Opus

by Ninjeneer

De Principio Novi

De Principio Novi
By: Travis Kingsley

Twilight entered Fluttershy’s cottage first, with the other two following right behind her. The room was lit only from the light of the windows letting the outside sun shine in. The sight that greeted Twilight came as a shock. It make sense, but was a shock nonetheless. On the far side of the room lay a figure, a pegasus. She was bandaged in several places, and appeared to be unconscious.

“What happened?!” Twilight gasped as she rushed to the pony’s side. It was Dee (or Derpy as everyone called her). Twilight could tell this from the picture she had seen at the post office. She turned around to face the two ponies behind her “will some pony tell me what happened?” She said with sadness in her voice. Rainbow Dash stepped forward to meet Twilight “I’ll tell you everything I know.” The two moved away to the other side of the room so as not to disturb the sleeping patient.

“I was out practicing my routine a couple days ago, ya know, to keep sharp and everything. It was a clear day, with nothing big scheduled for the weather, so I took the afternoon off. Well, I was between runs taking a break, just chilling on a cloud ya know? When I saw Derpy here [“her name is Dee” corrected Twilight.] Oh, well...Dee here flying past me. She stopped on one of the clouds out there just like I was doing, but something didn’t look right. She was crying a lot, and looked really sad. I was about to go up and see what was the matter when she took off with a vengeance and started climbing. She flew really high, higher than I even like to go, and then she just....stopped” the blue pegasus hung her head in sadness.

“She just...started falling out of the sky. It took me a minute to realize what she was doing, but I couldn’t let her just fall! I flew as fast as I could, but I didn’t think I was gonna catch her in time... I barely did. We were both diving so fast...She was in a free-fall, and I was catching up to her as fast as I could. I wrapped my hooves around her, spread my wings out far and they would go and pulled up, hoping and praying for the best. Well...I didn’t pull up completely before we reached the ground, and we hit pretty hard, but not enough to kill either of us luckily.”

“I’ll be okay Twi” said Rainbow Dash when she noticed Twilight looking her over for injuries. Twilight hadn’t noticed before, but there were a few bandages on Dash as well, and she had a splint on one of her wings. “But I’m not sure about Dee over there... She should be ok physically, but for somepony to try to pull something like that....I just don’t know...anyway...I managed to carry her here to Fluttershy’s. She’e been unconscious this whole time though.”

Twilight nodded knowingly, as did Fluttershy who had just been listening this whole time. “Maybe we can talk to her when she wakes up” said Fluttershy softly.

“Talk to me? No one ever wants to talk to me...” came a quiet voice.

“Well...Ummm...Oh....” said Fluttershy, not knowing how to respond to this.

Dee had woken up, well, she was still in the process of waking. She was conscious, but still groggy. It was all coming back to her...well...most of it was. She had passed out from a combination of exhaustion from climbing to the height she did, from lack of oxygen in the thin air, and of course the stress of the entire ordeal. Hitting the ground as hard as they did didn’t help any either.

“Why...? Why am I still here? What happened?...” Asked Dee in a daze.

“Rainbow here saw you falling and saved you!” Said Twilight cheerily.

“Why did you save me? I’m not worth anything to you...You should have just let me die!” Said Dee with frustration and anger in her voice. If looks could kill, the wall she was staring at when she turned away would have been dead many times over from the anger in her eyes. But her complexion changed to one of sadness, then her emotions simply went cold.

“I couldn’t let you die! No pony in MY town is gonna go down, and especially not like that.” Responded Dash assertively. Several seconds went by and there was still no response from Dee. The silence was deafening.

“What she means” said Twilight gently “is that we care about you. And we couldn’t let you do something like that.”

Still no response.

“She almost died to save you” the other two looked on in amazement and surprise as Fluttershy spoke up. “Rainbow Dash was hurt pretty badly, and could have died! All to save you. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”

“She doesn’t even know me” shot back Dee.

“That’s right” continued Fluttershy “she doesn’t know you and yet she was willing to die for you! Does that mean nothing to you? I think you should be thanking her, or at least you shouldn’t yell at her.” Her speech was gentle, but firm, like only Fluttershy could be. It was a verbal version of her famous ‘stare’ that could stop almost any animal in it’s tracks.

It finally started to sink into Dee that there was more at stake here than just her. She injured, and nearly got somepony else killed by her actions. She felt even stupider now, but she felt gratitude toward Rainbow Dash starting to grow. Her heart was so cold that it would take more than a little candle to warm it. But that little candle, that small but deep feeling of gratitude did something. It broke down the first layer of ice on her heart.

“I...I’m sorry. I should be thanking you. I know. But...I just...No pony has ever done anything nice for me...let alone risked herself for my sake...I’m sorry. Thank you Rainbow Dash...” said Dee still facing the wall. Her face and complexion remained emotionless, but her words were sincere. Fluttershy had made progress, as only Fluttershy was capable of.

“Now Dee” said Fluttershy “you were still injured. Dash caught you, but both of you still crashed pretty hard. I fixed you as best I could, but I want you to stay here... If that’s alright with you...” she said instinctively “...well...I mean...you should stay here” she corrected herself.

“Why...why did you call me Dee?”

“Twilight corrected us. She said you preferred to be called Dee, but that you name is Ditzy. I’m sorry I ever called you Derpy...I thought that was your name...” she faded off.

“Yeah...I’m sorry too” “Yeah me too” said Twilight and Dash.

“We didn’t know” said Twilight “I’m sure you didn’t like it, I don’t know how we could have been so insensitive, so stupid. I’m sure we hurt you. We’re really sorry Dee...”

“You really thought that was my name?” She said “no wonder no pony calls me anything else.”

“We did. Maybe if we would have taken time to talk to you, and to get to know you, we would have acted differently. We should have taken the time” Twilight said.

“You should rest now” said a concerned Fluttershy “I’ll see Twilight out and then make you some soup. You should rest until the soup is ready, you’ve been unconscious for a while now” and with that she moved toward the door.

“I’ll talk to you later Twilight, okay? I hate to ask you to leave like this...but...”

“I understand! Your patient needs you!” Twilight responded. “I completely understand! Let me know if you need anything?”

Fluttershy nodded “okay Twilight” she said “Thank you.”

“Yeah, same here Fluttershy, let me know if ya need me!” Said Dash as she was trotting off.

“And just where do you think you’re going?” Said Fluttershy firmly.

“I was just going to um...going um... huh?” Dash’s voice cracked.

“You’re not going anywhere until you’re better. You fell pretty hard too, remember? You’re in no shape to be alone, let alone be flying home” Fluttershy pointed to Dash’s wing.

“Oh yeah, that” said Dash nonchalantly. “I guess you’re right. I guess a couple more nights couldn’t hurt” And with that she walked back inside, followed by Fluttershy.

“I’m going to go make that soup now” said Fluttershy quietly as the trotted toward her kitchen. “You should rest too until I finish, it won’t be long!” And with that, Fluttershy left the blue pegasus to go prepare dinner. You could hear typical kitchen sounds of vegetables being chopped and water being boiled, but she did a good job of keeping the noise down so as not to disturb her two patients.

Meanwhile in the other room the two pegasi were relaxing, not wanting to fall asleep completely for fear of missing dinner. It was already smelling amazing just a few minutes after being started. So they both moved to the table in preparation for the coming meal.

“So...Rainbow Dash?..” the shy Dee started to speak.

“Yeah Dee? What’s up?” Dash responded.

“I...I want to apologize for yelling at you earlier...and to thank you again for saving me.” Said Dee.

“Awww it was nothin’.” The proud blue pegasus responded. “I was just in the right place at the right time, ya know?” She blew off the compliment, but was enjoying the attention of course.

“No. I was stupid of me to do what I did. You risked your live to save mine. No one has even been that nice to me before. I’ve never had any friends, and what little family I have doesn’t understand me...” Dee trailed off into thought for a moment, lost in her own mind. “Thank you Rainbow Dash” she said a few seconds later “thank you so much.”

Dash just blushed. She had no response to this, but finally managed to say “Anytime,” smiling, embarrassed now at all the attention. Luckily Fluttershy broke the awkward silence that was building when she came out with soup and bread.

“Who’s hungry?” She said softly “it’s my secret recipe! I hope you both like it.”

“I’m starving! Thanks Fluttershummsn!” Dash said, mouth already full. Fluttershy had barely set the bowl down and Dash already had her muzzle buried in it, chowing down.

“Thank you Fluttershy, you’re too kind.” Said Dee gratefully as Fluttershy set her soup down in front of her. “This smells delicious!”

“You’re very welcome Dee. With all you’ve been through you have to be starving! There’s plenty more where that came from, so don’t hesitate to ask for more!” Said a smiling Fluttershy.

“I’ll have more!” Said Dash. She had already finished her first helping and was starving for more, as usual.

“The soup is on the stove Dash, you know the routine!”

“Sure thing Shy” said Dash and she was off to the kitchen, bowl in her teeth.

With that, Fluttershy sat down with her own soup, joining Dee who had already started eating.

“I should thank you” Dee started “for your kindness. And for this delicious soup” she said with a smile.

“Oh you’re very welcome. I always love helping out, and I always love cooking!” Said Fluttershy with a smile.

“No...it isn’t just that. You’ve shown me more kindness in the last hour than anyone has shown me since I was just a filly. I mean...It means a lot to me, and I don’t know how I can ever repay you and Rainbow Dash”

“It’s quite alright” said Fluttershy smiling “this is what I do.”

“Well thank you Fluttershy. Thank you Rainbow Dash” she said as Rainbow arrived back with a fresh bowl of soup in her teeth, promptly digging in again like she hadn’t eaten in days.

“Hey, no problem” said Dash.

“You’re welcome” said Fluttershy with a smile. “What are friends for, right?”

“Friends?” Said a surprised Dee. “You guys...are my friends now?”

“Of course! Why wouldn’t we be? I mean...if you want to be friends that is.” Said Fluttershy.

“Yes” said Dee with a grin “I would love that.”

Comments

[DreadedCandiru2]

Okay, so she's alive and willing to stay that way. That's the easy bit; the hard part is dealing with her idiot relatives and loutish acquaintances. Good thing for her that she's got the Mane Six in her corner, eh?

[Ninjeneer]

And I will deal with many of those in the coming chapters. This story is far from over. But at least you all don't hate me for (presumably) killing off Derpy.

[Meta Knight]

interesting

[Meta Knight]

interesting

[Steampunk Starlight]

I knew somehow Ditzy wouldn't die that easily, but that was really a heart string puller for me. Hope the next chapter comes soon!

[ShadowLancer]

Yay! She's alive! I will follow this story to the end!