Derpy walked into her home, unsure of what had happened. She had finally worked up the courage to talk to the other ponies here in town, and all that happened was she was teased for it. She didn’t want it to be like that at all. Derpy was a shy pony, a pony who had often just wanted to make friends, friends she could eat muffins with and play in the fields with. She went up the stairs and to her room, where she set her mailbag down on the bed. She stood in front of the mirror, staring at a wall-eyed reflection.
“Go away! You’re so weird!”
Derpy’s head hurt. This happened a lot whenever she was teased. But this time, it hurt more than ever. There were other voices in her head, voices from ponies she never met.
“She’s an offensive character! Get rid of her immediately!”
That one stung the most. Derpy was never sure what that pony meant. All she had done was talk to Rainbow Dash. Dash was nice enough to let her help, even if all she had done was break town hall. Derpy smiled as she remembered Dashie. She giggled. Dashie hated that nickname. Pinkie told her about it, and Derpy liked it. She liked calling Rainbow Dash “Dashie". She thought it was cute.
“Derpy, don’t go... I’d miss you.”
Sometimes the voices in Derpy were nice. They said that they loved her, and that they wanted her to stay. That part confused Derpy. She wasn’t going anywhere...was she? Was her boss going to send her on a long trip to deliver a package? She didn’t know. All Derpy did know was that at least some ponies did love her.
Staring at her reflection, Derpy tried hard to fix her eyes. The mean voices often said that her eyes were bad. That hurt Derpy’s feelings. She was born with these eyes; she couldn’t help it! A lot of fillies had made fun of her when she was in school, but that was a long time ago. Most ponies liked her now, but those voices in her head kept saying her eyes were “offensive”. Derpy wasn’t sure what that meant, so she asked Twilight. Twilight said that it meant they were bad, but she reassured Derpy that her eyes made her special.
Derpy shook her head, and instead made the reflection smile. At least there were ponies who liked her. Twilight and her friends, Carrot Top... oh yeah! And her bestest friend in the whole world. His name was Doctor. At least, Derpy thinks that was what his name was. He was a silly pony, always doing the funniest things. Doctor and Derpy went out together a lot, and they always had fun. BonBon once teased her by saying the two were dating. Derpy felt herself get really feverish at that, and said that they weren’t.
A laugh escaped Derpy’s mouth. She remembered that one time, Doctor invited her into his house. It was really cool, with a lot of weird gizmos and gadgets in it. It was also smaller on the outside, which was kind of weird. But Doctor was kind of weird too, so it made sense that he had a kind of weird house. They ate lunch in his house, which he called “tardis” or something. She brought out a pear for dessert, and Doctor screamed like a little filly and ran away. Derpy was confused for a while, but then he came back and explained that he didn’t like pears.
Those memories made Derpy feel warm inside. Whenever she felt warm inside, the voices were quieter. But she knew that they would get louder soon. Derpy sighed, and went to go lay in bed.
As she layed in bed, Derpy continued to remember things she and Doctor did. There was Nightmare Nights, Hearth’s Warming Eve, Winter Wrap Up....ooh, but her favorite was Hearts and Hooves Day. She and him went for a picnic, and stayed there for the whole day until sunset. That day was the best. Doctor had told her that he loved her.
The voices started getting louder again as Derpy remembered what happened next. Doctor had just gotten back from a trip, and was covered in burn marks and dust. He was sad for some reason. Then Doctor had told her that he loved her. Derpy was happy, because nopony had told her that in a long time. She hugged him, but Doctor was shaking. When Derpy looked up, she saw that he was crying and that there was a weird gold glow around him. Derpy asked what was making him sad and what the glow was, but Doctor only shook his head.
“I’m sorry, Derpy...I have to go. My time here is up.”
After that, Doctor left. Derpy was confused, but decided that Doctor was just being silly again. But when she went to look for his house the next day, it wasn't there. Tardis wasn’t on the hill anymore. It was just... gone. Derpy never saw Doctor again.
“She’s a bad influence! That voice and those eyes...She’s bad for our kids!”
Derpy grabbed her head as a burst of pain went through it. What did that pony mean? Her voice... she thought it was normal enough. Her eyes were special, ponies told her that! Bad for kids...but Derpy loved kids. Kids loved Derpy. Derpy would bring muffins to the fillies at Miss Cheerilee’s school all the time. They would surround her, smiling those cute smiles. So what did that voice mean when it said that she was was bad for their kids?
Derpy sniffled, and opened her eyes. She stood up and walked over to her window, looking down at the street. It was night, and still ponies were out and about shopping. Why shouldn’t they? It was almost Hearth’s Warming Eve, so everypony had to go out and get presents for their families.
“That pony is stupid, and shouldn’t be in the show!”
A tear fell to the floor. Derpy didn’t understand. What was that voice talking about? How was she stupid? Derpy had actually made good grades in school. She always delivered packages and letters to the right place. Derpy wasn’t stupid. And what had they meant by she should be in the show? What show? It didn’t make any sense to Derpy. She wasn’t sure what that meant.
“We can’t get rid of her. She’s an integral design and part of the show!”
Derpy’s head hurt again. She fell to the floor, crying from the pain. What was that voice talking about? What did it mean by getting rid of her?
“I’m sorry, but we have to. We’re facing lawsuits from viewers because of complaints.”
Derpy was hurting everywhere now, not just in her head now. She closed her eyes, and suddenly she wasn’t in her house anymore. She was looking through the eyes of another creature. In front of her was a strange thing standing on two legs wearing a suit. It had weird looking hooves with five thingies poking from it. It looked mad.
“Look, I don’t want to do this anymore than you do, but I have to.”
The thing she was seeing through seemed to shake its head. It raised its weird hooves. “If we get rid of her, what will all those fans think? They love her! We could lose hundreds of them!”
The other thing simply shook his head. “According to the higher ups, they don’t matter. We have to think of the company first. Now, move aside.” It pushed aside the thing Derpy was in and they both looked down at a button that read, “delete”.
Derpy opened her eyes, and was back in her room. She was crying now; it hurt so much. Whatever that other thing was doing, it was causing her pain. She cried out, begging for it to stop.
“I’m really sorry about this.” A short clicking noise rang through her head, followed by silence. For a second the pain seemed to have stopped. Derpy paused, unsure of what had happened. Then, she doubled over and fell again. The pain was back, and it hurt now more than ever. She closed her eyes, and was once again in the eyes of that thing. It was looking at a screen, and there were words on there. It read, “Deleting ‘Derpy Hooves’”.
Derpy opened her eyes. She understood now. Those voices... they wanted to get rid of her. Those things had decided to do it. That was why she was hurting. Derpy cried, and cried. She didn’t want to go. She didn’t.
Suddenly, a strange feeling crept over Derpy’s hooves. She looked down, and was scared to see that she was starting to disappear. She tried to move, but couldn’t. Derpy brought a hoof up, and watched as it faded away, turning into nothing. The feeling spread to her body, and started to ebb away at her. Derpy was crying. She didn’t want this. She wanted a muffin and some hot chocolate. She wanted her friends... she wanted Doctor.
Slowly, her body faded away, until all that was left was her mouth. Soon, that began to fade too, and before she disappeared completely, six words were uttered.
“But I don’t want to go...”
Silence.
Author's Note
So I wrote this back when that whole Derpy thing was going on, and found it after digging through my old files for something. I reread it, and thought I'd post it. I changed a bit here and there, but for the most part it's still the same.
Hope you enjoyed this!
Special thanks to Paton Pendeng for editing this. You rock, man!
