//------------------------------// // Chapter 4: Blue Rectangles and Red Circles // Story: The wall-eyed mare // by Andrew Stillnight //------------------------------// “Bye mommy” Derpy said as Mommy dropped her off at school. Mommy smiled. “Bye, sweetie. Have fun, okay?” said Mommy. “That won’t be a problem, will it, Derpy?” Miss Sunrise asked. She took hold of Derpy’s hoof. Derpy didn’t like it. Miss Sunrise smelled weird. Mommy didn’t. Mommy smelled nice. Calm. Derpy liked Mommy’s scent. Miss Sunrise smelled scary. Chaotic. Mommy smiled. Derpy liked it when Mommy smiled. “I’ll see you tonight, alright, sweetheart?” she said. She stood up, turned around and walked outside of the school playground, through the gates and onto the streets. “Bye Mommy.” Derpy said as Mommy disappeared behind the school building. Miss Sunrise let go of her hand and walked away, into the principal’s office. Derpy didn’t follow. She didn’t care. Miss Sunrise smelled weird. Derpy looked at the gate. It was blue. It was long and blue. Derpy thought for a bit. She knew that shape… Four corners. Two short edges. Two long edges. A wheel on the lower long edge. That wasn’t supposed to be there, so she thought of the shape without the wheel. She thought really hard and finally, it came to her. Rectangle. Derpy smiled. She felt so proud of herself! Mommy would be happy to hear that she’d seen a big blue rectangle. She might even make muffins! Derpy let out a little squeal of joy. “What’re you laughing about, stupid eyes?” A voice came from behind. Derpy turned around and looked at Eric’s torso. She froze for a few seconds, until she hesitantly pointed at the gate. “Rectangle.” She said. “Wow, that’s great!” Eric answered with a smile. Derpy tried to smile a little bit too. Eric wasn’t being mean to her, so she was sure it was okay. “Thank you.” She said. “No problem! I mean, now we know it’s not just your eyes that are stupid, it’s your entire head!” Eric replied, laughing. Derpy wasn’t smiling anymore. She felt sad again. Eric walked over to her and pushed her really hard. Derpy’s legs got tangled and she fell over and she felt a sharp pain in her lower right front hoof and it hurt it hurt it hurt so bad and she wanted to cry but they’d just laugh again and it hurt so so so so bad! Despite her best efforts, Derpy couldn’t hold back the tears, and she started crying. Her hand hurt so much. She looked at it. Three red streams ran from her hoof down her leg, where little red droplets fell to the ground, making bright red circles on the floor. Derpy screamed. It hurt. She was scared. She screamed louder. It scared her more, so she screamed even louder. A Unicorn spell picked her up and she panicked, her limbs flailing, hitting anything within their reach, but the spell was unaffected. Derpy cried and cried and cried until the tears stopped and then cried some more. She felt so scared and her hoof hurt so much. “Sshh, you’re gonna be alright.” A soothing voice said. A soothing voice with a terrible smell. Derpy cried. “Okay now, this may sting a bit.” The voice said again. Suddenly, Derpy’s hoof hurt a lot more. It felt like something wanted to eat her hoof, so it was sticking needles in it to make it nice and soft. Derpy cried. “It’s okay, it’s okay. I took the glass out, you’ll be fine now. I need you to be strong, okay?” the voice said again. Derpy noticed the pain in her hoof fading the slightest little bit. “Derpy? Can you be strong for me, can you do that?” the voice kept asking. Suddenly, Derpy realized she knew the voice and the scent it belonged to. Miss Sunrise. She nodded, carefully. Miss Sunrise smelled weird. The next thing she knew, fire was pouring on her hoof and she screamed and cried again. The feeling didn’t go away, and then something started banging on her hoof ever so gently, yet rough. Derpy was in so much pain, she just cried and screamed and cried. “I’ve disinfected your wound, Derpy. Now no little bugs can get in it.” Miss Sunrise said. Derpy thought Miss Sunrise could put the little bugs in it again, so she tried to stop crying. “Okay, good, you’ve calmed down a bit. I’m going to call you an ambulance, so we can get this cut looked at, alright? Just sit tight for a moment.” Miss Sunrise got out her phone and took a call. Derpy was in pain, and it hurt her a lot. The next thing she knew, she smelled Mommy’s scent in a car she didn’t know. Derpy rested her head on Mommy’s chest, took a deep breath and fell asleep, as the pain faded away.