Gym was both Derpy’s most favorite class of Canterlot High and her least favorite class of Canterlot High.
It was her most favorite because it was the only one that she shared with Rainbow Dash. Over the years, Rainbow Dash had become something of an idol to Derpy, almost as much as she was to Scootaloo. She was popular, athletic, funny, beautiful, outgoing… pretty much everything Derpy believed she herself wasn’t.
It was her least favorite class because it was also the only one that she shared with Sunset Shimmer. Over the years, Sunset Shimmer had become something of an unholy terror to Derpy, almost as much as she was to Fluttershy. She was cruel, fake, abusive, underhanded, horrid… pretty much everything Derpy definitely knew for a fact she herself wasn’t.
Sunset Shimmer was also the cause of more than enough times of Derpy crying in her room. In addition, as much as she tried to suppress them, an occasional dark thought.
On one particular day, after routine warm-up exercises, the gym teacher allowed the students free play for the remainder of the period.
Derpy was going to simply walk around the gym as she normally did, but she stopped when she saw a bunch of the girls gather around Rainbow Dash as she was doing pull-ups. Somebody had dared her to do fifty and, of course, she couldn’t resist a challenge and, of course of course, she couldn’t help but to show off as well. She ended up going well past fifty and causing everyone to break out in applause when she finally gave out and jumped down.
“Yeah, yeah,” Rainbow Dash brushed off her accomplishment while taking some bows. “I know I’m awesome.”
I wish I was that strong, Derpy thought.
“Alright guys, I’m declaring a game of dodge ball!” Rainbow Dash announced. “Who wants to be on the winning team with me?”
The other girls cheered and ran off with her, leaving the pull-up bar abandoned. Derpy stared at the slender piece of metal for a moment before stepping over to it.
How many pull-ups can I do? Derpy pondered.
A little fantasy suddenly popped into her mind. In it, she would amaze herself and everybody else by surpassing the number of pull-ups Rainbow Dash had done and receive her own huge round of applause. Rainbow Dash would then run over, throw her arm around her shoulder, and proclaim, “Derpy, YOU’RE awesome!”
Egged on by her imagination, Derpy jumped up and gripped the bar with great resolve.
Then, she strained…
Then, she struggled…
Then, she turned red…
Then, she heard laughing…
“Oh, god! You can’t even do one pull-up?!” Sunset Shimmer cackled. “What, do those wall-eyes of yours affect your muscles as well as your eyesight?”
“My eyesight isn’t so bad,” Derpy weakly tried to defend herself.
“Then it must be your retard voice and brain not sending the right messages to your puny twig arms.”
Tears began to well up in Derpy’s eyes. She hated it when Sunset Shimmer used the “R” word with her.
“Come on, retard, you can do it!” Sunset began to patronize with a sickening mockery of a sweet tone. “Do just one pull-up and I’ll give you a cookie to eat while you ride the short bus home! You’d like that, huh? Little, blonde retard would like that, wouldn’t she?”
Make it stop, Derpy silently pleaded with a tear rolling down her cheek.
“HEADS UP, SHIMMY!!!”
Before she could react, Sunset Shimmer was suddenly struck right in the face by a dodge ball and fell back to the floor. Rainbow Dash jogged over to retrieve the ball with a big smirk on her face.
“Whoa, Sunset Shimmer, you need to look out when there’s a dodge ball game going on,” she dished Sunset’s brand of patronizing right back at her. “You could get the bitch smacked right out of you if you’re not careful and I know how much a bitch like you values her bitchdom.”
Sunset Shimmer shot up. Her face was a blazing inferno of rage. She opened her mouth, surely about to unleash a verbal hellstorm of pure and profane hatred upon Rainbow Dash.
However, the blow of a whistle caused her to pause.
“Alright ladies, go wash up before your next class!” the gym teacher called out to everyone.
Sunset Shimmer writhed in anger and stomped off in the direction of the showers.
Rainbow Dash smugly crossed her arms and glanced up at the still-dangling Derpy. “You okay, Derps?”
Derpy beamed gratefully upon her defender. “Thanks to you, Rainbow Dash.”
****************
Canterlot High let out and Derpy exited the building alongside the rest of the homeward bound student body.
Her excitement over Rainbow Dash’s rescue hadn’t died since gym class. Though, it did help that Sunset Shimmer hadn’t been in any mood to try to kill it. She continued to be so furious that she had pretty much kept her distance from everybody for the rest of the day. Derpy breathed a sigh of relief that she didn’t attempt to pull any kind of revenge on Rainbow Dash.
Was she just being a hero like always or does this mean Rainbow Dash actually wants to be friends with me? Derpy couldn’t help but to wonder.
She then stopped in the middle of the sidewalk.
No way, she concluded, shaking her head. Why would she want to have a friend like me? I’m nothing like her. I couldn’t even do one pull-up. She felt tears coming on once again. Maybe Sunset Shimmer is right about me. Maybe I am just… just a… a re–
All of a sudden, a Ducati jumped up off the road and onto the sidewalk, stopping right beside her.
Derpy jumped back in alarm, but then immediately recognized it as belonging to Rainbow Dash. The Ducati was a Monster 796 with an electric blue custom paint job which included several cloud-and-rainbow-lightning-bolt icons decorating it. It had been a present from her parents for her last birthday, as a huge reward for having kept her grades up, not to mention her supreme excellence as captain of all the sports teams of Canterlot High.
“Hey, Derps!” Rainbow Dash greeted, lifting up her helmet’s visor. “You wanna lift home? I got some extra headgear.”
“You want to give me a ride home?” Derpy asked, a little unsure if this was really happening to her. “Oh, I wouldn’t want to make you go out of your way, Rainbow Dash.”
“You’re not making me do anything, Derps. I want to give you a ride.”
Derpy felt honored. Rainbow Dash actually wanted to do something for her.
She eagerly nodded her acceptance. She mounted the Ducati, put on the second helmet, and securely put both hands onto Rainbow Dash’s waist. Before she could even begin to reflect how amazing this was, they tore off the sidewalk and out onto the street.
They shot down the blacktop at ludicrous speed. Derpy gazed around her, lost in the moment. It was as if she was watching the whole world whip by as if nothing in it mattered at all. She tried to search for a word to describe just what she was feeling. Freedom. That was it. Pure freedom. The vanilla scent she was receiving downwind from Rainbow Dash only made it all the more pleasant.
“You okay back there, Derpy?” Rainbow Dash called, snapping her back into reality.
“Yeah! This is great, Rainbow Dash!”
“I knew you would love it!” Rainbow Dash chuckled. “Hey, wanna do a wheelie?”
Derpy’s face dropped. “Wait, what?”
Rainbow Dash popped the clutch and the Ducati smoothly hitched up at a high angle on its back wheel. Derpy gritted her teeth and tightly wrapped her arms around Rainbow Dash’s waist for dear life. After several seconds, Rainbow Dash applied the rear-brake easy enough to level them back down safely on the pavement with a light jolt.
Derpy found herself giggling. She had to admit, that was kind of exhilarating.
“Wanna do another, Derps?”
The giggling abruptly ceased as Derpy quickly answered, “No, no! That’s okay! Once is fine!”
“Whatever you say!” Rainbow Dash laughed… right before doing a second wheelie anyway.
****************
Before Derpy knew it, they were entering her neighborhood. A little bit of sadness hit her. Right then, she actually wished she could live farther away.
The Ducati slowed down as they approached the Hooves residence. Inside, the parking of the unfamiliar vehicle didn’t go unnoticed by Mrs. Hooves.
The two Wondercolts hoped off and removed their helmets.
Derpy threw her arms up into the air and gushed, “Wow! That was so fun!”
“Hey, glad to show a good time to a friend,” Rainbow Dash said, giving Derpy a soft, playful jab to the arm.
Derpy smiled brightly. “Friend?”
“Absolutely! We’ve never really talked until now, have we? I don’t even know what you’re into. You got any hobbies?”
“Hobbies?” Derpy paused to think. “Well, uh, I do like to bake. Mostly muffins, though…”
“Baking muffins, huh? You work at any of the bakeries around town?”
“No, I haven’t really thought about–”
“It’s never too early to start thinking about careers. I know it sucks, but graduation isn’t too far off. Heck, I’ve already started getting calls about sports scholarship opportunities. I bet you’d make an awesome baker or, you know, whatever you decided to do.”
Derpy had no idea how to respond to that. No one outside of her own family had ever said anything that encouraging to her before.
“Welp, see you in gym tomorrow, Derps,” Rainbow Dash said as she hoped back onto the Ducati. “Oh, and don’t worry any about Sunset Shimmer. If she bothers you again, she’ll have to answer to me.” She gave her a wink of assurance.
“Thank you,” Derpy said, earnestly. “Bye, Rainbow Dash.”
She waved as the Ducati raced off down the street. Rainbow Dash even bid one last wheelie farewell. Derpy didn’t stop waving until she lost sight of her.
She then turned and walked up to her home. She opened the front door to find her mother right there waiting. Not only waiting, but with tears in her eyes.
“Mom, what’s wrong?” Derpy asked, concerned.
“Oh honey, nothing’s wrong,” Mrs. Hooves stated with a big smile.
She went to her daughter and pulled her into a loving embrace.
“I saw you outside with that girl, Derpy. You looked so happy.” Mrs. Hooves held her even tighter. “I know you’ve been crying in your room a lot.”
“You do?” Derpy asked, feeling a pang of guilt. “I tried to keep myself down so you wouldn’t hear. I didn’t want to worry you, mom.”
“That's what I figured. I decided to wait for you to come talk to me about it when you were ready to. Until then, I was always there outside your door weeping right along with you, Derpy.”
“You were?” Derpy asked, trying her best to hold back a flood of emotion.
“Of course, I was,” Mrs. Hooves confirmed with her voice trembling. “I cry whenever you cry, baby.”
Tears began to well up in Derpy’s eyes, but these were not the ones of despair Sunset Shimmer had always caused. These were tears of joy.
For so long, Sunset Shimmer’s words had haunted her. Some days, it was as if they would even replay on an endless loop no matter how hard she begged her mind to shut up,
“Watch where you’re going, retard!” “Oh, did the retard break something yet again?” “Retards like you don’t have a future.” “Watch where you’re going, retard!” “Oh, did the retard break something yet again?” “Retards like you don’t have a future.” “Watch where you’re going, retard!” “Oh, did the retard break something yet again?” “Retards like you don’t have a future.” “Retards like you don’t have a future.” “Retards like you don’t have a future.” “Retards like you don’t have a future.”
Derpy smiled. That was then. This was now. As for the future, Rainbow Dash had absolutely no idea, but her loyalty and words of encouragement that day had made Derpy feel certain that the ones ahead would be just fine. Especially with her mother always right there with her, whether she would know it or not.
“I’m so glad that you found a friend, Derpy.”
“I am too, mom. I am too.”
Daughter and mother then wept together once again. This time, however, they did it for all the right reasons.
THE END
Author's Note
If it wasn’t for one loving friend and one loving mother I may have ended my life years ago. They’ve both said the same thing about me. Please cherish whoever it is in your life that makes it worth living.
