Derpy knew she wasn't as smart as the other ponies were. That’s one thing that compelled her to be nice to everypony else. The other was her respect for them; not because they were different than her, but because they were ponies. They had feelings. She had feelings! It always brought her tears when all the ponies laughed and pointed their hooves towards her.
Derpy foolishly believed that, being in her best behavior, all the ponies would stop making fun of her and try to be her friends. She really wanted them to really know her for who she was, not what she looked like. But deep inside, she knew that when she turned her back to them, it would all start over again. It was easier on their conscience; to talk behind her back. And that's what would hurt the most to her; secrets and lies from the ones who called her a friend.
She had been so desperate to fit in with the ponies that she founded the very first Ponyville’s Post Office, with herself as the mailmare. At first, it worked; everypony was nice to her, thanking that they now had the means to both receive and send messages and packages from and to distant relatives. Everything was well for Derpy; she felt accepted. A present and helping hoof in the community. But then the delays came. It wasn’t exactly Derpy’s fault; she was working alone at that time and the ever-increasing demand made her confused, leading her to mistake somepony’s address for another one’s.
She tried to remedy the situation by asking other ponies to help. But nopony would want to be seen alongside with her. She raised the salary for assistant, making it bigger than her own, but it was to no avail. Then they returned back to the routine of calling her names. Worthless... incompetent... useless... retard... all because she tried to help them. There were times in which Derpy wanted to close the Post Office and move as far away from Ponyville as she could. But she knew that, no matter where she would go, she would always remain the same.
After a very bad day -- which was, sadly, very much each day -- Derpy always baked some muffins to herself. She especially liked the purple ones, finding not only their color but them as a whole, exquisite. The insults were usually the same, every now and then somepony would tell her that she would be helping everypony else better by just letting go and becoming a raibow's pigment at Cloudsdale's Rainbow Factory; an old mare's tale that she was well aware of.
Although it hurt, Derpy knew she could handle it. She had been trained by those ponies to deal with the emotional and physical pain. Derpy just held her head in between her hooves, closed her eyes and imagined herself in a green field. Derpy had a prowess with her imagination; the scenery was vivid and she felt like she really was in the field, forgetting all about the external world. She would feel the grass, still wet from the morning dew on her hooves.
The sun with its glimmering rays of orange as it rose from the distant horizon, bathing her in a magical warmth that mixed with the chilly breeze, brought her a fuzzy, comfortable sensation. Derpy would watch the sunrise, as the outside world passed reflected on the surface of the rainbow-colored bubbles that flew through the sky. Although she could see what they were doing to her, she felt calm. In there, Derpy knew she was safe. She also knew that when she returned, she would feel the pain and sadness once more, and would have to fly to the most distant cloud and cry silently.
But today was not the case. Today was much worse than just a very bad day; they not only laughed and called her names as usual, but somepony thought it would be a good idea to lasso her legs and throw rocks on her. Derpy covered herself as best as she could, but no matter how hard she tried, the pain from the stones that were flung at her was too great to allow her retreat She could no longer concentrate on her soapy colorful friends. But what made this the worst day in her life was the fact that they now picked another target to bully; Dinky.
It didn’t feel fair for Derpy; just because she was different, it didn’t mean that Dinky was too. They had no right to call her a retard or any other of those bad names. Dinky was a normal unicorn filly, and that is what most frightened Derpy; she would soon become a likely target for them. They could have the young filly’s life destroyed before it even began. It was too much for Derpy, and she broke down there and then. Tears streamed from her eyes, staining the furry coat around her cheeks to a darker tone. She knew that Dinky wasn’t there, Derpy couldn’t help but feel terrible for her daughter.
Derpy couldn’t remember for how long she lay there crying. She slowly opened her eyes and saw that she was alone. The others probably left not because they would feel ashamed of themselves, but because they would simply get tired of watching the grey pegasus cry. Derpy got up and cleaned her moist eyes. Up on the distance, Derpy saw the sun slowly setting behind a great valley, staining the cerulean sky with a deep orange veil.
Derpy knew that they had now found her secret. They all knew how to make her truly miserable. She knew she would have to become stronger. Stronger for both her and... "Dinky..." She trailed off. She glanced with her tear stained eyes over to the clock on the wall and saw that it was already past Dinky's bedtime. She unfurled her wings and took off, wasting no time in reaching her house. Whilst flying, Derpy was deep in thought about the events of that day. She couldn’t wait to see her daughter. To hold her. To tell her everything was alright. She couldn’t help but feel a little ashamed of herself; those ponies almost made her forget the source of happiness in her world. "Dinky!" She yelled and flapped her wings more vigorously than before.
Floating near her home, Derpy noticed that all lights were off. She felt the touch of guilt compress her heart a little for staying the whole day away from her daughter. Derpy just hoped that Dinky wouldn’t be disappointed for not getting to hear a bedtime story that day. Making up a mental note to read her ‘The Discovery of Muffinland’ -- one of Dinky’s favorites -- on the next day, she quietly opened the front door. A smile formed on Derpy's face as she climbed the stairs and went to Dinky's bedroom. She opened the creaky door as quietly as she could and asked for Dinky. She expected some kind of angry or annoyed answer coming from the filly, but she heard nothing.
Derpy peeked her head and she saw Dinky sleeping peacefully on her bed. Derpy walked closer to the sleeping filly and smiled sadly on the inside. She started to climb on the bed slowly as to not wake up the peacefully sleeping pony and laid there next to her. The little filly mumbled something unintelligible and turned around; hugging Derpy’s left hind leg, still heavily attached to her dreamland. Derpy’s eyes welled with tears as she kissed the little filly’s forehead. She breathed a sigh of relief and looked beyond the window. The sun was now painting the sky in a fiery red, burning through the great valley in the distance. She fought back her sobs, but tears kept streaming down her eyes.
"I know what they will never stop... I know that they will always keep attacking us; but I have something that they don't." Derpy paused and gave another loving look towards Dinky, nuzzling her. "I have something to fight for."
