The Bubbly Mare

1, 5
“Changes”

The night was black. Derpy lay stretched out on her bed, her teddy bear clutched tightly in her hooves. Mommy was okay, just like Agent Mic had promised, but he was gone now. Nowhere to be found... and Mommy was being really quiet. Ice cream was the least of her worries.

“Where did Mic go?” Derpy asked her mommy a couple of days after she was sick. “Will he be coming back?”

Mommy didn’t respond to that question. Derpy had asked it a few times to be sure. She just hugged Derpy, looking down at her beaming a huge smile. This confused the little filly, but she accepted it as “I don’t know.”

Two and a half months later.

The door to Derpy’s room open. It was Autumn, cold; Derpy was in her favorite sleeping shirt again, all fixed. A presence she couldn’t see stepped into her room, but the filly could feel it was her mommy. She came in and sat down on Derpy’s bed.

“You awake, sweetie?”

Derpy kept silent. She felt Mommy stroke her back, stopping at the All-in-One. She patted it gently with her hoof, then sighed.

“I'm so sorry, Derpy,” she said, soothingly. “We have a lot of changes coming up. It’s going to be very hard for you.”

“What kind of changes?” Derpy asked, turning over.

She looked up and saw her mommy’s smiling face.

“I thought you were asleep,” said Mommy, gently beeping Derpy’s nose. She laid down beside her. Derpy pushed herself into the crook of her mommy’s body by her belly. “You like to hug your teddy bear, Derpy. I like to hug you!”

“I like to hug you, too, Mommy!” Derpy giggled.

She heard her mommy laugh… then sigh.

“Derpy, you’re ten years old. You can tie knots now and brush your teeth without help, and you’re able to get dressed for night time without help. Mommy’s very proud of you.”

Derpy looked back at her mommy.

“You’re getting to be a big girl, and I know you want to know what happened to Mic.”

“Uh-huh.”

She cleared her throat, starting in an unexpected place:

“Derpy, um.... did you like Agent Mic?”

Derpy fell silent.

"Well... did you?"

“I don’t know,” she finally said, looking away.

"He was always there, I know." Diamond rubbed her daughter's wings. "Let me rephrase this... Did you like it when he and mommy used to fight?”

“I didn’t like some of the mean things he said to you,” Derpy replied. “They were scary and made me feel funny.”

The older pegasus bit her lip.

“He scared me, too, Derpy.” Mommy swallowed hard. “But he's gone now. Mommy, err… uh, I threw him out.”

The little pegasus blinked a few times.

“Why?”

“He did a very bad thing, Derpy.” The pegasus held her daughter tightly as she would her teddy. “He- he hurt me. He gave Mommy bad drugs that were supposed to make her not remember… but he didn’t give me enough.”

“Why did he do that?”

“Sometimes ponies like to think others can make them happy. Bad ponies might start hurting you when they find out you can’t. He didn’t think I was a good model, he didn’t think I was a good pony. He thought I owed him for all the time and energy he spent trying to help me.”

Derpy continued to look up and listen, silently… non-judgmentally, not that any of this was in her realm of expeirence.

“You’re going to meet all kinds of ponies, Derpy. Some will be good and some will be bad. Agent Mic did a lot of very good things for me and you, and I should have said more thank-yous, but... he was a bad pony. When Mommy couldn't make him happy, instead of just finding another model... he hurt me. He can never say sorry now that it's over."

"Why not?"

"Because he knew what he was doing and that I couldn't stop him, so what's done is done." Derpy just looked up at her mommy. The older mare sighed. "The more bad ponies you meet, Derpy, the quicker you’ll be able to know who they are. Promise me if you ever meet a bad pony, you won’t try to be his friend or try to do any stuff with him.”

“I promise.”

“Good. No matter what happens to you, Derpy, remember that. You'll always be able to walk away with your dignity that way.”

“Okay.”

Diamond sighed, again rubbing her daughter's wings.

“I'm afraid I have some bad news, Derpy. We’re going to have to move before the year is out.”

With those words, Derpy turned her whole body towards her mommy:

“Why do we have to move!?”

“Because Mommy has to retire from being a model… she can’t afford to pay for any of this anymore. The apartment, the clothes, all the treats have to go. Ponyville seems like a really nice place. You were about one year old when we visited an old friend of mine, Granny Smith, out on her Apple Farm. Do you remember the Apples?”

Derpy scanned her memory.

“No.”

“Well, she has a granddaughter about your age, and a grandson a bit older. We’re going to go back and visit them in a couple months, so you can know what Ponyville looks like before we move there.”

“But I don’t want to go… I want to stay here with you.”

“Derpy…” She heard her mother sigh, chuckling under her breath. “Mommy has some good news. Want to talk about that instead?”

“Okay.”

“You're going to have a little brother or sister, Derpy.”

Derpy scowled, feeling almost mad at her mother for calling this good news... it's not that Derpy didn't like foals, but she'd seen what happens to her friends when they get a baby brother or sister. They walk around with a scowl on their faces, just like the one Derpy had on now, but she had more than just one reason for scowling... a lot more than she realized.

"Oh dear." The pegasus laughed. "Don't you want a baby brother or sister?"

"Yeah..." Derpy looked at her hooves. "But why now?"

"Because that's just how things are, Derpy."

"Can't you make it go away, Mommy?"

"Derpy." Her mother forced her to look her in the eyes. She knew the good eye from the bad eye and stared. Mommy's faced looked stern. "That's not fair to the foal. The baby is inside of me and the only way to make it go away is to make it die. Do you understand?"

Derpy nodded rapidly, her mouth and eyes wide.

"I would never want that for one of my babies..." She hugged Derpy tightly, taking a deep breath. "Never, ever. Not even if I know it wasn't going to be perfect. My babies are always perfect to me... I don't care what any other pony has to say, and I don't care what it takes to give them a chance."

"Mommy?"

"Yes Derpy?"

Derpy looked up, tears in her eyes.

"I'm really scared, Mommy."

Again, Diamond hugged her daughter tightly.

"It's okay, Derpy. Mommy's scared, too... Mommy's scared, too."