The sun rose over the small town of Ponyville. Ponies who had early morning jobs started on their way to work, occasionally letting out a yawn. Just then a blond maned pegasus accidentally crashed into an apple cart Applejack had been setting up for the day, sending the fruit everywhere.
"Whoops, sorry Applejack! I'm still kind of tired."
The pegasus got up and started trying to recover the scattered fruit.
"Whoa there, Derpy. It's kind of you to try to help me, but don't you have to finish the mail delivery?"
Derpy jumped at the reminder and started hurriedly making sure she had all the mail she had to deliver that morning.
"Oh! I still have to deliver this edible glitter to Rarity! Sorry!"
With that, Derpy ran off and left Applejack to finish resetting her stand.
Derpy had almost finished her deliveries for the morning and had one more. Apparently, Zecora's family had sent her a mask from their homeland, and it needed to get to the zebra. However, this required going into the Everfree Forest, which was known for having strange things happen in there. Derpy had been following the path for about ten minutes when she heard a pair of voices coming from what appeared to be a tiny clearing just off the trail. The wall eyed mare let her curiosity get the best of her and decided to see what they were doing in the forest. She approached the voices and stopped just behind a tree. The natural shade of the forest made it impossible to pick up on any features of the strange ponies, but Derpy could tell they were stallions, and she thought they were Neighponese based on what she could see in the gloom. Derpy was about to ask why they were in the forest when they started talking again.
"So, we're leaving soon? Our job here is done?"
"Yes. I received word from our boss that the Equestrian gems arrived safely. It's really too bad that we have to come to this country to get them, but since that client is taking them to finance his business it's worth setting up that smuggling ring. Besides, if he sets one hoof out of line and tries to report us, we can easily just kill him."
Derpy was shocked. These ponies were smuggling gems out of Equestria for some 'client' to pay for his business, and they seemed to have no problem with killing whoever it was if they didn't keep quiet. She tried to leave the forest quietly but accidentally stepped on a branch, which snapped under her hoof. Derpy froze as the stallions looked at her.
"Hey, there's a mare over there. I think she heard us."
Derpy didn't wait to hear more and started fleeing. But the strange ponies were faster and quickly caught up. One of them knocked her to the ground and held her there with his front hooves. Derpy struggled to get free so that she could get the authorities.
"Let me go! I know what you're doing!"
The stallion who had been standing to the side up to now spoke. "Really? Well then, this should fix that." With that he used magic to force a pill down the terrified pegasus' throat. The pony pinning Derpy to the ground got off her and the two walked to the trail, quickly disappearing among the trees. Derpy tried to follow but sudden pain made her collapse to the ground and curl up into a ball. She called for help but no one came. Derpy realized that she was too far from Ponyville and Zecora's hut to be heard. She couldn't stay awake due to the pain and quickly slipped into unconsciousness.
The sound of hoofsteps caused Derpy to wake up. She remembered the strange ponies and thought it might be them coming back before realizing there was only one set of hoofsteps and that it sounded like they were about to leave town. Derpy got up and moved to the path to find that the pony coming down the path was Twilight Sparkle. She couldn't hold herself back and ran out in front of Twilight.
"Help! Twilight! Help!"
Twilight stopped and looked at the grey pegasus in surprise.
"Huh? What are you doing out here, little one? Where's your parents?"
Derpy was confused and thought Twilight was talking to a foal that happened to be hiding nearby, but she couldn't find any foal when she looked around.
"Huh? Are you sure there's a foal, Twilight? I can't see any. Wait, there were-"
Twilight cut Derpy off as she looked confusedly at the gray mare.
"Oh, did you hurt your head? Here, let me get you back to town so that we can find your parents. They must be worried!"
Twilight turned and started down the path, but stopped when she realized that the grey pegasus wasn't following. Derpy thought that maybe one of Twilight's spells had backfired and caused her to be confused. She started nervously flicking her tail and called to Twilight again.
"Twilight, it's me, Derpy. I'm not a filly, I'm a full grown mare and I live on my own."
Up to now, Derpy had been too panicked and confused to notice anything out of the ordinary, but she suddenly realized that Twilight was much bigger than she was supposed to be. A horrible feeling made Derpy look herself over, only to find that she looked like a filly now. On top of this, her cutie mark seemed to be gone. This was to much for her, and she sat down on the path.
"Wha? I can't be a filly again!"
With that Derpy broke down and only responded to Twilight tapping her on the shoulder. The purple unicorn seemed to be confused and a bit worried.
"Alright. Calm down. I don't think you simply hurt yourself, seeing as you obviously believe that you're Derpy, but it's also impossible to deage a pony. However, I can try a memory spell on you to see what's going on. Is that okay?"
Derpy nodded a bit and rubbed one hoof on the ground.
"Okay, I guess so."
Twilight's horn lit up with purple magic and Derpy felt a slight tingling in her head. This went on for a bit before Twilight broke off the magic and took a small step back in shock.
"You really are Derpy! And those strange ponies-do you know who they are? I'll bet that pill did it!"
"No, I don't know who they are. Can you fix this? I don't want to be a filly again!"
Twilight shook her head quickly.
"No, I can't but maybe Zecora can. Come on!"