Twilight was waiting patiently at the door of Derpy’s house, since she had nothing else to do at this point because she had no other plans for the day besides giving her request to Tailmon; she saw no issue in waiting just like that.
But suddenly she felt droplets falling on her head.
“Huh? Is it raining?”
She looked around but the sky was as blue as ever even put a hoof in front of her to make sure if there was any rain. But nothing happened, so she shrugged it off.
Then more droplets fell on her head, this time she knew something was off and looked around in the sky for something strange but there was nothing, again.
Whatever fell on her head was now going down her face; she rubbed it off with a hoof and looked at it.
It was a thick dark red fluid, her eyes shrunk. But then some fell on her nose and with a yelp she jumped away.
Twilight heard a loud laugh, a really familiar loud laugh.
Figuring out who this was she got really annoyed.
“Tailmon! Where are you!?”
Her answer was more mocking laugh.
“Oh, my nonexistent stomach, I can’t breathe!”
Identifying the source of the voice Twilight took to the skies and flew over the roof of Derpy’s house to see Tailmon struggling to breathe and with tears in her eyes due to the howl of laugher she was letting out.
Twilight scowled at her, but this didn’t detour Tailmon from her laugher, it appears that this made it even worse.
Tailmon calmed down a bit after some time, and was just moderating her breathing.
Twilight scowled even harder, “Are you done?”
Tailmon steadied her breathing and got into a sit down position, “yes I’m done Purple, thanks for killing my boredom, how nice of you.”
Twilight scowl didn’t fade even a little; she was trying to disintegrate the digi-cat by her stare alone, if only this would work.
“What even is this substance you dropped over me?”
Tailmon moved her head from side to side with eyes closed, “nothing important, just blood.”
Twilight looked shocked and somewhat scared, “you can’t be serious.”
With a swift move from her claw Tailmon reached inside her bag and threw a piece of bloody meat that made a wet plop into Twilght’s face.
The alicorn shrieked in panic and disgust, “Ahhh! Get it off, get it off!”
Tailmon facepawed at the ridiculousness of this situation, she knew quite well that this stupid horse could just use her magic to get the piece of meat off her face, but decided to scream like a ninny instead.
Apparently Twilight finally figured it out as Tailmon saw her get the piece of meat off, but did it in a very shaky way, apparently this disturbed her to no end.
After shivering a little, Twilight focused a frown on Tailmon once again, “Why did you do that!?”
But Tailmon only shrugged.
A vein bulged on Twilight’s forehead, but she closed her eyes and let out a painfully long sigh, “Look, I have something to discuss with you.”
Tailmon raised an eye brow, “really now?” Twilight nodded, “well, I don’t care, get out of here.” Tailmon then jumped down and was about to walk inside the house.
Twilight giggled, making Tailmon stop on her tracks, “I don’t think you will refuse this one, or maybe you don’t want to get positive points? I mean fulfilling requests from us helps with that.”
Tailmon slowly turned to face Twilight, “are you trying to bribe me, Purple? That’s cute.”
Twilight was tempted to just leave, but she had to beat Tailmon on this at least, “well, I suppose that you really don’t want to get back to Álfheimr. It’s a shame really,” she wiggled the piece of parchment with the request in her magic around the air.
This time was Tailmon’s turn to frown at the smug looking alicorn, “give me that thing,” she snatched the parchment from Twilight’s magic and read it.
“Bla bla bla, boring introduction, unnecessary wording just making the whole thing a hassle to read, bla bla bla, I want to learn from your species, bla bla, more boring stuff bla bla,” Tailmon eyed Twilight with a disappointed expression, “how can you write so much but say so little?”
Twilight stared dumbfounded as Tailmon made the parchment into a ball and threw it to her, it bumped off her horn and into the ground.
“I put so much effort in writing that request…”
Tailmon stared at her in annoyance, “what did you expect me to do? You moron, if you’re asking someone to do anything make sure you know how to explain it without so much filler, just get to the point and get done with it!” she was getting exasperated, “look, your whole note would have been shortened to just asking me to tell you about me and that would have been acceptable.”
Twilight felt something different coming from Tailmon this time though, for some reason the frustration she felt from her was not because of hatred but because she actually found the inefficiency on her method.
Tailmon meanwhile adopted a more carefree stance, with a claw up as if to make a point she was still talking, “always make sure you know who you’re asking something for and make it understandable for them, otherwise you’ll get the other side confused.”
Twilight was at a loss for words on this situation, “Why are you giving me advice?”
“Because you suck, I don’t know how you idiots can function if this is the way you do things around here, but I shouldn’t be surprised; after all you horses are full of nonsense.”
Never mind, Tailmon went back to being rude just for the sake of it, “you don’t pull any punches now do you?”
Tailmon shrugged, “what can I tell you, Purple? I just hate you that much, now go and wash out that blood; I don’t want you to make a mess when I finally managed to clean this dump.”
“Huh?”
“What are you waiting for? Go quickly if you want to learn that stuff you asked me to tell you, but I’ll get some lunch done for me first, I’m hungry.”
Still not sure of what to think about this whole ordeal, Twilight did as she was told and went to wash off the blood she had in her fur.
Derpy happily flied through Ponyville, doing her route and delivering the mail for the ponies, her good mood had a positive effect on her performance. She didn’t have a single accident yet and ponies told her that she was brighter than usual.
She wondered what those ponies meant with that, but she ignored it for the time being and was waiting impatiently for lunch time.
“I can’t wait to taste what you made for me Kitty!”
Then somepony made act of presence.
“Hey Derpy!” a raspy voice called for her.
Looking around to see who it was Derpy saw Rainbow Dash closing the distance.
“Oh, Rainbow Dash Hi!” she waved with a smile.
“Derpy you’re ok, right?” Rainbow asked out of the blue.
“Huh?” Derpy blinked a few times in confusion, “Yes I’ am, why?”
Rainbow was skeptical, she knows Tailmon is not to be trusted, “well, I heard you were with the cat that attacked us, she dangerous so I wanted to make sure you were fine. You better stay away from that cat Derpy.”
Derpy was feeling something was off with this, Rainbow seemed to have ulterior motives, “maybe she’s a little mean, but she’s not dangerous!”
Rainbow’s eye twitched after hearing that, “not dangerous you say?” she was looking rather mad, “you don’t know anything!” she lashed out.
Derpy was surprised by this sudden outburst.
“You don’t know the suffering that cat made us pass, everypony else knows this, but you’re here saying that she’s not dangerous? Don’t make me laugh! She’s just using us to fulfill her goals!”
“Stop lying! You don’t know her!” Derpy lashed out too.
Rainbow lifted an eyebrow, “and you do?”
“What?”
“Do you know her, Derpy? I suppose you do because you speak like you do.”
Derpy hesitated for a moment, “I don’t know her that well, but enough to see that she’s not dangerous!”
Their heated argument was getting the attention of the ponies that were wandering around the area.
Those in their proximity heard the yelling and the ever so growing angry scowls both mares were giving to each other. If this kept going it was just a matter of time before one of them decided to attack the other.
Meanwhile Twilight was uncomfortable; she had to put up with Tailmon devouring a piece of meat in front of her.
Even the smell made her nauseous; she wasn’t used to other creatures eating meat. In fact she never saw anypony who could, until this day.
Tailmon who almost finished eating, didn’t like Twilight’s stare, “Can you stop giving me that weird look? It’s not a big deal, Purple. You’re such a softie.”
“Where did you even got that thing to begin with?”
Tailmon swallowed the last portion of her dish, “in the forest just outside town, I thought maybe the creatures there would be any fun, but no. Just more weaklings, so I knocked a Hydra out and cut a piece of tail to eat. And before you say anything, no, I didn’t kill it.”
“Can you not sustain yourself without meat?”
Tailmon put a claw on her chin in a thoughtful manner, “I certainly can, but the reason I had to go for that is because if I went to hunt to the other forest that is close to town, I probably would have got in trouble because it seems like a natural reserve or something.” She explained, “I saw an orchard as well but again, taking some of that would have got me in trouble, I can’t afford to ruin this even if I can’t stand you horses I have to behave and go by the rules for now,” she got up to wash her plate.
Twilight looked at Tailmon in a funny way, “you don’t seem to be that bad when you’re like this Tailmon,” she changed to a sad smile, “why do you hate us so much?”
Tailmon didn’t expect that question to rise up so quickly, but it made her think, why does she hate them so much?
“You remind me of something I had to forget a long time ago.”
“What is that?”
Having finished her task of washing the dishes, Tailmon turned to look at Twilight narrowing her eyes, “that’s not something you deserve to know, now if you want to learn anything, you better take care of what you ask from now on, because if I get annoyed, I will not hesitate in beating you up.”
Twilight gulped nervously, “o-ok I’ll be more careful.”
Tailmon snickered, “relax, Purple. If it counts for anything, you’re the less likely to piss me off out of the group I fought before,” she waved a paw dismissively.
“Huh? Why is that?”
“You seem to be the less annoying of the bunch, I can’t speak for yellow and white, but the others are just plain annoying, besides you are smart for horse standards, so if I’m ever having a decent conversation with anyone here, it will probably be with you.”
“Jeez thanks,” sarcasm was very clear on Twilight’s voice.
“You’re welcome, but Purple, why are wasting time instead of asking what you want to learn? I already accepted but you didn’t ask anything yet.”
Twilight thought about it and formulated an appropriate answer, “it is because I wanted a more relaxed ambience for the two of us, and if there were tension present it would be hard to talk properly.”
Tailmon nodded in agreement, “good point now shot those questions.”
Twilight started to feel comfortable around Tailmon, this was a side of her that she didn’t knew existed, but before she could speak the front door opened and crying was heard.
The two of them looked at each other with confusion and left their seats to investigate what happened.
Getting to the front door they found…
“Gray/Derpy?” the two of them said at once.
There was Derpy in her uniform, it was all dirty with dust and she had bruises in various areas, she was crying a lot, “I’m sorry Kitty!” she managed to say between sobs.
This surprised Tailmon some, “why? What happened to you?”
“I-I was doing my route, and then somepony started saying mean stuff about you, I wanted them to stop,” Derpy let out another sob, “we started yelling a-and then we got in a little fight, and and…” the distress she was on right now was quite heartbreaking.
Twilight spoke in a soothing voice, “and then what happened? Did they do something else to you?”
“They broke the lunch Kitty made for me!” Derpy wailed.
Tailmon was a little disappointed, “you shouldn’t have done that Gray, you know I don’t care what those losers say about me, as for the lunch I can still make more of them don’t be sad for it.”
“But it was the first thing you gave me! I really wanted to taste it! It was the first gift I got from a friend!” Derpy yelled at the top of her lungs, taking the two of them by surprise.
“Y-you see me as a friend?” Tailmon asked totally taken aback from Derpy’s outburst.
Between whimpers Derpy managed to say, “of course I do… that’s why I wanted them to stop being mean to you… but they got angry and attacked me…”
Tailmon was gaping with an unreadable expression on her face; it slowly changed to her closing her eyes as a small smile appeared on her.
‘Is she smiling?’ Twilight thought as she saw the scene play out.
Surprising everypony, Tailmon beamed at Derpy and started to clean Derpy’s tears with a tissue she had in her paw.
“You got hurt because of me…” Tailmon hesitated, “I’m sorry Derpy.”
“Kitty…” Derpy wanted to say more but Tailmon shushed her.
“No, no. I’m Tailmon, nice to meet you,” she still smiled but a frown formed on her eyebrows, “who did this to you?”
“It was Rainbow Dash…” Derpy said with a calmer tone of voice, she felt more relaxed now.
Twilight was shocked and Tailmon well she just smiled sweetly.
“Derpy, please wait for me here, rest a little. I’ll make you something to eat when I come back, ok?”
“Where are you going?” Derpy asked curiously.
“I have a little something I have to do, I won’t take long.”
With that said Tailmon made her way out the house, Twilight hurried after her and closed the door.
“What are you planning on doing Tailmon?”
Tailmon was resting a paw in one of the wood pieces of the fence that was around the house and was looking at the ground with her back towards Twilight.
“You heard her, she got hurt because of me, I tried to pry her off so she would hate me as well, but instead she grew to like me, even after all that and the first time she tries something for me… someone attacks her for it.”
Twilight felt the intensity behind Tailmon’s words; she saw the paw resting on the fence twitching slightly.
Seconds after the piece of wood snapped under the pressure.
Tailmon sighed, freeing a big part of her stress, “what was your name again?”
Twilight lifted an eyebrow, “Twilight, Twilight Sparkle, why?”
“Take care of her in my absence Twilight, I have to find blue.”
Twilight was worried that Tailmon would do something terrible to Rainbow, “I know you’re angry with her, but be reasonable please!”
Tailmon looked back at Twilight with an unnerving stare, “But Twilight, I’m not angry…” she paused for a bit, “I’m just going hunting,” and then she became a blur disappearing from there.
Twilight just stared at the empty space where Tailmon was, ‘I can’t intervene after getting to her good side, if I do, Tailmon probably will feel betrayed and will hate ponykind even more. Rainbow, why did you had to do this!?’ with frustration ruling her thoughts, Twilight made the decision of taking care of Derpy, she was the real victim here.