Growing Tall ~ Derpy

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This is the second chapter in the story, if you haven't already read chapter one from Growing Tall ~ Carrot Top, then please click here.

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With a gasp, Derpy Hooves awoke, only to inhale a large mouthful of dirt. Spluttering, she picked herself up off of the floor, trying to recall what had happened. They had been hiking, then the ground had cracked open underneath Carrot Top and she had fallen, and Derpy had swooped in to save her... And crashed. She brought a hoof to her face, exasperated. Why was she always crashing? It was as if the ground was out to get her.

Derpy scowled. “Stupid ground,” she muttered, kicking at the dirt.

After exacting her revenge against the earth, Derpy quickly gave her wings a couple of test flaps; they were sore, but nothing seemed to be broken. She noticed that her saddlebags were lying a short distance away, and quickly retrieved them, checking to make sure everything was intact. Unfortunately, her jar of raspberry jam had broken, so she carefully devoured the sweet goop before it leaked all over her other possessions.

Satisfied with her full stomach, Derpy began examining her surroundings. She had somehow ended back up on the surface, and in a forest no less. The trees that surrounded her were very strange, and looked more like giant plants. In the distance there was even a huge dandelion, swaying in the wind.

Derpy resisted the temptation to fly over and blow on it, instead searching for any sign of her friend. As far as she could see Carrot Top had landed nowhere near her, and she grew worried and frightened. She was lost in a strange forest, her friend gone and maybe even injured... It was a grim situation. Giving the clearing one last glance, Derpy dashed off in a random direction.

“Carrot Top! Carrot Top!” she cried in desperation, running faster and faster through the woods, trying her hardest not to cry. She fled blindly through the forest, oblivious to where she was going, until she came to a stop under the canopy of a huge clover, completely spent. She collapsed to the ground under the shade of the massive plant, and felt tears welling up in her eyes despite her efforts to stop them.

“Carrot Top, where are you?” she muttered, huddling up under the clover. She didn’t want to cry, she wanted to be strong, but it was so hopeless. How could she ever find her friend in the middle of such a gigantic place? It would be like looking for a needle in a haystack, and Derpy knew how difficult that was after that mishap during the arts and crafts fair...

“I need to calm down,” she thought aloud. “And what do I usually do when I want to relax?”

Slowly, Derpy pulled off her saddlebags, and fumbled around inside of one of them. She pulled out a journal and pen, holding them aloft like a hallowed object.

“I write!” she yelled at nopony in particular.

She hastily opened the journal and began scribbling in it; it had taken a lot of practice to become a proficient writer when you could only focus one eye on the page, but it had been worth it. Writing had provided an outlet for all of Derpy’s worries and frustrations, which she bottled up in order to stay happy all the time when she was around her friends.

After her ship was commandeered by the fierce Milky Way pirates, the brave and noble Captain Danger Hooves was forced to abandon ship on one of the lifepods. Her faithful sidekick Corporal Carrot Top also escaped, but after being pulled into the gravity of a mysterious planet, turbulence from its atmosphere caused her pod to malfunction and crash an unknown distance from the Captain’s own pod. Now she was alone, on a potentially deadly planet, with barely enough supplies to last a week. She needed to

Derpy suddenly stopped, realizing that she had been unconsciously writing it in the style of her personal novels, the Danger Hooves series. She’d never had the guts to ever get them published, but writing them had been almost as good as going on those thrilling adventures herself.

“Well Derpy,” she announced to herself. “It looks like this time you really are Danger, so there’s no need to exaggerate things.” She tore out the page, scrunching it up into a ball and tossing it behind her. She put the pen to paper again, only to find herself very unsure of how to proceed, since she had never written down facts before. In the end she decided to just write as if she was talking to the journal, like a diary, only less filled with embarrassing secrets.

Hey Journal! This is Derpy. I decided to keep track of what has happened to me so far. And maybe write about some interesting things I discover.

It all started when Carrot Top proposed to me that we go on a hike together. I like Carrot Top, and I have enjoyed her company ever since we met, but the idea of spending an extended period of time on a cold, empty mountain didn’t really appeal to me. That is, until Carrot Top offered to make up a tonne of food for us to enjoy while travelling. I can’t say no to Carrot Top’s cooking, that would be like saying no to Santa Hooves offering you his magic sack of toys.

But after hiking up the mountain, I was flying next to Carrot Top as she crossed a seemingly normal patch of rock, when it suddenly collapsed underneath her. I tried to catch her, but instead I crashed too, and somehow found myself in a forest where everything is of a monolithic size, with Carrot Top nowhere in sight. I have yet to encounter any other sentient species, but the forest is still potensialy dangerous.

Derpy stared at the last sentence that she wrote. That wasn’t how you spelled that word… How did it go again? Derpy frowned in frustration; normally she was a lot smarter sounding when writing, as the words just seemed to flow from her brain easier. But like anypony she occasionally got stuck, and in this particular case it was extremely annoying because she knew that she had just used that word in the page she had thrown away.

Wheeling around, Derpy searched for the discarded ball of paper, but it was gone. There was the sound of rustling coming from behind a wall of tall grass, and with aggravation momentarily overriding caution Derpy trotted up to the natural wall and peeked her head through. Her jaw dropped.

In a small clearing underneath a dead tree - although, at this size it may just have been a stick stuck in the ground - was a small, yellow creature, barely reaching her knee in height. It was playing with the ball of paper, tossing it around and fetching it. It had four limbs like a pony, but stood upright and its hind legs, and its forelegs had small digits on them, that it was using to grab the ball firmly. The creature had no mouth or nose, but it had a pair of beady eyes and two large ears, even by pony standards. It was solid yellow from head to hoof, except for its eyes and a white flower perched on a stalk on its head.

Derpy watched the small creature play, completely enamoured by it. It was one of the most adorable things she had ever seen, and was as enraptured with its new toy as a newborn foal. It picked up the ball again and threw it up in the air, and then tried to catch it, but missed and was bonked on the head.

Derpy stifled a laugh, but she wasn’t silent enough. The small thing looked up in surprise, dropped the paper ball and then ran in the opposite direction.

“No, wait!” she cried, abandoning her hiding place and chasing after it. “I didn’t mean to scare you!”

Derpy chased the creature to the foot of the dead tree, where it was hopping frantically, trying to scramble up the bark. Looking up, Derpy saw why; there were four more of them perched up on the tallest branch of the tree, looking down curiously, although they had leaves and flower buds on their heads instead. She stared up at them in astonishment, trying to figure out how the stubby little things had managed to climb that high. After a moment, she turned her attention to the one at the foot of the tree.

“Hey there, little guy...” She assumed it was male. “I’m not going to hurt you… I just want to say hi.”

The creature, still quivering in fright, slowly turned to face the looming pegasus. But then it suddenly stopped shaking, staring at something just above her head.

Confused, Derpy looked over her shoulder, but there was nothing behind her. She span in a circle, searching for the source of the creature’s calm, when something bobbed down in front of her head; it was a flower, almost identical to the one that Carrot Top had pointed out to her on the mountain. Derpy frowned; it must have got stuck on her head when she had crashed. She went to bat it off her head, when she realized that it was the object of the creature’s attention.

“You... you think I’m one of you?” she asked, only for her question to be answered by the creature dashing up to and jumping happily. It shouted something in a high-pitched, warbled voice, and although Derpy couldn’t understand what it said she could tell by its tone that it was excited to see her. Feeling a little overwhelmed by the sudden attention, Derpy was unprepared for the other four creatures to drop down from the tree crying out just as excitedly as the first one.

“Ah! Settle down!” she yelped, and the creatures immediately stopped as if sensing her distress. This only unnerved Derpy more though, as they stood around her silently staring up at her.

“Go away!” she said, waving her hoof behind her. She watched as the creatures not only followed her command, rushing off in a small cluster, but then returned moments later with one each carrying her saddlebags, pen and journal. They dumped her possessions in front of her, and then looked up, eager for more instruction.

Derpy stared for a moment longer. “Wow, you sure are helpful little critters, aren’t you?” She scratched her head thoughtfully. “You remind me of that fairytale Carrot Top told me once, about these forest sprites that assist anyone who becomes lost in the forest. I think they were called Pikmin, is that what you guys are?” The creatures simply stared up at the pegasus, uncomprehending.

Derpy shook her head in wonder. “Well, since I don’t know what else to call you, I guess it’s Pikmin then.” She quickly put her journal and pen back in her saddlebags, and slipped it on. Derpy frowned slightly, unsure of what to do next. She needed to find Carrot Top, but her best bet for finding her was to fly, which meant the Pikmin couldn’t stay with her.

“Thanks for grabbing my stuff, but I really need to find my friend now, okay?” The Pikmin made no sign that they had understood. “Er, right, so... bye!”

She made to move away, but the Pikmin simply followed her. With a couple flaps of her wings, Derpy propelled herself into the air, flying quickly off in search of Carrot Top. But then she stopped, hovering in the air, and turned to look back at the Pikmin, who were still grouped together in the clearing. They had huddled together under the tree, and were giving each other lifts. Bridging their tiny arms together, the Pikmin flung each other up, and their strange ears somehow helped them to soar even higher, before catching onto the lowest branch and clambering up. They repeated this for each other, until the first Pikmin she had found with the flower on its head was the only one left.

Derpy jumped as there was a loud animal cry from somewhere in the distance, and watched as the lone Pikmin huddled against the tree. Tears welled up in her eyes as she realized what this meant; every time the Pikmin went to hide in the tree, one had to be left behind. She couldn’t imagine how many had already been devoured by whatever had made that noise, and she berated herself for being so selfish.

“Carrot Top can fend for herself,” she thought aloud. “But these guys need me to help them. I can’t just abandon them...”

She quickly flew back down to the dead tree and alighted before the flowered Pikmin. When it saw her it jumped up, chattering excitedly, and the other Pikmin quickly dropped back down to join them, the group of critters making a loud cacophony about the return of their saviour.

“I thought about it, and I’ve decided to stay on the ground and lead you guys.” She smiled cheerfully. “I’ll protect you from any big bad animals, I promise.”

Derpy turned to leave, but stopped as there was a rustling at the edge of the clearing. She moved in front of the Pikmin and braced herself, expecting a wildcat or maybe even a timberwolf. But she screamed in fright as a red bug as tall as herself stampeded through shrubbery, growling hungrily at the sight of its next meal.

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Chapter 3 - Pesticide