It had been three days since Octavia moved into Ponyville and she was already adjusting to it. Except maybe her new home, from which she swore a beast was munching on glass from underneath the carpeted stairs, and that an alien was banging on the glass windows. But other than her haunted house, she was doing just fine, especially with the fact that today was Saturday, the perfect day to do just about anything a pony could want. And Octavia was grocery shopping in the market, which wasn't the best way to spend a Saturday. But she had to, since Derpy emptied her fridge. How could that mare eat so much?
"Twelve bits for a carrot!?" Octavia exclaimed as she stared at the painted sign in front of her.
"Take it or leave it, ma'am," The yellow earth pony was leaning on the counter, twirling her orange mane around with her hooves. "These carrots aren't exactly easy to grow. Special seeds from Manehatten are where they're from, and they're pretty costly."
After scanning the market for any other carrot stands, Octavia gave a sigh when she realized that there was none. She tossed the needed bits on the counter top with soft clanks, as the mare in front of her handed her a carrot.
The mare waved a hoof as if she was leaving on a voyage. "Come again!"
With a huff, Octavia walked off to the stand that sold celery sticks. As she did, she didn't expect for a pony to run into her and knock her down to the stone-covered ground. Ready to give a lecture, she stopped herself when she realized that it was a certain pegasus.
"Hiya, Tavi!" Derpy waved her hooves, ignoring the fact that she had just crashed into somepony. Octavia rolled her eyes at the nickname, but she'd let it slide this time.
"Ditzy, will you please get up?" Octavia, tried to prevent herself from gritting her teeth.
"Sure!" Derpy flapped her wings and flew up, looking down at Octavia with a wide, toothy smile on her face.
"Why are you smiling like that?" The smile was creeping Octavia out, causing her to back away slightly.
Instead of answering, Derpy grabbed Octavia's hooves and lifted her up. Octavia couldn't help but scream for the duration of flying, which was exactly two minutes and ten seconds before Derpy landed them on the ground.
"Gee, Tavi, you sure do scream loudly," Derpy unfurled her wings and flapped up eight feet above Octavia. "But you can still follow me."
Nodding, Octavia followed Derpy to a willow tree with a small hole-- that was only wide enough to fit a baby dragon-- in its dark brown trunk. Hoping that Derpy wasn't thinking off crawling into a hole that could barely fit them, Derpy did the exact opposite. Somehow, the Pegasus managed to fit once she folded her wings tightly against her sides. After giving a sigh, Octavia followed her. Thank Celestia she didn't get stuck, that would mean that she wasn't fat! Deciding that there were more important matters, she continued to follow her friend. She did so by listening to shifting dirt, clenching her eyes as she did; she didn't want to see the eyes again. After what seemed like forever, Octavia could feel the warmth of the sun, shining down on her. On instinct, she opened her eyes to see that she and Derpy were outside in an area enclosed by towering trees, whose leafy branches blocked most of the sunlight from touching the ground. Scanning the area, one could see weathered boxes with crayon scribblings on them, scattered all over the place. There was also a tree house which looked like it was recently used, which Derpy frowned at.
"That's weird," Derpy tapped a hoof on her chin. "Nopony was here for six years. Or at least, there shouldn't be."
"Ditzy, what or where, is this place exactly?"
"Oh! This place is the place where Time Turner and I used to play!"
"Who is this 'Time Turner', of whom you speak of?"
"Well. . ." Derpy spoke of the time she had with Time Turner, a colt who was her foalhood friend. They both would use to run through Ponyville, screaming that the Daleks (or some other creature) were coming. Of course it wasn't true, but the townsponies would shriek and hide when the duo did that, only to scold and glare at the two foals when they realized that there was no attack on Ponyville.
"But it's not our fault!" Derpy concluded. "They were the ones who thought that there was an attack!"
"I wouldn't blame them, Ditzy. After all, I wouldn't want to risk getting attacked by...Daleks." Octavia cocked her head. "What is a Dalek, exactly?"
But instead of answering, Derpy's attention was on something or somepony behind Octavia. Following Derpy's gaze, Octavia turned around to see a familiar-looking stallion, standing behind her with a shocked look that had been sent at Derpy. That shocked look only lasted for a split-second, however, when the stallion took on a smile.
"Hello there." The stallion gave a wave. "Who are you two mares?"
Glancing back at Derpy, Octavia could see that her friend was trying hard not to frown.
"I-I'm Derpy Hooves." Derpy held out a hoof. She seemed to have a wistful glance as she did.
The stallion shook the hoof and turned to look at Octavia. "And who might you be?"
"Octavia Stanzas." Said mare stared at the stallion until she remembered where she saw him. He was the one who had been used as a cushion when Octavia had been dropped! It would be wise not to mention that, thought Octavia.
"Nice to meet you lovely mares, but I must hurry on!" The stallion dashed past the mares and dived into the hole.
There was a silence in the air, which Octavia shattered.
"Aren't you going to chase after him? The fellow did invade a private property," she said.
Derpy shook her head. "That fellow had a right to come here. After all, he was the one who had the idea to build this secret place."
"You don't mean . . ."
"Yes, that stallion is Time Turner."
Octavia wasn't shocked by this news, but she was. Something wasn't right, and it was that the stallion didn't recognize Derpy. From what she heard from Derpy, the both were the best of friends. How could a best friend forget their best friend's name? It's impossible! Then again, it could be that it was just the work of time. Pacing around to try to find answers to this, she continued thinking of possible answers, but she stopped when her thoughts were starting to be ridiculous. Time Turner couldn't be a time traveler now, could he? Glancing at her friend, she saw that Derpy was staring at her with a raised eyebrow.
"Are you okay, Tavi?" Derpy stared with a raised eyebrow.
"I'm fine, Ditzy," replied Octavia. Octavia looked at the hole, then at Derpy. "Let's head back, shall we?"
After returning to Ponyville, Derpy invited Octavia over to her house for muffins, which she accepted. After all, this was a chance to find out more about Derpy's past, not that she would force the information out of her. After Derpy got the muffins from the oven and the two took a seat at the wooden table, both of them grabbed a muffin (a blueberry for Derpy and a carrot for Octavia). The two mares ate in silence.
Shouldn't be too long now, thought Octavia. As if on cue, Derpy gulped down the last of her muffin and looked up at Octavia.
"Tavi, you wouldn't mind hearing stories, do ya?"
Octavia shook her head in reply.
"Well, then. I met Time Turner when I found him in the Everfree Forest, covered in Poison Jokes--but I didn't know they were Poison Jokes before. I was only seven. Anyways, he didn't seem to know his name for a moment, and he thought that he was some other species when he woke up, so I thought he was crazy. But then he said that his name was 'Time Turner', so I didn't think that he had amnesia anymore. I asked Time Turner why he was in the Everfree Forest, which is the most scariest place in Equestria! He sai-"
"If it's the most 'scariest place in Equestria', why did you go in there?" Octavia hated interrupting, as it wasn't very polite. But she needed to understand this story.
Derpy rubbed the back of her head. "Well, I had to get the ball that I accidentally kicked over there. . ."
Avoiding the urge to roll her eyes, Octavia motioned Derpy to continue.
"Anyways, Time Turner said that he got lost and separated from his parents. He was sad for a moment, but then he asked me the year. I told him the year, and he was shocked for some reason. I wonder if he even kept a calender. . . anyways, I tried to help him find his parents, but he insisted that they were in the forest. So instead, I gave him a tour of Ponyville. I don't know why, but he seemed impressed with everything.
"After the tour, Time Turner returned to Everfree Forest, but he always visited Ponyville everyday. We became friends, and he didn't care that I was a klutz or that my eyes are weird, like some ponies did. Eventually, we would pretend that we were time travelers, with me being his assistant. Sometimes we would pretend to get chased and stuff.
"When we were eleven, Time Turner disappeared for two years and came back. I was really happy that he came back, but he didn't seem happy to see me. Instead, he held out a hoof to me and asked my name. I thought that he was just being Time Turner, so I played along. But when I asked if he wanted to go to our secret place, he didn't know what I meant. I quizzed him on the stuff that we did before, but he only looked confused."
"He forgot me, Tavi. He forgot that we were friends."
When Derpy said that last sentence, it didn't sound like Derpy speaking. The voice that she spoke in was quiet, as if she would cause an avalanche if she spoke a decibel louder. It was very different from the loud voice that she'd usually speak in.
Octavia didn't know what to do. She stayed silent as Derpy grabbed a random muffin from the pan and bit down on it. She looked away and pondered to herself; her friend needed cheering up, but what could she do? She hadn't known Derpy long enough to know everything that made her happy (she did know that muffins could do the trick, but they weren't working now), but she had to try. As she thought long and hard, an idea popped into her head.
She walked over to her friend and whispered something into Derpy's ear. Listening with interest, Derpy nodded and swallowed her muffin whole.
"Well what are we waiting for, Tavi? Allons-y!" The pegasus zoomed out of the house, leaving loose papers to swirl around in the air.
Octavia crossed her forelegs. "Maybe I should've told her that we're doing it later."
The birds chirped their songs as they fluttered above the white, fluffy clouds, but they had been disturbed by a desperate scream and the sound of beating wings.
Octavia tightened her grip around Derpy's neck. "DITZY! Slow down!"
Derpy tried hard not to wheeze. "Tavi! You're choking me!" She started to fly in a wide zigzag pattern, which threatened to run over anything that was in her way.
Octavia decided that it wouldn't do to have a repeat of any accidents that Derpy had mentioned, so she slightly loosened her grip; not too loose that Octavia would fall off, but tight enough so that she wouldn't have a repeat of her first meeting with Derpy. At the thought of the first meeting, she immediately stared up at the sky, not caring that the sun could blind her. She swore to never look down at the landscape until she was certain that Derpy had safely landed them on the ground.
Derpy flew in a straight pattern again, only zigzagging if she needed to. After raising her right-wing and swerving away from the Town Hall, she spread out her wings and descended in a slow glide. Her hooves landed on the ground with a clop, albeit wobbly. Folding her wings against her body, she tapped her passenger on the hoof.
Leaping off her friend, Octavia landed on the stone-covered ground. She rubbed her eyes to make sure that she wasn't hallucinating, before looking up at Derpy. "So what do we need for the party?"
Derpy took out a folded piece of paper from the orange saddlebag that she was wearing and unfolded it, revealing that it was longer than it looked. "We're gonna have to get the guests now, since we already got the food and stuff."
Octavia blinked and stared at her friend as if she just admitted that she was Discord. "Pardon me?"
"I said we have to get the guests now."
Octavia waved a hoof. "I heard you, Ditzy. But I thought this was just going to be a private party, which was why you didn't tell Pinkie about it."
"It is. But what's a party without a few guests?"
"... That's a good point, I suppose. So who's on the list?" When she received no reply, she looked to read the list that Derpy was holding, which would've worked if Derpy was there when she did so. "Ditzy?"
"Watch out!"
In the nick of time, Octavia turned around to see a grey blur tumbling towards her. She quickly crouched down, preventing a painful collision and a trip to the hospital. When she pushed herself back up she observed the blur, which she now realized was beating its wings to try to stop itself. The moment she saw the wings, she immediately realized who the blur was.
"Ditzy!" She ran after her friend, dodging any obstacles that seemed to be in conspiracy to slow her down. Minutes later she was only a few hoofsteps away from stopping Ditzy, but cruel fate decided to place a cart in front of her. Trying to stop, she dug her hooves into the ground. The stone tiles weren't giving her good friction, which led her to slide into the wooden cart, scattering apples everywhere.
A light yellow filly climbed out of the wagon and stared at the damaged cart. "Applejack sure wouldn't be happy 'bout this."
The red stallion who was pulling the cart, frowned. "Eenope."
Ditzy gently rubbed the bump that she'd received after crash-landing. Then she looked up to see the dangling end of the rope from its long coil that had been wedged between two wooden poles. She sighed; this was the sixteenth time she'd landed in the well, though she should be grateful that this particular well was empty at the moment. Standing up, she unfurled her wings and flew upwards, hanging on the well's ledge and pulling herself up when she was near it. She smiled when she heard two familiar ponies giving a yelp.
Bon Bon widened her eyes. "Good Celestia, Derpy! You scared me!"
Lyra quickly recovered from shock and raised an eyebrow. "What the hay were you doing in there, Derpy?"
"I was looking at the painting that Ponet was doing, but Rainbow Dash accidentally flew into me. But, that’s not why I’m here." Derpy dug into one of her saddlebags and pulled out two envelopes, handing them to the two mares. "Here!" She watched as they opened them up and read the letters, eyes scanning every single word. “These, are.”
Lyra looked up at Derpy with a grin. "Of course I'll come to your party! But should I bring a gift?"
Derpy placed a hoof under her chin. "I don't know how Time Turner would feel about getting gifts from ponies he doesn't really know. But if you want to, I guess that's okay."
Bon Bon cocked her head, frowning as she did. "But if Time Turner doesn't know us and we don't know him, why are you inviting us to the party you're throwing for him?"
Derpy stared at Bon Bon as if she were crazy. "Because the more the merrier!"
Bon Bon was about to open her mouth, but Derpy had already disappeared.
Humming a tune, Derpy skipped to the front of a small, beige building with tightly weaved hay for a roof. She lifted a hoof and knocked it against the cyan door. When it didn't open, she knocked on it repeatedly until she could no longer hear the hollow sounds that she was making, but loud yelps instead. She looked down to see somepony standing in the open doorway.
Vinyl rubbed her sore muzzle."Gee, Derpy," she said in her raspy voice. "What the hay did you do that for?!"
"Sorry!" Derpy dug up another envelope and gave it to Vinyl, smiling widely. She continued humming a different tune while Vinyl read the letter. She needed a DJ at the party, and who was better to invite than the pony who was the master of turn-tabling itself? Hopefully, Vinyl could make it; she could be a busy pony, considering that she's usually the music provider in big events.
But Derpy had no need to worry, for Vinyl was nodding, her bright blue hair bouncing as she did. "I'll be there!"
Derpy wiped an imaginary sweat drop from her forehead. "Thanks, DJ-P0N3." She was about to say more, but she remembered something important.
Frantically flapping her wings, she darted up into the sky and looked down at Ponyville. Spotting a grey figure, she dived downwards, her wings folded against her sides as she spread her front hooves outwards as if she were attempting a Sonic Rainboom. Around the end of her flight, she unfurled her wings and was about to flap them, only to realize that she was too late; she was closer to the ground than she thought. In an attempt to lessen the damage that she would likely cause to herself, she positioned her wings to glide upwards. She lifted her head to prevent smashing it against an oncoming tree trunk. With a THUNK! she landed against the trunk, sliding onto the ground afterwards. She shakily tried to push herself up with her hooves, only to collapse afterwards. After a few failed attempts in getting up, the pounding in her head forced her into total darkness.
Watching a friend painfully crash into a tree trunk, after getting chased by the owners of the cart she accidentally broke, was not part of Octavia's list of Favorite Things to Do. Shaking her head out of shock, she trotted over to her friend and was about to shake her awake when somepony yelled at her.
"Don't touch her!"
Turning around, Octavia saw Lyra, Bon Bon, and Time Turner running towards Derpy.
Bon Bon skidded to a halt before Derpy, crouching down and pressing her ear against Derpy's chest for a heartbeat. Hearing the normal thumps of Derpy's heart, she sighed in relief. She stood up and glared at Octavia, looking as if she were ready to buck her. "What the hay did you do to her?"
Time Turner placed a hoof before Bon Bon, acting like a shield for Octavia. "Now Bon Bon, let's not jump to conclusions here. After all, Miss Stanzas here could just be a witness who didn't know what to do." He turned to face Octavia. "No offense, of course."
Octavia waved a hoof at the statement. "Don’t worry, Time Turner. But please call me Octavia, if that's all right with you."
Lyra shoved down Time Turner's hoof to the ground, facing said stallion with a furrow on her forehead. "Derpy could be dying for all we know! But you're a doctor, you know what to do."
Time Turner rolled his light blue eyes. "Good grief! Why does everypony think that I'm a doctor? Just because my foalhood name is Doctor Whooves, that doesn't mean I'm one!"
Lyra backed away. "Sorry! I was just hoping that a random pony that I grabbed along with me is a doctor when I saw Derpy crash."
Time Turner looked over at Derpy and smiled. "I may not be a doctor but I know that she's still alive, thanks to Bon Bon."
Lyra stared at the ground, probably realizing that she looked quite foolish. "Well, what should we do, Time Turner?"
Time Turner rubbed the back of his head with a hoof. "To be honest, I really don't know."
"Really don't know what, Doctor?"
"Well, I don't-" Time Turner stopped his sentence, and turned his head to the side to see a face sporting sunglasses with opaque, purple lenses (but why the pony needed to wear glasses that she probably couldn't see through, was a mystery).
Time Turner's eyes looked away from her, his eyelids closing halfway. "Oh. It's just you, DJ-P0N3."
DJ-P0N3 waved a hoof, although Octavia couldn't help but notice that the wave was stiff. "Good to see you too, Doctor." She showed off a grin, although Octavia couldn't really call it that, for DJ-P0N3's mouth was twitching downwards. "I see that your nickname's failing you."
Time Turner turned his head away from the unicorn. "If you have no business here, please leave."
DJ-P0N3 huffed. "What kind of pony do you think I am, Doc? I'm not letting Derpy lay around; she's my friend. She's also your friend, or is she? After all, what kind of friend forgets a friend? Especially, best friends?"
Time Turner turned his entire body towards Vinyl Scratch, his ears flattening. "I never knew Derpy until yesterday, DJ-P0N3. Now, please leave if you have no business here."
Before DJ-P0N3 could open her mouth, Bon Bon stuck herself in between the two ponies, spreading out her forelegs towards them. "Will you two quit it?! Save your arguing for later!" She turned towards DJ-P0N3 and pointed a hoof towards her. "And you, Vinyl Scratch. Do you have any suggestions that could help Derpy out?"
DJ-P0N3 placed a hoof under her chin. "You could always go to the hospital-" Octavia facehoofed herself for not thinking that earlier "-or we could try doing that 'Clear!' thing that those doctors do, even though I don't have a machine for that." DJ-P0N3 raised a hoof towards the air. "Or we could-"
Time Turner rolled his eyes. "No, DJ-P0N3, we're not going to use your turntables and your headphones in replacement of the proper machine." He stared back at Derpy's unconscious body with a frown. "I don't think Derpy even needs that."
The two continued to argue, with DJ-P0N3 defending her nonsensical and downright-dangerous suggestions, and with Time Turner shooting each and every idea down. There was also Lyra, who apparently thought that telling a ridiculous story to Bon Bon the 'self-appointed peace maker', was a good idea.
Although she didn't really know about Bon Bon, Octavia hoped that the mare still kept her sanity... on second thought, she hoped that the mare always kept her sanity. But judging from how Bon Bon thought of Lyra, she seemed to be doing pretty well. But before Octavia could do anything else, she felt a jab at her side. Thinking that it was the little filly and the stallion from earlier, she ducked behind the tree.
"Hey, Tavi." Octavia heard a voice beside her. Without turning to look, she attempted to gallop away, only for the speaker to bite down on her tail. With a small yelp, she turned around to see Derpy, with no traces of wobbling or being recently unconscious.
"You're alright!" Octavia gave a quick hug to Derpy, who returned it.
Derpy grinned. "Of course I'm alive! It would be somewhat a taboo to show a character dying in a kids' show."
Octavia blinked at the latter statement, but decided that it was just temporary confusion. "Why are you whispering?"
"The others are too busy, and I don't want to interrupt them."
"But they're worried about you! Shouldn't you tell them? They are your friends, after all."
Derpy sighed. "But I still don't wanna be a bother." She looked up at the sky, and Octavia swore that she could hear her whisper in an almost-silent level. "I'm already a bother to everypony else, anyways."
Before Octavia could ask her about the statement, she noticed that Derpy was staring at her with a cocked head, as if the little statement never happened. Maybe the little statement never did happen and Octavia was just imagining things. Yes, that was it. She shook the strange statement out of her head and stared at her hooves, wondering what to say next.
Octavia raised a hoof, as if a light bulb turned on. "Say, Ditzy. Are you still going to throw the party?"
Derpy stared back at the ponies, who still hadn't noticed them. "At the rate those ponies are going at, I don't know."
"Then go ahead and stop them, before DJ-P0N3 actually tries one of her crazy ideas! I mean, she even suggested electrically shocking you!"
"No offense, but how's that suppose to affect me?"
Octavia facehoofed. "Electricity, my dear Ditzy."
After Derpy tried to explain why she couldn't be affected by electricity, Octavia decided that it was better not to question Derpy about her immunity to electricity. Instead, she agreed with Derpy to sneak away from the scene that the other ponies had caused (it would help out with her plan), to the Pegasus' house. When they arrived, they sat around the dining table and chatted. After they'd finished talking about mushrooms (how they started chatting about that, Octavia would never know), Octavia decided that this would be the proper time to bring up her idea.
"Ditzy, do you think your friends are still coming to your party today?"
Derpy shrugged. "I think Bon Bon would remember, though."
"Tell them not to come."
Derpy slammed her hooves against the table, her wings unfurling. "WHAT!?"
Octavia motioned Derpy to sit down. "Tell them that it's rescheduled to tomorrow at the place where you and Time Turner used to play."
"But it's a secret place!"
"Don't worry, Ditzy. This is just a suggestion; for you to accept or not to accept, is your choice. But, it makes much more sense to throw a party in a place that's significant to the both of you, rather than your house. No offense intended to your house."
Derpy waved a hoof at the 'offensive' statement. "You do have a point there." She placed both of her hooves under her chin. "But we're gonna hafta make this party next week."
"Deal." Octavia looked outside the kitchen window; the sun's rays were disappearing into the horizon, as if it were waving one last goodbye. "But we're going to have to do it tomorrow."