Sorry, I had to rush home early so I won’t be able to walk back with you.
Derpy put her phone back in her pocket with a sigh. “You could have told me that a little earlier,” she muttered to herself.
Sweetie Drops would usually meet her by the side of the school, where Derpy would normally be looking at all the students walk past as she waited. But today Derpy had waited so long that there was no one left to watch.
With a huff, Derpy began walking home by herself, adding to her already sour mood.
Luckily the walk wasn’t very long, not giving her much time to feel bad for herself in public. That way I can spend more time moping in private, she thought to herself.
She had originally intended to ask Drops if she was free tonight to do anything, but had decided against it. Drops had already told her she was incredibly busy this whole week, and she didn’t want to be a bother.
She did her best to feel okay with that though, it was nothing new after all.
Derpy sighed as she walked. It felt weird. She had spent the last five years walking home by herself, but she’d never been this lonely while doing so. Well, not since she started being by herself that is.
It left her feeling a bit bittersweet. She was incredibly happy that she made friends with Drops, but she knew being reliant on her wasn’t ideal, especially when she’s so busy.
It was almost easier before, she thought. In a weird kind of way.
Balancing the fact that she would much rather be with a friend than anything else and not being too clingy was a new level of stress that she didn’t need.
Upon getting to her house and reaching her door, she let out one last sigh. Maybe I should just have an early night.
“Surprise!”
Derpy froze. Her plain and empty home had been exchanged with bright party decorations, lots of smiling people, and a banner that read ‘Happy Birthday Derpy’ hanging up by her lounge wall.
Her face had shock plastered all over it, with a little head movement to scan the room now filled to the brim with people being all she could muster.
She quickly began to recognize the guests. There was Pinkie in the middle of it all, covered in confetti and holding what looked like a giant party popper. To her sides stood Raspberry and Blueberry, holding their drinks up in the air and striking very energetic poses. Around them stood the familiar faces of her old ‘gang’ as they called it.
Seeing them all together, seeing all their happy faces directed at her, it filled her head with a flood of memories that hit her straight in the chest. It was so overwhelming she had to hold back tears.
She didn’t understand. She didn’t get what was going on. That’s when she saw Sweetie Drops.
She was off to the side of her lounge, standing behind a couple of people in the crowd, but Derpy could see her clearly. She held up her drink to her and then gave her a little wink.
“Hey Derpy.”
Derpy felt her hands being grabbed and was pulled back to face forward. She was greeted by the smiling face of Blueberry, and all her friends around her.
“Listen,” Blueberry said, “we know we’ve all done and said terrible things to you, and you shouldn’t have to forgive us for any of that. All I know is that I feel terrible about it. We all do.” She motioned behind her and everyone nodded in agreement.
“We all miss those days when when we were friends, and I know there’s no going back to how things were, but if you’re willing to give us another chance we’d love to be your friends once more.”
Derpy gave them all one last look. They seemed cautiously optimistic, except Raspberry who was practically sweating with nerves.
That’s when Derpy went in for a hug. “Sounds good to me,” she said, tears rolling down her face.
There was a little cheer from everyone in the room as the rest of her friends went to join the now group hug.
“Hey, we got you something by the way,” Blueberry said as the hug naturally began to end. She reached over to the corner where a long wrapped present lay. “Here you go.”
Derpy wiped her tears away and accepted the gift with a wide smile. She carefully began to open it. “A saw?” she asked upon seeing its contents.
“Not just any saw, a professionally made musical saw,” Blueberry corrected. “We all remembered how much you loved playing that old saw you had, so we decided to finally get you a proper one.”
Derpy blushed. “Thanks. I love it.”
“See, told you she’d love it,” Blueberry said to Raspberry, giving her a little nudge. “This one thought it was a stupid idea.”
“I didn’t say it was stupid, I said you were stupid,” Raspberry countered.
Drops let a little smile apear on her face as she watched Derpy begin to laugh with her friends.
“Come on Derpy, let's try out your new musical saw,” said Blueberry, hurrying her to sit down.
Derpy gave Sweetie Drops a hesitant glance, but Drops gave her a reassuring nod, letting Derpy happily follow her old friend into their makeshift performance area.
Drops stood back and watched the party’s gears begin to turn, glancing over the people talking and snacking on the little buffet. She chuckled to herself and gave one last smile towards Derpy before quietly making her way to the back door.
She carefully moved the door handle, glancing back slightly to make sure no one had noticed her, not wanting to distract anyone from the party,.
Entering Derpy’s garden, she took a breath. With a quick look round, she decided to sit on the edge of Derpy’s porch. She leant back slightly, giving herself a moment to relax.
This was something she never normally found herself doing, as her strict sleep patterns and diet kept her vigilant, so it all felt a bit awkward.
The truth was that she had been going on nothing but adrenaline for the past week, going from event to event without letting herself question the logic behind it. This whole party had been a gut decision that ended up taking a week of solid work.
It was that, all while trying to suppress the fact she knew it was a unimportant sidetrack, and worrying about how to link in back to the mission in the report, that made the week incredibly exhausting.
And yet, seeing that smiling face on Derpy, knowing that she was happy, knowing that she’d have friends once she left, it made Drops feel as though it was worth it.
Her eyelids closed as she rested her eyes. ‘You really are a weird one Drops,’ she thought to herself. ‘What would your mentors think if they saw this, they’d never let you live it down. Just imagine what you could have done if you’d put that energy into the mission.’
Drops chuckled. “Derpy does have a really sweet smile though.”
“You still haven’t returned my text.”
Drops’ eyes shot open. The sudden voice almost made her jump up and take a defensive stance. But, upon recognizing the voice, she instead froze with a blush. “L-Lyra?”
“Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you there,” Lyra said with a giggle.
She was quietly pushing the door closed behind her, same confident demeanor and cute pink dress as always. She gave Drops an innocent smile and started making her way over to her.
Drops’ blush reddened. “No, I mean, I didn’t know you were coming.”
Lyra sat down next to her. “What, stay at home and miss Derpy’s first birthday party in years? I wouldn’t even dream of it.”
“Oh.” Drops did her best to breathe properly and get rid of her blush, before looking over at Lyra. She was looking forward, out into Derpy’s garden, just looking calm and comfortable, the opposite of Sweetie Drops.
“Again though,” Lyra said, still blissfully happy, “you haven’t returned my text. Did the idea of going somewhere cute turn you off?”
Drops looked down at her feet. “No, I, it didn’t. Somewhere cute sounds great. I was just… busy.”
Lyra glanced over to the increasingly awkward Sweetie Drops. “You know, anyone else and I wouldn’t believe them, but from you, I guess it’s pretty fair. I hear you pulled all this off in a week.”
“I didn’t really do much. Most of the Party planning was Pinkie’s job. I just gathered her old gang back together.”
Lyra laughed. “Yeah, and I’ve heard all those stories of ‘coincidental meetings’”—she did air quotations—“and assembling Derpy’s avengers seems to have taken a lot of work.”
Drops was visibly shocked at the statement. “How did you know?”
Lyra laughed again. “I talk to my friends and they tell me things. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what was really going on.”
“Oh.” Drops’ gaze returned to her feet.
“Hey, don’t worry about it champ. I won’t reveal your grand conspiracy.” Lyra gave Drops a playful nudge. “I just don’t know why you didn’t just go up to them and invite them.”
“It’s… more difficult then that.”
This was true. As simple as it would have been to ask them all individually, this opened up too many problems. A cover story of how she knew about their relation to Derpy had to be thought-up, of course, but the main issue was that telling people about their past and saying they had to do something about it limited the chance of success. They were much more likely to agree if they came to that conclusion themselves.
And, in reality, when normal citizens find these kind of patterns, the most that comes of it is them saying ‘hey, that is really strange’.
“It’s weird though,” Lyra continued. “Hearing all these amazing stories about you from everyone, all the rumours. A couple weeks ago you were just someone that I used to know, and now you’re the whole school's top mystery.”
Drop’s expression went somber. “Just someone you used to know, huh.”
“Well, you were a bit more than that, but you were still mine, you know? Like I was the only one at school who ever knew about you, but everyone knows you now, so it’s, like… strange.”
For the first time Lyra looked as anxious as Drops did, and a silence emerged, with neither of them able to think of what to say next.
“But anyway,” Lyra eventually said, “I’m really happy that you brought Derpy’s old friends back to her. I knew she didn’t really hate them, but they were always too scared to approach her.”
The statement reminded Drops of one of her old psychology lectures. “Sometimes people carry guilt with them for a long time,” she recalled out loud. “Giving them the opportunity to apologise, even when it’s not needed, can help give them get some closure.”
Lyra smiled. “Yeah, I know none of them could imagine Derpy wanting to forgive them for all the things they said, but Derpy was just happy to have her friends back again.”
There was a moment of quiet as they both let the words sink in. Both parties glanced at each other, but quickly looked away. Drops with a blush and Lyra with a giggle.
“Hey Lyra,” Drops began with a gulp.
“Yeah, Bon-bon?”
“I… I never really apologised. Apologised for just leaving without a trace one day and not even saying goodbye.” Drops stopped, trying to regain some composure. “I said I wouldn’t leave you, even though I knew that wasn’t possible, but I still could have said goodbye, even stayed in touch, but I didn’t, and I’m sorry for that.”
Drops felt an arm wrap around her shoulder and her heart began to rush as it brought her into a warm hug.
“I’m just happy you’re back,” Lyra said with a giggle. “And instead of dwelling on the past, I’m happy to pick up where we left off.”
Drops looked up at the gleefully faced Lyra, and let herself have a moment of calm. “Yeah, that sounds nice.”
“Great,” Lyra said with a cheesy little fist bump. “I officially declare our friendship reinstated. No going back now, you’re stuck with me in the chains of our friendship.”
Drops giggled. “I’m sure there are worse places to be stuck.”
“You say that now, but you’ll be begging for help soon,” Lyra said with a sheepish laugh. “Anyway, I promised to watch Derpy practise her new saw, so I gotta get back to that.”
Lyra stood up and made her way to the door. “Just don’t leave me for seven years while I’m gone.”
“I’ll try,” Drops said with a wave.
Lyra gave a little finger gun to Drops. “Back in a few.”
Drops watched the door close and stared at it for a couple of seconds.
After a suitable amount of time had passed, she let out one long pained groan as she began to curl up into a ball.
“Why, why, why,” she moaned. “What on earth is wrong with you? What were you thinking? You looked like a complete idiot.”
Drops continued to mope around in her new ball of regret, wondering how she managed to forget every lesson on interaction with civilians she’d ever learnt and why she had to look that much like a mumbling idiot for a couple more minutes.
She eventually did regain her composure, sitting back up in her previous position, but continued to feel incredibly bad for herself.
“Maybe I should go back to low stakes clean-up missions for a few more years,” she muttered. “It’s gotta be easier than this.”
It was then that she heard the sounds of a door opening. At first she panicked, thinking Lyra was already back, but quickly noticed it was the second back door, the one connected to the kitchen, that was opening. Out of it came the last person she expected.
Sunset Shimmer walked out into the garden slowly with a sigh. Drops quickly realised she hadn’t noticed her, so she just watched as she folded her arms and continued to stand awkwardly.
This was it. The chance to salvage this wasted week was standing right before her, and she was not going to let it slip through her fingers.