I am... Derpy Hooves...
Prologue: What is Laughter?
Load Full StoryNext Chapter"Alright class! Please explain how wind is made in Cloudsdale!"
The whole class was silent, waiting for someone to be a brave royal guard and speak up against Miss Dove Wing. Well, there were some fillies who raised their hoof up, and the one who was picked did answer it correctly.
"Very good! Ski Jet! Yes, wind is generated by the pressure of cool air upon the land, replacing the warmer air because the warmer air goes upwards to us. Basically the uneven heating of Equestria's surface from the sun!" Miss Dove Wing converted Ski Jet's response, which upsets the dark and yellow striped Pegasus, as if his answer was not good enough.
Trying to be the good and sweet fillies, some Pegasi decided that it was the time to ask relevant questions... Until that was largely ignored by Dove Wing as she continued the class.
"Now, I have another question for you all: How does wind affect the way we Pegasuses fly?"
Few smart ones quickly shot up their hooves again, but the purple winged mare was not satisfied by the quantity. To her, it was so cute that she almost giggled: to see how the youth struggles to learn in school. Nevertheless, it was normal, not every pony is "bright". Therefore, Dove Wing decided to give out a hint, as if she was filling her missing parts of her lectures,
"Creatures that are lightweight, weak, or careless are often under the control of nature."
The half of the class grabbed their own pencils and pens with their teeth and began jotting down what the teacher had just said. The smart ones absorbed it in their mind, which they are pretty confident and reliable on their memories. Every filly was focused and concentrated... All but one...
"Ditzy Doo." Dove Wing looked over to the gray, funny looking eyed filly, who seemed to be listening, but in Ms. Dove Wing's case: just because her eyes are locked on the green chalkboard does not make her an attentive listener.
The gray Pegasus almost fell over her chair, entertained the whole class, quickly scrambled back to her seat. The purple Pegasus shook her head in embarrassment, sighed, and prayed to Celestia that this will be the last time.
"Do you have an answer?"
Ditzy Doo, aka Derpy Hooves, was known in Cloudsdale Elementary for being clumsy, as she would ruin everything no matter how good of a helper she tries to sound. She still does not realize how every single pony she has encountered just wants to avoid her, and just be staring at a wall. Which explains why she was daydreaming and thinking of something else when she should not be. Now that the whole class is beginning to stare at her, judging her movements, ready to scoff at her words, Derpy can only blame no one but herself for not taking notes when she was expected to, or listening to Dove Wing's lectures when she is literally sitting at the closest to her teacher. However, right now she needs to take action, for it is better than not knowing anything at all or else she would stay put for detention so that she can relearn everything for today's class.
"Ummm..." Derpy began, but she couldn't let her mouth finish the business. For she remembered something from Dove Wing such as cold air and warm air.
"The cold air... Ca... Can push us down if we aren't careful enough...?"
Then there it is. The giggles from others, especially from Sugar Glade and Rasp Berry, were throwing paper balls at the poor little filly. To Derpy however, it is still unknown whether they are laughing with her, or at her. But right now she does not want to care or think about it, she just wants her Dove to approve her response.
"Well, that is definitely not a proper answer, dear" Ms. Dove Wing added that last word to comfort Derpy, but one word alone is null to the laughter from others. Derpy finally found out, that she was the one kicked out of the group. This unresistant sorrow cut in deep into her chest, she can feel the tears glittering out of her yellow eyes.
"Of course it was Ditzy! 'Cause she's such a Doozy!" Called out Amber Gold.
" 'Can't do nothing right!' Wait, that's how someone like Ditzy speaks! Who uses double negatives these days?" shouted Feather Cloud laughing on the ground along with some of her friends.
"Sigh, what a featherbrain..." Twinkle Star, even one of the smart ponies in the class commented.
Derpy looked down on the floor, hoping she can find a hole to hide in, and never have to be bothered... Or bother... Another pony ever again, she hoped that she does not have to know so much about laughing, despite doing so with her family, does not make it the same as being laughed "at", because she still could not identify the difference. She was confused as ever, her mind is corrupting like parasites eating her brain bit by bit. She wished she hadn't lived....
RING RING RING!
"That's the bell, class! All of you are dismissed, except Ditzy..." Ms. Dove Wing said.
The whole horde of excited fillies raced out of the door, everypony is eager to fly around, have fun, do whatever things that they want. As Dove Wing looked at them, she simply smiled on how young and innocent they are... Until turning back to check on Derpy. And of course, the little filly was ready to step out of the door, but dragged back by her teacher.
"And where do you think you're going? Ms. Doo?" Dove Wing asked sternly.
"I thought you said everypony is dismissed..." Derpy replied, trembling as she looked up to meet her teacher's discontented eyes.
"Didn't you hear?" The Pegasus mare continued, "I said all 'except Ditzy'."
Derpy looked up at her, confused and upset that she is confused, she does not even know what to do now. She just stood there, but by doing nothing still got her in trouble.
"Ditzy Doo... What should the student do when she's in detention?" Asked Ms. Dove Wing, disappointed that the gray filly still does not know what she should do at times when she experienced it multiple times already.
"Ummm well..." she tries to remember what did she do during detention, "Si.... Sit down on a desk and..." She forgot again, "Ummm, and sit down quietly...?"
The purple mare slapped her head with her wings, that took her long enough, she thought to herself, and this accumulates to the thirty... Ninth time that she is caught not paying attention! This case was absolutely embarrassing and shocking to Dove Wing; she has encountered maybe a sleepy Night Wood, or an exhausted Hollow Green, but never a... Ditzy no matter how one pony looks at her, no matter when, who, where. Dove Wing shook her head, trying not to become like her student, finally asked a more personal question that she believes will make Derpy actually listen,
"Ditzy Doo..." She began, but then stopped for awhile to rethink on her tone and speech, “The reason why I held you back in class, because I have few questions for you, and I hope it will be in great use."
Derpy looked up, having a slight incline on what her teacher might tell her privately. Dove Wing let out a sigh of relief, finally getting her student to pay attention.
"Do you ever think about how others might think of you? Have you ever wondered why your peers would often laugh whenever you do or say something if you keep acting like this...
"Like muffins? Because I sure do!" Derpy interrupted in excitement, completely barricading herself on the moon.
"No..." Dove Wing stopped again, realizing that her student was actually listening... Not on point...
"... if you keep acting like... Well... A disordered being of chaos." She finally uttered. However, she then wished she never had said those words, for it was too, complicated, and... exaggerated, it was more like she was a liar because she never meant to say such things. Those words are what the divine rulers of Equestria never liked, nor they would want their world to be like this, for it spreads bitterness, disharmony, strife, and coldness to every heart of the warm pony's soul, for it would never burn again. Dove Wing prayed to Princess Celestia for mercy and apology, but the sun seemed to only shine back on Derpy,who seemed to be frustrated by her teacher's harsh words.
"What? I'm not disordered! I'm perfectly fine! Only those who can't speak their lines are disordered!" Derpy argued, surprising the mare deeply that she almost fell over, but she managed to use her wings to balance herself, take a deep breath, and sweep her sweat away from her forehead.
What did she just hear from her most worried student? Was that voice seriously from the younger Pegasus in the classroom? Or was it Dove Wing's imagination going too wild that it's distracted with things. No... She thought to herself, it must've been a coincidence. Ditzy Doo shouldn't understand that, no student of her should! This is just getting too strange!
"B-but... Ms. Dove, Wing..." Derpy spoke, shook up from what her teacher had asked her awhile ago, "If all of my classmates laughed at me, and those laughs were... G-good?"
The room smothered and suppressed the uplifting beat, Dove Wing hesitated to speak anymore about this, Derpy's eyes seem to be not like regularly muddled, but more of a curious and naughty feeling. She fears what would happen to the filly if she told her the truth, because she knew too much about this suspectible subject: depression, corruption, or maybe even something more serious that she does not even want to interpret. If she lied, it's a fifty-fifty risk that the filly will eventually find out that she did, and not only pressuring herself, but hating on her foul mouthed teacher.
"Look Ditzy, I suggest that we should stop going over this topic, it would not help us get to anywhere." The mare said, tortured by the mental insecurity that her student will end her own highway, yet it was her fault that she brought this up.
"We-well... O-okay Ms. Dove Wing..." Derpy soon began to learn from her teacher.
"You are dismissed, young filly. Goodbye." Dove Wing led Derpy out of the door, and slammed it hard. Right behind her without thinking for the latter's emotion triggered by this action.
"I... Ms. Dove Wing!" Derpy called out, a teardrop came out of her compacted cheeks, "Are you alright?"
Silence responded to her, it couldn't be any more dead quiet than this.
"Ms. Dove Wing does not want to talk to me... She must've not liked me..." Derpy hopelessly concluded,
"She doesn't want me to know the truth! EVERYPONY LAUGHED AT ME THEN! THEY DIDN'T LAUGH THE GOOD!"
These horrifying noises haunted Dove Wing, through the doors, and into her ears. Couldn't do anything herself to prevent all this from happening, she can only cover her whole body with her dark and purple wings, as tightly as she can, and crying because she was helpless against such an unpredictable youngster, the nightmare dug deep into the graceful Dove's heart. Worried yet scared of what will her student do next.
"Ditzy! Calm down! Everything is alright! There is no need to over think!" Dove Wing called out. But it was futile, Derpy did not listen at all to what she has said, she was bleeding from the tip of the hook, she could not get herself off it. The truth behind those laughs back there from her classmates, were simply too obvious to be enveloped.
"Stop... Please... Ditzy..." The poor purple Pegasus can only breathe,
"Why do you have to know and comprehend the hard way?"
The gray winged filly cried hard, and the clouds floating beneath her are darkened, like gray. But her cries were not normal, they were rather demonic to Dove Wing, to her, it was like what she described earlier when she asked Derpy the question of being "disordered and chaotic". The elder Pegasus usually knows how to handle her students well. Until she tripped over this typical colored rock that no one bothers to interact with, and this trip was so hard that she injured her hooves well enough to not get up. Flying will not make her wounds fade.
She could not take this any longer, she was never this overwhelmed by a small and an ignorant foal like Derpy. She just wants to end this all, and she has came up with the idea:
To create the conclusion.
"Ditzy Doo!" Dove Wing rushed out of the classroom door, "Everything is okay! They were never laughing at you! They really love you for your antics! Don't panic! It's alright! You are a gifted-"
There was the only gray sheet of a huge cloud left behind...
Doing what she believed she could do, Dove Wing dropped to her knees, her head lumped and sank into the world of pitch black. She never saw her lost student since then.
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