mean-spirited, the both of them, especially if they found a pony annoying. They constantly poked fun at Blossomforth’s work partner, Sunlight, and his weak flying, teasing him about being slow and saying he looked goofy when he flew. Flitter was paired up with Raindrops for work assignments from time to time and complained nonstop about how the yellow mare was agonizingly slow when placing clouds, despite the fact that Raindrops had an excellent work record and her patience resulted in a lot of precisely positioned clouds. Cloudchaser was often part of a sky clearing team with Meadow Song and loved to mock his singing behind his back, making herself sound squeaky in a poor imitation of the stallion’s lovely voice. And then there was Ditzy Doo, whom they relentlessly snickered about; the poor mare had absolutely no sense of direction and that usually spelled trouble for the entire weather team.
They said it was harmless; who was going to know, if none of the ponies they made fun of heard? But the other ponies did notice; they weren’t as stupid and oblivious as the twins seemed to think they were. Sunlight avoided them at all costs, Meadow Song got quiet when they were around, and more than once Blossomforth had found Ditzy in the bathroom at the Weather Crew Headquarters, crying over some thoughtless remark one of them had made about her.
Blossomforth wasn’t a bully, nor did she have any desire to become one. Of course it bothered her, the way the twins treated other ponies, but she wasn’t quite sure how to stand up to them without them turning on her as well, and she really didn’t want to be on the receiving end of their cruel teasing.
“Derpy told me you were worried about her.” Thunderlane commented, shifting so he could look over at the mare at his side, “Thanks…It means a lot to me, that at least one of my friends likes her.”
Blossomforth smiled, rolling over onto her back and tucking her forelegs behind her head. The late morning sunlight filtered through the tree branches, leaving a trail of dappled shadows across her freckled face. “She’s nice, Thunder. She works really hard, she likes to have fun, she’s awesome with Rumble, and it’s pretty obvious how much she loves you. I don’t know what problem the twins have with her, but…It’s kind of their loss, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, I guess…” Thunderlane sighed, glancing back out at the panorama of the park that stretched before them. Happy foals were gamboling about in the grass, their laughter drifting on the breeze. Here and there were little knots of ponies walking or sitting on benches and happily enjoying the beautiful day. There was even a stallion with a picnic basket, waiting patiently as his special somepony spread a blanket for a picnic brunch. They all looked so kind and happy…and yet he couldn’t help wondering how many of them knew who Derpy was and laughed about her misadventures behind closed doors.
“I never knew,” he went on glumly, “that they hated her as much as they do. She’s never done anything to them –she’s never done anything to anypony!- and it’s not like she can really help being clumsy. I wish they could see her the way I do…I wish they would like her.”
“You can’t make them like her,” Blossomforth reminded him not-so-helpfully, “But, um, I’d like to get to know her better?”
“Thanks, B.” He offered her a lopsided smile, pillowing his cheek on a hoof once more, “She’ll be happy to hear that.” He shut his eyes, allowing for a moment’s fantasy of a happy Derpy, one who shone like the sun rather than seeming sad and downtrodden. He savored the mental image, how her eyes sparkled happily, how she smiled. She was so beautiful when she was happy and her joy was downright contagious.
Then he pushed himself up, shaking loose grass from his coat and tipping his head to look up at the sky. “Do you think she’s right, Blossomforth?”
“About what?”
“About Flitter and Cloudchaser…She doesn’t understand why you’d want to be friends with any pony who’s mean and I guess she thinks the same thing about me, too.” Thunderlane said quietly, “And when I think about her saying that, I think she’s right…Because why would I want to be friends with somepony who puts others down? But we’ve been friends with them a long time…And they’re not all that bad, right?”
Blossomforth rose, sitting on her haunches beside her friend and following his gaze. There was a little puff of white in the distance; something that may have been Cloudsdale or may just have been a cloudbank left untouched by the weather ponies. It was too far off to really tell, but it was in the general direction of the great pegasus city. “Yeah, sometimes they kinda are, Thunderlane.” When she spoke, her voice was just as quiet as his, “They make Ditzy Doo cry on all the time and Sunlight is scared of them. I guess they usually treat us okay because we’re friends.”
The stallion fell silent again, turning that information over in his mind. “I feel…” He paused, lowering his head and flicking his ears back again, “I don’t want to lose something I thought was a really good friendship, but I don’t think they’ll ever change their minds about her. I feel like I need to choose between them and her and I don’t want them to make me do that.”
His head rose again and he turned, amber eyes meeting Blossomforth’s brightly blue ones. “But if I have to…”
“Yeah?” She blinked, looking up at him curiously.
“I’ll always choose her.”
-
“You all know, of course, that Surprise made it into the Wonderbolts.”
In the schoolhouse, Derpy was nearing the end of her story.
She had talked nonstop for nearly an hour, weaving bits and pieces of her life into a beautifully poignant story of growing up and seeking understanding, one which would tug at the heart of any pony who knew what it was to feel different.
“But that day, we had no way of knowing what was going to happen. Sure, Surprise was a really strong flyer and she had an amazing arsenal of tricks and aerial maneuvers, but so did a lot of other ponies and we’d all heard that the screening process was really, really tough.”
Most of the fillies and colts were listening intently by that point, leaned forwards eagerly on their desktops. They were wide-eyed and all ears, something Cheerilee didn’t see often, no matter how interesting she tried to make the lessons.
“I knew she could do it, though.”
Still, she couldn’t blame them. It wasn’t every day that somepony spoke so candidly about the personal life of an honest-to-goodness Wonderbolt.
“She was my best friend, and I believed she could do anything she put her mind to.”
As for Cheerilee herself, though, she suspected that the story would have tugged at her heartstrings no matter what. Even if Derpy were speaking of somepony she’d never heard of, the teacher would have been moved by this simple yet powerful tale of the boundless love of friendship. She had always believed in the power of friendship; in the magic that came with sharing of yourself with another pony. She tried her best to teach all the foals in her life that to be truly rich was to have friends and that life was all about finding those who’s strengths would fill in the gaps created by your own weaknesses; that sometimes you had to take a chance on something different to make wonderful friends.
And it shamed her a little to realize that she had failed to extend that same courtesy to the awkward mare sitting in the front of her classroom, baring her soul for all the little ponies. Over the years since Derpy had come to Ponyville, Cheerilee had barely given her a second thought, thinking of her only as that weather pony who sometimes made it rain when she was supposed to be clearing clouds from the sky, thusly spoiling recess. And a rainy recess period often meant headaches for the poor teacher, who then had to entertain a classroom full of energetic foals who were sorely in need of some run-around time.
And just like the rest of the town, Cheerilee had blamed those particular headaches on the clumsy pegasus who sometimes brought the rain instead of the sun.
It was never too late, though, to change that.
The teacher leaned against her desk, setting aside thoughts of extending another invitation for Derpy to join her for afternoon tea for later consideration. She was finding herself quite intrigued by the clumsy weather pony, who had always seemed kind of…well, just there, getting under everypony’s hooves. But no, she was proving to be an interesting individual indeed, one who’s heart was brimming with strong emotions and that certain wisdom that came only from looking at the world in a certain way. There was much, much more to Derpy than the teacher had ever imagined and Cheerilee suspected she could actually learn a lot from the other mare.
There would be time for getting to know each other later, however, once both the story and the school day were finished.
But in the meantime…
Derpy still had a lot to say.
“Everypony else in the department had headed to the cafeteria for lunch and nopony had bothered to invite me, but I was okay with that. I was way too nervous for Surprise to even think about eating, so I figured I’d get back to work and try to get my mind off worrying.” Derpy continued, that same peculiar, faraway look still dimming her eyes, “And that’s why I was the only one in the distribution center when Surprise came back…”
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The twins may be jerk(in this story) but Cloudchaser was considered Wonderbolt material, as was Thunderlane, Snowflake, and Raindrops. Makes you wonder about the diverse skillset the Wonderbolts are after. Can't be just speed.
1894670
That was something I had to consider after that episode aired. I was already thinking about it, though, because I always liked the idea of the Wonderbolts being much more than just high speed flyers.
I really enjoy the idea of them recruiting pegasi with a large variety of skills, so they can put on the best show ever. I'm sure they'd find ways to play up everypony's strenghts perfectly and incorporate them into a very solid routine.
1894693
That is what I always figured. Raw wing power isn't everything.
1894740
In Surprise's case, I'm writing her as fast, but that's more due to her, uh, slight insanity than her wingpower. I figure they probably wanted her more for her showmanship and stunts than her speed -- She's pretty flashy and crazy when she flies.
1894780
I have plans for her in my own story. She is Pinkie with wings. I think it would be funny if Pinkie and she didn't like each other and found their opposite annoying and hyperactive.
LOL; I can totally see that.
And technically, it should be Pinkie is Surprise without wings, since Surprise is literally as old as I am.
I agree. They are!
I believe Thunderlane and Blossomforth are onto to something as far as dealing with the twins and their bullying. If enough ponies gave 'em the cold shoulder while befriending those that have been tormented by them it might wake the twins up to the fact that they're toxic friends and may lead to some some heel realization.
Or they might adopt a "us versus them" mindset and continue being jerkasses.
Either way nice chapter, can't wait to see how Derpy and Surprise's reunion went.
And you know what that means!!!!
The interesting thing is that Faust originally wanted to make Pinkie into a Pegasus. That would have made Surprise a palette swap.
I agree with you about the twins.
Eventually, they'll either have to except Ditzy as a friend, or go out and look for new friends. Seeing as how Ditzy isn't the only one to have suffered from the twins behind-the-scene mocking, I'm sure the others will band together and tell the twins off.
Maybe the twins will change, or perhaps they won't, but whatever the outcome I'll be sure to read up the next chapters of this wonderful story. Keep up the great work!
1895753
As I've mentioned before, there is a reason for their hostility towards Derpy (in regards to the rest of the ponies they pick on, it's more of just a mean girl thing -- We all know how THAT goes. You've got to step on others to be cool) which will be explained later. It won't really excuse them, of course, but it will make sense of their cruelty.
I'm not sure what will become of them after that. I haven't thought that far ahead yet when it comes to those two.
1896087
And where, if I may ask, do they rank on The List?
1896626
The twins really have no idea what they're in for. Life is not going to be so happy for them for a while...
But I'm glad you're enjoying the story
1897185 Well, my list at the moment is as follows;
1) Starsong,
2) OC's dad from another story,
3) DT from a different story I may have referenced on one of yours,
4 &5) (not sure who's worse) Flitter and Cloudchaser in this one.
6 &7) They are there, I just can't recall who they are,
and finally 8) Graham, but depending on what happens, he may drop off it.
Now I am going back to fixing planes, if you don't mind.
I like how the perspective jumped back to thunderlane for a bit. And Derpy's story is almost done. Now to wait for the next installment.