Derpy's Melody (Complete Short Story)
A park. A warm, sunny summer day.
Derpy lay on the grass under the cooling shade of a large oak tree, her face resting on her forehooves.
It was peaceful enough but hardly quiet as she lay listening to the delighted, shrieking laughter of several little foals playing in the open grass.
She had not expected to see the happy, romping foals. No, she had come expecting to hear the soothing sounds of the birds singing in the oak branches above her head.
But, it was a public space, she figured, and thought it silly to expect it to always be as she wished whenever she came here. Still, she was here so she would make the best of her visit to this, one of her favorite spots.
She closed her eyes and frowned. The shrieks and cries of the foals happy play would have brought smiles of joy for anypony else.
Not her. The sounds of happy laughter only reminded her of her childhood. She felt a pang of old hurt grow and settle in her heart as unwelcome memories returned.
The bullying.
The teasing.
The heartless insults thrown at her like daggers.
“Goofy eyes! Goofy eyes! You got goofy eyes!”
And...
“Look at them Derpy hooves! Look at them! They look like clown hooves! How can you even walk on those things?”
Those words had stung deeply, caused her to run home crying.
Why were they being so mean?
The memories were so vivid that it seemed for a moment that Derpy had somehow been transported back to her childhood.
She felt herself cringe at the memory of those words hurled at her so long ago.
Why had they done that? She’d never done anything to them, had never hurt anyone! All she’d ever wanted to do was help others, to be liked and accepted. Was that so much to ask?
She sighed, rose to her hooves, looked sadly one more time at the happy foals lost in the sheer joy of play. She turned to leave, to return to the peaceful isolation of her home. At least, there, she could read and ignore the deep loneliness that gnawed at her heart.
Just as she turned to go she saw something that struck her like an epiphany!
There! On the other side of the park near the tennis courts!
He was tall! So tall! And strong! Powerful muscles rippled under his deep, charcoal gray coat and he moved with the fluid grace of an athlete, the feathers of his beautiful wings glistening brightly in the sunlight, his silver mane and tail flowing like water in the gentle breeze.
Derpy felt her heart begin to pound as her eyes drank in - no! Gulped down - the sight of what was to her the most magnificent pegasus stallion she had ever seen!
He turned, looked at her, caught her staring at him and... Smiled!
Derpy felt panic rise in her when she saw the stallion walking toward her!
She frantically pranced and hoofed the ground, wanting to run, needing to run but she couldn’t! All she could do was watch, terrified and palpitating as the stallion grew closer.
“Hi”, he said sweetly, smiling, as he stepped up to her, “I’m Lightning Flash. What’s your name?”
“Um.. Uh.. I... Um”, she stuttered as she blushed a deep crimson and stared at the ground.
“Well”, he said, sweetly amused as he sat down in front of her, “I have some muffins. Would you like one?”
Her head shot up, she stared at him.
“How... How do you know I like muffins?”, she stuttered, still quite nervous.
“I’ve seen you here laying under this tree before. You were eating muffins.”
“Oh”, she said, suddenly growing very shy.
“So, would you like one?”, he asked, as he removed one from his bag, offered it to her.
A nervous smile on her face, she reached out to take it. Seeing her shaking hoof, she drew it back quickly, hid it behind her back and blushed again, a crooked smile on her face.
Lightning flash settled down on the grass in front of her, looked at her.
“You’re cute”, he said, sweetly amused.
‘Cute?!’, Derpy thought, ‘he thinks I’m cute? Who in Equestria has ever thought I was cute?’ She found herself overwhelmed by the thought.
“So”, he continued, “I’m a professional stunt flyer. What do you do?”
She stared at him for a moment, trying to compose herself. It was clear this pegasus stallion was not going away but it didn’t bother her. He wasn’t bothering her. She was just incredibly nervous and she suddenly found herself wishing she had Rainbow Dash’s confidence or Rarity’s charm and grace or Applejack’s direct, open honesty or...
“Well?” He asked the question not as a demand but in a sweet and gently compelling way. She found it charming.
“M-mail carrier”, she squeaked. She clapped her hooves over her muzzle, alarmed that her voice came out sounding like the creak of a rusty hinge and not like her normal voice at all.
“That’s a nice job”, he said as he began casually munching on a muffin, “A big responsibility. I’m sure you do it well. You look like you would.”
She snapped her eyes to him, stared again for a moment before looking away. Yes, he was charming! So charming! And disarming! She found herself relaxing a little.
“Well, thome people think tho”, she finally said. Startling herself, she bit her lip. No! She’d let herself lisp! She chided herself, telling herself she shouldn’t have done that, should have tried harder to sound... Normal!
“I love these things!”, he said as he took another bite of his muffin, closing his eyes, relishing the taste of it.
Derpy found herself totally nonplused, not knowing what to say or do in that moment. She wanted to leap to her hooves and run. Why was this stallion talking to her, anyway? Who was she that this gorgeous male would even want to talk to her? She felt the weight of her insecurities bearing down on her.
“If I could I’d eat them all the time”, said Lightning, “but I have to watch my weight. Professional flyer you know.”
Just then they looked at each other and their eyes locked. His eyes!
Such a beautiful shade of sky blue! She realized she’d never seen such beautiful eyes in her life, before!
In that instant it was if the whole world disappeared and the only two left in all of existence were her and this gorgeous stallion. She caught herself, shook her head. She realized her breathing had grown harder, deeper. Her heart was pounding in her chest as if it would explode.
“So, what do you do besides being a mail carrier?”, he asked, when they finally broke their mutual gaze.
“Um.. Thmm... Sm... Uh”, she stuttered again, blushed shyly.
“Tell you what”, said lightning, finishing his muffin and rising to his hooves. He took a business card from the athletic equipment bag he was carrying, handed it to her.
“Why don’t you give me a call and, if you like, we can hang out.”
He handed the card to her. She stared at it for a moment, surprised, before taking it.
“Thure”, she stuttered before turning and running off.
Derpy had returned home only to find herself pacing back and forth across her living room. Taking a deep breath, she stared at the card Lightning given her, started to call him, caught herself, momentarily frozen by her fears and insecurities.
Taking a deep breath she took another step toward her phone only to be overwhelmed by her fears again.
This went on for almost ten minutes until Derpy, disgusted with herself, took a deep breath, braced herself and dialed the number. Reconsidering she hung up instantly.
Finding her resolve a moment later she dialed again, let it ring this time.
“Hello?”, came the smooth, deep and very masculine voice that answered.
“Uh, hi! Thith ith Derpy”, she said nervously, “We met in the park thith afternoon?” She was so excited she hadn't noticed her lisping.
“Oh, hi!”, came Lightning’s voice. He sounded delighted! “I’m glad you decided to call. I was hoping you would.”
Derpy felt her heart leap to her throat, begin to pound in her chest again.
“Um, well, yeah”, she said a bit awkwardly, “I really wanted to.” Oh, damn! Was she sounding too eager? Maybe she shouldn’t have said that?
“So, have you thought about where you’d like to go?”, he asked.
“Um... I don’t know... Hayburger okay for you?”, she asked.
“Perfect!”, he said, delighted, “So, how about eight o’clock tonight?”
“Um, yeah, fine”, she said. She’d been doing her best to avoid words with ‘S’s and ‘W’s in them. Feeling insecure about her lisp she didn’t want to draw Lightning’s attention to it.
“Great!”, he said, delighted, “See you then!”
Derpy felt mildly dizzy as she hung up the phone. Her heart still pounding in her chest, she thought she might swoon.
“Hold still, dahling!”, said a mildly annoyed but still happily enthusiastic Rarity to Derpy through the pins clenched in her teeth as she set the hem of the dress she was making, “I don’t want to poke you.”
Derpy did her best to hold still for Rarity but she couldn’t help it! Her nervousness and excitement were just too much!
“I’m thowwy!”, she said, apologetically, “it’th justht I’m tho exthited! I... I called him! Asked him out on a date and he said yeth!”
Rarity smiled, pulling the remaining pins from her teeth, putting them back in their box as she made the final adjustment to the dress.
“That is marvelous!”, said Rarity, honestly pleased that her friend was finally going on a date. She took the dress from Derpy and, settling down at her sewing machine, quickly and skillfully set the hem.
“There!”, said Rarity triumphantly, “Finished!”
She handed the dress back to Derpy, who excitedly put it back on, stepped to a mirror.
“Oh, it’th beautiful!”, she gasped, ‘thank you tho much, Wawity!”
“It’s my pleasure, dear”, said Rarity, smiling happily, “Now come! Let’s finish getting you ready for your date!”
Within the hour they were done and an excited and happy Rarity led an equally excited Derpy to a full length mirror.
Derpy gasped at what she saw.
The dress, a simple yet beautiful pale yellow shift, fit Derpy’s form perfectly. Such was Rarity’s skill that she had created it to look both elegant and casual as well as subtly alluring.
And gone was the shock of Derpy’s usually wild blonde mane and wild tail. Rarity, performing yet another of her styling miracles, had replaced it with an elegantly flowing and beautifully coiffed mane, accented by a single small sunflower hair pin set to one side that matched her dress perfectly.
Derpy turned to face Rarity, a look of mild panic on her face.
“Do I look okay? Do you think he’ll like this?”, she asked, her nervousness returning.
“He’ll love you, dahling! How could he not? You’re absolutely gorgeous!” said Rarity in reassuringly confident tones.
Derpy, relaxing, smiled.
“I thure hope so”, she smiled as she thanked Rarity again before hugging her and heading out the door.
Lightening, dressed in a sport jacket, linen shirt and casual but stylish jeans and loafers, was waiting patiently outside the Hayburger Shack when Derpy arrived.
His jaw dropped when he saw her coming toward him and he stared, a look of awe on his face.
“Wow!”, he said, smiling, truly impressed, as she stepped up to him, “you look beautiful!”
“Thank you”, she smiled, demurely.
“You don’t look tho bad yourthelf!”, she said, doing her best to relax and try to sound casual. She cringed inside when she realized she’d let herself lisp again.
Saying nothing, Lightning Flash stepped aside, pulled the door open and, smiling, held it for her to enter.
‘Ooh! A gentleman, too!’, Derpy thought, delighted.
“So, what’ll it be?”, asked the waiter, after they’d been seated. Lightning nodded to Derpy.
“Um... A double hayburger and a...”, She struggled in her mind to find a word that didn’t have an ‘S’ or a ‘W’ in it... “Vanilla frappe”, she said. She would have much preferred a chocolate shake but didn’t dare say the words for fear of lisping again.
“Good choice”, nodded the waiter as he wrote her order on a pad.
“And you?”, he asked, turning to Lightning.
“I’ll also have a double hayburger but I’ll have a chocolate milkshake, instead”, he said.
“Great!”, said the waiter, writing the order down before walking away.
‘He likes chocolate shakes, too?’, thought Derpy, smiling in her heart.
“You never told me your name”, said Lightning, settling his chin into his hooves, relaxing.
“Derpy. It’th Derpy”, she said, still nervous.
“If you don’t mind my saying so that sounds like a nickname”, he said.
“Yeth, it ith”, she said, then bit her tongue, flinching. She’d let herself lisp again! She had to be careful about that. She wanted to make a good impression on this guy, didn’t want to do anything to blow it.
“So, what’s your name?”, he asked again, smiling charmingly.
“Demora”, she said, quietly
“That’s a very beautiful name!”, he said, smiling, “perfect for a very beautiful filly.”
Derpy looked at Lightning surprised. It was just for a second but... He’d called her beautiful? Who had ever called her beautiful? Was she? Really? She found herself wondering as she blushed and smiled demurely.
“Are you okay?”, he asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine”, she said, recovering herself.
She gazed into his eyes for a moment, sorely tempted to let herself get lost in them.
It was then that she noticed it for the first time. She blinked, had to look again to make sure she wasn’t imagining things, then had to look away so as not to seem like she was staring. He had a glass eye! But, it’d been so skillfully made that it matched his natural eye almost perfectly!
“A childhood accident”, said Lightning, nonchalantly smiling. He’d caught her staring at her eye and hadn’t freaked out!
“Oh”, she said, trying not to be embarrassed.
“It doesn’t bother you, does it?”, he asked. “You’d be surprised how many people are bothered by it.”
“No! No! No! Not at all!”, she blurted out, shaking her head.
Derpy found herself surprised. Not by his having a glass eye but because, for once, the shoe was on the other hoof and, now, it was her turn to face someone with a disability instead of someone uncomfortably dealing with her.
It felt weird, odd but, somehow, also comforting and reassuring. It was then that she realized that not only was this stallion wonderfully handsome and sweet but here was someone who knew, at least in part, what it was like to be stared at, to also be thought of as odd.
“Tho, I guess my eye and stuff doesn’t bother you?”, she asked.
“Not at all”, he said, smiling sweetly, reassuringly. Derpy knew, could tell that he wasn’t just saying the words to make her feel better. He was telling the truth and it was obvious that he was truly and sincerely attracted to her. For the first time since they met, she let herself relax completely, let her be herself.
“Tho”, she asked, “what’th it like being a profethional flyer?” This time she didn't flinch, didn't scold herself for lisping. In her heart she knew it didn't matter, anymore, would never matter ever again where Lightning was concerned.
Lightning smiled, warming to the subject.
With that he happily launched into tales of the various adventures, mishaps and near disasters he’d experienced in the course of his career.
Demora, settling her chin on her hooves, listened. In fact, she hung on his every word, rapt.
“Well, enough about me”, he said after about twenty minutes, “I want to know about you!” He said it with such enthusiasm that she couldn’t resist. She began telling him about all her likes and dislikes, all the things she enjoyed doing.
Now it was his turn to hang on her every word, a look of deep appreciation and pleasure on his face.
Lightning seemed delighted when she began to share her interest in literature, art, music entertainment and the interest she had in more intellectual things with him.
Found herself equally delighted when she discovered that he had the same enthusiastic interest in the things she liked and loved.
In fact, as she went on, she saw that he was growing more and more interested in her, not less. And she was certainly not boring him. That was very clear.
“Sorry folks but it’s closing time!”, said the waiter who was standing at their table, now.
They looked at him as if they’d been roused from a mutually shared beautiful dream. Knowing their look he smiled, pleased. “Sorry to run you out but, like I said, closing time.”
It was eleven o’clock, already? Where’d the time go? It seemed like but a moment before that they’d entered, taken a seat and ordered!
“Thanks”, said Lightning, as he picked up the check and headed for the counter, Derpy close to him.
“I hope you enjoyed your meal”, smiled the waitress as she took the check and Lightning’s bits, giving back change a moment later.
Returning to the table, Lightning left four gold bits before heading out the door with Derpy. The waiter, seeing this, smiled.
They walked slowly, easily, relishing every moment together as Lightning escorted Derpy back to her home. Their conversation became light, easy, casual, like that of two old friends who had known each other for years and, although they’d just met that day, it seemed to feel just that way to both of them.
Although neither said so they both knew they didn’t want this night to end and, if they could have one wish, this moment would last forever.
But, all too soon, they were at Derpy’s door saying good night.
She caught herself frowning. Looking at Lightning, she saw the quick flash of a frown pass across his face, too.
“I have a little confession to make”, he said to her a little nervously.
‘Oh, no!’ she thought, worried, ‘he’s going to tell me he’s really gay!’
“I’ve, uh... Well, I’ve kind of liked you from a distance for a while, now”, he said. Demora sighed, visibly relaxing. Lightning looked at her for a moment, puzzled.
“Oh! I wath worried you were going to tell me you’re gay!”, she said, giggling. He laughed, shook his head.
“I wanted to meet you before this”, he said, “but, believe it or not, I’m rather shy. It took me a while to get up the nerve to talk to you, today.”
She stared at him mildly surprised. Shy? This stallion didn’t strike her as the least bit shy! In fact, he seemed like the most confident, most self secure stallion she’d ever met!
Suddenly, a surprised Demora found herself swept up into Lightning’s strong but gentle arms, found him gazing deeply into her eyes.
“Sorry! Forgive me”, he sighed, “I... I’ve never done anything like this on a first date, before, but I just can’t help myself with you!” All she could do was gaze deeply and expectantly into his eyes.
Then he kissed her. Hesitantly at first but with ever growing passion.
Demora, feeling her heart pounding and her knees going weak, let herself melt completely into that kiss. She surrendered to it, gave herself to it and, in that moment, gave her heart to Lightning as well.
That kiss seemed to go wonderfully on forever but it was over all too soon.
“I’ve never met anyone like you before, Demora”, he sighed, when he’d finally regained his breath, “I think you’re wonderful. Please! Will you see me again, tomorrow?
“Yeth”, was all she said, breathlessly, when she could finally speak again.
“Tomorrow then”, he said, releasing her.
With that he was gone.
As Demora stepped into her home she found her heart singing in ways she never could have imagined and she danced ecstatically around the room, her joy endless.
In the days and weeks that followed Demora and Lightning grew close, then inseparable. In time their friendship grew into something much stronger, much deeper, far beyond their greatest most deeply wished for hopes and expectations.
Gone were the days when her life was an endless empty gray wasteland of loneliness filled with the pain of memories best forgotten.
In that moment when she realized that she and Lightning were in love, Demora knew that things had changed forever.
For Demora life was finally and truly beginning and nothing in that new and wonderful life would ever be the same again.