//------------------------------// // Moving Forwards - part 2 // Story: We're Gonna Get There Soon // by Cranberry Muffin //------------------------------// “…Will you tell me about Dinky?” Derpy asked shyly, once again glancing to the side rather than at the stallion seated across from her, “I don’t really, you know, know her, since she’s not really friends with Rumble…” Written Script blinked, not having known that Derpy and Rumble had any connection. Dinky spoke sometimes about Rumble; he was apparently one of the few schoolponies who was generally nice to her. Most of them thought she was weird –and though it killed him to admit it, it was understandable- and either made fun of her or ignored her, but she said that Rumble usually didn’t join the teasing. If he was friends with Derpy –who was harassed and belittled plenty herself- it made sense that Rumble would be more sensitive to teasing than the average foal. “Dinky is…” He started, then paused, not entirely certain how to describe his daughter to a stranger. He knew Dinky well, better than anypony else, but putting in to words the things that made Dinky Dinky was always a challenge. “She wasn’t always the way she is. She hit all her milestones when she was supposed to…Maybe even earlier.” He paused to take a bite of one of the muffins, chewing thoughtfully, “She even spoke back then, to almost everypony. But then, one day…It was like she woke up and a switch had turned off or something. She stopped talking to strangers, then other ponies she knew, then…Then it was almost like she had no words at all. She started having tantrums then, too, and stopped looking directly at us. It was like…I don’t know. Like she was going backwards or something.” Derpy was quiet, just listening and trying to keep her gaze focused squarely on the face of the unicorn. He was baring his soul to her; trying to help her understand what made the little unicorn who spoke only to two ponies –him and her- tick, so that she would better be able to help. It must have been painful, speaking so candidly about Dinky, and she wanted to give him the respect he deserved. “She was unbearable for a while…” A wry smile crossed his face and he shook his head a little, “It’s hard to believe that the same miserable creature from those days is my sweet Dinky. She was always crying and fussing and hardly ate or slept. And because she wasn’t speaking, she couldn’t tell anypony what was wrong. It got so bad…” Written Script trailed off for a moment, lowering his gaze, “Her mother left us. She said she couldn’t do it and she went back to Canterlot.” “…I’m so sorry to hear that.” And she was; there was nothing but sincerity in her words. Derpy believed with all her heart in true love, and the idea that not all ponies found the one meant for them saddened her. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like to believe you were in love with somepony and build a life with them, only for it to crumble when you encountered a rough patch. “Thanks.” The unicorn smiled a little, touched by her heartfelt words, “But it turned out okay. Not long after that, Doctor Stable told me that he thought Dinky’s crying and sleeplessness were due to an allergy to milk and I was able to straighten out one problem. She started acting more like her old cheerful self after her diet was adjusted accordingly, even though she still didn’t speak much. Things got better…And though Dinky has never been the same as she was when she was small, she’s improved a lot. She’s still unpredictable at times, and still sometimes has tantrums, but generally she’s a happy filly, who enjoys reading and categorizing things.” “And she’s very bright.” Cheerilee added, “I was amazed at her test results when you first enrolled her in school. She’s reading well beyond where she should be for a filly her age, and her math skills are impressive.” She smiled, reaching for one of the muffins on the plate, “She’s one of my best students.” Written glanced at Cheerilee then, a warm smile softening his expression. For all of the hardships Dinky faced, for all of her struggles…She was an exceptionally smart little pony and he was more proud of her than words could ever express. “She loves school,” He said, pausing thoughtfully, then correcting himself, “She loves learning. She’s not too keen on a lot of the other students because they don’t really understand each other. She wants to make friends, but her strange social skills don’t let her do so easily. She’s too…too different for them to connect with her.” “I understand.” Derpy spoke up then, nodding a little to back up her statement, “It’s never easy to make friends with anypony when they look at you like you’re not normal.” Her knowledge of this came not only from her experiences as a child, but those she faced daily as an adult, as well. She knew all too well the kinds of looks and whispered words Dinky must have endured; the kinds of hateful, ignorant things other ponies –both children and adults- were likely to say about her. She suspected that Dinky was thought of as stupid because she didn’t speak; weird because she didn’t look anypony in the eye. Those were things she’d heard often enough and they were standard insults that affected those of all walks of life. It wasn’t a stretch to think the little unicorn was subject to such –and worse!- because of her uniqueness. But Derpy had seen, that afternoon in the schoolyard, a glimmer of brightness in Dinky’s golden eyes. She had only caught a glimpse -it was hard to see things in another pony when they don’t look right at you, after all- but it had been enough for her to figure out that the filly had a lot going on in her mind. “I’d like for her to make friends.” Written Script continued softly, fiddling a little with his mug, “And it sounds awful, but…I’d like her to be at least a little more normal. Things are so hard for her, I can’t help it sometimes. I look at her and wish she was like any other filly…And then I feel terrible.” He looked away at that admission, ears flattened back against his head. At the sight of the forlorn stallion, Derpy felt a wash of sympathy and sadness seep over her; how hard his life must have been! She had never considered what it might be like for the parents of unusual foals; her own parents hadn’t been very understanding and had only been affected by her struggles in superficial ways. But here was a stallion who was suffering , struggling along with his daughter, celebrating her victories, experiencing her failures and doing everything in his power to make her life as good as it could be. Dinky was lucky, probably moreso than she would ever know. “I’d like to be her friend.” Derpy’s own words fell on her ears before she even realized she was saying them. And really, she meant it, with all her heart. She didn’t know what kind of help she could be to the filly, but she did know how terrible it felt to be without friends and support. And she knew, somehow, that the best way to ensure that Dinky would be successful in her life was for her to have ponies who cared, because wasn’t it the sheer love of Surprise who had gotten her through the worst times in her childhood? Wasn’t Thunderlane and Rumble’s support and encouragement the very reason she was sitting there, speaking to Written Script to begin with? “And I’m sure Rumble would be her friend, too, once he understands that she’s just a little different, not, um, weird.” There, again, was mention of Rumble, and Written Script found himself insatiably curious. He didn’t know much about Derpy, only the basic things that everypony knew: She worked for the Weather Crew and often caused disasters. Cheerilee had said she was a warm, loving mare with a lot of interesting things to say, but beyond that, Written knew nothing of her circumstances and background. “I have to ask…” And really, he couldn’t help it! Written Script was curious by nature and was genuinely interested in getting to know the grey pegasus. “How do you know Rumble? Is he related to you?” If Derpy was surprised at the question, it didn’t show. She just smiled a little, shaking her head, “No…Not really. But I’ve been renting a room at his parents’ house almost as long as I’ve been in Ponyville,” Her smile stretched to a grin, eyes dancing, “And I’ve been dating his brother for a while. Sometimes, I hang out with Rumble when he gets out of school, if I’m not working, and we do stuff together on the weekends.” “…What kind of stuff?” Written, of course, knew the kinds of things normal foals did with their parents, friends and foal-sitters. But Derpy, everypony said, wasn’t exactly the typical pony herself and he found himself wondering what exactly she did with Rumble and if it would be something Dinky might enjoy. The mare was quiet for a moment, munching on one of the muffins and glancing around the bakery as she chewed, though one eye never strayed far from the unicorn’s face. “Uh, all kinds of stuff. Sometimes we go flying; Rumble hasn’t attended any kind of flight camp yet, so he’s still got a lot to learn about banking and using currents to his advantage and coming in for a smooth landing, so he likes to practice. Sometimes we do other stuff, too, though. He likes fairytales, so we go to the library a lot. And sometimes we go to the park or the farmers’ market or whatever. And he loves games, so we play tons of games, too.” A hint of a smile flickered across the stallion’s face as he listened to her, and he picked up his mug again, taking a healthy swallow of his almost-cold tea. “I believe Dinky would greatly enjoy spending time with both you and Rumble, if those are the kinds of things you do together. She’s very fond of reading; I suspect she likes books more than she likes most ponies.” There was a note of warmth in his voice, the kind that was born of a deep, all-encompassing love, “And she loves going pretty much anywhere. She’s actually very interested in the world around her, for how many problems she has socially.” “She’s more than welcome to join me and Rumble on one of our adventures,” Derpy offered, “And, um, if you don’t feel comfortable leaving her with just me in charge, you can come too?” She wasn’t sure about how he would react to the invitation; with her reputation, it seemed more than likely that any parent would have a hard time leaving their child in her care. Rumble and Thunderlane’s mom and dad were so used to her that they didn’t think twice about it, and Raindrops knew her almost as well as a pony could, so she wasn’t shy about leaving her sister in the clumsy mare’s care, but other ponies…Well, they were prone to being a bit less understanding. Written Script was quiet for a moment, torn between wanting to simply agree outright to let Dinky spread her proverbial wings and feeling incredibly overprotective. All of her life, he had tried his best to shelter his daughter from the unforgiving world, to keep her safe from the words and stares of those who didn’t even bother trying to understand her. “Maybe…” he began, pausing for a moment to think on how to frame his words so as not to insult her, “Maybe you’d like to come over sometime, so she could get used to you? Sometimes, she can be quite withdrawn around strangers, but if she sees you in a familiar setting, with other familiar ponies there, it will be easier for her to become accustomed to you.” Derpy nodded in agreement, head bobbing cheerfully. “Okay. That sounds like a great idea!” She exclaimed enthusiastically. It hadn’t occurred to her that the filly might be scared or uncomfortable, just tossed into a new situation, but once the idea was planted in her mind, it made much more sense to take things slowly. “Perhaps you’d like to come over some evening this week?” Written Script offered, “Dinky has a foal-sitter after school while Golden Harvest and I are finishing up at work, but we usually just spend the evenings after dinner at home, if you’d like to come by.” “I would like that.” She nodded again, a feeling of happiness lighting her smile and settling comfortably in her heart. If anypony had asked Derpy two weeks ago if she imagined ever feeling this happy and in control of her own life, she would have quickly said no. But with the way everything had been changing and changing for the better over the past week or so, she couldn’t imagine anything ever happening again to make her seem bad. Because for once, she was seemingly the master of her own fate. She had a job she was kind of good at -one which she enjoyed- with a boss who seemed interested in helping her discover her strengths. She had ponies who cared for her and even loved her, and seemed to be making even more friends as the days passed. Her life was good, now, thanks to the kindness and support of the other ponies who loved her, as well as their willingness to let her make her own way. She had no idea how she would have survived the years without Surprise if it hadn’t been for the ponies she’d met in Ponyville, and she was grateful for every last one of them. And now, she thought as she took another bite of her muffin, she was being given an opportunity to do the same for somepony else and that thought warmed her to the very bottom of her heart.