Being Different
Twilight takes a happy bite of her breakfast, the early morning sun shining through the kitchen window. She glances out the window at the blue sky with a few clouds drifting lazily across the canvas. She yawns, having only woken up about an hour earlier. She hears someone walking around upstairs and levitates a bowl of cereal to the other side of the table. The hoofsteps turn into something tumbling down the stair and onto the floor of the library. She takes another bite of breakfast and waits for the pony to enter the kitchen.
A second later a pink fluffy head pokes into the kitchen. She sees the bowl of cereal and gives a little gasp. The ball of fur comes running into the kitchen and shoves her face into the bowl getting bits of cereal and milk stuck in her fur. A few seconds later Fluffle Puff finishes the cereal and gives Twilight a hug, getting milk and cereal into her coat as well. A second later Fluffle Puff goes running into another part of the library.
Twilight sighs and magics over a towel to clean herself off. She has always found Fluffle as a little different, that’s not bad of course. She doesn’t talk, she likes to draw which would be normal enough if it weren’t for the fact that her best friend is Chrysalis. There is also the fact she seems to be made purely out of fur, and there seems to be a small pocket dimension in it as well. But she’s a nice pony, always means well, makes ponies laugh and smile. Twilight as always wondered whether she’s related to Pinkie in any way, she should look into that.
Twilight finishes her breakfast and goes into the main room, she finds Fluffle sitting on the ground, drawing. She hasn’t been doing much since Chrysalis went on a little vacation. She goes up to the pink ball of fur. “Hey, Fluffle Puff.” Fluffle looks up from her drawing and waves excitedly at Twilight. “How about you go outside, it’s a nice day out there and you’ve been stuck inside from the past few days.” Fluffle Puff scrunches her nose and sticks out her tongue as she thinks. After a minute Fluffle Puff gasps and quickly nods her head, she goes running out the door.
Twilight lets out another sigh and flies up the stairs. “Right, now to get some work done.”
*****
Fluffle Puff walks through the streets of Ponyville with a smile plastered on her face. Several ponies stop and wave to her as she walks by. She turns a corner and sees Fluttershy buying some food from one of the stalls set up along the road. She crouches low to the ground and stalks toward the pegasus. She keeps her predatory eyes on her target as she slowly approaches. Once she’s at the perfect spot she pounces. She flops onto her face a few inches from Fluttershy’s tail and begins playing with her tail. The pegasus lets out a little squeak of surprise and faces the pony playing with her tail.
“Oh, you scared me.” She picks up her groceries and places them into her saddlebags. “How is it going?” Fluffle Puff looks up from the tail and jumps up with a energetic smile on her face.
“Pfft pffft pfffhhfft pffft pfffffft,” she replies in her usual way.
“Oh, that’s, uh… nice. Well, I have to go feed my animals, I hope you have a nice day.” Fluffe watches her flutter off down the road. Fluffle walks down the other path toward the park. She looks around at the blooming flowers and trees. She spots a butterfly fluttering over one of the flowers. She begins stalking toward the little creature. She gets within a few feet of the flower she opens her mouth around the flower. A low growl comes from her stomach, she closes her mouth and starts heading for Sugarcube Corner. She spots the building a little way down the road.
It would look the same as most other houses in Ponyville if it weren’t for the roof that looks like gingerbread and what looks like frosting surrounding it. She happily skips into the building. She’s assaulted by the aromas of freshly baked cakes, muffins, breads and of such treats. Fluffle trots up to the counter where a certain pink-maned pony takes orders. “Oh hey, what can I get you?” Pinkie aks. Fluffle Puff points to a rainbow cupcake. “Okie dokie lokie!” Pinkie reaches down with her, oddly dexterous mane, and picks it up.
Fluffle reaches into her fur and pulls out a couple of bits and places it on the counter. She lets out a little gasp as Pinkie gives her the cupcake. She eats it in one bite getting a fair amount of frosting over her face and fur. Pinkie laughs at the mare. Fluffle sticks out her tongue and runs out the door. Less than two feet out the door she runs into somepony. A pegasus mare with an electric blue mane and dark grey coat. The pegasus glares at her. “Watch it, dimwit!” Fluffle just stares ahead at her. “Stop looking at me like that.” She blinks once and continues to stare at her.
“Fine, whatever, I don’t have time for retards like you,” she says harshly as she walks away. Fluffle gasps at the mare. The pegasus stops, flattens her ears and turns on the fluffy pony. A smaller pegasus places a hoof on her shoulder. She has a dull brown coat with a blue mane.
“Leave her alone, Bolt. We--” Bolt shoves her out of the way and marches up to Fluffle Puff.
“Are you truly so stupid that you don’t know how stupid you are?” A group of ponies begins to form around them. “It’s stupid fools like you that plague this world. Always at the wrong place at the wrong time.” A few gasps come from the crowd around them. “You’re all so stupid that you don’t even know enough to kill yourselves and save everyone else the trouble.” Silence, the crowd stares at them mouths on the ground. A few tears start forming in Fluffle’s eyes. “You’re nothing but a burden to everyone around you, you only hold everyone back.”
“Shut up!” A new chorus of gasps, everyone turns to look at the newcomer. Derpy takes a step out of the crowd
“And you are...?”
“What’s wrong with you? Why are you making fun of her?”
“I’m not, she did this to herself. And I think I should be asking what’s wrong with you,” Bolt says pointing to Derpy’s eyes.
“She didn’t do this to herself! You’re the one here making her cry.”
“They’re just words, you’d expect them to bounce right off that hairball.”
“Leave her alone!”
“What are you, her guardian angel?” Bolt mocks.
“I’m just someone who doesn’t like bullies.” They hear a few murmurs of approval from the crowd.
The small pegasus flies over the crowd and lands beside the grey pegasus. “Bolt, we should get out of here.” Bolt looks at the angry crowd, a few them begin to take a few steps toward the pegasus. Bolt huffs and flares her wings, small blue lines crisscross her feathers. She take to the sky and flies off toward the Everfree. The smaller pegasus looks at Derpy, “I’m sorry about her, I don’t know why she’s like this. You should go after your friend, she took off a few seconds ago.” With that she flies toward the Everfree as well.
Derpy turns around and sees the Fluffle Puff is no longer there. She takes to the air herself to try and find the fluffy pony. She starts her search near the center of town, she spots nothing and heads for the library. She lands near the door and gives it a quick knock. Twilight quickly answers the door. “Oh, hey Derpy, what brings you here?”
“Have you seen Fluffle Puff?”
“I saw her this morning--”
“No, I mean recently.”
“Is something the matter?”
“Someone was making fun of her, it became pretty harsh.”
“Who would do something like that?” She comes out the door and spreads her wings. “I’ll help you look from her.” They nod to each other and soar into the sky. Twilight heads toward the edge of Ponyville hoping to find her quickly. She spots a small pink dot a the road to Fluttershy’s cottage. With a bit of focus she teleports in front of the pony. There is a sharp scream, Twilight turns around and finds Fluttershy.
“Oh, sorry about that, I’m looking for Fluffle.”
“Oh, uh… I haven’t seen her since the market,” the timid pegasus replies.
“Okay, come tell me if you do see her though.” Twilight takes to the sky again. Darn, false alarm, but it might be good to get more ponies looking for her. She spots a dull brown pegasus flying pretty high above her. She flies up to meet the pony, she catches up with her pretty quickly. A look of panic crosses the pegasus’ face, happens often since she became a princess. “Have you seen a fluffy pink pony around here?” she asks.
“Fluffy pink pony.” There is an audible gulp. “I-is something the matter with her?”
“I’m afraid she might have run away or worse. I really need to… wait, how did you know I was talking about a ‘she’?” She looks around but there is no sight of the pegasus. What the?
Derpy heads toward Carousel Boutique. She sees no signs of Fluffle Puff. She decides to start heading toward the outskirts of Ponyville.
Derpy looks around desperately. She scans over the fields, trees, river and road to the north of Ponyville. She sees a small pink dot on the road out of town. She drops into a steep descent and comes to a rough landing a few feet in front of the pony.
Fluffle looks up at Derpy, her eyes red and puffy. “Please don’t go.” Derpy pants out. Fluffle lowers her head and continues walking. “Please don’t go, none of us feel that way about you.” Fluffle stops and looks back up at her. “You’re not a burden to anyone, you’re not stupid, you’re just a little different. You can’t let bullies get you down, I’ve been bullied for my whole life and they’ve all been wrong. It’s not bad to be different, it’s what sets us apart from the rest. You just can’t let bullies get you down. I can promise that there’s going to be a lot of sad ponies if you leave,” Derpy says. “How do you think Chrysalis will feel if you leave?”
Fluffle Puff wraps her forelegs around the grey pegasus. Derpy returns the embrace. They hear flapping wings and Derpy turns expecting to see Twilight. Instead the smaller pegasus lands gently near the two.
“Oh, thank Celestia I found you, I’m so sorry for what my friend said. None of it is true, you’re not a burden, you’re not stupid,” she says.
Derpy raises an eyebrow at her. “How did you know where to find us?”
“A purple alicorn told me she’s looking for the fluffy one. Again I’m very sorry for my friend, none of it was true.”
“It’s okay… what’s your name?”
“Oh, I’m Cloud Skimmer. I’m sorry I didn’t stop her, please don’t do anything stu-- uh… please don’t do anything you’ll regret.”
“Thanks for the apology. Don’t worry, we were about to start heading back.”
“Oh…”
“Why are you friends with her, she does seem to treat you with any respect,” Derpy asks.
“It’s… a long story. I just kinda owe her.”
“Do you know why she acts like that?”
“No, well I wanted to make sure you were alright,” she says poking Fluffle Puff on the nose. “I should go and catch up with Bolt now.” She flies a few feet off the ground. “And if it counts for anything, the world is a far better place with ponies like you.” She flies straight up and heads for the Everfree.