//------------------------------// // Giving Up // Story: A Thousand Years and I Still Love You // by Smokey Majenta //------------------------------// As the pony princess ran from the cake shop, tears began to flow freely from her eyes. This was so much harder than she'd thought it'd be. Pinkie Pie was gone, Twilight was going insane, and she didn't even was to know what happened to Rarity and Applejack...or Fluttershy. The thought that the kindest pony in Ponyville could've been corrupted was frightening. Now that she thought about it, there were almost NO ponies at all out here. The sulking Celestia walked over to a random house, now curious. She knocked a hoof against the door, then shouted, "PONY! IF YOU'RE THERE, SUBJECT, YOUR PRINCESS WOULD LIKE TO SPEAK TO YOU!" To Celestia's dismay, there was no answer. This frightened Celestia, as her worst fears began to flow into mind. Taking a step back, she turned around. Gave herself and the door some distance, then bucked it with her hind hooves as hard as she could. Just like she had done to... No. She pushed that thought to the back of her mind and entered the house, soon realizing it was Derpy's. Pictures of the filly cross-eyed Pegasus covered the walls, and the whole place smelled like bread. Upon discovering the kitchen, she saw nohing but muffins. The fridge was covered with muffin magnets. The counter had muffin upon muffin on a platter, stacked almost to the ceiling. There were only muffins in this house. Celestia walked back towards the door. She was just rounding the corner as a grey, winged blob landed in front of her. "HI PRINCESS!" Derpy screamed as she crashed to the floor. "Derpy? Why were you on the ceiling?" Celestia asked, still shaking the shock of the Pegasus's sudden entrance. "I wasn't, you highness. I just happened to crash through the ceiling. See, my eyes make flying kinda hard sometimes. I have to fly to be a Pegasus though, so I have to put up with it sometimes. Nature wouldn't allow a Pegasus to not fl-" Celestia cut Derpy short, sick of her rambling. "Where are all my other subjects? There's almost no ponies here." Derpy looked confused for a moment, then said ,"Hmm," and began to munch a muffin. After the muffin was demolished, which was about two seconds later, she spoke out gleefully. "Oh, oh! You know that observatory in the Crystal Empire? Well rumor has it that Nightmare Moon disappeared from the moon, and all the ponies in Equestria have been called there to see it! 'Cept me," Derpy added sadly. "I'm a stupid cross-eyed mailmare." Celestia took in this information. It was hard to accept it, because she knew what happened. No...no. She had to get to the Crystal Empire. But as she almost walked out, she was stopped once again, but this time by two of the Crystal Empire's royal guards. "Celestia?" one of them asked. "No, Princess Celestia, mind you. Ruler of all Equestria. Thus you called me Princess Celestia or just Princess. But don''t you ever address me as 'Celestia' again, understood?" Looking into her eyes, the guard on the right nodded. "Deepest apologies, Princess. Princess Cadence of the Crystal Empire requests that you come and speak with her as soon as possible. Please come with us." Sighing, Celestia followed the guards out of Derpy's house. But wait. There were extra hoofsteps . The guards made a glass-like sound when they stepped, Celestia was wearing hoofcups, so... She turned around to find Derpy following her closely. At first she wanted to become angry, but for some reason she just couldn't. The poor Pegasus was left out of everything, and her derped up face was so...adorable! The group of four stopped, and all attention was on Derpy, even Derpy herself. "Sorry, Princess. Want me to stay back?" The Princess pondered this. She was so eager. So happy. So ready to do something and hated being left out. She was a lot like Luna. "No, please stay, Derpy!" Celestia cried, more intentionally than she thought. The shock that crossed Derpy's face pleased the princess. She watched as the shock became sheer joy. To Celestia, Derpy felt like a second chance. Another shot to have a close companion that she would love. She hardly knew Derpy, but it was like she didn't ever want to mailmare to leave her side. Believe it or not, Celestia and Derpy had an encounter before where Celestia felt an odd connection to Derpy. The princess was visiting the filly's school in Ponyville to give a speech. All the other fillies were crowded around Celestia. She hardly had time answer a few questions when the sound of crying became audible. All the fillies seemed to ignore it. How could they not hear that? No, they were ignoring the cries on purpose. Angrily, Celestia stomped past the crowd of fillies to the crying sound in the back of the bunch. There sat a weeping filly, a Pegasus. The grey Pegasus didn't even notice Celestia until Celestia used a hoof to turn the filly's head upward. Gently she cooed, "Everything's okay," but it only made the Pegasus cry harder. "What's wrong?" Celestia asked, still gentle, her voice grand and calming. "Nopony likes me," the small filly muttered quietly. "They pushed me to the back and I couldn't see you." The sadness in the Pegasus's voice pulled at Celestia's heart strings. "What's you name?" Celestia asked. "Well my mom calls me Daisy, but everypony's called me Derpy for a while." "Well, Derpy," Celestia cooed into the filly's ear, "I'm here for you. Even if nopony else sees good and happiness and an all around perfect filly in you, I do. To me, Derpy, Daisy, you are perfect and all of the other fillies cannot tell you otherwise." Turning her attention to the crowd, Celestia warned, "Leave this poor filly alone. This could've been any one of you. Good day," Celestia said to the teacher pony before she left. As Celestia strode out, she saw a awestruck, smiling Derpy out of the corner of her eye.