What Went Wrong

by ChaoticHarmony

I Just Don't Know

She sat in the broken down town hall, light streaming down to shine on her from the holes in the ceiling. She looked around at the wreckage. There was broken timber everywhere, and the tiles were shattered in some places. Her feathers were scattered all over the floor, being tossed about as she fell and flapped frantically. Tears welled up in her eyes, and she dropped her head to stare at the floor and muttered to herself, “I just don’t know what went wrong.”

Standing up, she wiped away the tears that had started to fall down her face, and she put on her normal vacant smile. She opened the door to the town hall and walked out, waiting for the berating yells to start. Rainbow Dash made her way up to her, pity and anger in her eyes. “Derpy! What’s the matter with you? I mean come on! Just last week we had to fix this mess, and now you did it AGAIN!” Rainbow was looming over her now, shouting at her. “We don’t need a silly filly like you to mess things up ALL the time!” Rainbow stomped a hoof into the ground, crushing a small piece of wood that was in front of Ditzy’s face. She cowered as Rainbow kept yelling at her. “Derpy, just go away! You ALWAYS mess things up!”

Ditzy stood up, and looked at the small crowd of ponies around her with tears in her eyes. Their eyes were all filled with anger as they glared at her. She put her head down again, letting the tears fall to the dirt as she muttered, “I just… don’t know what went wrong.” She felt a smack across her face, and looked up to see Rainbow rearing back to slap her again. Screaming in fright, Ditzy extended her wings and took off in the direction of her home.

She crashed into the door, knowing it would be unlocked. She slammed it behind her with a hoof, the frame cracking with the force of it. She sank back against the door and sobbed, all of her pains pouring out of her eyes with a torrent of tears. “Everypony hates me! And I can never figure… out…. Why!” Ditzy slammed a hoof to the floor and continued sobbing in her dark home. She didn’t even try to light her lanterns, preferring to let her tears pour in darkness. She could still feel all the mean glares looking at her, could still hear all the angry shouts that they yelled at her. She had nopony else in the world, nopony to comfort her or tell her it would be all right.

Ditzy had always been a clumsy filly, with two strange eyes. One looked one direction, and the other looked a different way. It had been the source of her nickname, Derpy Hooves. At first, Ditzy had fought against it, but soon she had given up on trying to rid herself of it. Now everypony called her Derpy, thinking nothing of it. Every time somepony called her Derpy, she felt another small prick of shame in her heart, but she had learned to not let it show. When she showed her sadness, everypony just teased her more and more.

After her filly years, she joined the weather team as a young-mare, ready to get out in the world. She had always been one to put clouds in the wrong places, but normally she never messed anything up too badly. Rainbow had been her friend then, never calling her Derpy and always defending her against the bullies from her school. Ditzy had always been grateful for her. Without Rainbow Dash, she would have left town and never come back. Of course, as she grew older, her mistakes grew more and more severe. She had started jumping on thunderclouds, resulting in not only damage to the town, but often a trip to the hospital. She also began crashing into supports on tall buildings, causing the large beams to fall down on the ponies below. Rainbow had started to call her Derpy and she joined the ranks of the ponies that said it without realizing how much it hurt. Ditzy had cried for hours after that fateful day at the town hall.

Of course, after she left the weather team, she had met Dinky Hooves. Derpy had been flying home after she left the post office, and her new job as mailmare, and she had heard the crying coming from the alleyway. She had taken her back to her home, and cared for Dinky as if she were her own. Tears sprung up again as she remembered Dinky’s final words to her. Dinky’s last words to her were filled with hate, not love. Dinky’s anger filled voice rang out in the dark room, only in Ditzy’s mind, but still just as real as they were all those years ago. “Mom, I don’t want to stay anymore! Everypony makes fun of me because I’m with you! You’re just… DERPY!” After that, her muffin exited Ditzy’s life forever, never visiting her again.

Ditzy had lost everypony that mattered to her. Not even Pinkie Pie would throw her parties anymore, or even give her discounts on her favorite muffins. Now she ate the grass that grew in her house’s cracked floorboards. It was like her life now, tasteless and without color. She shook with despair as she finally realized what Rainbow Dash and all the other ponies wanted. They wanted her to leave Ponyville. She cried and cried in her dark room, moving to pack up her only possessions. In her saddlebags, she placed a picture of Dinky, and a small muffin-shaped locket with a picture of her beloved Doctor Hooves.

She turned to her writing table, and picked up a small pencil. Writing down what she wanted, she folded the tear stained letter and set her last muffin on top of it. She turned away from the letter, and all it contained. With a sad sigh, she walked to her front door, still hanging ajar from the force of her kick.

Walking out of her house, she was greeted by a downpour of rain. It soaked through her mane and made her shiver with the cold. She walked through Ponyville, taking in all the dark and closed buildings around her. Standing on the path that led away from Ponyville and into the Everfree, she looked back at her old life with a small smile on her face and tears mixing with the rain on her face. “I just….don’t know…what went wrong.” Her small grey figure disappeared into the dark and cold forest.

Comments

[Harmonic_Chaos]

What a bunch of haters!
T'was sad bro.

[VigAuthor]

... It's never gonna finish the Mane 6, is it...

Good story. Now people: lern 2 vote!

[Eclipsed_Luna94]

poor Derpy... i mean Ditzy...

[Emerica]

:(

[MissPeacock]

That was...SO SAD!

[Sounds Right]

That was quite appropriate

[Caneighdian Jake]

Nicely written story so far. You definately made Derpy's despair tangable and authentic to the reader.

The only critique I have is that the actions of Rainbow Dash feel artificial; I just have a hard time accepting Dash being so mean and violent to another pony, especially a pony that used to be her friend. What happened to the Dash that is the embodiment of the Element of Loyalty? For me, the shock and disbelief of Dash's actions (especially her slapping Ditzy in the face) took my focus away from Ditzy and place it on Dash as I wondered what could have happened to make Dash act as she did. The same thing with Pinkie Pie. I just can't see her avoiding or ignoring another pony like that; especially after what we learn about her in the episode "A Friend in Deed." Ditzy must have done something significantly horrendous, unforgiveable, and hurtful to have Dash and Pinkie act that way towards Ditzy.

Otherwise, the writing, the descriptions, and the story are great.

[Blue Streak]

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Poor, poor Ditzy