6 Universal Nights

by The Blue EM2

Night 4: Best Pony meets Worst Ride

"Oh?" asked Berry Punch, seemingly struggling to stay upright. Nobody had any idea why. "Why didn't you like it?"

"I suppose I should explain," said the girl, whose manner had revealed them to be Derpy, and so she began...

---

Not long earlier... or before that... or whichever is grammatically correct...

---

Steph had stopped in Seuss Landing before waving goodbye to John as he headed further north and east (towards the Orient, you could say, if the swamps of Florida and the Florida Keys qualify at Oriental, which I suspect they don't unless you count the underwater Jesus statue). Indeed, she was once more on her own, which was indeed sad. As she stood in the line for another ride, a group of llamas walked past. This was very confusing, as theme parks normally did not have brave, good, strong llamas in them. Indeed, llamas are normally restricted to zoos and other places, which is a shame as more people need to see llamas and-

---

INTERRUPTION

I apologise for the fault in the text. Those who had been recording my words have been sacked, and replaced with people who aren't obsessed with llamas. Normal service shall resume momentarily.

---

As she stood in the line for another ride, she suddenly saw something weird going on outside the line. Just joining the line was a girl in a Crystal Prep uniform, and she seemed to be on a permanent coffee high judging from how much she was bouncing up and down like a demented seesaw. Steph laughed.

"I wonder which one of us that is?" she snorted, as the line began to move forward once more. This ride was One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, based on the Dr Seuss book of the same name. The riders rode on fish, and were piped music to give them a special series of cues to follow to avoid water being splashed upon them. In the Florida heat, some water being thrown your way would actually be quite nice, but anyways. Steph would have to wait in line for a while, and so she did, waiting in the heat. The line moved very slowly. One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish had no Express line, and was a very slow loader. Add the number of kids who had a somewhat questionable sense of direction into the mix and you had a very slow queue indeed. It was so slow you could have read the Complete Works of Dr Seuss in the time. No, seriously, you could have. It was that slow. So Steph waited, and waited, and waited, until she saw something odd lying on the floor. It was a tie of some sort. Not a cable tie, but the sort you wear around your neck as part of formal attire, in a business suit for instance. Thinking somebody had left it behind, Steph picked it up. Big mistake.

It suddenly vanished from the ground, and before she could react it was floating in mid air. A shot of yellow lightning flew forth from it and into her, setting into motion the events of today's chapter.

It began with her shirt, naturally enough, which shrank a bit in side. The neck suddenly grew a collar (and not a colour; sorry Cozy Glow!), which changed to a cobalt blue, or just blue, followed by the rest of her shirt changing from the usual white pigment to a turquoise shade. The collar folded upwards, and the tie flew into place, tying itself in place with a Windsor knot. It then hung awkwards down her front as the collar folded back down. No sooner had she processed this then the world began to distort at strange angles, as if she was in an Escher painting. Blonde hair brushed into her eyes and down the back of her neck.

"Who is thi-" She stopped, and the voice, which was very familiar, especially to long time fans of the series. "The dream of any brony or pegasister! I'll be Derpy!"

Sure enough, the changes resumed, and her shorts joined in on the fun. They began to shift and merge, the legs coming together and looking like a very odd pair of shorts as the zip and buttons vanished from them, being replaced by elastic to hold the garment in place. Not long after that, her body began to shrink a bit, to the dimensions of a 15 year old, but nothing too drastric. Not as drastic as some of Katrina's, anyway). The gap between the legs of the shorts vanished, and the resulting garment flowed out into a skirt, which turned green, as the tie turned yellow from its previous black. The bottom of her shirt gained a white band, as her socks grew up her legs and stopped at her calves. Finally, her sandles morphed into a pair of very strange green shoes which could have come from Penny Lane (a Brownie point if you spot the reference).

Derpy just glanced about, confused. Her vision was a lot less lopsided now, and she seemed to have no difficulty in walking about. "Well, that was strange," she said. "But a lot less dramatic than some other Derpy transformations I've heard of. Ah well, better wait for this queue to end."

"Excuse me?" called a ride employee. "Any single riders? We need two single riders for this attraction! Any single riders?"

Derpy put her hand up, and the emloyee escorted her forward to the front, where she was suddenly joined by the hyper girl she'd seen earlier. "Hello!" she said. "I'm Derpy! Are you from Crystal Prep?"

"Yep!" the girl replied. "I'm Marigold, a pleasure to meet you!"

The pair shook hands as they sat down in the ride vehicle. The ride then started up as the rhyme began to play, and the fish began to fly up and down whilst water flew at them. It took the pair approximately 7 seconds to work out the pattern, and merrily dodged water as they flew up and down.

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Present day...

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"I see," Berry replied. "Well, thanks for the warning, you two. I suppose we'd better be getting to our next attractions."

"You can't be intoxicated in the park!" Derpy said, commenting on Berry's apparent lack of balance. "And you look mildly intoxicated."

"What's with all the big words suddenly?" Berry asked, as she walked off.

Marigold looked at Derpy as Starlight appeared from nowhere. "I don't like where this is going."

"I'll keep an eye on her," Starlight smiled. "You two have fun." And she set off.

"Brave Dame Gilda ran away!
Dame Gilda ran away, away!"

"OH, SHUT UP!"

Moments later, the moody girl from earlier appeared, and stopped as the singers went onwards... and into the lake.

"Now we are wet!
Now we are wet!
Our clothing is so very damp,
We may be mistaken for a tramp,
If anyone could light a lamp and call security?"

"I wouldn't worry about them," Gilda grunted. "Somebody else will fish them out. Now who wants to ride Hagrid's Motorbike Adventure?"

"Muffin?"

Author's Note:

Sorry this one was a bit shorter than usual, but the clocks have just gone forward where I live at time of writing and I'm a bit jetlagged.

For those wondering, I went with the voice Derpy has in Slice of Life, partly as the reference art I used for her appears to be based on the later version of the character, which was changed as people complained that the original version was offensive to people with disabilities. The fact they didn't ask anybody with disabilities really says a lot about them, doesn't it?

But this ride... fun the first time you ride, but once you've been on it more than once you figure the pattern out pretty fast.

Comments

[The Blue EM2]

10164037
Aww, she sure is.

[JimmyHook19]

4 nights down, only 2 left to go! :D Bring on Night 5 when Monday gets here! x3

As for the chapter itself... heh.... I always wonder what it would be like for whenever I transform into Derpy, be it her pony counterpart or her EG Counterpart, for my eyes to gain her classic derpiness. X3

Steph handled her transformation into EG Derpy really well! :D

[The Blue EM2]

10164235
The art she suggested was the de-derped version.

[JimmyHook19]

10164367
Noice =)

[The Blue EM2]

10164368
See above for that.

[Godslittleprincess]

I have not been to any theme parks in ages.

[The Blue EM2]

10380930
Neither have I. This pandemic sucks...

[Ellery Quinn]

The Stuff with the Llamas is another monty python and the holy grail reference, (imdb.com/title/tt0071853/crazycredits for the preceding ridiculous subtitles, and more people getting sacked)

[The Blue EM2]

10472262
Good spot.