//------------------------------//
// Jacks II 
// Story: Derpy's new friend. 
// by Joyous Apple 
//------------------------------//

  Derpy woke up early in the morning. When she got up, she looked out the window to a sunrise. The sky was littered with different colors. Orange, pink and blue. Derpy could look at it all day. "Preetttyyy," she said as she went to the bathroom to get washed up for work. She out on her mailmare uniform and walked out the door. 

She began humming and bouncing on her way to her job. When she got there, she thought something was funny, but couldn't figure it out. 'Oh well, I want to get work done early so I can meet up with my new friend," the word friend seemed foreign to her. She uses it all the time, but when she said it about her having a friend served a different meaning. 

She giggled to herself as she went and checked in for her load. It was a fair amount, but Derpy didn't mind. She would be able to finish with two hours to spare. So she picked up her bags and started her route. The whole time thinking about Jacks. 

She started thinking about how he listened and comforted her. Saying he was different and understood her pain.  

Derpy finnished her route and checked out, with Jacks still on he mind. When she got home to wash up again, she started thinking about how he was different like her. She thought about his flank being blank. 

Then all of a sudden, Derpy stopped everything. She brought a hoof up to her mouth. "He asked about my pain and made it to away, but I didn't return the favor." 

She felt bad and started cursing the muffin for being to attention grabbing. She then decided they she would be a good friend and help comfort him. 'Thats what friends do. I think, it's what I read about' she started to sit down and think about this, her head spinning. She got up to drink water, when she bumped her head into the wall. 

That's when she realized that she didn't crash or screw up once all day. All she did was think if her new friend. 

She had to repay him for this. 'Today, for sure. I'll listen to him talk and comfort him. And get him a muffin. Muffins' she began to dream of muffins. 



_ later that day at Sugarcube corner.

Derpy walked in the door to see Jacks sitting at a table with a bag on it. "Hey Jacks! What's in the bag?"

Jacks smiled and waved back. "Hey Derpy. They're muffins."

Derpy jumped with joy. She sat down. Looking hungrily at the brown bag. "What kind are they?"

"Blueberry."

"Oh boy, those are my fav."

"Great, I made a good choice then," he said happily. He opened the bag and gave it to her. They began to talk about her day and how it went. She told him that she didn't screw up once yet. But she didn't tell him why she thinks she didn't crash once. She didn't want to ruin her only friendship. 

After about 10 minutes, she started thing about asking him why he's sad sometimes. But she didn't know how. She decided that it couldn't hurt to ask about where he grew up. 

"Hey jacks? Can I ask a question?"

He looked at her funny. Derpy all of a sudden felt bad. Her ears went flat against her head and she started stuttering. 

"Y-y-you d-don't have t-to answer t-that. I'm s-sorry I-i-I asked." She started to tear up. 'Great. I lost my only friend.'

Jacks all of sudden felt guilty. "No Derpy. It's not that. I just looked like that because you could always ask me a question. That's what friends are for. Go ahead, ask me whatever you want."

"You sure?"

"Of course."

"Well, I was going to ask what makes you upset. Why you said you understood how I may feel." She said this, hoping she wasn't asking to much." 

Jacks took a deep breath and looked to the side. He then looked back to her and sighed. 

"Well, it's not much of a sob story, but I did have more than my fair share if bullying when I was younger." 

Derpy nodded. Listening with 110%. She even stopped eating her muffin. This shocked Jacks. He had seen her eat muffins the previous day, and nothing would have stopped her from the look of it. But now she was listening to him. This made him feel special. So he continued his story. 

"Well, I was just ending school in cloudsdale......


______Cloudsdale many years prior.

Jacks was at his last day of school. He was excited. After this day, he'll be able to do what all the older ponies do. He didn't have to worry about going to school or getting good grades to pass. those where hard enough for him. Jacks has a very bad case of ADHD. This stands for Attention Defecate Hyperactive Disorder. And jacks was hyper active. He didn't go one day without getting scolded by his teacher, miss Pines. She always would look at him after he would do something and go, "now LJ, you know that could have been prevented if you were just sitting still." Jacks would look up to her and put up a sad attempt to an innocent smile. "sorry miss pines," would become a very repeated phrase for him.  

This day however, Jacks was doing his best not to get into any trouble. His class were going to get there certificates of completion. Jacks family where happy to Find that Jacks passed his classes. It wasn't that Jacks was slow, quite the contrary. because of his ADHD, his mind would go so fast, that during tests, he would fail them. this was because he would easily be distracted by the smallest thing. 

His parents knew that he was smart too. His father would always scold him when he brought home a bad grade. He would look at his son saying things like, "I know you aren't dumb, you are quite intelligent. if you were just to apply yourself more. if you were slow, i would understand these grades, but you aren't slow."

So now here he was. His teacher decided to give out diploma's like they did in college. She thought this because it would help the kids feel good about themselves. She thought this because in her eyes they deserved it. Miss Pines gathered the children in a line by a stage that she would hand out the degree's at. She arranged them in alphabetical order. They would come up one at a time to receive their 'graduate's degree'. she then walked on stage to a microphone and began the ceremony. 

"Welcome Mares and gentlecolts. I'd like to thank you for coming here on this memorable day in these young ones lives, graduating from the Manehatten's Academy of Young Foal's. today these young ones will be able to go out and follow their ambitions in any way they choose. To symbolize this, I, miss Pines, will give a certificate of graduation. we'll be calling them up in Alphabetical order by last name," She started to call them up.

Before long, it was Jacks turn to get his. "UP next is Jacks Lacer," Jacks was nervous, but went up there and received his certificate happily. but the second he got up there, kids started chanting something that started the crowd laughing. They where chanting "Blank flank, blank flank," this caused Jacks to start crying and running off stage. The adults in the crowd laughed too, bu tried to control it and scolded their children. Miss pines started to scold the children by threatening to take back the certificates. Jacks ran for as long as he could. his parents trailed him for as log as they could, but lost him. He spent the rest of the day under a willow tree outside the city limits, looking up to the sky, asking questions to nobody, not expecting an answer. 

"Why do i have to be different? It's not just my cutie mark. they make fun of me for not being able to pay attention. they make fun of me for being so clumsy. Why? Whyy?" 

_____ 5 Years later

Jacks was applying for a job at one of Manehattens many stores. This one job was inventory for a grocery store. he has been having  a hard time getting a job to pay for his home. He was excited to see the job call him in for an interview. He put on his best outfit and went straight there for the interview. When he got there, he was walked straight into an office by an employee. He seen the boss whose name was Mr. Feathers. Jacks thought this was weird because the stallion wasn't a Pegasus. just a regular earth pony.

Mr. Feathers looked up and noticed the red Pegasus. he stopped what he was doing and picked up a file from a drawer in his desk and put it on his desk and opened it up. he looked up and motioned for Jacks to sit down. 

"Mr. Laker I presume."

"actually, it's pronounced Lacer, like chaser," Jacks cursed himself immediately for correcting a a potential employer over a small petty thing. 

"is it? i'm sorry for mispronouncing it. well, anyways, from what i can see in your application, you are more than qualified for this job. i just wanted to see how you are in person and what i can see from your appearance, i can't hire you. i'm sorry, i'm going to have to ask you to leave," Mr. feathers said without any emotion. 

Jacks was hurt, but curious in what he should fix for the next interview, if he had one that is. "Mr. feathers, before I leave, can i ask what I did wrong so i know what to fix for the future," when he said this, Feathers sat back and answered.

"Well, for one, you seem to correct those in a higher position than yourself. Second, since you don't have a cutie mark yet and how you hold yourself. You are unstable, and I can't have anything unstable in my business. it just won't do. now I ask you again to leave," he said this and looked back to his work, not caring anymore of what Jacks has to say. Jacks happened to get similar responses from future interviews. He didn't have a cutie mark, unstable, and talks back to much. He couldn't hold a job because he would miss something because of his ADHD or would break something for being distracted. This made him to lose his home in Manehatten in about another 4 years and have to move to Ponyville.

On his third day of being in the city, he was walking around the city as much as possible to get used to the set up of the place. He liked it better here because it was calmer. No city noise and everyone seemed happy. except for a grey Pegasus he seem crying by a restaurant. He wanted to see why anyone would want to cry in such a happy place. so he walked up to her asking, "Are you okay miss?," The mare jumped at the question. He suddenly felt guilty but played cool. she looked up at him. 

______ Present


"And here we are now," Finished  Jacks with a smile. Derpy felt guilty. here this guy tried to make her feel better when he had it worse. she tried to think of something to pay him back. she looked down at her muffin and back to him. she picked it up and gave it back to him with a smile.

"Muffins make me feel better, maybe they will make you feel good too."

Jacks looked down at the small gesture and immediately felt better about himself. Here this mare, who loves muffins more than anything gave him a muffin. he looked back up and was speechless. It took him a second, but found what to say. 

"Thank you Derpy, this mans a lot."

"what are friends for," she said, hoping it sounded good. she wasn't sure.

"You are a good friend," Jacks replied. and they sat thee for the rest of the day talking about small things like songs they liked and foods they like. Derpy couldn't help but making sure he knew she liked muffins. This caused Jacks to smile and laugh to himself.