It was a good morning, Derpy thought to herself as she looked about the empty schoolroom.
She had answered questions for a solid fifteen minutes after wrapping up her story. And though there was the occasional question about her parents or the weather factory, the foals were predictably clamoring to hear more about Surprise. She answered their questions as best she could –though some of them were things she had no clue about, as she hadn’t spent as much time with Surprise after leaving Cloudsdale as she once had- which of course only lead to more questions, until finally Cheerilee dismissed them for recess, shooing them out the door.
“Thanks so much for coming,” Cheerilee smiled, already halfway out the door herself, hurrying to keep an eye on her rambunctious students, “You did great!”
And that left Derpy and Rumble alone in the room.
“You weren’t great…” Rumble was still wriggling with excitement, his little rump waggling, tail swishing behind him, “You were awesome! And look how everypony listened to you! I knew you could do it!”
And then he leapt at her in one of those over-exuberant hugs, knocking her off balance and into Cheerilee’s desk in the process. She grunted as she hit the desk’s wooden side, one foreleg shooting out to steady the both of them. “Thanks, Rumble.” Despite the awkwardness of being slumped against the cool wood with the eager colt practically climbing up her, she smiled, giving him an affectionate squeeze, “I don’t think I would have been brave enough to talk to everypony if it weren’t for you believing in me.”
A face splitting grin tugged at Rumble’s mouth and he hugged her again, then bounced towards the door, wings fluttering. “I gotta go talk to everypony, now! And tell Tornado Bolt ‘told you so’!”
And with that…He was gone.
Derpy stood up and dusted herself off, giving her wings a ruffle and folding them neatly at her sides. She shook her head a little, a small smile on her face. Rumble was Rumble; he would always be himself and hopefully always do everything with great enthusiasm. It was part of what made him so adorable.
She started out the door and into the sunshine, tilting her head towards its warmth as she trotted down the path from the school. She had done it; she had spoken about herself without sounding like an idiot…And in front of a crowd, no less. It didn’t matter that they were just children; she knew that in many ways, foals were even more judgmental that adults. And yet…they had liked her story.
They had liked her.
And perhaps they would go home and talk about her. Perhaps they would tell their parents and the other grown ponies would somehow understand. Perhaps things would get better for her, if more ponies understood her. She had a hard time speaking in front of others about important things, especially around other ponies her own age or older. Her parents and their friends had left her so broken in that regard that she was nearly incapable of discussing deep feelings with anypony she didn’t know well.
She didn’t think she would ever be able to speak so candidly in front of a group of her peers, but the day had been a step in the right direction.
A gentle tug on her tail drew Derpy from her thoughts and she turned, bewildered, to find a petite unicorn filly standing behind her, a bit of her tail held loosely in the foal’s mouth.
This filly must have been part of the class –they were still in the schoolyard- though Derpy hadn’t remembered noticing her in the classroom. She was small, though, and it was entirely possible that she had simply escaped the older pony’s unreliable vision due to her small stature.
She was a cute little thing, with wide, guileless eyes in almost the same shade of gold as Derpy’s. Her coat was a muted greyish-purple, fuzzy and fine. Her mane and tail were the same straw color as the pegasus’, though they were thick, her short-cropped mane bushy, her tail long and unruly.
When Derpy stopped and looked at her, she smiled shyly at the sky, releasing the mare’s tail from her grasp.
“Hi.” Derpy smiled kindly, sitting in the grass near the filly, “Did you want to ask a question or something?”
The small pony shook her head, lifting one shoulder in a shrug. Then, still smiling, she lit her tiny horn and produced a paper folded neatly into eights from somewhere in her mane. She floated the paper through the empty space between them, dangling it in front of Derpy’s good eye, clearly enticing the mare to take it.
For a moment, Derpy did nothing. Then she blinked, glancing over at the filly, who furrowed her brow, once again offering the paper, this time forcing it right against the tip of her muzzle. The whole time, the small unicorn had been gazing at some point above Derpy’s head, as if incapable of making eye contact, despite the fact she was being kind of pushy about the paper.
Seeing no other alternative than to actually take the paper, Derpy reached for it gingerly, removing it from the unicorn’s golden magic. She started to unfold it, but the filly shook her head, holding up a hoof as if telling her to wait.
Then, with her gaze still slanted to the side, she took a couple tightly controlled steps closer, until her small shoulder was brushing against Derpy’s left leg. She beckoned the older pony closer and Derpy obliged, inclining her head in the filly’s direction.
“Thank you…” A tiny voice came right by her ear, the filly’s warm breath tickling across her cheek, and then in a pop of magic, she was gone, transported to some other part of the schoolyard, and Derpy was left alone, holding the folded note.
She blinked in confusion a couple times; what had just happened? That was the strangest foal she’d ever encountered.
Glancing about her –the filly was nowhere to be seen- she looked down at the note in her hooves, turning it over a few times. It was folded neatly, the creases crisp, and one side had her name printed on it in softy, curvy letters.
Giving one last glance around the schoolyard, Derpy began unfolding the note, smoothing it carefully atop the grass.
The paper contained a letter, written in the same gentle, loopy pen as her name on the outer corner.
Dear Miss Hooves, it began…
I wanted to thank you sincerely for coming to speak to the other schoolponies and I. Your story was very interesting and enjoyable and I found you to be incredibly brave. Speaking in front of other ponies is a very frightening prospect for me and I can’t even begin to fathom how you found the nerve to do so.
I wanted also to tell you that I too am teased by my peers. It started on the first day of the school year, when somepony tripped over my tail. It was Tornado Bolt, the filly sitting in the back next to Rainy Feather; the filly who said she would rather have ‘stuff’ than loving parents. She felt that it was my fault that she was not looking where she was going –I think she tried to blame me to keep herself from looking stupid.
But whatever the reason, she began calling me names and saying that I must be related to you, to be so clumsy and stupid. And I am clumsy, sometimes, though that’s due to the fact that I have a lot of magic and very little control over it, since I have not yet attended magic school. In any case, I have no idea why she dislikes you so much, but I suspect it was due to our similar coat and mane colors that she decided to attack me by insinuating I must be just like you. Tornado Bolt likes causing trouble and the other bullies feed off her negative attitude. It wasn’t long before they were calling me all kinds of names and attempting to insult the both of us.
But after today, with how courageous you were, I wanted to tell you that I would not be ashamed, if we were really related. I would be honored to call a fine mare like yourself family and I hope that I someday also have the confidence to stand up to the world and show everypony who I really am.
Thank you again.
Sincerely,
Dinky Doo
Huh.
Derpy read and reread the letter several times, trying and failing to make sense of it.
She was assuming the filly who’d given it to her was the pony who’d written the letter; it made sense, given the letter’s writer had said they looked alike and the filly certainly bore a resemblance to her. But the letter itself was very eloquent and mature, with some words Derpy had stumbled over before pulling their meaning from the context in which they were used.
It was a very curious letter, and the grey mare had no clue what to make of it.
“Derpy…” Cheerilee had suddenly appeared by her side, startling her from her jumbled thoughts.
She looked up from the paper at the schoolteacher. Cheerilee was frowning slightly, her brows drawn. She looked troubled, though Derpy couldn’t really guess at why.
“Did Dinky Doo speak to you, Derpy?” Cheerilee asked, her darkly serious gaze never leaving the other mare’s face. Her green eyes were lit with concern, though they displayed a hint of curiosity as well.
“Um…” In light of the other pony’s clear unease, Derpy wasn’t sure what the right answer was. She was, of course, an honest pony, but she couldn’t help but wonder if she’d done something wrong by talking to that filly. “Yes?”
“She did?!” Cheerilee didn’t even bother attempting to hide her shock. Her eyes widened, her mouth falling open in complete and utter astonishment. “Derpy, that’s huge!”
“It…It is?” The pegasus blinked, wholly confused and having absolutely no idea what was going on. The letter had said that its writer had a difficult time speaking to other ponies, but could overcoming shyness really be a reason for the teacher to react in such a dramatic fashion? “…Why?”
Cheerilee glanced about, spotting Dinky off in some remote corner of the playground, where she was alone, lifting and sorting rocks with her magic, lining them in precise rows of ascending size. “Dinky is…She’s kind of special.” The teacher began slowly, “She’s very bright, almost frighteningly so. But in the entire time she’s attended this school, she’s never spoken a word to anypony. Not to me, not to another student, not to her father on the occasion he comes to pick her up…He insists she can speak and that she does so at home, but I’ve never heard her voice.”
Cheerilee sighed, shaking her head sadly, “It makes the other little ponies…wary of her, I suppose. She’s friendly in her own odd way, and always curious and lively, but she doesn’t seem to know how to interact with others well. She never looks right at anypony. She rarely laughs, though she smiles often, and I’ve never seen her cry, either. Her…uniqueness hasn’t left her very popular with the other schoolponies and she spends most of her time alone.”
Derpy’s eyes widened as what the other mare was saying sunk in and comprehension dawned.
That filly –Dinky Doo- never spoke. Not to anypony. And while she had only uttered two wavering words close to Derpy’s ear –had she really even spoken them, or was Derpy just imagining things?- it was two more words than she’d ever spoken to another pony.
Why had she chosen to open up to Derpy, of all ponies? It didn’t matter that it had been only those two little words and the strangely-written letter, it was enough to leave the mare wondering just what she had done, to make her worthy of words in the filly’s eyes. Because honestly, she had just talked and that was all. What she had spoken of was meaningful to her, but she didn’t see how it could have possibly been enough to make that little filly speak.
“What did she say to you?” Cheerilee prompted, nudging the other pony gently with her hoof. Derpy looked as if her mind was blown; as if she were paralyzed by surprise and she couldn’t regain control of her body.
In a way, the teacher could understand. Dinky had been part of her class for over two years and in that time, she had never made a single sound. She answered questions often enough, but did so by handing Cheerilee notes or scrawling her answers on the chalkboard. She spoke with her body, through gestures and facial expressions, though she rarely made direct eye contact. She was an intriguing little creature, full of knowledge and secrets, all locked in her silent mind, and Cheerilee had always hoped to find a way to coax her out to the land of everypony else.
If she had been able to do it, she would have been just as stunned as Derpy. Probably even more so, after having worked with the filly for over two years.
“Just…‘thank you’.” When Derpy finally managed to speak, she sounded nothing short of puzzled, “And she gave me this.” She indicated the note, offering it to Cheerilee, “And I guess, um, it makes more sense, now that you kinda explained about her…”
Cheerilee took the letter, green gaze scanning over Dinky’s careful script. It was written with the same careful consideration for vocabulary and spelling as all of Dinky’s assignments, each letter neat and precise.
It was also positively heartbreaking.
“I…” Cheerilee wasn’t sure what to say. She knew things were tough for Dinky; the little filly had such a difficult time with social interaction, as well as limited control over the astounding magic housed in her tiny body. The teacher had seen other foals pushing the unicorn around, openly laughing at her, and generally being cruel in that special way only children could. “I suppose I’ll have to have another conference with her father. I want to help her and I certainly want this to be a safe learning environment for her…”
Derpy watched Cheerilee’s face with her stronger eye, easily recognizing the distress in the teacher’s expression. “Maybe, um…” She knew what she wanted to say, but not really how to say it. And though she was forming some sort of tentative friendship with Cheerilee, would the other mare take her seriously? “Maybe I can, you know, try talking to her again, next time I see her. You know…to see if she’ll talk to me more. So I can…help?”
Their gazes met and the two mares looked at one another, Derpy’s eyes for once both focused on Cheerilee’s face. She wasn’t sure what the other pony was thinking, but she hoped that whatever response the other mare had, it would be a positive one. She didn’t want any other filly to feel as sad and alone as she had and even if she wasn’t a natural with children…She wanted to try.
There was a moment of silence between then, then Cheerilee smiled. “I think that’s a wonderful idea.”
That was amazing. Gave a really heartwarming feeling.
P.S also reminded me of House, there was an episode where a seriousley autistic boy made eye contact with house when he would with no on else and gave House his favourite toy to say thank you. This was 52.7261364236423485183545 times more heartwarming though
1953972
That is one of my absolute favorite episodes of House. It struck me deeply, because I DO work with children on the Spectrum. We don't have anybody as severely affected as that boy at my work, but I have a huge soft spot for Autistic children.
I definitely want to work more with this Dinky. I think she'll be intriguing to explore.
1953982 It is a very good combination, I do get fed up with the whole "Dinky is Derpy's daughter" sort of thing occasionally, despite having written it myself in a couple of fics. On that note, do you have any idea if you will end your fic before (of course, this is based on a standard timeline for most romances and not just your fic) Derpy and Thunderlane have a child or get married. Or move out and live together.
1954010
I don't really play with that bit of fanon because there's never really any scenes with Dinky and Derpy together. I kind of figure people only write them as mother and daughter because they look similar(?). I'll be using Written Script as her father (as per this scene), with Golden Harvest appearing as his special somepony -- The absence of Dinky's actual mother will be explained later on.
This story will definitely end before Derpy and Thunderlane even get to a moving out phase. Derpy hasn't even spoken those three oh-so-important little words out loud yet!
HUZZAH! DINKY! I love Dinky and I loved Derpy's story, it hurt me, physically. Can't wait for more good job.
This is one of those stories that is just pleasant to read. I think "pleasant" sums it up perfectly. There is no heavy drama, the main characters are likeable and they learn from their experiences, the events end on a happy note and the downtrodden are lifted up. The shipping is different and adorable. Like I said, "Pleasant." You enter this fic on a level average note and you leave on a high note. I only regret not tracking this story sooner.
1954042 Damn, I will have to hold you at gun point to make a sequel though
(I'm only saying this because you're a very good writer who has so far taken a pretty standard seeming shipping fic based on the first chapter, and made into quite the roller coaster. It's also immensely cute. I was just interested to see what you were capable of with Marriage, Cohabitation and Making their own family)
1954054
Thank you so much! I always like to know I'm doing something right.
I really love slice of life fics and the kind of mundane struggles that come with them. I strive for as much realism as possible when I write and try to use a lot of detail -- I think that can be even more profound than action, adventure and over-the-top drama.
I'm glad to know I'm successful in my endeavor to portray the daily struggles people face.
...If that made any sense.
1954064
I may get to that, in the future. I have another project I'm trying to wrap up -"All Is Calm"- as well as something new I started writing last weekend that will probably be long and epic and therefore eat up a ton of my time.
We'll have to wait and see what else my muses want to divulge about their lives. I work solely on inspiration and try not to force anything; if I have any good ideas for that kind of story, I may get to writing one.
Wow, that is positively heart warming.
Such beauty. seems today all the stories I have read are beautiful in their own ways.
1954172
Thanks. I kind of go for a "beauty through bleakness" kind of thing, because I love angst.
With each chapter of this story, Derpy is raised further up on the awesomeness scale!!!
t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSRyJYSHaaF527MYc9k0FWn2HUE-JQ5vEyq3TvX7XWjDq9x3NcXFvF1dEPr api.ning.com/files/Ix44f-*UQORyOJu3iVDPesd3kI6QPVsFBewocfvJPjTsB7Tk97NGS9iHUlkxNkhtGD4hPgcyXCG4yp4gzKslsA__/DerpyApproved9_6.png?width=269&height=269 i1151.photobucket.com/albums/o631/BritishDerpy/84054-Ditzy_Dooartist3Aa8702131derpy_hoovesderpy_hooves_approves.jpg
1954269
And yet...She still has no idea just how awesome she is.
1954287 And that is another thing that makes her awesome. She has no ego to inflate, and some other stuff that I'm not sure how to put in to words!!
I like the touch with Dinky. It's refreshing to see her in a different role instead of Derpy's daughter/sister!!
1954307
She doesn't know she's beautiful and that's what makes her beautiful?
I didn't want to go down any sort of traditional road with Dinky, but I did want to poke fun at that -hence the bits about other kids assuming Dinky's related to Derpy. I also wanted to present a completely fresh idea for Dinky, something creative and different, but still endearing and touching.
1954210 The story I read before reading this chapter was Against the Wind by Shakespearicles, and it was beautiful to me. I don't know if you would be interested, the love in this story touched my heart and lifted my spirits. I am following him now, for this story alone.
1954322
Oh ho ho. I would actually be very much interested in a fic like that. I do so enjoy some Twi/Trixie.
1954351 I hope you enjoy it.
This story's going great, keep up the good work!!!
I like what you did with Dinky.
1956172
Thanks. I wanted it to be something really different and fresh.
D'aww!
I run toy trolleys and trains for the kids at trainshows in the MidSouth; it's always a special treat when a special needs child comes along and their eyes light up...
1956198
Well you definitely got that! Though to be honest, the whole story is something I haven't seen before. And that's a good thing. Too many ideas get rehashed over and over.
1959146
I do try to be really original, even if somebody else's story inspires me. I know I like to read things that are fresh and different, so I assume other people do, too.
This is already one of the most educational yet interesting fanfictions I have ever read. But with what you did with dinky has made this worthy of top five'ness on my fanfiction list, Congrabulations you lucky F***er
All right, this is an interesting new direction. I don't think I've ever seen Dinky used as anything but Derpy's daughter, and she tends to be pretty bland and generic in those stories. So this is a breath of fresh air. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing if Derpy can help her out.
I really like this story but here's a few things I just wanted to mention/comment about selective mutism (I'm a teenager and I have it myself, I've had it in about 6 years now and I'm still struggling with it):
1) Many people/children with selective mutism (including myself) understand the language and can speak it properly, so this is usually not the problem. Nor do I believe that they are "later" than other children to talk / learn the language. (You wrote this: "Language difficulties and delays")
2) You are not necessarily autistic just because you have selective mutism (you probably already knew that, but others might not). It's not the same thing and don't forget that. Autism is so much more (from what i know). And when people with autism/autistic spectrum disorders are mute in certain situations, like selectively mute people, they still PROBABLY won't get the diagnosis selective mutism I think, according to this (the diagnostics for selective mutism): "The disturbance is not better accounted for... and does not occur exclusively during the course of a pervasive developmental disorder, or other psychotic disorder." I suppose I am right...? Perhaps not.
Anyway, I think this story is a good... um, explanation, for a selectively mute child (i mean pony*). Many of them (including myself...) are talking at home, or with specific people (ponies*), but usually not (never) with like 5-10 people (ponies*) at the same time in a classroom, for example.
oh and 3) It is not called elective mutism anymore, it's not a choice, so it should not be called that. (I know you also wrote selective but now when you know, you don't have to do that anymore. Selective is the right word for it.)
Sorry for this very long comment, anyways, I'm so happy when people who don't have this mental disorder care about us, write stories about our problem (as you have done, not exactly a story about selective mutism, but a story where the main character/pony has it), and just the fact that they CARE. You can't believe how happy some of us are for the fact that there are people who are trying to understand how it feels like! Much love to all of these people who care about us and support us! Sorry if I did any spelling/grammar mistakes, english is not my native language but I hope I did well explaining everything and all :3
2680197 I really couldnt tell that english was not your native language. you are very gifted with vocabulary. keep on moving!