A gray pegasus sat on the park bench on the outskirts of Ponyville, eyes trained on the heavens. The telltale streak of multicolor identified the pegasus she was looking for with her wandering eyes. The flash of color broke through several clouds, clearing the sky in record time. A rogue wisp of a thunderhead drifted away from its vanishing companions, gliding toward the ground close enough for the watching pegasus to touch. It vanished with a bolt of light as Dash sliced through it with stunning speed. Dash's audience of one fluttered her wings with a wishful thought, If only I could be like her. An eye skewed, turning off to the distance and the lone mare pulled it in with a conscious blink so she could watch.
She continued to watch Rainbow Dash as she finished clearing the sky and, with a quick look around to check her work, shot off towards her home in the sky. The mare on the ground shuffled to her hooves guiltily, knowing that she had a job to do, mail to deliver, but she couldn't help watching Rainbow Dash in awe when she saw her rise from a cloud with a yawn and began her work. She grabbed her mail bag in her teeth and slung it over her back, just behind her wings. The bag landed too hard to one side and slid off her hindquarters, spilling numerous letters and packages on the ground. With a sigh of contempt, she bent down and struggled to re-organize the letters so she didn't get them mixed up, again. Shuffling through the mail one by one, making sure none were misplaced, her eye rebelled again and slowly drifted to the side. From her awkward vision, she spotted the Ponyville librarian drawing near, a rather large tome held aloft in her magical grip. The unicorn stopped before the scattered mailpony and closed her book with a thud.
"405, 405, page 405, OK got it." She looked down at the gray pegasus amongst a pile of mail in a disarranged mess, "Oh hey Derpy, Drop the mail?"
Derpy nodded guiltily, eye drifting again.
"Here, let me help you." The letters drifted up, caught in a magenta glow and began to sort themselves in several different ways.
"How do you normally sort them? Do you want them alphabetized, or organized geographically?" She looked down at Derpy in earnest as the pegasus struggled to answer. She didn't organize them, Dr. Whooves did that for her. He was such a nice stallion, always so kind and eager to help her out. No, focus Derpy, she commanded herself.
"Ummm, I'm not sure." Twilight looked down at her understanding, shuffling the letters in a certain order as fast as Dash could clear the sky. Dozens of envelopes cycled through her gaze like a machine, the ones she wanted being picked out and deposited in Derpy's bag. The mailpony corrected her eye once again, trying not to show how hard it was to keep it in line while the purple pony filed and categorized the notes with a skill and efficiency the Derpy envied. She couldn't get much straight, most especially papers.
As the last one slid into place in her bag, Twilight picked up the bag in her magic and fastened it to Derpy's back, tightening the strap securely against her underbelly. "Thanks Miss Twilight. I gotta go do my rounds so bye-bye." Twilight said goodbye with a warm smile and picked up her book once again, searching for her lost page as Derpy hopped into the air with a thrust of her wings. One wing hit the air harder than the other, throwing her off balance. She fell with the grace of a bowling ball and hit the ground hard in a rain of mail. Twilight rushed over and helped her up.
"Oh my gosh, are you alright? Are you hurt?"
As a matter of fact, Derpy's wing hurt, but other than that she was fine, just had an empty mailbag yet again. But she hurt so much more inside. Why couldn't she fly like Dash? Why couldn't her day just go as planned just for once? Why did she have to mess everything up? Why, why, why? A tear escaped her rampant emotions and ran away down the side of her muzzle. She turned her head, trying to conceal the tear, but the librarian could pick out a misprint from across the room, she saw it clear as day.
"Hey, it's okay Derpy. Look, let's get your mail together and we can go deliver it together, how does that sound?"
The sullen pony looked into the honest eyes of the unicorn and more tears sprung up. She knew Twilight meant it. Hay, she was one of the Elements of Harmony, the best friend one could ever have. This was proven as Twilight pulled Derpy into a gentle hug, "It's okay, everypony has bad days once in a while."
"But Miss Twilight-"
"Just call me Twilight."
"Oh, OK. Umm, but I always have a bad day. I always mess up, not just once in a while. Why can't I have a normal day like everypony else?"
Twilight let go and sighed, "Derpy, everypony is different, but I am sure you have had good days before."
Derpy shook her head, more out of self-pity than actual truth. Muffins made her feel better. Yeah, muffins. She could use a muffin right now. A blueberry one, with cream cheese baked into the top. Her eye skewed dreamily, as she wondered about muffins before snapping back to reality. "Sorry. Not really Miss Twilight, I'm just a klutz."
Twilight shook her head and put a hoof on Derpy's shoulder, "You are not a klutz Derpy, we all drop things, we all make mistakes."
"Rainbow Dash doesn't. She is awesome."
Twilight chuckled to herself, "Even Dash has had bad days, trust me. She can actually be pretty clumsy sometimes."
This time it was Derpy's turn to laugh, "Rainbow Dash isn't clumsy, she's awesome! She clears the sky in ten seconds flat, she can fly so fast! She, she..." Derpy drifted off, thinking about all the amazing stunts she had seen Rainbow Dash do, acts of such speed and agility that her eyes couldn't keep track of the cyan pegasus. For hours on end she could watch Rainbow fly, more agile than any creature in Equestria, more awesomer than Celestia or Luna. She was...20% cooler!
Lost in her daydreams, she didn't see Twilight place the letters back in her bag, but came to when the thud of the numerous letters made her bags shift. Twilight bumped her with her forehead, a smile on her face, "Come on, we have a lot of mail to deliver and we gotta do it on hoof."
Derpy looked at her in surprise as she walked off towards town, "We?"
"Come on!" the librarian called. The mailpony, smiled and trotted to catch up to the unicorn, falling into step by her side, bags bumping against her flank as the two ponies walked into town.
The sun had begun to set by the time Twilight drew out the last letter from the depths of the bag at Derpy's hips.
"Rainbow Dash. Oh! I remember sending this letter a few days ago." She said cheerily, looking at the letter. "Well come on. Next stop, Rainbow's house!" Derpy smiled giddily, this meant she could talk to Dash again! She hadn't talked to her in a few weeks, and she was starting to feel lonely. She and Dash used to hang out all the time, but the cyan pegasus had a job to do and the clouds had been bad for the past month. Derpy didn't like rain much, she couldn't sit in the sunshine and eat a muffin if there were rain clouds. Ooh, muffins. I want a muffin right now, she thought absent minded.
"Hey Twilight, can we stop by Sugar Cube Corner and get a few muffins? I like muffins." Twilight grinned and slid the letter back into Derpy's bag.
"Of course we can, I'd like to see what Pinkie Pie is up to anyway."
Derpy's mouth stretched into an involuntary grin that rivaled a crescent moon in it's degree. She took the lead, stumbling over her own hoofsteps, but catching herself before she fell. "See Derpy? You don't always mess up." Twilight chimed. Derpy's smile widened even more, if that was possible.
The duo rounded the corner and spotted the sweet shop, as edible looking as actual food, but Derpy had tried some before and it wasn't food, much to her disappointment. Her mouth's disappointment as well, she was missing half a front tooth because of it. They entered through the chocolate-bar door and looked about at the hundreds of pastries and delectibles, their mouths watering at the sights and smells of baked goods.
After an inquiry, the pair discovered Pinkie was out getting a party set up, only the Cakes were there. That made Derpy happy, bittersweet as it was. The Cakes made better muffins than Pinkie. The eccentric pink earth pony preferred cupcakes over muffins for some weird reason. Cupcakes tasted dry to Derpy, and too sugary. She like the simple taste of muffins much better than the excited flavors of icing and sugar.
Her thought burped aloud, "Muffins!" she piped gaily. The Cakes looked at her and smiled warmly, producing a tray of blueberry muffins fresh from the oven, with cream cheese baked into the top, just like she liked them. She nodded violently, jittery and excited at the same time from anticipation as they placed the delicious treats into a take-out bag. She accepted the bag and nearly skipped out the door without paying, but she remembered at the last moment and tossed a few shiny coins from her bag onto the counter. The Cakes looked at her in surprise, "Why Derpy, you remembered this time! We are proud of you."
"Ymm mmhrm-cmm." She mumbled around the bag in her mouth happily. She trotted happily out the door with Twilight behind her. They sat together on a bench outside the shop, as Derpy opened the bag and gave a muffin to the unicorn beside her. She pulled out her own and held it in her hooves softly, taking in and relishing its warm, buttery feel and smell. Her nose perked and filled with the wonderful aroma, its owner lost in her ecstasy.
She took a careful bite and flavor exploded in her mouth. The pegasus moaned in pleasure at how wonderful it tasted, too beautiful for words to even attempt to describe its warm flavor. The crumbs practically melted in her mouth, spreading their gifts of taste over her tongue like jam on toast, sharing its joyous bliss with every nerve in her body.
She finished the muffin and started on her second, re experiencing the wonderful sensations that flooded her brain and made her soul hum in pleasure. Twilight giggled, watching the pegasus beside her was indescribable, even with her enormous arsenal of words and descriptions, nothing quite fit. Pure joy was the only thing that came close. She ate hers and, though it was really good, she didn't get the same intense pleasure that Derpy did from the small pastry. In a way she envied her bliss, completely ignorant of anything but that which she held in her hooves, much like the feeling of a good book in the unicorn's grip.
They quietly ate together, not wanting to ruin the moment with uncalled for words, until the bag sat empty between the two ponies. "Hmmmm." sighed Derpy as she sagged in her seat, wishing she had another to bite into. Twilight smiled and stood up from the bench, "We had better get going if we are to make it to Dash's place."
Derpy groaned and stood reluctantly, stomach sloshing about with its new inhabitants. She fluttered her wings as a shiver ran up her spine at the memory of the first muffin as it hit her mouth. She threw away the bag and trotted happily beside Twilight as they headed for Dash's house, very much looking like Pinkie Pie herself in the way she skipped joyously beside her friend.
The door to the cloud-mansion didn't have a doorbell, as Derpy knew. "Mail call!" she whinnied at the door with as loud a voice as she could muster. After a few seconds, the door opened to reveal the rainbow maned pegasus who eyed her visitors happily.
"Hey girls! Watcha up to?"
Twilight spoke up, pulling the letter out of Derpy's bag and holding it out to Dash. "I was helping with the mail today and this is a letter I sent a few days ago. It's about that thing at the place."
Derpy looked at her in confusion, eye turning off to the side. She ignored the rogue. "What thing?"
Dash didn't respond to the pegasus, instead, she invited the two visitors inside. They entered a large living room and Dash told them to get comfortable. She offered them something to eat, more out of tactic than courtesy concerning Derpy. Twilight refused the offer, but the muffin-loving pegasus took the bait, "Muffins?"
Rainbow smiled knowingly, pleased that she had distracted her thoughts away from the contents of the letter. "Sorry girl, I don't have any of those. But tomorrow we can go and get some together. How does that sound?" Derpy gave a foalish cry of joy and sat down on a couch made of clouds, reminiscing about muffins and all the things she and Dash could do on the morrow.
Twilight said something about spells running out of time, but Derpy didn't pay any attention, lost in her musings. When the door closed behind the unicorn, Derpy sat up quickly and asked where she went.
"Don't worry, her spell was just beginning to wear off so she had to go. Umm, I really don't know how to say this, but I gotta get some work done so can you go?"
Derpy, thinking about something else, only heard the last part. Her ears drooped and her head sagged glumly, believing that Dash didn't want her around. The pegasus picked her head up in her hoof, "I don't wanna be mean I'm just really busy this afternoon. You understand right?"
Derpy nodded sadly, "Still gonna hang out tomorrow?" she said hopefully.
"I promise, 'kay?"
Derpy smiled, relieved that Rainbow Dash still wanted to be with her. "Okay!" She hopped up from the couch and left the mansion joyously, flying for home.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Derpy woke suddenly, driven from her dreams about muffins and other awesome things (specifically a certain rainbow-maned pegasus) by a deep gurgle from her gut. She rubbed her eyes sleepily and slid out of bed with a groan. She opened her completely stayed eyes and shuffled her wings, stretching the sore muscles, relaxing them from her mishap yesterday. Pulling her mischievous eyes back into focus, the gray pegasus walked clumsily to the kitchen, her complaining stomach bellowing its complaints at her constantly. A quick search of the fridge showed little to sate her ravenous appetite, only bearing an old apple and some milk. She took the jug of milk and attempted to open it. Her sleepy hooves managed to pull the top off, but they failed to maintain their grip on the plastic gallon. She could only watch it tumble to the floor, spilling its contents all over the floor in a tide of cream. She groaned in the back of her mind and set about cleaning up her mess, here she had only been awake a few minutes and already her day had gone wrong at every turn.
The milk was quickly mopped up, only a few drops being salvageable. Derpy looked the only remaining edible thing in her kitchen, considering eating the sunken apple just to hold off until she could get to a restaurant, but after spotting a particularly nasty spot of blight in the fruit, she tossed it in the trash bin morosely. If only she could have a muffin, her whole day would get better.
She remembered Dash had said that they could go for muffins later and she perked up instantly. She left the house, new hope for the day blossoming in her chest, and headed for the cyan ponies house in the sky.
Derpy stood before the door to the cloud mansion and rapped her hoof against it. She waited for a few minutes with no answer, and knocked again. Still no answer. She began to worry, her day starting to go sour again, when the door lazily swung open, a barely conscious Rainbow Dash at the door. "Sorry Derpy, rough night last night, kinda hard to get out of bed. Come on in."
The visitor trotted in happily, glad that Dash hadn't forgotten her, and placed her rump firmly on a couch. "If you wait for a few minutes, I will be right out. I just need to take a shower and get ready 'kay? Help yourself to the kitchen if you get hungry." Derpy smiled and took her up on her offer as the pony ducking into the bathroom.
Dash kept a much better store of food that Derpy did. Towers and piles of food filled the massive fridge to absolute capacity, enough food was there to tide down even Pinkie Pie. Derpy soon found herself laying on the couch, empty food containers and chip bags laying all over the cushions around her. She let out a satisfied burp and sank into the soft cushions against her, nearly falling back to sleep when Rainbow Dash came around the corner, drying her mane with a towel. She laughed at the sight of food crumbs and trash all over the dozing pegasus and began cleaning up around her friend. Derpy hopped up and helped dispose of the detritus scattered all abut the living room.
Holding a precarious pile of Tupperware, she entered the kitchen to bring them to the sink, when she tripped over the door stop. She lost her balance and found herself on the floor, covered in food scraps and plastic containers. She ashamedly got off the floor and cleaned up her second clumsy mess for that day. "Mare, my life stinks." she mumbled to herself sadly. Derpy brooded over her maladroitness until Rainbow came in, a pile of plates and dishes gracefully held aloft by her hoof. Seeing Derpy cleaning up the floor, she deposited her pile of porcelain in the sink and bent down to help clean up.
"You okay?" she asked, seeing the gray's sour expression. The sullen pegasus sat on the tiled floor and put her head in her hooves, "I tripped over the door thingy and dropped all the stuff I was carrying. I dunno Dash, why am I so clumsy? I just can't do anything right." Her eye turned awry as if to emphasize her lamentations. Dash scooted closer and put a hoof over the gloomy ponies shoulders.
"You can too do something right. You and Dr. Whooves got something goin' good right?"
"Huh?"
"Ain't you and the Doc going out? Ya' know, that cute stallion that sorts your mail for you?"
"Umm, I didn't know we had a-a thing."
"You don't? Oops, got a little ahead of myself there. Well anyway, you do get things right Derpy, even if you don't see it. At least the stuff you dropped wasn't fragile or anything, it was all plastic. And you cleaned it up pretty good, so you did that right."
Derpy sighed, halfheartedly smiling to herself. "You gotta keep a positive attitude girl. Hey I got something for you."
The gray looked at her, curious, as she stood and walked from the kitchen. She got up and finished her cleaning. When the last plate was in the washer, not broken or anything, she closed it and turned it on as Dash came back through the door. In her teeth was a ticket of sorts, which she gave the Derpy with a grin. "That's a ticket to the show later today."
Derpy had no idea what she was talking about, "What show?"
The cyan pegasus laughed heartily. "You will see. Just head for the stadium about nine or so tonight. See you there?"
"Yeah sure. What's it about though?"
Dash smiled knowingly, "You will see. Just trust me 'kay?"
"Okay, I trust you." Derpy said with a subconscious grin.
Dash turned and led her from the kitchen, settling down in the living room. She turned on the huge flat screen TV on her wall and flipped through the channels. Finding a good movie, she set the remote down as her guest sat back onto the couch. Derpy tried to watch the movie, but her mind wandered on other things. What was the show about? Why had Dash gotten her a ticket to go? She wanted a muffin, but her stomach felt like a sack of groceries, bulging uncomfortably in her torso. Though she desperately wanted one, her stomach churned at the thought of pushing more food into her already stuffed belly.
She sighed, only half content and her thoughts continued to turn to the show that the ticket granted access to later. She looked at the clock, only about noon, and resigned herself to the movie, trying to make the time move faster. The movie dragged on, not really catching her interest and driving her muddled mind crazy. Finally unable to bear it anymore when the characters stopped at, of all things, a muffin shop, she asked Rainbow Dash if they could go and do something active.
Her hostess giggled and turned off the TV, rising from her chair. "C'mon, lets go get some real muffins, I'm getting hungry too." The duo of pegasi exited the mansion and flew for the center of town.
Several muffins later, Dash ogled the clock tower and making excuses and apologies about having to be somewhere, sped off into the air with a single powerful flap of her wings. Derpy immediately felt very alone without the presence of her friend, and didn't have the heart to finish the single remaining pastry in the bag. She gripped the paper in her teeth and wandered around town glumly until she found herself before the library. Thinking back on Twilight's kindness the day before, she wanted the same feeling of acceptance again. Entering the door, she heard a "Be right down!" come from the stairs above. Twilight came down the steps a moment later pulling a brush carefully through her already straight mane. When she caught sight of her visitor with the paper sack in her mouth, she giggled and put the brush aside, pulling the gray mare into a warm hug.
Derpy gave her the muffin and explained that she wanted to hang out for a bit before going to the show. Twilight accepted happily and asked if she wanted to read anything, "What kind of books do you like?" she asked, turning and scanning the shelves with a practiced eye. Derpy didn't read much, her uncooperative eyes making reading as hard as possible for her. As she explained to the librarian, a little purple dragon descended the step to the floor above.
"Hey, what's for breakfast Twi- oh. Hi I'm Spike. Derpy shook his extended paw, bringing a smile to the dragon's face.
"Hi, I'm Derpy."
Spike's face lit up in a revelatory expression, "So you're the pony we-"
"Spike don't you have chores to do?" Twilight cut in quickly.
Spike gave her a strange look, "Not really, I did them yesterday Twilight, you helped me out."
"Oh really?" the purple unicorn said through a strained, obviously fake smile. "Well you can't be too careful, why don't you go check on Owlowiscious, make sure he has plenty of food, change his litterbox-"
"Twilight, he hunts his food and doesn't have a litter box."
Twilight's eye twitched, "Then can you sort the books in the back room for me?"
"But we did that yesterday."
The unicorn's horn glowed softly and they heard a crash in the next room, followed by numerous loud banging noises. "Please Spike?"
Spike left with a huff and a peeved expression, banging the door behind him. Twilight turned back to Derpy, "Sorry about that. Now, you were saying?"
"I really don't do much reading Miss Twilight. I'm not very good at it."
Biting into the muffin, Twilight eyed the numerous books along the shelves thoughtfully. She mumbled to herself about "easy reading" and selected a rather thin tome from the shelf. "Well the best way to get better is by starting off easy. Why don't we try a book that's not quite so big?" She placed the book in front of the pegasus on the floor and pulled up two beanbag chairs. Sinking down into the blob, Derpy picked up the book in her hooves, not quite comfortable with the pages she held. Twilight sat down next to her and opened it to the first page, beckoning for the gray pony to try. She did try, but as she had predicted, her scandalous eyes made every word a challenge to even focus on, jumping all over the place like bouncy balls. Seeing that reading was not at all as fun for her guest as it was for her, Twilight took the book and placed it back on its shelf, apologizing to the pegasus. Derpy forgave her, knowing that it wasn't her fault. "I might as well get going. I gotta go meet Rainbow Dash at some show. She got me a ticket as a present this morning, but she wouldn't tell me what it was about."
Twilight plastered a grin on her face quickly, trying to hide something, but she was so bad even Derpy saw how she was struggling to hide something. She said goodbye and left the guilty-looking unicorn in her library.
Derpy arrived at the stadium, but looking at it, there was nopony there except a large earth pony standing guard at the entrance. A large clock hung on the wall behind him, reading ten after nine so she knew she wasn't early. The almost abandoned entrance seemed foreboding without anypony around except the very serious looking bouncer. The nervous mare slowly walked up to the guard who eyed her suspiciously. She produced her ticket and held it out to him. He took the ticket and pulled a string hanging next to him. Derpy heard a bell tinkle in the distance as he allowed her to pass by.
She walked into the empty stadium, pitch-black shadows keeping the entire building in almost total darkness. She began to get a bit scared, but also felt so betrayed. Was this some joke? How could Dash be so mean to her? Just because she was different? She felt so miserable for just a second, and just as the first tear began to fall, a bright light suddenly exploded with a shout of "SURPRISE!!" from several ponies. She blinked away the spots before her eyes and saw a crowd of her friends all smiling at her.
Pinkie Pie exploded into her vision from nowhere, "Surprise party!! YouwerelookingreallysadthepastfewdayssoRainbowDashhadtheideatothrowyouasurprisepartytomakeyoufeelhappy'causethatswhatfriendsdoandweareALLLLLLLLLLLyourfriends!!!"
"Huh?" Spluttered the bewildered pegasus. Dash, Twilight, and Spike walked up next to Pinkie Pie, all of them smiling from ear to ear. "You have been pretty glum the past few days, so we just thought we could throw you a party to cheer you up." Rainbow Dash explained.
"Oh, for a second I thought you had tricked me to be mean or something 'cause I'm different."
Rainbow Dash shook her head and walked up to Derpy and pulled her into a tight embrace. "No Derpy. We are your friends and we don't care if you are different. We love you just the same no matter how you might be. We will always be there for you. Be you Derpy, don't be anypony else. You are awesome just the way you are."
A tear broke from the gray pegasus' awkward eye, not a sad tear, but one of joy and happiness. Pinkie Pie came up to her and wiped the tear away. "Hey! Nopony cries at my party! So let's part everypony!" The pink earth pony vanished and reappeared behind a DJ setup next to a pearly white unicorn in dark shades and pressed a button. The stadium exploded in booming base, vibrating its very foundations as all of Derpy's friends started dancing to the driving beat.
Derpy looked at her best friend, a certain rainbow-maned mare, and smiled her widest smile ever. Dash laughed and yelled over the throbbing music, "And you know the best part?"
The gray mare shook her head no and Dash led her through the crowd to a refreshment table piled high with all kinds of snack and delicacies including, most especially including... "Muffins!"