//------------------------------//
// Are We Human? 
// Story: Crossed 
// by OneOverTwo 
//------------------------------//

“Forsooth! Yonder windowed cav- Derpy wake up!” said a girl with green hair and a red beret.
Her hair was probably her most distinctive feature, it looked like half a watermelon had been placed on as a helmet or something.

“Buh?” said Derpy.
She hadn’t really been sleeping so much as she was spacing out, but it wasn’t really prudent to point that out.

“Having problems with insomnia again?” said a girl with curly orange hair, wearing a white scarf.
Derpy had once mistaken her for a human version of Carrot Top. but once she actually met her it became clear that she wasn’t.

“Yeah,” said Derpy.

“I know what that’s like,” said the green haired girl, “Well not really, but I listened to a song that I’ve been told was about insomnia once.”

“That is so helpful, Watermelody,” said the orange haired girl flatly.

“Whatever, Golden Hazel,” said Watermelody.

They were practicing for an assignment in drama class, at least Derpy was pretty sure that was what was happening. She was never very good at the class, and she had been lucky(?) enough to have two of the most serious players in the drama clique.
She feared she’d be heavily looked down upon due to her tendency to forget lines, characters, plot, and what play they were doing.

‘I really should’ve picked a different elective,’ thought Derpy.

“And it’s forthwith not forsooth,” said Golden Hazel.

“Oh yeah? Well I have the script right here!” said Watermelody, “And it clearly says ‘forsooth’!”

“What? Mine clearly says ‘forthwith’!” said Golden Hazel.

The two stared at each other. Then they looked at the other’s pages and back to theirs.

“Teacher!” they yelled.

‘They seem to bother each other more than notice me,’ thought Derpy.





The Fall Formal was tonight. Derpy thought it was going to be another ‘Sunset Shimmer wins by default’ type of event, but there was a new girl out strutting her stuff and declaring her intent to run for princess.

‘It’d probably be too much to hope for,’ thought Derpy.

Eventually the event actually happened. It turned out far different from anything Derpy had thought would ever happen in this world.
Shimmer losing to another was shocking enough, if pleasantly surprising, but what happened afterwards was the real jaw-dropper.

‘Everyone always thought she’d turn out to be some sort of demon,’ this was Derpy’s last thought before the big gap between them everyone would seem to have later.
The first memory after that was seeing six girls already changed into something similar to, but not quite human. Half of them had wings while the other half had less obvious differences, it was clear something was different about them.

‘I… I guess I’ll ask around later what that was,” thought Derpy.

The afterparty had been really confusing.





Derpy had fallen asleep. Derpy woke up.

‘My dreams don’t usually have magic in them,’ thought Derpy, ‘At least not in the way it just did.

Derpy got ready for work. She ate breakfast, put on her ‘uniform’, and went out the door.

“Mail!” said Derpy at every stop she stopped at.

“Oh hey, Derpy,” said Spike the Dragon when she reached the library.

“Hey,” said Derpy, “Say… do you have any books on dreams?”

“Sure, why?”

Derpy rolled her head around. She turned her face left and right.

“Ummm…,” said Derpy, “I had a really weird dream last night,” 

“What was so weird about it?” said Spike.

Derpy pressed her forehooves together and knit her eyebrows.

“It’s kinda hard to explain,” said Derpy.

Spike rolled his eyes.

“I’m pretty smart, I’m sure I’ll understand it if you explain it,” said Spike, the grin on his face was trying to be smoother than smooth (it barely achieved smoother than sandpaper).

“Well…” said Derpy, “okay. Imagine a creature that’s sort of like a monkey or a bear, I guess? Well, you’d have to throw in a seal or dolphin in there too… for hairlessness.”

“Uh huh,” said Spike.

“Er, in my dreams, I’m one of them,” said Derpy.

Derpy bit her lip and tried her best to look off to the left with her eyes.

“Wait…” sad Spike to himself.

“That’s really more of a recurring dream, I go to school in them. Not that this dream was really any different like that, but there was something extra weird about it. I saw Twilight grow wings!” said Derpy.

“I don’t think you were there for that,” said Spike.

Derpy smacked herself in the face.

“I mean in the dream,” said Derpy.

“Oh,” said Spike.

“But she was what I was, that creature,” said Derpy.

“Uh…” said Spike.

“she gave powers to all of her friends too, I knew that Dash pretty well actually. Also she walked thru the horse statue-” said Derpy.

“Rainbow Dash walked thru a horse statue?” said Spike, Derpy thought she sensed some sort of hope or something like it in his voice.

“No, Twilight walked thru the statue. More like below it really, but she was the only one able to go thru! Heck, I even tried to go myself,” said Derpy.

“...Right,” said Spike.

“What do you think it meant, Spike?” said Derpy, she resisted mentioning how she had trouble distinguishing reality. The two states seemed absolutely real, but they were completely different.

“Well I’m not one of those dream analyze… guys, but I’m sure Twilight would want to know about this,” said Spike.

“I’ll be sure to tell her then,” said Derpy with a smile.

Derpy left to deliver what was left in her bags.
“Yeah,” said Spike, “I’ll tell her too.”

Derpy was long gone at this point.