150: Pomp and Derpumstances
Once again, straightening up the apartment. Once again, making breakfast. Once again, a cup of coffee for Karyn and for Derpy.
But as soon as they finished their morning routine, Karyn was a mass of activity, showering and getting herself ready to go out for the day, and leaving Derpy to do the dishes. Only when she had put the last of them in the drain did she remember that that day was to be Karyn’s graduation ceremony. She worked faster to make sure that Karyn wouldn’t be held up.
“I miss being a changeling,” Karyn said as she emerged with a towel around her head. “You can better believe that I wouldn’t have gotten all dolled up for this. I had to get my hair done yesterday, and spend money on this dress for later. I would have just…” she pointed at herself and snapped her fingers.
“You look great, though. The pictures today should come out nice.”
“There’s that. Assuming I’m not all shiny from sweating having to run all over the place. Bad enough to cost me a Sunday, but we have to get there at ten, even though it doesn’t start till noon. Waste of my time.”
Derpy figured that Karyn was really bubbling over with happiness inside, and that she was half playing at being upset to keep from being giddy. “Anything I can do to help you get ready?”
“No. I’ll tell you another thing though. If I could change myself the way I used to, I would totally go naked today. It’s going to be a scorcher, and this robe won’t help.”
Karyn got out the orange robe that she had rented. Derpy noticed something off with it right away, but didn’t figure it out until she felt it with her hoof. “This is a robe?”
“Kind of. It’s plastic, as you can clearly tell. More like a rain poncho than anything decorative or fashionable. It’s designed so that I can wear it for a few hours over my clothes, then they’ll take it back, hose it down, and leave it in a box somewhere in storage for another twelve months. After that, they’ll charge someone else ten bucks to do the same. Or maybe they’ll be silly enough to buy it and leave it in their closet until it gets lost in a move.”
“You’re really upset about it, huh?”
“Well, it’s cheap.” Karyn threw it over her tank top anyway. “I bet that at Harvard or Princeton the graduates have real robes. And it’s going to be hot under here, in the bright sun. Of course, it’s not even opaque enough that I could wear it without anything underneath. Not that I would.”
Derpy now understood what Karyn was upset about. “Hey, just because you’re not as fancy as those schools doesn’t mean this isn’t real. And afterwards, when we have your party and everyone’s there for you, then you’ll know how much it means.”
She was a little proud of herself for recognizing the names of the two schools that Karyn had mentioned. When she had first met her friend, she was completely ignorant of all things Earth. Now she had a good working knowledge. With Karyn comforted about how much the day would mean, they got down to the logistics of preparation. Derpy went invisible, and they walked out toward the school.
Karyn took off the robe a few steps out, so as to not have it drag on the ground and pick up dirt. When they reached the campus, Derpy saw the multitude of people and remembered that they had seen such a throng on the first time she had flown Karyn around the area. At the time, this day seemed like a far-off dream. Now it was here.
There were a few signs with arrows on them directing the graduates to where they had to go, but again Karyn sneered at them. “See how they wrote ‘Graduates’ underneath upside-down? Because they printed them out before they knew where to put them up, and wanted the option of reversing them”
The last arrow led into one of the classroom buildings where Karyn signed in. A woman in a tight suit was directing the graduates. She wasn’t wearing a nametag, but a similarity of mannerisms led Karyn to nickname her Ms. Harshwhinny.
“Come on, everyone, I need to get you all in some semblance of alphabetical order!” she shouted. Most of the graduates weren’t paying attention, more focused on their own conversations with friends. Karyn did see a few of her fellow students that she knew, and exchanged greetings, but she was trying to be good for the coordinator. She stood where she figured the H’s might go.
But now there was nothing to do. She checked her phone and found that they had more than an hour before it was supposed to start. Where she was positioned, she could still see the outside through the doors. It was more pleasant out there, but at least where she was she had the air conditioning.
Two heads poked into the building, and Karyn recognized her parents. Grateful to have something to do other than wait, she walked toward the exit, checking first for Ms. Harshwhinny.
“Hey!” she called out. They had already started walking away.
“Karyn!” All was hugs and kisses for a few moments. She checked to see that Derpy was still nearby. When she felt a wing in her hand, she knew that she was.
“I’m glad you guys could make it, but shouldn’t you be waiting in the bleachers?”
Her father waved his hand like he was dismissing a fly. “Rules are for people content not to see their daughter on her most special day. Until you get married.”
Karyn’s mother gave him an elbow in the ribs. “No pressuring her, sweetie. This is all about today. I can’t tell you how proud we are of you.”
“Thank you.” Karyn thought a little of what had occurred to her the previous week. “I think it’s more than just graduating. I’m growing up a little.”
“Oh?”
“Yes. I mean, I’m still scared of a lot of what’s out there, but I know that one way or another, I’ve got to press through it and meet life head-on. Once I get to work, I’ll be responsible to keep the job and impress people to have them pay me more, or improve my resume so someone else will hire me.”
Nodding through this, Karyn’s father said, “Yes, but what about your social life? We want to make sure that you’re making friends as well.”
Before she could respond, her mother broke in. “Well, there is that one friend that we talked to on the phone. The one with the funny name. Is she around today, Karyn? All your friends should be here around you to wish you the best.”
Three factors came together in Karyn’s mind. The first was what she had just said, about growing up. The second was her father’s request to know that she was not becoming a recluse, or dedicating her time so much to money and work. And the third was the atmosphere of the commencement ceremony. It was time to take a bold step, and so she made a decision.
“She is. Can you step inside for a moment? We need to have privacy.”
It was a difficult goal, but they kept walking down the hall until they came to an empty classroom. Several others had been occupied with graduates adjusting their outfits or taking pictures. But this one seemed to be clear and had no cameras.
She closed the door and asked her parents to sit down. Without understanding, they did so. Karyn took a deep breath. “Derpy? Why don’t you go ahead and meet my parents.”
They looked around, and thoughts of it being an imaginary friend flashed through their heads, before the voice responded. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, please.”
“All right.” Derpy dropped her invisibility spell and lit on the floor. Karyn’s mother leaped out of her chair and toward her husband. Karyn’s father held his composure better, but was still stunned.
“Mom, Dad, this is Derpy Hooves. She’s a pegasus pony from Equestria.”
“It’s very nice to meet both of you in the flesh at last.” Derpy said. She wasn’t sure if she was expected to shake hooves, and settled for a quick bow of her head.
They refused to acknowledge her and turned to stare at Karyn, their expressions asking for an explanation. Karyn started in. “Yes, she’s from a magical land, so magical that they found a way to come to our world. But it’s just Derpy who comes regularly, just to see me. And so I haven’t tried to exploit that magic for fame or personal gain. I’ve left it alone, along with the world, to grow in its own way.”
“Why didn’t you tell us before?” her father asked.
“Because you see how hard this is, and I didn’t want to have to deal with you acting like this.
“The bottom line is that I wasn’t going to get through school without a friend. Someone reliable that I could count on to help me through the troubled spots. And whom I could help in return. I didn’t have the time to find one here on campus, or even of my own species. What you need to understand is that Derpy is a little different in her world too. But we fit with each other. Also, you’ve both been incredibly rude to her by ignoring her.”
Karyn’s father was surprised to hear his daughter speak so forcefully, but her mother took her last point to heart. “Pleased to meet you, Derpy,” she said.
“Now, just as I haven’t,” Karyn continued, “you can’t tell anyone about this, or try to prove that magic exists. It’ll just be our particular family secret."
Her father seemed to want to argue, but either because he was still reeling from the revelation or because his wiser side prevailed, he nodded agreement.
Her mother, perhaps prodded by greeting Derpy, seemed to find her voice. “Yes, as you said, you did grow up. And although this seems like a childish fancy, I think you’re right in that this was the best friend for you. I’m proud of you, once again.”
“Thank you, Mom.”
“Can we spend some time with Derpy? Get to know her?”
Karyn checked the time on her phone and pressed her face to the window out of the classroom. The graduates were still milling around. “You should probably get to your seats. Afterwards we’ll figure everything out, just between the four of us.”
Accepting that she was right, Karyn’s parents gave her one last hug and kiss, then left to find the audience gallery.
She made another check of the line outside, but still Ms. Harshwhinny hadn’t been able to get everyone ready to walk out. So Karyn decided that she would take a few minutes and compose herself. Derpy had gone back invisible, anticipating that they’d go quickly, but held back when Karyn did.
“What’s up?” she asked.
“Just want a minute. Things like that are another reason that I don’t like graduations.”
“Things like me meeting your parents?”
It took Derpy a moment to parse Karyn’s entire sentence, so she got an answer to her question. “I mean them just being here in general and fawning all over me. It’s like going to a family party but worse.”
“Wait, you really don’t like this? You’re actually not having a good time, and you weren’t just concerned about the schedule or the robe or a few little details?”
“Well, yeah. I’ve gone to other people’s graduations, and it’s boring. You sit there while they read off names and people walk, get a piece of paper, and sit down. It’s meaningless.”
She started back, but Derpy turned off her spell again. “I can’t let you go out there like this. This is too important.”
“What’s the big deal?”
“Wait. Give me a moment. I’ve got to think about this and say it right.”
Derpy put her hooves on the side of her head, like she was trying to stop a headache. Karyn wanted to make sure the others wouldn’t leave without her, and suggested that they talk about it later.
“No,” said Derpy. “I’ll keep one eye on them and one to talk with you. But you need to listen. Sit down.”
Karyn did as instructed.
Derpy softened her tone a little, but it still had the stern tone that Karyn herself had used when dressing down her parents for being rude.
“A long time ago, I realized something about life. The bad things in life, they come up randomly and they hit hard. Losing a job, someone getting hurt, a disaster that burns your house down—you don’t know when they’ll happen. Good things you have to work on day after day, and if you don’t take time to reflect, then you can’t feel the good things, and the bad things get put in sharper relief.
“When I realized that, it was when Dinky first went off to school. I remembered all the hard work I put in, the days and years raising her, trying to make her the best pony I could. Nopony was going to give me an award for that, even though it was the greatest thing I’ve done. So I knew I had to make my own award, in order to feel the good I did as much as I would feel something bad.
“To do that, I needed a friend to share it with. But nopony in Equestria would do. So I had to find someone else. I found you.”
Karyn’s eyes got misty as she listened to Derpy.
“Now you’re in the same position I was,” Derpy continued, “but you’re going to throw all the emotions away? I am not going to let you do that. I wasn’t there for you during all those hours that you spent in the classroom, or all those nights that you wrote your papers, or all those days when you had to see your professors instead of having fun. But I am here now, and in the name of our friendship, you are going to feel all of the good you’ve accomplished, if I have to reach into my bag and pull out a magic spell to make you feel it!”
Karyn broke down and fell into Derpy’s hooves. As she felt Derpy’s wing gently stroke her hair, she said, “I worked so hard, but I thought that was what I had to do. I never thought about getting any reward for it.”
“Well, you should. You deserve it.” She lifted up Karyn’s face. Her eyes were puffy and her eye shadow had run. “Now I am going to have to go into my bag. I think I have a spell for fixing makeup.”
Laughing through her tears, Karyn stood still to let Derpy work her magic. Then she walked back out into the hall. All the robes were in some semblance of a line, so she returned to her spot just in time for Ms. Harshwhinny—whose real name, she found out, was Ms. Jones—to put her in her exact position and chastise her for running off.
It was a fairly large class, and it took a while for the head of the line to move enough for Karyn to start off. The entirety of the graduation march had played once by the time she reached the outside.
Karyn, before she had gone to school, had a brief period where she got into classical music, and the Elgar march had been one of her favorite pieces. Now, hearing it for her, it took on new meaning for her.
The march had to be slow, since at the head people were filing into their seats. The audience was behind them, with the graduates’ section roped off by masking tape. She remembered so many occasions when she was forbidden from the best seating. Now it would be hers. Derpy was right. She should enjoy her honors while they lasted.
She looked for her parents, but their delay in speaking with her had put them in the standing crowd. Karyn realized that the sports field was the only place on campus big enough to hold all the graduates and their well-wishers, so even though it meant being in the hot sun, Karyn was glad it was outdoors. It seemed miraculous—or maybe just magical—but she didn’t even feel hot.
Another point of serendipity fell her way. She got the first chair in a row, giving Derpy space to squat next to her. She could hold her hoof until she had to stand and walk to the stage.
Since she had missed the instructions, being too busy having moments with her parents and with Derpy, Karyn had to infer how they were supposed to do this. The first person, two rows ahead, stood up and walked to the stage, paused a moment, then walked up to shake hands with the dean of students and receive her diploma. So a secondary bottleneck was created, but the row of chairs was cleared, and so the student could leave the other side of the stage and walk back across to her seat. Karyn would have to do the same.
Each student received a base amount of slight applause when their name was called out, but some definitely got a full cheer. Most of them she didn’t recognize, although Nadia, with whom she had once done a group project, effected one of the louder receptions. Karyn joined in with enthusiasm.
As the bottleneck cleared, the second row was instructed to move to the stage. Karyn went on high alert. Soon it would be her turn to move, and she didn’t want to hold up the process at all.
“Catch me if I trip,” she whispered to Derpy.
“I always will.”
When the time came, she did not trip, and filed into line behind the last person in the second row. One by one the graduates had their moment, until there were three in front of her, then two, then one…
“Karyn Hubert!” came through the microphone. The speaker had paused for a moment over her given name, then gotten it right. Karyn waited for the polite applause, but instead, there was a cheer that rivaled the most popular students’. She was touched. Maybe she had made an impression in school after all. She heard a long whistle and a cry of “Yeah!”
Back down the row, and into her seat. She found Derpy and said, “That was pretty cool.”
“Mmhm. I might have used a teensy loudness spell for it, but not too much.”
Karyn rolled her eyes and smiled. It would sound loud on the video at least.
After her row, there were three more to go, but instead of being bored, Karyn took it as a time for silent reflection. She was popular, no matter the quantity of her friends. The quality couldn’t have been better.
For the first time, she saw herself from outside, as someone else would. She was no longer a stressed-out college student. She was a young woman with a job, access to magic, and a special best friend. Karyn was awesome. Like Derpy, she would be a figure in the background of many people’s lives, but who secretly had a full life of her own.
When the last of the participants had received their diploma and returned to their seats, there was a brief speech from a hired speaker. Karyn missed who he was and what he had done, but he was adept at his job, keeping his speech limited to pleasant platitudes, lofty promises, and—most importantly—five minutes.
The graduates were told to rise, and place their hands on their tassels, hanging to the left of their heads. Karyn remembered this from the rehearsal and instructions. She had thought it a meaningless gesture, but now, thanks to Derpy, she understood.
The dean got to the microphone and said, “Graduates, graduate!”
Karyn pulled her tassel across to the right side. It was like a magic spell. Four years of work coalesced into a special piece of paper, and her moving of the tassel imbued it with all the education she had.
As rigorously controlled as the ceremony was, when it was over, there were no instructions given about what to do next. So Karyn just walked back around the chairs to find her parents.
She could see that they were going to speak, but she wanted to go first. “I love you both, very much.”
“We love you too,” said her mother. “Let’s take some pictures. Derpy, are you there? Can you take one?”
Derpy laughed. “I am. But it might freak people out if they saw the camera just hovering in midair.”
“You’ll get used to it,” said Karyn. Let’s wait until we get home for the party and we can take some that have Derpy in it too.”
Her parents looked at each other, wondering why that wasn’t forbidden. “All right. You want to come with us? We’re heading out to beat the traffic.”
“Thanks, but no. I’ll take my own car. I can stay over, but then I’ve got to start work in the morning, and I’ll want to drive back to my place after.”
“OK, kid.” Her father gave her one more kiss on the forehead, then they walked off.
“Looks like you made a connection with them,” said Derpy.
“Maybe. They’ll always be my parents, but now I hope we can be friends too. I wouldn’t have picked them for friends otherwise, but I will now. And that’s OK. That’s how life works. You build things up over time, like friendships, and you have to take notice on special occasions.”
“You learn life lessons quick!”
They shared a laugh and began walking, out of the sports field, off the campus, back toward home. Under the shade of the trees, in the bright light of the summer sun, Karyn and Derpy walked together until they arrived and Derpy could be seen.
“So I have work next Sunday,” Karyn said. “We’ll have to miss our visit.”
“Oh! I forgot to mention. Graduation present.” Derpy went into her bag and passed Karyn a spell. “For you, for keeps. Point it at a piece of paper and it will come out of its twin. I have the other one. We can send messages now, even when we’re apart.”
“Perfect. Just perfect. Now our bond can’t be broken.”
“Bond?”
Karyn turned to look at her. “Of course. We have a true bond of love and friendship. That can’t be broken anyway, but now we’ll have all the good times ahead, no matter what.”
And Derpy said nothing to that, because there was nothing to say. “Come on. Let’s go to the party.”
They walked together, as they would walk together for the rest of their lives. Derpy Hooves was Karyn’s pony, and Karyn Hubert was Derpy’s human.
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As promised here's the song:
A great ending to a great story.
499816
Yes. Yes, it does.
Just wondering if the title of the chapter was intentional? Circumstances, as opposed to (Pomp and) Circumstance.
6209628 Yes. It's not as direct a reference, but there are certainly circumstances that occur.
Thanks for all of this.
Wake up, have coffee, check things, read last chapter of story.
After three years.
Tonight, Karens parents will be happy and celebrate her taking her next step along the road of life.
Tomorrow, theyll cry in private, because the happy child, is no more, instead replaced by an uncertain, but rapidly gaining confidence adult, to be treated as an equal, to talk as a freind.
For sale. Baby Bootees. Barely used.
Now go out and have yourself an adventure.
Been a long many chapters, but I'm glad I was able to read it all to the end. Well done... just well done.
Wow. It's over. It felt like it was never going to happen, but now it's ended and it was quite a journey.
I have enjoyed every chapter. Thank you for this piece.
Congratulations on a great finish! Have an Internet gingerbread house that may or may not contain a certain light-red mini-equine!
Keep going! ;) onward and upward, after these messages!
Well that was one heck of a ride. Always had fun seeing this turn up in my feed, and it was a great end to a great story.
I have a simple interrogation.
Is there a " missing before "Let's"? I'm truly not sure since I'm not that advanced in written English.
And now, since this is the final chapter, I must thank you for this brilliant story that made me wait every wednesday for almost 2 years. (I read the first year in the week I've discovered the story.) I wish your luck and fortune in your future, wherever you go or whatever you do.
Thanks for a great story. Thanks for hanging through all these years, keeping writing, keeping going until the story is told. Thankyou!
You may consider having this published in book form. Even though I've read it, I'd buy one.
This was a long ride down the road, but a great one at that. Every week I had something to look forward to. Now that it is over I sincerely hope that you'll be publishing another story sometime. And I'd buy it in book form too. Just like other great works of fiction.
Keep at it. Even if it wouldn't be pony words. Just post a link if that happens. I'd be interested.
Dragon san
6212371 Hey, I'm sorry it took so long to get back to you. That's great. I actually did hope I could get some people to talk about budgeting like that, but I couldn't put it in the story because the story has to entertain, and budgeting isn't fun.
But you should be proud of yourself. It took me three years to get rid of just $8000 in debt. Certainly I'm proud of you. And Derpy is proud of you too.