"This is going to be a long train ride," Derpy said to herself.
Derpy always hated public transportation. It wasn't that she didn't like the crowd, or that the traffic was ever bad. It was the way that everypony looked at her. Simply because she had a lazy eye, they all stared at her like she was some kind of freak. She hated that, but tried her best to keep her anger low. "It's best to keep the amount of labels you have to a minimum," as her dad had always said.
Unfortunately for her, as well, because of her unfortunate eye, everypony also thought she had some sort of mental handicap. "How on Celestia's good Earth could you make that mistake?" she often wondered.
Nopony ever actually said that she had a mental handicap, though. She could tell that they were thinking it. It was the way they looked at her. The look said "How is she here without supervision?" or "Doesn't she still live with her parents?" or the occasional "I wonder who her chaperone is." It made her want to blow up in their faces, even though they hadn't said anything. The way some ponies could judge so easily was sickening.
Usually when this sort of thing happened, Derpy would just remember her cutie mark, and remember that it represented her usually bubbly personality, but on this particular train ride, she couldn't. Everypony kept on staring, judging, condemning. It would make even the brightest of days seem dull and cloudy.
"NEXT STOP: PONYVILLE!" That was Derpy's stop. Good. If she had to spend one more minute on that train than she had to, somepony would certainly get smacked.
* * *
The gray anthro-pegasus straightened her skirt as she stepped off the platform. She always liked this skirt. It reminded her of one friend she had in high school, the one that told her that green really was her color. The entire outfit was her little good-luck charm, really, because she had met him in it. The pleated, green skirt, the paler green polo, the well-worn sneakers with the knee-socks she used to think were goofy, until he said that they "completed her look". Derpy blushed at the memory.
Oddly enough, even though he played such a crucial role to her memory, and her gaining her cutie mark, she couldn't remember his name.
She tried and tried to remember, but she could only see his appearance. His coat was black-ish gray, and his mane and tail were even darker. One time she had asked him what his cutie mark was, despite it being a bit of a personal question, but he bluntly told her that it was an hourglass. The only name that came to her head at the moment was "Nine", but Nine wasn't a name.
Despite the pleasant memories that Nine had given her, the pegasus was still wary about other ponies judging her. She would have none of it, and so the first place she went was not in town, but in a forest nearby. She had made up her mind that she would return to civilization once she could regain her bubbly composure.
Whenever she thought of Nine, she blushed a bit, accompanied by a slight warm and fuzzy feeling deep in her gut. It might have even gone a little lower, but the surroundings that Derpy found herself in soon quenched those. She hadn't known that the Everfree Forest was the darkest, scariest part of Ponyville, or even not to go into it. She was there, and she was lost, both in thought, and direction.
Without warning, darkness swept the forest. Derpy rushed in the direction she thought would bring her out of the terrifying place, but she simply could not find her way out. It was absolutely frightening.
Everywhere she looked, she saw monsters made of shadows, ghouls formed from branches, and demons created from shrubbery. She tried to tell herself that it was her mind playing tricks on her, but it didn't work. She couldn't find a reason to laugh it away.
Slowly, and with much whimpering, Derpy backed away from the monsters she saw, growing more frightened with every step as new demons formed in her periphery. She feared with every step she took that she would back into a tree, or worse, a monster, and that she would never be heard from again, but she was too afraid to look behind her and confirm her fears.
Something mysterious grabbed her shoulders, and Derpy let out a shriek loud enough to wake the sun herself. The mysterious thing placed a hand over her mouth, and the poor pegasus couldn't help the tears that formed in her eyes.
“Shh,” it said. “I'll protect you.” The fact that Derpy realized she was now being dragged to Celestia-knows-where by a crazy stallion frightened her even more than the forest did. The stranger quickly turned and took Derpy with him.
Out of nowhere, it seemed, a blue box was visible through the trees. Derpy knew immediately that this contraption was to be her prison for the remainder of her days, if the mysterious foalnapper stallion would even let her live upon getting in there. You never know, there are some ponies who do get off to that kind of thing.
Derpy started thrashing in the mystery stallion's grip, getting more violent with every step they took towards the death box. The pegasus swore that if she ever got out of this alive, she would never step foot inside of this forest again. She would probably even devote her life to Celestia if she made it that far.
The stallion opened the door to the box with his shoulder, never releasing his grip on Derpy. The pegasus closed her eyes tightly, awaiting her fate, not wanting to see whatever horrors lied inside of the box. When the stallion released his hold on her, it only made her more nervous. She didn't open her eyes at all, especially not after she heard him shut the door to this death contraption. Had he left her alone in here to die, or to slowly go insane, or was he trying to use the Stockholm Syndrome on her?
“Open your eyes, Derpy,” he said. “I promise, I won't hurt you.”
Lies. She knew it was all lies.
“Trust me,” he said. “You'll like what you see.”
Oh great, he's probably naked. Rape. Rape is what she had to look forward to.
“That probably sounded really, really bad,” he said. “I'm sorry.”
An apology? Did this nutcase really think he could win her trust with an apology?
“Aren't you even a bit curious as to how I know your name?”
She hadn't thought about it before, and him saying it made her jump, opening her eyes in the process. In that moment, the mystery stallion grabbed both of her hands in his, and looked her right in the eyes.
He was so, normal looking. Light brown fur, a dark brown mane and tail, which were either spiked, messy, or both. Even his clothes were unusually normal. Tee shirt, black jeans, sneakers, just normal clothes. Better than naked, to say the least.
“It's good to see you again, Derpy.”
She immediately forced his hands off of hers.
“I don't know you, you wacko.”
“But you do!” he said, pleading. “Wait... I've changed since we last met.” Okay, this guy was absolutely insane.
“Let me put it to you gently,” Derpy said. “I. Don't. Know. You.”
“Wait, wait!” he said, trying to get his words in order before saying them. “I can prove it to you!” He started to unbuckle his belt, and it was then that Derpy bolted for the door, all too knowing about what would happen next.
“NO!” he shouted . “IT'S NOT LIKE THAT!” He chased after her, grabbing her wrist right before she reached the door, his other hand holding his pants up. “I promise, I won't do ANYTHING to you.”
Derpy was trapped, and she knew it. Conceding defeat, she turned to face the crazy stranger, keeping her other hand on the door at all times. It was because of this that he never let go of her wrist.
Derpy avoided looking at what the insane asylum escapee was doing, and so she had at least a full minute to finally notice her surroundings. She hadn't seen how big the box was in the forest, but she could tell that there was no way the room she was in could have possibly been in that box, or a box of any size for that matter. It was huge. The objects inside of it reminded her of the old mares tales she used to hear about changelings, many of the wall decorations were adorned with tasteful holes, and everything had a greenish-silver glow to it.
“Okay,” the stallion said. “You can look.”
Cautiously, Derpy let her eyes wander downward, praying that this stallion really did mean what he said. When she finally reached the place in question, she almost let out a sigh of relief, since he was decent enough to keep himself as covered as possible while trying to prove his point. He was showing her his cutie mark, right there on his thigh. It was an hourglass.
Derpy blinked. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. The stallion then re-situated his boxers to their original position, covering everything, and released the mare's hand to pull his pants back up and re-buckle his belt. Derpy didn't run. She only stood there, unable to think of what to do next.
“N-nine?”
“It was Doctor Nine,” he said. “It's Ten now.”
Derpy was speechless. Utterly, totally speechless.
“Green still looks marvelous on you.”
The mare fell into the stallions arms, hugging him, and sobbing. Finally, she had found her only real friend again.
Author's Note
I'm sorry if I got anyone's hopes up for a continuation. This is only a one-shot thing, and I felt that it should be left at that. There may be other Doctor/Derpy stories in the future, but that is TBD until further notice.
