Watching television throughout the day, the pair laze around together. As the sun sinks below the horizon Arc enters the bedroom in a bathrobe as he carries a pizza box and two liter of soda. Derpy giggles as he closes the door behind him with a foot.
“That smells great!”
Arc nods. “The perfect ending to a perfect lazy day.”
Derpy grins sheepishly. “I admit, it’s a bit… strange to not have cooked anything for lunch or supper.”
“And I feel a bit funny having accomplished nothing all day.”
“Well, I suppose everyone needs a day off once in a while.”
Arc nods as he sets down the box on the bed. “That and it did give us quite a bit of time to talk.”
“Yes, it did. I feel a lot closer to you now.”
Arc chuckles as he removes the bathrobe and tosses it aside. “Are you sure that’s not because of the lack of clothes?”
“That was nice too.”
He lifts the lid of the pizza box as Derpy opens the bottle of soda. As they get comfy again Arc picks up a slice and hands it to his companion. Accepting it, she takes a bite and gasps.
“That’s hot!”
Arc smiles as he holds out the soda to her. “It’s amazing how much heat a pizza box can hold in. We’ll give it a few minutes to cool before trying again.”
“Sounds good.”
They continue watching their show for a few moments before Arc turns to Derpy again.
“Tell me something. Is this how a pony feels all of the time?”
“I don’t understand.”
“As a mare you don’t typically wear anything.”
“Ah! Yes, the freedom of being uncovered was great today. I kinda hope we can do it more in the future.”
“I’d… like that too.”
Derpy smiles happily. “Maybe next time we can invite the others for an uncovered day of watching television.”
Arc blushes slightly. “I’m… not sure I’m ready to be surrounded by ten naked women.”
Derpy giggles. “Well, I’m sure they’re ready for you to be bare.”
“Let’s just stick with the one-on-one idea for now.”
“If that’s what you want I’m sure they’ll understand.”
Arc nods as he picks up a slice of pizza. “Let’s try eating again, shall we?”
“Good idea.”
Meanwhile, Brightwing flutters out of the device. Making her way over to the young woman, she lands next to Mio as she begins to stir. A small spell shoots forth from her tiny palm and hits Mio in the forehead. Brightwing frowns as she stops moving.
“Friend needs to stop trying to wake up! Just rest and leave everything to Brightwing!”
Turning back to the machine, she gives the internal components one more check before stepping back and grinning.
“Looks like Brightwing did it! Maybe. Um... probably, that is.”
Tapping a claw to her chin she thinks for a few moments before sighing.
“Brightwing guess there’s no real way to know other than to just do it.”
Concentrating, she opens a portal back to her office, grabs the potion from the desk, and doubles back before landing and setting the vial on the ground next to Mio’s machine.
“This SHOULD work. But Brightwing suppose potion COULD use a bit more magical power.”
She looks to Mio and grins wickedly before fluttering toward her with the potion.
“Friend can help with this!”
Pulling back the sleeping bag, Brightwing grabs Mio’s coat sleeve and pulls with all her might. Eventually she is able to pull it off enough to expose the young woman’s bare arm. Rubbing a single claw on a rock for a short time she sharpens it. Taking a deep breath, Brightwing drags it against Mio’s arm making a deep cut. A steady stream of blood flows out as she puts the bottle under it and watches the red liquid flow for a solid minute. Carefully setting the potion aside Brightwing pulls the coat back down and applies pressure to the wound with both of her palms.
“Sorry, friend. Normally Brightwing would just use her magic to heal your ouchie. But Brightwing’s going to need every little bit of it if her plan is going to work.”
Meanwhile, Arc and Derpy take bites of their pizza. They take turns passing the bottle of soda between each other as they eat. Finishing the pizza, Arc tosses the box onto the floor as Derpy climbs between his legs again. Pulling her close, she returns to her earlier position as the next episode starts. Arc looks down at her and smiles.
“You really like this show don’t you?”
Derpy nods. “Yes, I do.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because there’s a nice lesson to be learned in many of the episodes.”
“I guess so. But I always thought a lot of them were really simple.”
“Maybe. However I think the younger audience needs to hear them. Like the foals back home.”
“You think so?”
Derpy grins. “Yes. It’d be really nice if we could find a way to bring this show back there. Would it be possible to bring a television back to Equestria?”
“Well… I’d have to run that by someone like Hard Hat first. He could probably advise me on whether or not the electrical outlets over there would be compatible. But even then we couldn’t watch anything over there since the stations are all based here on Earth.”
“What about a disk of some kind? Like what we watched last Christmas?”
“There’s probably some kind of Power Rangers box set I could purchase. If we could get the power situation figured out I’d be willing to buy another television and DVD player along with the disks for the orphanage. Assuming Coco Pommel is okay with it, that is.”
“She probably would be. But we’d have to run this whole plan by her first.”
“I’ll still talk to Hard Hat about it either way. If Coco Pommel vetoes the plan we can still watch things back home with Dinky.”
“That sounds nice.”
“I can think of a few other shows that might go over well with the orphans too.”
“Oh? Like what?”
Arc puts a hand to his chin as he thinks. “Reading Rainbow, Sesame Street, The Magic School Bus, Mister Roger’s Neighborhood, and certain episodes of Bill Nye the Science Guy.”
“Do they have cool fighting scenes too?”
Arc chuckles as he shakes his head. “No, no. They’re all educational shows used to teach kids various facets of life.”
“Like what?”
“Well… Reading Rainbow focuses on literacy. When I was a kid it was hosted by a man named Levar Burton who would go to various locations for the show to illustrate the theme of the particular episode. Once he was trudging through a swamp and took a sample of the water with him in a glass jar. Then he went to a laboratory and had one of the workers there put a drop of water on a slide before looking at it through a microscope.”
Derpy appears confused. “What’s a microscope?”
“It’s a machine that zooms in on a target so you can see things that are really small.”
“Zoom in… like a camera?”
“Kinda. But this goes WAY beyond what any traditional camera can do. It lets you see things that are far too small to be seen with just the eyes.”
Derpy gasps. “What did he see?”
“A lot of microorganisms. Simple creatures that live in the water but can’t be seen due to being so small.”
“That sounds interesting. I wouldn’t mind watching that one myself.”
“I’d have to screen the episodes before letting the foals watch them though. After all, not everything presented there would translate well.”
“Like what?”
“Well… there’s at least one episode that talks about dinosaurs.”
“Dino… what now?”
“Dinosaurs. They’re creatures that lived on Earth a really long time ago.”
“Lived?”
Arc shrugs. “They died out.”
“All of them?”
“Well, I don’t see them walking around these days.”
“But the foals might like learning about strange new creatures.”
“Agreed. However I think the young ones should focus of other more practical knowledge before trying to learn another planet’s history. The older ones might be better prepared for such a thing though.”
“I’ll let you and Miss Pommel figure that out.”
“There are other shows that teach things that they’ll need to know though. Like Sesame Street.”
“Is that the name of the show or the street it takes place?”
“The show name. It’s filmed on an indoor set with a diverse cast of people along with ‘muppets’.”
“Are muppets animals?”
“They’re actually somewhat detailed puppets. The show has them acting out little skits alongside the human cast.”
“Like what?”
“Sometimes it’s educational. Like learning how to tie your shoes or how a straw works. But other episodes are about just funny things. Like one muppet named ‘Cookie Monster’. He was a really simple minded muppet whom loved cookies. In fact, he’d literally go crazy when thinking about them and eat everything in sight.”
“How about the educational part of the show? What did they teach?”
“Letters and numbers mostly. It was a show for very young children, after all.”
“That sounds like something the little ones would like.”
“The griffons that come over from across the sea especially.”
Derpy claps her hands together happily. “It would help them learn about numbers and letters without keeping them in a classroom constantly.”
“Right.”
“Tell me more about the other shows.”
“I think I mentioned The Magic School Bus. That one was about a class of kids whom every day went on field trips in their school bus with their teacher, Miss Frizzle.”
“That sounds more believable.”
Arc chuckles. “Well, a lot of episodes involve them going places no other people could.”
“Like where?”
“Inside one of their classmate’s digestive tract.”
“Digestive…?”
“The school bus and all the students got eaten. It was an episode showing how the food we consume is digested and used to fuel our bodies. Another time they went inside another student whom was ill to try and show how bacteria and viruses made them sick.”
“So they went inside humans a lot?”
“Several times, yes. Another episode showed how bread was made along with the yeast making it rise.”
Derpy grins. “Sounds informative!”
“It started as a book series and was later adapted into a cartoon. Episodes included showing how an engine worked, the water-works which filters dirty water into something that you can drink, how weather comes to be, and even a tour of the solar system.”
“So many different ideas!”
“Some of them might be for older foals though. Like the solar system episode. No need to confuse the little ones.”
“They might like the dough episode though.”
“Right. And the water-works episode too. We’d have to screen the episodes ahead of time though.”
“Agreed. Tell me about another show.”
“Another favorite of mine was ‘Mister Roger’s Neighborhood’. It was a show that stared a man named Fred Rogers. It started every episode with him singing a song called ‘It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood’.”
“Sounds very upbeat.”
“Oh, it was. He was a really nice guy whom just wanted to make a difference.”
“For children?”
Arc nods. “Oh yes. You see, not every kid has loving parents to teach them about things. So they would look to him as an authority figure of sorts.”
Derpy sighs. “Sounds like I could have used that in my life back then.”
“Yeah. He was just a really personable guy whom always talked in a very soft and calming voice.”
“What happened on his show?”
“Some days he’d draw with crayons. I think he was trying to show us that it doesn’t matter if you’re good at it or not, but rather that you have fun doing it. Another time he went to the graham cracker factory to show kids how their favorite snack was made.”
Derpy licks her lips. “Those things are pretty tasty.”
“Another episode showed the inner workings of a crayon factory.”
“The foals would love that! At least the part where things were interesting. Were there other characters?”
“The deliveryman sometimes came with films for Mister Rogers to show. His name was Mister McFeely. And there was a police officer once in a while named Officer Clemmons. Those were the only human main characters though.”
“More muppets?”
Arc shakes his head. “No muppets. But Mister Rogers did have what he called ‘The World of Make-Believe’. You see, he had a small toy trolley that would drive through the edge of his living room behind a bench. That was supposed to take the viewers to the Kingdom of Make-Believe, which was inhabited by puppets and ruled over by King Friday.”
“And they had adventures?”
“It was written to support whatever the lesson of the show was about. Nothing too heavy or difficult to understand. Sadly I don’t remember any specifics about that part of the show. Well, other than the fact that the puppets were operated by Fred Rogers himself.”
“He sounds very talented.”
“That he was. After all, he wrote the scripts along with the music, played the music, directed, and stared in the show.”
Derpy gasps. “Wow!”
“But that was only part of what made him special. Another reason was that he was a real person.”
“I don’t understand.”
“He wasn’t like any famous stars back then. Someone whom thinks they’re better than everyone else. If you saw him on the street you could talk to him and he would listen to what you had to say earnestly. That and he didn’t let success change him in the least.”
“So he stayed humble?”
“Yeah. When the show first started kids would write fan letters to him saying how much they liked a certain episode.”
Derpy grins. “That sounds nice.”
“He would write them back.”
“All of them?”
“From what I’m told, yes. At least in the early years until the show really took off. Then he supposedly had to have others help him with that.”
“How about now? Is it still a popular show?”
Arc shakes his head. “No. Mister Rogers passed away years ago.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. What did he die of?”
“Stomach cancer. That and he was in his seventies if memory serves correctly. However, before his death he recorded a short message that I’d like to share with you.”
“What did he say?”
Arc smiles sadly. “Well… I suppose I could tell you. But why don’t I do better than that?”
“How?”
“You’ll see.”
Pushing back the covers, Arc carefully moves aside and lays Derpy down on the pillow behind him.
“Wait right here. I’ll be back.”
Derpy giggles. “Okay.”
Leaving the room, Arc heads down to the basement. Returning a few minutes later with a laptop under his arm along with a cord he walks over to the television. Derpy appears confused.
“Are we going to watch something on that smaller screen now?”
“Not exactly. But you’ll see.”
Plugging the cord into the back of the television, Arc puts the other end in a port on the side of the laptop. Opening it, he presses a number of keys before an image pops up on the big screen. Derpy grins as she crawls to the end of the bed happily.
“YouTube?!”
Arc chuckles. “Yup. Just a simple trick of running an HDMI cable and mirroring the image.”
Blinking back to his place on the bed, Arc reaches forward and puts his arms around Derpy’s belly. Pulling her onto his lap she reaches out and pulls the covers over them again as Arc types with his magic. A few moments later the image of an elderly man appears on the screen. Derpy gasps happily.
“Is that him?”
Arc nods. “Yup. That’s Fred Rogers. But we all just knew him as ‘Mister Rogers’ when we were kids. Now then… here’s what he had to say.”
Pressing ‘Play’, Arc lays back on the pillow with Derpy as the video starts. Mister Rogers sits on a piano bench in front of the set of the land of Make-Believe as he talks.
(To hear the speech in Fred Roger’s own words... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFVPkn37iFM)
“You know, it happens so often. I walk down the street and someone twenty or thirty or forty years old will come up to me and say ‘you are Mister Rogers, aren’t you’. And then they tell me about growing up with the neighborhood. And how they’re passing on to the children they know what they found to be important in our television work. Like expressing their feelings through music and art and dance and sports and drama and computers and writing and… and invariably we end our little time together with a hug. I’m just so proud of all of you who have grown up with us. And I know how tough it is some days to look with hope and confidence on the months and years ahead. But I would like to tell you what I often told you when you much younger. I like you just the way you are. And what’s more, I’m so grateful to you for helping the children in your life to know that you’ll do everything you can to keep them safe. And to help them express their feelings in ways that will bring healing in many different neighborhoods. It’s such a good feeling to know that we’re lifelong friends.”
Mister Rogers makes a small smile before the video ends. Arc looks down at Derpy before speaking.
“That was the last recording he made before his death a year or so later.”
“So… he was dying at the time?”
Arc nods. “Yeah. But that’s what made him such a cool guy. Even though things in his life were coming to an end, he still didn’t want to leave without saying goodbye.”
“He spoke with such a gentle and soothing voice that for a moment there I felt as if he were talking directly to me.”
“We all did when this aired. Adult and child alike.”
Derpy smiles sadly. “No one other than you ever made we feel this way, Arc. That I was loved just the way I am. That I didn’t have to try so hard to be someone that I’m not to appease those around me.”
“I believe you’re very special as-is, Derpy. And I’ll be happy with you… just the way you are.”
Derpy appears hopeful. “Can we watch some of his shows?”
“I don’t have any hard copies here at the house. But we could find some clips here on YouTube. Probably even a few full episodes if you’d like.”
“That sounds nice.”
“Any particular theme you’d like to hear?”
Derpy shakes her head. “Anything you’d like to play of his is fine with me, Arc.”
Arc nods as he types with his magic. “Alright, I’ll pick something out.”
Meanwhile, Brightwing flutters down from the access panel which she has just closed. Grinning, she turns and looks back at the machine with evident pride.
“All done! Now all Brightwing has to do is start it up, and…”
She stops talking and gasps.
“Oh no! Brightwing promised Crimson filly friend that she could watch! Have to get her first!”
Opening a portal, Brightwing reappears in her office in Canterlot Castle. Blinking out into the corridor she starts flying.
“Is late, but Brightwing still wants to finish this up tonight!”
As she flutters by the Dining Room, Brightwing stops as the latent smell of food lingers on the air. Turning back she grins and makes her way to the doors.
“Brightwing finish after a snack… or three!”
Sometime later Arc and Derpy finish their episode of ‘Mister Roger’s Neighborhood’. Looking down at her Arc smiles.
“Did you like it?”
Derpy nods happily. “Very much so! Did you watch him a lot when you were a kid?”
“As often as I could. My mom was actually the one whom told me about the show, after all.”
“Oh
Arc chuckles. “Yeah, she probably wanted me to have some kind of a father figure in my life, or something.”
“Well, he does have some very good advice.”
“Especially at the end of every episode.”
Derpy grins. “I like you just the way you are.”
“It’s such a simple concept. But one that so few get to hear from those close to them.”
“Why though?”
“Because they’re encouraged to be something better. Which in and of itself isn’t wrong per-se. However, people should first be allowed to be themselves.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Well… let’s say there’s a child who’s really good at their studies. Their parents might urge them to pursue a career in the medical field due to their high grades. However that might not be what their child is passionate about. So rather than trying to divert their child’s future career toward something that will make them a lot of money they should instead be trying to help their kid figure out what makes them happy.”
“You mean people here on Earth sometimes have jobs they don’t really like?”
“A lot do, yes. Probably back in Equestria too.”
Derpy gasps. “What?!”
“Does that surprise you?”
“It does actually! After all, everyone I’ve ever met in Ponyville seems really happy!”
“They may be smiling. But I’m sure someone there is unhappy with their life.”
“I… suppose that may be.”
She taps her chin thoughtfully before continuing.
“After all, without your help that might have been me.”
“Oh?”
“Think about it, Arc. You were the one whom told Miss Pommel that I’d be a good employee and that she should hire me. Without that she might not have done so.”
“Maybe.”
“I probably could have found something to do elsewhere. But I can’t see myself being as happy in any other job.”
“Like Mister Rogers himself.”
“Huh?”
“He always seemed so pleased with his role. As if there wasn’t anything better than sharing knowledge and experience with kids via his show.”
“Do you think he was encouraged to do what he liked?”
Arc shrugs. “No idea. It’s certainly possible, yes. However it could also be from lack of such a things.”
“I think he’s exactly what the foals back at the orphanage need.”
“Agreed. That and his advice is pretty much universal as far as species go.”
“Could we bring this show back to Equestria?”
“I don’t see why not. But I’ll have to order some DVDs of the show.”
Derpy points to the laptop. “Why not just bring that?”
“Because it wouldn’t get wi-fi.”
“Wi… what now?”
“Wireless internet. So like I said earlier, I’ll have to bring a couple televisions back to Equestria along with DVD players and the disks themselves.”
“Is that… expensive?”
Arc shrugs. “It’ll be more or less a one-time purchase. I always try to buy quality electronics so that they last a long time.”
Derpy giggles. “I can’t wait to watch this show with the foals back home!”
“How about another episode then? That is unless you want to go back to the Power Ranger marathon.”
“Thanks, but I’d rather hear more from Mister Rogers.”
Arc grins as he presses a button across the room with his magic. “So would I.”