Chapter 1 - The First Day
Hi everypony! My name is Young Gun. I live in ponyville with my dad. Yeah, I'm sure you're wondering, "Where's your mom? Why aren't you living with her too?" Well, my mother isn't really in the picture (ironic, huh?), but I'll get to that later. I'm not really sure how to say how old I am. It's really difficult to tell anypony, because of the strange illness that I was born with. I've been to numerous doctors in futile attempts to figure out what is wrong with me, so I just do the best I can to cope with the illness. Although my sociability skills aren't the best, I do have a few friends, but they only know me either at night or during the day. My illness, you ask, is that by day I'm a full grown colt, but at night I become a filly.
Like I said, it's a strange illness, and none of the doctors I've been to know how to help me, or why this occurs. So, since I have no other choice, I do my best to work around it. It's not easy though. My dad's hated me since I was born, even though I've tried to explain to him on countless occasions that it wasn't my fault. It's not my fault that I'm like this. I've told him so many times that I'd love to be normal like him, but he still blames me for what happened.
The thing is, the reason why my mom isn't in the picture is because she died when I was born. According to my dad, I was born around midday about 12 years ago. It was supposed to be a normal delivery. After all, I was supposed to be a normal colt. The only problem was, since it was daytime, I began turning into a full grown colt as I was being born, and no normal mother was built to deliver a full grown colt. It's not natural, nor has it ever been heard of. Within 20 seconds of my birth, my mom was pronounced dead, and my dad just about lost his mind.
After my birth, and my mom's death, my dad lost whatever control he was rumored to have before. I've never known him to be happy, or even smile. When I think of my dad, I think of him drunk as ever, laying on the couch with assorted empty cans of cider scattered all over the floor and all over him. It's a good thing that, on top of everything else, I have no sense of smell, otherwise I probably would've suffocated long ago from the stench. It was even harder to live with him when I was going to school. Most days, he would make me wear a sign around my neck when I walked to school that read I'M A FREAK! HIDE YO KIDS! It was probably the most embarrassing thing about school, aside from the first day.
Since school is only held during the day, and Cheerilee was too busy to give me private schooling, I was forced to go to school with a classfull of fillies during the day. As soon as I walked in the classroom on my first day, I knew I wasn't going to belong. I stood at the front of the class, not sure what to do. I started sweating, my legs started shaking, as every filly in that class stared at me, wondering what was wrong with me. One of them raised a hoof to ask Cheerilee a question, and I felt a brief moment of relief as everypony's attention turned to them.
"Umm, Ms. Cheerilee, are you going to introduce us to the colt in the back there? Is he a student teacher?"
And just as quickly as the eyes looked away from me, they returned. I'm sure I was beet red at this point. I looked over at Cheerilee with a look that, hopefully, translated to, "Please don't introduce me. I'm very clearly uncomfortable up here. Can I just go sit down?" Unfortunately, that's not what happened...
"No, Young Gun here is going to be a student here alongside all of you." Cheerilee giggled.
I honestly felt like walking up to the nearest filly, giving them a plank of wood, and telling them to beat me as hard as they could. I knew what they were all thinking. "Why is this fully grown colt going to school with us? Is he stupid or something?" I tried my best not to look at anypony as I sulked back to the back of the room and took the last available desk. I sat down, laid my head down on the desk, stared at the wall and hoped nopony was looking at me. It was working for a little while, until I felt a tap on my shoulder.
The mare next to me looked over to me and gave me a note. A little confused, I looked over at her as if to ask what it was. She looked over, rolled her eyes and giggled while pantomiming unfolding the note. Just for the sake of keeping her from thinking I was stupid, like everypony else probably did, I unfolded the note just like she motioned. It was a short note, but after reading it, I didn't feel as alone as I did when I walked in the door.
It read: "It's ok. I know what it's like to not fit in. If you want, you're welcome to be friends with me. It seems like we're both oddballs here anyway. My name's Dinky, by the way. I hope we can me friends :)"
I looked back over at her as she gave me a hopeful smile and for the first time I noticed that her eyes weren't exactly aligned with each other. Was that why she called herself an "oddball" in the note? Was that why she said nopony really accepted her? If so, that's pretty messed up.
I figured that if she really knew a similar life to mine then we'd get along pretty well, so I looked back at her, returned her smile and nodded. She looked overjoyed and almost fell out of her desk from excitement. For the rest of the time until recess we just kept passing notes back and forth while trying to pay attention to the lessons.
Once we got outside for recess, we both headed over to a bench and sat down to talk. She looked so excited to talk to me, like I was the most interesting pony in Equestria. She asked me questions about myself, like how old I was, why I was in school with them if I was fully grown, and stuff like that, and she seemed really confused when I answered her.
"Well, I was born about 12 years ago, if you can believe that..." She gave me a really confused look, but I had expected as much. I continued on before she could ask me about my age again. "...and the reason I'm in school with you guys right now, even though I'm a fully grown colt, is because I have a strange illness that-" she cut me off.
"I understand. No need to explain. You're pretty cool though. I haven't seen anything wrong with you."
"Well, it's not really that kind of illness..."
"Still, I think you're pretty cool. You wanna come over to my house for a slumber party? I'm sure my mom wouldn't have a problem with it."
A siren immediately started sounding in my head. If I stayed the night at her house, she'd see why I was in school with her. As soon as she'd see me as a filly, she'd freak out and ostracize me like everypony else. I had to make up some kind of excuse.
"Gee... I'd love to, but..." come on, what do normal ponies use as an excuse to get out of something "... my dad doesn't let me go out after dark. He's convinced that I'm going to go wandering around in town and get myself in trouble. Sorry."
Her face dropped. Any little ounce of excitement that was there before had vanished. That was probably the most heartbreaking part of it all. I almost reconsidered and told her that I would meet her at her house around sundown, but that little thought in the back of my head reminded me why I couldn't do that. I tried to reassure her the best I could.
"But I can hang out with you until sundown every day, if you like. I could use a friend to spend my free time with." I said with a smile, hoping she would feel better.
Her face lit right back up. "Ok!" she said as a big smile stretched across her face.
RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING
"That's the bell. We'd better get back inside. We'll talk more after school, ok?" she said heading towards the door.
"Sure! Can't wait!" I said as we made our way back into the building.
Chapter 2 - That One Night
I'd had a lot of fun hanging out around town with Dinky. It's a shame I had to go back home to my dad. I mean, it's usually not a problem living with him, but whenever I see him he's typically had more than his fair share to drink. The times that I see him that he's not completely wasted, he's on a major hangover or just out cold altogether, and I just have to avoid him as best I can when that happens. Fortunately for me, when I got home just before the sun went down, he was passed out on the couch.
I snuck past him trying to be as quiet as I could so I wouldn't wake him up. I made my way upstairs and to my room. As usual, I shut my door, opened my window's blinds and stared out the window to watch the sunset. As the sun began to creep below the horizon, I felt my legs begin to get shorter, and my body began to get smaller. After about 10 seconds, I was a filly again. My voice was back to it's high pitched nature, and my flank was, once again, blank.
After the nightly transformation was over I grabbed my hoodie and walked back into the living room to see if my dad had woken up out of his cider coma. Luckily, like usual, he was still passed out on the couch, snoring like a chainsaw. I took this as my chance to get out of the house for a few hours and snuck back to the front door. As the door creaked open, I heard him sputter a bit in his sleep, but he didn't wake up. I closed the door, and made my way towards the town square.
Typically there weren't many ponies out at night. Most of them spend their nights sleeping peacefully, so if I decided to go out at night, I would just find a table at a local restaurant, sit down and think about whatever would come to my mind. Tonight was no different. I went around the town square hoping to spot a restaurant that hadn't closed off it's outside tables. Soon enough I found one and sat down.
It wasn't long before I started staring out into space, and my mind started drifting into randomness. I looked up at the sky and thought, "Luna sure raised a beautiful moon tonight". As I kept looking at the sky, my mind slowly wandered into thinking, "Bad clouds. Shooo. Get out from infront of the moon. You're blocking it." It then transitioned from that to, "I miss those building blocks I used to play with when I was in the doctor's waiting rooms a few years ago." Gradually my mind wandered and wandered until I was on a subject that had no correlation at all to what I originally started thinking about. I think it had something to do with bleu cheese or something.
Anyway, eventually something did manage to distract me from my train of thought careening into oblivion. I was staring straight forward at the statue in the center of the town square, and a rather large shadow flew by overhead. Initially I thought it would just fly by and ignore me, like most everypony else does at night, but this shadow stopped for a few seconds.
I knew immediately that whoever it was was looking at me. For one, I was the only other pony in the general vicinity, and you can always feel when somepony is looking at you. You can just feel it.
I watched as the shadow got smaller and smaller as it's owner descended towards the ground. Soon enough I could see a mare approaching the ground. She was a gray-coated mare with a sort of lemon-yellow mane and tail. She had two saddlebags resting on either side of her back, and she wore a blue mail cap. From where I was facing, I could only see a profile of her face. She had a dark shade of golden eyes that matched her mane and tail almost perfectly. I was trying not to stare, but I usually didn't see anypony else at night, and if I did, they never stopped anywhere near me.
I pulled my hood up over my head hoping she wouldn't notice me. I didn't want anypony asking why a filly like me was out at this hour, taking me home to wake up my dad, and ruining my next few weeks. "Please don't let her see me. Please don't let her see me." I pleaded over and over silently.
"Hey, you over there!" she called happily. Well, I never said I was a master of camouflage. I looked back up at her. She was looking in my general direction. There was no hiding out now. I feared what would happen next. Multiple scenarios ran through my mind, most of them involving police sirens and my disgruntled father. As she got closer these scenarios became scarily vivid and almost felt like they were actually happening. "I'm dead... that's it, I'm dead..." was all my mind could put together.
"Please don't rat me out! My dad will literally kill me." I pleaded. This got her attention as she paused for a moment. Her friendly smile was replaced by a look of sorrow and concern. I almost felt sorry for her. The last thing I wanted to do was drag anypony else into my problems, but here I was, probably about to do just that.
"It's ok, I won't tell anypony. I promise" she said with a reassuring smile. "Is it alright if I sit here with you?" she asked.
I nodded and motioned to the other empty seat at the table. She sat down opposite me. This was the first time that I actually got the chance to get a good look at her face. It was normal for the most part, all except for her eyes. Just like Dinky's eyes, hers weren't exactly aligned. If anything, her's were more obviously misaligned than Dinky's eyes. It surprised me to see another mare in town with that same attribute. I quickly tried not to look like I was staring.
"So, what are you doing out here at this hour?" she asked me, breaking the momentary silence.
"Well, my dad's passed out on the couch at home, and I figured tonight was as good a night as any to get out of the house to think" I replied. "What about you, what are you doing out so late?"
She looked down at the table for a moment and looked back up at me. "Oh, it's just work stuff. You wouldn't be interested."
This frustrated me a little bit. At least for me, saying I wouldn't be interested in something automatically makes me interested. Just like how when somepony tells me not to worry about something, I begin to worry about it nonstop. "No, tell me. I don't mind" I reassured her.
She sighed softly. "Well, I work as a mailpony. I was heading back to the office to see if there were any packages that may have needed to be delivered. When I got there, there was one package left that needed to be delivered, and I just sort of jumped into trying to help get it delivered before I thought too much about it. The package was supposed to be delivered that morning, and it's destination was clear across Ponyville. As soon as I went to deliver the package, I realized that the sun was going down, and that I was going to be really late getting there, and even later getting back. But I had already said that I would deliver it, and I'm not a mare to go against her word. So I'm just getting back from delivering that package."
"Oh, that's nice" I replied with a grin. "You're pretty lucky. I'd love to be able to work as a mailpony. Always traveling around town and getting the chance to meet all new ponies. It sounds like the dream job."
She seemed to perk up at the mention of this. "Well, if you were a little older, I'd say that you could go ahead and apply for a job. We've been running a little short on employees lately, and my boss isn't getting many new applications" she replied.
"Oh, that's nice. I could probably work during the day sometimes, but I don't think my schedule would allow me to work at night" I said.
She giggled at this, as I'm sure the idea of a filly, like me, getting a job sounded rather far fetched. I'm sure from her perspective it was completely far fetched, so I didn't let it offend me.
"I'm sure you would be a great mailpony" she said. "Since you brought it up, why don't you put in an application. My boss is getting pretty desperate as far as who he can hire. He may even hire you on the spot." I tried not to take that the wrong way, and nodded in excitement.
She smiled warmly and we both started laughing. It felt good to just clear the air. It felt good to talk to another pony without having to worry about them judging me. She seemed to not care that I was rather different than most other fillies.
"My name's Young Gun, by the way. What's your name?"
"Oh, my name's Derpy Hooves, but most ponies just call me Derpy" she said with a smile.
"Oh, that's cool. So, if you don't mind me asking, do you usually work late, or do you have some friends that you typically hang out with around this time" I asked, hoping I wasn't getting into a personal subject.
She smiled and said, "Well, I have a couple of friends, but usually around this time I'm at home with my daughter. Speaking of which, she's probably wondering where I am right now." She prepped herself as if she was about to leave. "She's actually about your age I'd say. You two might get along pretty well."
"Oh, really? Is she in Cheerilee's class at school?" I asked hopefully. It would make going through school so much more bearable if I had another friend.
"Yes, she is. If you see her in class, you two might be really good friends. I know she's said she'd been wanting a friend to talk to and hang out with at school" she replied. "Well, I'm sorry to cut this short, but I really do need to get back to her. She's probably a bit worried that I've been gone for so long. I hope I'll get the chance to talk to you again. You're a pretty nice filly."
"Oh, thanks. I'm sure I'll see you again sometime, since you're always traveling delivering mail and such. It's been fun talking with you too" I replied. "So, I guess I'll see you later?"
"Sure" she said walking back out to the center of the square, spreading her wings to take off. "I'll see you around."
And with that, she took off into the sky and disappeared from sight. I walked back out to the center of the square to see if I could spot where she had flown off to, but even with the extra light from the moon, I couldn't make out where she'd gone. Wait a second... THE MOON!!
"Pony Feathers! The moon's in the center of the sky. I've been out for almost 2 and a half hours. If my dad's woken up, I'm gonna be dead!"
I raced back home as fast as my legs and developing wings could carry me. Although I was going as fast as I could, it almost felt like I was in slow motion. My heart was racing, and I was sweating buckets. My dad had to still be unconscious. If he had woken up and noticed that I was gone... I didn't even want to think about it.
I sprinted down my street until I was at my front door. I put the side of my head against the door to hear if there was any movement. There didn't seem to be any significant sounds coming through. "He must still be out cold." I thought hopefully.
I creaked open the door inch by inch, trying not to wake him up. It seemed to be working, until I heard movement from the part of the room that the couch was in.
"Huh? Who's there?" I heard a weak voice say, slurring it's words together. "If that's you, Young Gun, you better not be trying to sneak out. I'll have to teach you a lesson if I catch you sneaking out."
I closed the door as quietly as possible, snuck my way into the kitchen and called out, "I'm in here, Dad. I'm just getting a quick snack and some water."
I waited for a response... There was a bit of mumbling and some more slurred speech that I couldn't understand, and then I just heard the chainsaw snoring start up again. I breathed a sigh of relief. "Ok, that was a bit too close" I grabbed some water and trotted back up to my room to go to bed. I was gonna make a new friend tomorrow, so I needed to get some sleep.
