PROLOGUE
“Rose, sit up straight. If you’re going to meet the princess, I won’t have you looking like such.” Pink Rose Hooves’s mother complained about her daughters posture. They were on the train to Canterlot to meet the Princess Celestia. Her father was a famous author, and her mother a famous actress. They expected her to be the best she could be. She had the looks, they thought, but not the manners. They were constantly yelling at Pink Rose to keep her posture, to not be crude, or to not to do this or that, not keeping in mind that the little filly was only a couple of years old.
“Pink Heart, my darling, please be silent. It’s been five hours. You can’t expect Pink Rose to sit up straight for the full ten hours of this train ride.” That was her father, Falling Feathers, speaking.
Pink Rose smiled at her father, then frowned as her mother snapped at him. “Oh, you writing idiot. Pink Rose must be raised strictly, in order for her to one day become the highest, most intelligent pony in all of Equestria. One day she will be, perhaps, Duchess Pink Rose Hooves, the Brilliant.” Pink Heart spoke, voice full of hopes for the future. Then she turned back to her little daughter, who sat staring at her parents with those wide, yellow eyes.
“Don’t stare, Pink Rose. It’s rude.” she snapped violently. Pink Rose lowered her eyes, blinking. “I’m sorry, mother.” she whispered.
The train driver’s voice came on the intercom, sounding panicked. “Don’t panic, passengers, but there’s a hole in the tracks ahead. I’m going to stop so we don’t fall to our deaths, but if I’m not in time, then hold on tight.”
The ponies, of course, started screaming their heads off wildly.
“Pink Rose! Hold on to that rail over there! Do NOT LET GO!” Pink Heart screamed and ran over to the rail with her daughter, cowering over her little filly. Falling Feathers, before he could get a grip on anything, flew up and hit the ceiling as the train began to fall.
“Oh dear Celestia, save us.” Pink Heart murmured. Pink Rose heard screaming, then realized it was coming from herself. She closed her mouth and hung on tight to the rail.
Then it came, that blue box, and a brown pony stuck his front part out, clad in a leather jacket, his yellow eyes wide, he stared, then saw Pink Rose’s own scared yellow eyes staring back at him. Pink Heart turned around, saw the blue box and smiled. “You’ve come! Take her! Take my daughter, you time-traveling idiot! Take her!” Pink Heart let go of the rail to pick Pink Rose up and throw her daughter at the stranger, and Pink Rose caught a glimpse of her mother hitting the ceiling hard, and Pink Rose screamed as her mother’s blood splattered. The stranger threw Pink Rose inside the box and closed the door, and raced over to some buttons and levers and started messing around. Dizzy, Pink Rose stood up and started walking, she didn’t know where she was, how she got there, or even who she was. She walked into a pole and fell down, blacking out.
“Pink Rose, Pink Rose honey, wake up darling. Open your eyes, little one.”
Pink Rose opened her eyes slowly, her vision was blurry. As she kept blinking until it got clearer, then finally, cleared up so she could see perfectly. She was looking into the eyes of her grandmother Blue Yarn. Well…Pink Rose furrowed her brows. One eye seemed to be on one of Blue Yarn’s eyes, and the other seemed to be on her grandmother’s hoof, which was holding fresh tomato noodle soup. “Ah, good, you’re awake.”
“Grandmother, she’s awake? Oh goody!” a yellow pony came bouncing into the room, her orage mane and tail bouncing up and down. “Pink Rose, my name is Carrot! Carrot Top, that is. I’m your cousin. You’ve never met me before because my parents are carrot farmers and yours are famous and they thought my parents were dirty peasants so they stayed away from us.” Pink Rose stared at her cousin, who was smiling as she said all that.
“Pink Rose, dear, take some soup. I’m afraid I’m going to change your name. You’re moving to a new town with Carrot Top, Ponyville, because I’m ailing and will die soon. Carrot Top has volunteered to be roomates with you, so you will go with her. I assumed you would want to change your name because it might remind you of the crash that killed your parents.”
“What? My parents are dead? Why? How?” Pink Rose sat up with a concerned expression on her face.
“They died in that train crash when you were five. You’ve been a coma ever since then.”
“How old am I, then?”
“Eighteen years old.”
“It’s been thirteen years since the crash?” Pink Rose exclaimed, eyes wide in horror. “But… I haven’t been to school! How will I get a job?”
“Well Carrot Top already got you a job, but you have to go within a month to get it. Mailmare. Mailmare of Ponyville. And I’ve already legally changed your name, darling. You’re not Pink Rose Hooves anymore. You’re Derpy Hooves.”
“Derpy??” Derpy shouted. “Why?!”
Carrot Top brought over a mirror, and Derpy stopped shouting in her horror. Her beautiful yellow eyes were crossed, and…weird. “But…how?” she murmured. Closing her eyes, she barely got a glimpse of what had happened that night. She remembered a box. A box? And her mother, and some stranger, and…and a pole.
“I guess I’ll have to get used to it. Carrot, let’s pack and go. I want to run away from here today.” she choked back her tears. Carrot nodded and clomped out of the room, followed by Blue Yarn.