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// Chapter 1: Stupid Eyes 
// Story: The wall-eyed mare 
// by Andrew Stillnight 
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A young filly was trying her best to pay attention in class. Miss Sunrise was writing math problems on the blackboard. She tried to focus her eyes on the digits, but every time she did, the digits would run away from her, to the other side of the blackboard. She bit the tip of her tongue, trying as hard as she could to add the digits together. One of them looked like a long line with a little dash on the top. She thought very hard, and decided that number was “one”. She copied the line-and-dash onto her notes, and moved on to the next digit. This time, it was one vertical dash, coupled with a horizontal dash. She knew that one! It meant “plus”. Happy with her progress, she wrote down “plus” on her paper. The next number was hard. It was very wiggly, full of twists and turns. She focused all her attention on it, and after a few seconds, she recognized the number from her books – it meant “eight”! She tried to copy the squiggly lines onto her notes, but the lines wouldn’t work along. Her pencil started moving on its own, drawing something that wasn’t an eight. Stupid not-eight. She turned her pencil around, erased the not-eight and tried again. Start from the top, then make a small turn to the left, then go down and make a turn to the right and then connect the dots at the top! She bit the tip of her tongue again and the moment she saw the dots connect, she let out a little squeal of joy. 
Suddenly, something nudged against her seat. She turned around, looking at the back of her seat. There was nothing there. She touched it to make sure. Yep. Nothing there. When she turned around again and wrote the “equals” symbol, she felt it again. A little nudge against her seat. She almost ruined her “equals” symbol! She turned around once more, and saw the foal behind her, a blue Pegasus called Cloudwings pull back his hoof. She looked at him angrily and pointed her hoof at him.
“You nudged my seat!” she said, but it sounded more like who-udge-my-eat. As the little filly finished talking, miss Sunrise overheard her, and turned around.
“What’s wrong, Derpy?” miss Sunrise asked
“He kicked my seat!” she said, struggling with the words. What she actually said sounded nothing like what she wanted to say.
“What did he do, dear?”
“He kicked my seat! I was doing a math problem and he kicked my seat!”
Once again the words wouldn’t come out right.
“Is that so, dear? Well, just try again! I’m sure it’ll work this time.” Miss Sunrise said.
“But miss Sunrise, he kicked my seat! I’m trying my best here, but he keeps kicking my seat!” Derpy said, or so she thought. She didn’t actually say anything – she just felt scared and went quiet, turning around to work on her math problem again. Okay. The line with the dash plus the wiggly thing equals… Equals… Derpy thought really hard, but she couldn’t find the answer. She closed her eyes and put her right hoof against the side of her head. She liked that. It helped her think. She sat like that for a couple seconds when the lines and dashes changed shape, forming a new line she recognized as “nine”. She opened her eyes, and put her pencil to the paper when her seat shot forward again. She didn’t respond this time, hoping Cloudwings would just leave her alone. She tried to write the digit again, but realized she had forgotten it. Her eye got wet and her chest hurt. A tear rolled down her cheek.
She didn’t understand why every foal she knew was so mean to her. They always called her names, and threw her books away and laughed at her and it really hurt. She’d never done anything wrong to them, had she? Why couldn’t those meanies just leave her alone? The tear fell off her cheek and landed on her paper, messing up what she’d written on it so carefully. She could feel the tears coming up inside her, looking for a way out through her eyes. Don’t come out, please! They’ll just laugh at me again. I don’t want them to laugh at me.
“Children!” Miss Sunrise said. Derpy looked up, biting her lip and trying her hardest not to cry.
“I’ve got to go talk to mister Windrunner for a moment. Cloudwings, could you come here, please?”
Cloudwings wasted no time in running up to miss Sunrise.
“Cloudwings, I want you to write the names of everypony who was bad on the blackboard while I’m away. Can you do that for me?” she asked.
“Yes, miss Sunrise, I will! I’ll do it good, I promise!” Cloudwings said happily.
“I know you will, dear. Now, be good everyone, I won’t be long!” miss Sunrise said before disappearing through into the hallway.

“Hey, Derpy.” Cloudwings said.
Derpy looked at Cloudwings, still biting her lip.
“You’re stupid. Your eyes are weird.”
Derpy bit her lip again, trying her hardest not to cry.
“Why are your eyes weird, Derpy?” he said. More tears tried to force their way through her eyes, but Derpy pushed them back.
“I don’t know…” she said, but the words sounded strange again.
“Can’t you talk normal?” Cloudwings teased.
“Why can’t you talk normal, Derpy? Is it because you’re stupid?” he said. Each word hit Derpy as if it were an arrow striking at her heart.
“I don’t know…” she said again, her voice fading into a whisper.
“Leave me alone!”
“Talk normal, Derpy! We don’t know what you’re saying if you talk stupid.” Cloudwings said. Derpy couldn’t take it anymore, and she burst out into tears. Her cries were met with laughter by her classmates.
“Stupid eyes, stupid eyes, stupid eyes!” they shouted at her.
“My eyes are not stupid!” she said, but her tongue started hurting halfway through the sentence, so she messed it up again.
“Stupid eyes!”
Derpy closed her eyes and put her hoof to the side of her head, trying to shut out the voices. It didn’t work.