The Loss
The cliffs near Ponyville are a dangerous place. One could fall into an instant death if he or she wouldn’t be careful. That’s probably why the cliffs were almost always deserted.
Today, though, the cliffs had attracted a single pony. A grey-coated pegasus mare, known as Derpy Hooves. She was standing on the edge of the longest cliff, looking at the beautiful town of Ponyville, and occasionally shifting her glance to the huge fall that started from the edge of the cliff.
The reason of this visit was not known by many. Derpy hadn’t told anypony about her troubles. The troubles that started a few days ago. The troubles that took everything from her.
She let her thoughts wander back to the events of those days, hoping to find a single small thing that could still prevent her from doing this.
----»«----
The morning was beautiful. Though, every morning in Ponyville is beautiful. But this one was more than beautiful. The sun was shining through the muffin-pattern curtains, casting a heavenly light above the grey mare lying under the muffin-pattern blanket.
Derpy was wide awake. But she didn’t want to get up yet. The bed felt so comfortable. The last night had been long, and she definitely needed rest. There was this little nagging thought that she had forgotten something, though, but she managed to ignore it by digging deeper into the soft blanket, falling fast asleep.
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It was only after she finally got up and went to the kitchen to have some breakfast when she noticed the big bag of mail on the table. She instantly felt the panic grow inside her. She had just had her last warning from her boss. And now she had overslept. This wouldn’t be good.
Derpy grabbed the mail, quickly chomped down some muffins, washed them down with a glass of carrot juice, and dashed out of the door.
While flying as fast as she could towards the starting point of her route, she thought about the possible ways the make it through this mistake. All she could come up with was doing the route three times faster than ever before. It seemed like a good plan to her.
______
After several hours of rushing from place to place, she had managed to reduce the amount of letters and packages significantly. She literally dropped the last ones in front of the Golden Oaks library, and started rushing towards the mail office.
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She had been only an hour late, but still she was invited to have a little chat with the Boss. She nervously walked down the hallway, hoping that the Boss had had a good morning.
She knocked on the door, and was immediately called in. The look on the Boss’ face told that he hadn’t had a good morning. He was simply staring Derpy when she walked towards his desk. He pointed her to sit down, still staring speechless.
After 30 minutes of yelling, reading complaints about broken packages, and a simple “I’m sorry to say this, but you’re fired”, Derpy was sent out. She had a blank expression on her face, telling the ex-co-workers everything they needed to know. They stared blankly as Derpy walked past them, one occasionally giving the poor mare a pat in the back and a few encouraging words.
The words did nothing. Derpy felt beaten. The job for the mail office had kept her and Dinky alive. Now that she had lost it, she didn’t know what to do. New job was an option, but not a good one. Last time only the mail office had let her even try. All the others had turned her down because she wasn’t agile like Rainbow Dash or smart like Twilight Sparkle. She also had some trouble with her vision, causing more than one of the interviewers to turn her down.
She could ask help from her friends. But that wouldn’t be right. Carrot Top had already done so much to her. Lyra and Bon Bon had watched over Dinky so many times she didn’t want to bother them either. Besides, they weren’t in town at the moment. She didn’t want to bother anypony. So she decided to make her way out of this by herself.
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It was starting to get late, and she had no ideas. She had been sitting on a small cloud for almost four hours. She was starting to get worried. If she wouldn’t come up with a plan, she would lose her house. What would she and Dinky do then?
Remembering her daughter, she decided to go home. Dinky was smart. She could help her figure this out. But how would Derpy tell this to her daughter? She began flying towards her home, while processing a filly-suitable version of her day.
______
When she arrived home, she was surprised by the fact all the lights were off. Dinky didn’t usually go to sleep this early. And she usually came home in time.
Derpy was starting to grow worried, as she began fitting the key to the lock. After several attempts, she managed to get the door open, immediately rushing to the kitchen where Dinky usually waited for her mother to arrive. She turned the lights on, but didn’t see Dinky. There was a note on the table, instead.
“Dearest Miss Derpy Hooves. When we heard about your current situation, we decided to give you a visit, in order to see what we could do.
Unfortunately you weren’t home, but instead your daughter was. She told us about your life, and how you barely made the bits to keep you alive.
Because of this current situation of yours, we hereby have taken the custody of Dinky Hooves, seeing that you are unable to make the living for both of you.
You may complain about this decision, and possibly retake her custody after you find a job, and after at least six months have passed.
Yours, The Equestrian Health and Care services, Ponyville Division.”
Derpy couldn’t believe it. They had taken her daughter away from her. The most important thing in her life. She was furious and frightened at the same time. How could they do this?
Derpy simply broke down. She couldn’t do anything. She didn’t eat. She didn’t drink. She didn’t move. She just cried. And when she had shed her last tear, she fell asleep, still sobbing quietly.
______
The morning was cloudy. The room was dark and quiet, save for the small sobs that could be heard if one would listen very closely.
Derpy had gotten some sleep. It hadn’t done anything. She was still exhausted from the flying around and crying. She still couldn’t think straight. Her mind was still grinding through the contents of the note, trying to understand the situation. It was no use.
But Derpy didn’t fight it. She didn’t want to fight it. She wanted to find a way to prove that the note didn’t exist, no matter how much time it took. She ignored the growing pain also known as hunger that was eating her from inside. She ignored her dry throat, which felt like a desert that hadn’t seen a rain in a decade. She ignored the numb feeling of her legs, despite how odd it felt. Everything that mattered was her brain, and its progress towards the unavoidable truth.
And when that moment came, when she finally realized that there was no way to escape this situation this way, she stood up, and released her stomach from the pain.
She could take only two muffins. After slowly forcing them down she felt like they were coming back immediately. With huge effort she managed to keep them inside her, and reached for a glass of the finest carrot juice from Carrot Top’s latest harvest. Gulping it down drop by drop, she let the taste reach her numb tongue, the liquid revive her mouth from its dry form, and finally swallowed it, giving her throat a tingling feeling.
She started to feel the small amount of sugar of the muffins kick in, as she was able to flap her left wing, desperately trying to find a way of rising from the floor. After several minutes of endless yet weak flapping she decided to give her wing a rest. The lack of food had made her weaker than ever, even though it had only been a day without eating anything. She knew she needed sugar. It would get her going in no time.
The problem was that her muffins had almost no sugar. She had always made than as healthy as possible. The carrot juice was sugar-free. Carrot Top never added anything else than water into her carrot juice. Yet she still managed to make the most delicious carrot juice in the whole Equestria. It even beat some of the Apple-family drinks.
So, Derpy had to face a huge challenge. She had to somehow get to the fridge. It wouldn’t be easy, as the fridge was on the other side of the kitchen. She had no power left to even unfurl her wing. The only choice was to crawl.
And that’s what Derpy did. She dragged herself forward using her front hooves, while trying to aid with her back hooves. It must have looked ridiculous, but no-one was there to see it. Occasionally she was able to boost her crawling a little by pushing some extra speed from leg of the heavy dining table.
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After what felt like an eternity, Derpy finally could touch the pure white fridge. But there was another problem; The handle. She couldn’t reach it. It was just inches away, but she couldn’t get a hold of it. She collapsed to the floor, trying to regain some energy to help her with her quest.
While lying on the floor, she couldn’t stop thinking about Dinky. The poor filly must be frightened. Taken to a completely new, strange place far from her mother.
Derpy didn’t know if it was thinking about Dinky or what, but something caused her to get a sudden spike of energy. Not too big, but enough to flap her wings for a few seconds. And that was enough. Derpy used her wings to drag her to the level of the handle, took it into her mouth, and just fell.
It was painful, but it worked. The door swung open, revealing the mountains of healthy and not-so-healthy treats. Derpy just grabbed something that turned out to be a bag of taffy given to her by Bon Bon, and started chomping it down, ignoring the protests of her stomach.
The taste was not present. She couldn’t taste the amazing taffy in her mouth. But that wasn’t important. She just chewed it, swallowed and took another piece from the bag.
______
In no time, the whole bag of taffy was gone, and Derpy was feeling a lot better, despite the strange feeling in her stomach. She was able to move, to flap her both wings, and she even could run for a bit.
She decided that it’s time to go to fetch her daughter. So, she slowly walked out of the door, and started to fly towards the outskirts of the town, where the Health and Care Center was located.
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The building was big. It had many doors, and Derpy had some trouble on finding the right one. She flew from door to door, asking about her daughter.
It turned out that Dinky had been taken into the “Caretaking”-part of the building. That’s where Derpy headed next.
The receptionist wasn’t very cooperative, and Derpy had to ask multiple times before she was directed to the office of the “Mother”, who was in charge of this place.
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The things in the office of the “Mother” didn’t go too well. Derpy kindly asked about her daughter, and if she could get her back or even see her, but the “Mother” refused.
Derpy was, of course, disappointed by this. So she ended up raising her voice, which caused the “Mother” to call the guards. The last thing Derpy could hear the “Mother” say was:
“Dinky Hooves shall be taken to our custody permanently. Her mother isn’t capable of taking care of her.”
That was the final hit for Derpy. She could never get her daughter back. Dinky would never see her mother again. Derpy couldn’t take it. She tried to struggle to get out of the hold of the guard’s magic, but with no use. She just hung there limp, when the guard carried her through the hallways towards the door.
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After the little trip, the guard simply threw Derpy out, and said that she’s not welcome again, and if she still comes near the building, she will be arrested.
After the guard had disappeared, Derpy took off, flying towards home, trying to hold her tears. She wouldn’t be able to even get close to Dinky, or she would be arrested. She just wanted to cry, try to wash away the sorrow with tears.
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When she arrived at her house, she was sobbing loudly. She reached for her small saddlebag, and pulled out her key. She tried to fit it into the lock, but it wouldn’t fit. Derpy started to panic. She tried again and again, until a small note caught her eye.
“Dear Derpy Hooves.
We are sorry to inform you this way, but your rent is late. We cannot afford giving everypony a free house, so please pay your rent.
Until then, the key to the new lock is held by us.
Yours, Ponyville house rental service.”
Derpy just stood there. This wasn’t possible. This couldn’t be possible. This had to be a mistake. They couldn’t take her house. All her personal items were there. Where would she live? What could she do?
She just collapsed to the ground, crying loudly. She had lost everything. She only had a saddlebag, and a key that wouldn’t fit to any lock. She moved her glance from the ground to the sky. How in Equestria could this happen?
Something stopped her vision halfway to the sky. A cliff pointing towards the sunset. And that’s when she got it. This pain, this sorrow would end.
Derpy began running towards the path that led to the cliff.
----»«----
Ending the line of thoughts, Derpy let a single tear roll down her cheek.
With only the gorgeous sunset to witness the moment, she smiled, and took the final leap of faith.