Chapters The Mailmare and the Farmer
"Why the hell do you even come to school Derpy, nopony wants you there in the first place!" Two large stallions shoved the small pegasus down into the mud, the water from the rain seeping into her thin raincoat, getting pushed around wasn't new to her, but it still hurt.
She kept a stiff upper lip as the two stallions continued to jeer at her, they weren't far from the schoolyard, but still far enough for them to pick on the mare without any trouble. She had dealt with stallions such as these for as long as she could remember, she would simply play this out like all of the other times that they had bullied her, just let it run it's course and then get up from the dust, brush it off, and go to class.
She could tell that they were beginning to lose interest because she wasn't showing any emotional reaction, they spat a few taunts at her and then rushed off. A storm had set in earlier that morning, it was strong, the wind pushed against the small mare's frame, threatening to knock her over, the rain pounded against her coat, which was already soaked to the core. As soon as she knew that they were out of sight and earshot she broke down into tears, just as she always did when nopony was around, the bullying caused extreme amounts of stress for the young filly.
Why does nopony like me? Are my eyes really that freakish? She looked down into a puddle close by, her walleyes looking back at her, there wasn't a smile on the pony she saw, only sadness, her tears fell with the rain, she sat down in the mud feeling helpless, nopony came to comfort her, few only cast strange looks at her.
After a few minutes she picked herself up from the mud and slowly trotted towards the schoolhouse, she was already an hour late, but at that point it didn't matter to her. As she walked into the classroom their teacher, Ms. Oak looked at her with concern.
"Where have you been little filly? You are extremely late."
The mare didn't look at her teacher for fear of crying again, she just slowly walked to the back of the classroom where she always sat, soaked to the bone, and waited for the teacher to continue her lesson. She could hear many of the foals chuckling and giggling, she tried to block them out the best she could but couldn't keep all of it away, she kept her eyes pointed at her desk for the entire day, not listening to a word the teacher had to say, thankfully Ms. Oak didn't call on her.
When the bell rang for the ponies to go home Ms. Oak stopped Ditzy Doo. "Ditzy, would you stay after class for a moment?" This triggered some of the mares and colts that were left in the classroom to snicker, they were quickly put out from a glare from Ms. Oak though.
After they had all left Ms. Oak took off her glasses and looked at the distraught filly, Ditzy's eyes were still red from the ordeal that morning. "Ditzy, you know you can tell me anything right? You wouldn't keep anything such as bullying away from my ears would you?"
The small, defeated pegasus slowly shook her head. "No Ms. Oak, I wouldn't."
The teacher nodded. "You know we have a new student coming in tomorrow."
Great, just another pony to laugh at me.
Seeming to have read her mind Ms. Oak explained the new student. "He is different just like you, unlike all of the ponies in this classroom he grew up on a farm, his father and mother wanted him to come to school for a proper education, he doesn't know any of the ponies here, you two could become friends."
Ditzy looked up at her teacher, hope flickering in her eyes. "Do you really think so Ms. Oak?"
Her teacher nodded. "I would like you to show him around when he gets here tomorrow, he is a rather large colt so you shouldn't have a problem with other ponies trying to bother you, he is rather quiet so don't expect him to talk too much alright Ditzy?"
Ditzy beamed at her teacher, which was returned. "Thank you Ms. Oak!" The filly quickly ran out of the classroom, she was excited to get home.
The day seemed to be going right from then on, nopony bothered her on the way home, which was a blessing in itself, usually she was bullied both before school and after. She didn't have any parents to come pick her up, or drop her off, they had left a long time ago, she was told they went away but weren't able to come back, the house was left to her, it was quaint, sitting just on the edge of Ponyville, away from all the sounds of the town. The cottage resided far back in the trees, not many ponies could see it from far away, only when you look through the trees at a certain angle would you see the Doo's dwellings.
She unloaded her soaked things on one of the shelves and stepped onto a rug and wiped her hoofs, the rain had stopped on the way home so she wasn't all too wet, but her things still were drenched from that morning. She walked excitedly into the kitchen and turned on the oven, it was like clockwork for her, grabbing the ingredients for her favorite after school snack, muffins. Her parents had gotten her addicted to the sweet treats since the time she could even speak, the warm delicacies had always comforted the mare on even the darkest days.
She had chosen to make chocolate chip muffins, one of her favorites, if she had one that is. She happily plopped down on the couch that was in the main room and munched on the tasty snack, she thought about what the stallion was going to be like, they really never got new students here in Ponyville, most of the ponies move to places such as Manehatten and Fillydelphia, so when new ponies came to class it was a very exciting thing.
I hope he's nice... what if he isn't? She pondered how she was going to introduce herself to the stallion, she didn't want him to not like her, her thoughts then tracked over to her eyes.
Is that going to freak him out? Quickly her face went from happiness to crestfallen, usually her eyes would scare new ponies away, or they would have already joined with the crowds that make fun of her. She sighed as she finished off the third of the six muffins that she made, she had lost frustration with new ponies making fun of her eyes, or questioning them, before she would get fired up at the offending ponies, but when they came in groups she couldn't do anything about it. Her wings had yet to fully develop so she just had to deal with the ponies on the ground, she quickly realized that the less attention that she brought on herself the better off she would be, so she would just sit in the back of the class, she wasn't called on very often, and when she kept her head low she wasn't made fun of, as much anyway.
The light outside quickly changed to darkness, the light of the moon casting the main room in a silver light, Ditzy got up from where she was sitting and found one of the lanterns, she lit the device and it immediately filled the room with an amber light. She happily went upstairs and grabbed her journal and pillow, she didn't really have to worry about where to sleep considering her parents were gone, she sat by the lantern light and wrote in that small journal until she could feel her eyelids getting heavy. She settled in with her pillow and blew out the lantern, the light of the moon then took back over as the mare slowly descended into her own world, one where she didn't have to worry about bullies, one where she had friends.
On the table nearby the journal was now in the light of the moon, the dark text easily visible on the white paper. Dear diary, today I learned that there is going to be a new student, I think it will be nice to get to know him, perhaps we could become the best of friends, I could show him how to make muffins and...
The Mailmare and the Farmer
Chapter 2: The New Student
Ditzy awoke early the next morning feeling excited at meeting the new colt, she still held high hopes that he would be somepony that she could be friends with. As she cleaned herself up for the day she smiled in the mirror, she felt that this day was going to be better then the last. After she combed her mane she put a few of the muffins that she kept for lunches in a bag and walked out the door, she could see the early morning sun peeking over the high hills in the distance, the air was cold but it didn't bother the filly.
She usually left early to avoid dealing with the other students, this also allowed her to take her time and think on the way, which on this day was filled with the thoughts of the new student, she imagined him being tall and strong, since he did work on a farm for the majority of his life. She almost skipped down the streets on the way to the schoolhouse, the sun finally began to shine down on the cold ground and warming her fur.
As she approached the schoolhouse she was surprised to see a pony already standing outside, she could tell that he was a colt judging by his short orange mane. He seemed almost bored sitting there, his eyes almost looked half closed as if he was sleep walking, his fur was a very sharp scarlet and a large green apple represented his cutie mark.
She walked up to the colt cautiously. "Umm... hello."
This got the colt's attention, he turned and looked at her, when he spoke his voice already had a deep baritone voice. "Howdy."
"Are you the new colt?"
He nodded his head. "Eeyup."
She stuck out her hoof to her fellow student. "Nice to meet you, my name is Ditzy Doo, what's your name?"
He returned the shake, it was very firm. "Big Macintosh." He looked her straight in the eyes, a small smile spread across his face, it was rather shy for a pony so large.
They both waited for the school to open, it was extremely early for anypony to be there yet, Ditzy didn't know what to say to him, it wasn't that he was unapproachable, it was that she really didn't know what to say, most ponies would've already said something about her eyes, but this one didn't, which was a very good sign. So far so good...
She scratched the back of her head. "So where are you from Big Macintosh?"
He looked out towards the edge of town. "Sweet Apple Acres, it's a little ways out of town, but still within walkin' distance."
"What do you farm?" After she spoke she wanted to hit herself. He pretty much already said!
He chuckled. "Apples of course, but we can grow a whole lot more then that."
"Do you like being a farmer Big Macintosh?"
He shrugged. "Call me Big Mac, and yes I do like farming, its what mah family has done for the longest time."
They lapsed into silence, Ditzy didn't really want to bother the farmpony anymore then she already had, some of the other students began to show up, which caused Ditzy to become a little nervous.
She already played through a few scenarios in mind, this could be that she would get bullied and Big Mac wouldn't do anything, or this could play out that Big Mac would join in on the bullying in order to fit in better, either way she began to brace herself for the inevitable.
"Look its Derpy and the new colt, you already making him lose braincells?" The pony that spoke was one of the meanest around, she was a very spoiled filly who seemed to always get her way with the other students, she was always surrounded by a group of her "friends", that meaning that they joined in with her in order not to be picked on.
She glanced at Big Mac, she wasn't going to say anything back to the snotty filly, but she really wanted to see what Big Mac was going to do, she was surprised to see a frown spread across his face.
"What are you talkin' about?" The filly was surprised to see him take up for Ditzy.
"Don't you see her eyes?" She pointed accusingly at the pegasus.
He looked into her eyes, his being a deep emerald, he didn't betray any emotions with his gaze. "No, ah don't see anything wrong." He shifted his gaze back to the surprised filly, she didn't comeback with anything.
Eventually Ms. Oak finally got to the school building, nopony bothered to mess with Macintosh and Ditzy after him fending against the mare. They quickly filed into the building and sat in their seats, some of the other stallions tried to get Big Mac to sit near them, claiming that he wouldn't want to sit near Ditzy, but once again he defended her saying that there wasn't anything wrong with her, so he took the seat that was right next to Ditzy.
Class started and many of the students were whispering back and forth to one another, some cast angry looks at the scarlet stallion, but he ignored them, unfazed by their looks. Ditzy was impressed by his ability to simply ignore all of the glares, it warmed her heart that he was being kind to her, and for the first time in a long while she actually enjoyed class.
The Mailmare and the Farmer
Class had sped by much faster than Ditzy had anticipated and lunch arrived before she knew it. The gray mare followed Macintosh outside where the other fillies and colts were eating. He had brought some apples, of course, and began munching through the shiny treats. It impressed her just how crisp and sweet they seemed, bright red and perfectly round, every time he would bite into them juice would come gushing out from the core.
Seeing him eat reminded her of the hunger that pained her belly. She opened the bag before her and grabbed one of the muffins within, it was banana nut, one of her favorites. What nopony knew is that she secretly left her lunch bag by the window in the classroom in order to let the muffins warm up. They were light and fluffy, leaving a warm feeling in her mouth, something the pegasus simply loved.
Something was bothering her though. Why isn't anypony bothering us? It surprised her more than anything considering that every time she made eye contact with one of her peers, they would look away. Big Mac brought her back around when he released a satisfied sigh and patted his stomach.
Ditzy couldn't help but giggle at his antics. "Were the apples that good?"
He smiled contently, "Eeyup."
The midday sun began beating down on them, basking them in radiant light and scalding heat. She had already begun to sweat sitting where they were, but when the pegasus looked at Macintosh he seemed content as a cucumber to stay where he was. Obviously she didn't want to leave him, so she stuck it out in the sun for him.
It had only taken a few minutes though, the intense rays of sunshine were scorching her, "Big Mac?" She had hoped he hadn't fallen asleep since his eyes were closed.
"Eeyup?"
She almost felt like panting, "Would you mind if we moved into the shade?"
The scarlet earth pony opened his eyes and looked at her, she definitely wasn't used to working in the fields all day so it made sense that she needed to cool off. They got up and walked over to a large willow, the tree was one of her favorites to sit under, and was far enough away from the schoolyard to keep the bullies at bay. It even had a great view of the hilly region around Ponyville.
The shade welcomed her gladly as she sat down in the cool grass, there was a slight breeze which moved the leaves in the distance and cooled her mane and coat. The sun was able to leak through gaps in the branches, warming the ground under the tree, allowing the temperature to become extremely comfortable.
This was one of the few places that she could think, that she didn't have to worry about anypony bothering her. "Isn't this the best, Big Mac?"
"Eenope." He stated simply.
She looked at the colt in confusion, "What do you mean?"
He shrugged and looked towards some distant hills. "Ah know a better spot."
No way! A place that was better than her's? She needed to know where it was, "Wow! Where is it?"
"It sits on top of the tallest hill on the ranch, back home." His mind had begun to wander.
Her eyes followed his, towards the hills in the distance. If there was a spot that was equal or better than her's she needed to see it. Why does it have to be rude to ask yourself over to somepony else's home? She was almost tempted to stamp the ground in frustration.
"Alright everypony, time to get back to class!" Ms. Oak called from the schoolyard and motioned the fillies and colts back inside.
Having to return to class frustrated Ditzy, she would much rather remain here in the shade with the breeze in here mane, but she got up as well as Big Macintosh and the quietly made their way back inside. Not a single pony said anything to them.
