It was a nice day down in Ponyville. Sun shining, the pegasi had cleared the sky's clouds quite well. The cafe was nearly full as Derpy entered. Only one booth left! Derpy hurried to the counter to order her daily muffin before anypony else stole the seat. She got her muffin and dashed to the booth, barely snagging it from under the nose of a light brown filly. Derpy smiled and took a large bite out of her muffin, savoring the flavor. Life was just peachy.
"Excuse me...may I sit here?"
Derpy looked up and into the eyes of the town's resident librarian, Twilight Sparkle. Derpy's heart sank. No, not her... "Uh...sure."
Twilight sat, placing a cup of freshly bought tea on the table. "Thanks so much, miss...I'm sorry, what was your name?"
"It's Ditzy. But please, call me Derpy."
"As you wish, Derpy. But your other name..." The purple mare rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "I'm sure I've heard of you before."
The pegasi nervously chewed her muffin. "Must be a coincidence. I've never seen you before."
"Oh, but I'm sure I heard of you some-...AHA! There was a Ditzy in my grade school classes, before I switched to the Magical Acadamy. Would that be you?"
Derpy's expression paled. "I...uh...yes. That would be me."
"I knew it! You look so similar, except..." The unicorn sipped her tea, averting her gaze. "...your eyes."
Derpy dropped her muffin to the ground, her face freezing. "Oh, I'll get that for you." Twilight bent down to levitate the muffin out from under the table. Meanwhile, Derpy was facing some personal demons.
She doesn't even know she ruined my life.
The muffin plopped back onto the table , Twilight reappearing from below. "There we go. So what've you been up to?"
Derpy turned to leave. "Nothing...I...I have to go..."
"Hold on there, filly." Concern was starting to seep into the unicorn's features. "Something's bothering you. What is it? You can tell me."
Derpy paused, old emotions slowly starting to wash over her. She sat back down. "Do you REALLY want to know?" she questioned, a hint of anger slipping into her voice.
"Erm...yes, I love helping everypony...but what's wrong? Did I do something wrong?"
"You have NO idea."
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"Where do I begin, miss Twilight..."
Twilight looked confused. "You know my name?"
"Of course. How could I forget the pony who completely wrecked my life?"
"...Pardon?"
Derpy shook her head. "Of course you wouldn't know, always so focused on yourself." The pegasus rested her head on her hoof, focusing...well, trying to focus her eyes on the unicorn. "Where do I begin..."
She finished off her muffin and collected her thoughts. "You're right, you do know me from grade school...if things had gone different from how they happened, it would have been impossible to forget my name. Ditzy..." the pegasus sighed. "That's behind me.
"Before you came along, I was top of the class. Perfect grades...popular...I was set on the path to greatness. Not really much of an accomplishment, considering it was just lower grade school. And yet, everypony seemed to believe it would extend past school and into adult life, if it was nurtured well enough.
"I remember clearly... we'd just gotten past the first quarter of the school year, and that's when it happened... YOU joined the class."
Twilight rubbed her hooves together nervously. "Well...yes...before I got accepted as the princesses' student, I did go to normal school for awhile...but...what are you getting at?"
"You'll see. It didn't take you long to get noticed. Your social skills weren't amazing, clearly, but your intelligence far exceeded my own. In mere days, I'd gone from the shining pupil to shoddy second place, at best." Derpy grabbed the muffin wrapper and began crumpling it between her hooves, anger seeping more and more into her face. "I worked so hard...so, very hard...but it was never good enough. I'd get top marks on my asignments...and you'd get PERFECT SCORES.
"I'll admit, it's my fault I dwelled on you...second place wasn't TOO bad. And yet, I resented you. I worked so hard, just for you to swoop in and snatch it. But I still had my friends, oh yes. Wait...except for the part where they decided they wanted to try and get to know you, leaving me behind. Did it help the matter when you didn't even WANT their friendship?"
"I did have some...trouble getting to know ponies. But I DID try to get to know you, don't you remember?"
"Oh YES, I remember..." The pegasus slammed her hoof on the table. "I remember you GETTING ME PUT IN TRACTION."
The other cafe-goers were starting to pay attention to the angry pegasus. With a blush on her face, she lowered herself as far as she could go into the seat, composing herself. "Ahem...sorry about that."
"It's fine. Please...go on."
"Where was I...right. That day...still so fuzzy to me...really, the only reason I remember it at all was because they told me what had happened afterwards. I remember being in an extra sour mood having been too focused on you to study for the test. I had flunked out...my first failing grade ever. Instead of flying home, I had decided to just walk in order to calm my nerves. Big mistake.
I was passing by a construction zone when YOU showed up. I still remember what you said. 'Ditzy, hold on a moment! Can we talk?' I was tempted to just keep walking, but I had decided to give you a chance. I stopped and waited for you to catch up...and that's when it happened. A worker had slipped up and dropped a load of bricks below. His warning shout hadn't reached me, you were too busy distracting me. If I had just kept walking things never would have turned out like this..."
"...I don't remember this."
"Because you repressed it, foal!'" Derpy's expression turned from one of anger to sorrow. "The bricks...it was a direct hit. Struck in the head, legs, body, everywhere really. I had nowhere to go as they fell upon me...they buried me..." She sighed. "I don't know what happened next. I woke up in the hospital, everything a blur. Ponies were saying things... 'one or two broken hooves', 'may never recover from the head trauma', 'permanent cerebral damage'.
"All I remember clearly was the bubbles floating over my head. I suppose some people would prefer to see birds, maybe stars...but I saw bubbles. Completely oblivious, I started popping them. I popped them again and again, until I felt a strange sensation on my flank. Later on, I'd be pleased to know I got my cutie mark...and horrified, today. I got my mark for being...brain damaged."
Twilight had finished her tea long ago and was listening earnestly. "I...I don't know what to say. I..."
"Let me finish...please..." The pegasus sniffled. "They tried to put me back into school... but with the mix of brain damage and student teasing, I went nowhere. My eyes..." she pointed at the objects in questions, seeming to focus everywhere but on the unicorn. "They never recovered. They became a never-ending torment for me in school...even earning me the nickname Derpy. Heh...'nickname'.
"My grades plummeted and they were left with no choice but to put me in home schooling. Soon after, you moved away, and I was just as 'derpy' as ever." She sighed. "The damage persisted for years...but around the end of the high school years, my thoughts slowly returned. By then it was too late, but around the end of when a normal pony would finish college, my thoughts had completely returned...a little dulled, but at the very least average. The eye damage WAS permanent, though."
The pegasus sniffled. "It was too late for me to go anywhere in my life. I got into mail delivery...not a bad profession at all, mind you, but I could have gone so much farther. And now look at me..." she lazily waved her hoof around. "I'm a looked-down upon ditz, with a low-tier job and a strange craving for more and more muffins."
"I'm...I'm sorry. I'm just so sorry." The unicorn slid into the other pony's side of the booth. "I had no idea. I never meant for any of this to happen..." She wrapped her arms around the pegasus. "I'm sorry."
The pegasus stayed still for a moment, before tentatively returning the hug. "I know." She slowly peeled herself away from Twilight.
"Look...let me make it up to you. I can in no way make right what's been done...but I want to help," Twilight said. "Let me introduce you to my friends, maybe then people will look past your condition. And...maybe one day, you can forgive me... and we can be friends."
The pegasus thought things over for a minute, before a small smile crossed her face. "I'd like that."
