Bubbles & Rainbows
~ArtisticDoe 2012
Time flies so fast, does it not? It seems like just yesterday I was a young filly living in Cloudsdale, living my life to the fullest and now I’m an old pony, looking back on my life as it slowly drifts away. Oh, please excuse me, I should introduce myself, my name is Derpy Hooves, just living the last few hours of my life in my home in Equestria. I wonder how my little sister Dinky is doing, I do hope she is well, along with all my frie- well, I should say the other ponies that lived beside me. I did not have really any true friends. But who could blame me, I was a different pony; my eyes are different, I flew a little different then every other pony, and I was always causing a mess. I did have one friend though, a friend that was as loyal as any friend could be. Rainbow Dash. My, my what a amazing pony she was. She became a famous leading Wonder Bolt while i sat back and watched her succeed, alone,sad and just wondering how it would of been if I was beside her...
______________________________________________________
How I met Dashie, well that is quite a story on its own. I was no more than a young, tiny filly, brand new to a town such as Cloudsdale. I had lived in Los Pegasus before arriving here and that was no place for a pony like me. My parents were two very successful show ponies, doing very well in their career but when I came along, they could do nothing more but stare at me with disapproving, disgraced eyes that sunk into my soul like a rock being dropped off a cliff. They hated me. They saw nothing more than my odd eyes and not how I was their own child. My parents had named me Derpy Hooves for, what I remember them saying, me being so disgracefully derped by Celestia herself, I would be better off my name suiting me for what I truly am, a stupid, clumsy hooved pony with derped up eyes. Derpy Hooves.
My father abused me and my mother only criticized me instead of showing me love and affection as any mother would do to her daughter. One winter night, when a blizzard as strong as a hurricane was passing through, my father had just picked me up, flew me far out of town and left me on a corner in the deep snow. Alone and giving me no place to go. I was abandoned by my own parents;they only cared about how I would influence their own career instead of caring for me.
Weeks after my father had left me I had boarded a train to a beautiful place I had heard about called Ponyville. There was no noise, no abuse, only caring ponies who would help me out of my troubles. On that train, however, all the ponies did though was talk behind my back as if i could not hear them, but I knew exactly what they were saying.
“Look at that filly’s eyes..”
“Isn’t she ashamed?”
“Where are her parents?”
I just ignored their rude comments and thought of how my life would change in this one, well-kept town.
When I had gotten to Ponyville I had no idea where to go. I thought of going to Town Hall or try to find a nice pony who would take me in but as I walked around, searching for my own home, I could find no pony who would want to help me out. Any pony I did talk to brushed me off and sent me on my way.
It wasn't until I saw a small, blue figure peeking around a tree that I actually stopped to look around. I was far off of Ponyville in a place I didn’t even know, adding onto it being night, I was in complete darkness.
“Hey who are you? Why are you out at night all alone close to the Everfree Forest?” The pony asked me with a squeaky voice.
“I-I have no idea, who are you?”
“My name is Rainbow Dash, best flyer in all of Equestria!! Well, that's how I will be some day, who are you? You're not a spy are you?! I’ve come across spies in Cloudsdale.”
“I-I don’t believe I am a spy, I’m not even too sure what that is,but my name is Derpy, Derpy Hooves, could you help me out though, I’m new around here and could really use a place to stay.”
Rainbow then began to show me around Ponyville and began to help me get to Cloudsdale. Since we were too young to fly, Dash had come up with a way to hop from cloud to cloud up to the grand city.
“You can stay with me! I’ve got lots of room in my home.” Dash offered to me sincerely.
I had wondered why she did not just ignore me like all the others, at that point I knew why. It was dark and she could not see my eyes, and when we were under the street lights, she didn’t look at them.
We had gotten to her house shortly after we arrived into Cloudsdale.
“Alright you ready to see the most awesome hangout in all of Cloudsdale?!” Dashie asked with an excited grin.
I had just nodded quietly and she opened the small cloud door. The house wasn't amazing but it was pretty nice for a filly I can say. When I stepped into the light, Dashie stared at my eyes for some time before saying something.
“Your eyes are awesome! I bet they would be great for flying!”
That is what i knew made her a good friend. She accepted me. She helped me when I was in need.
After spending several fun days living with my rainbow friend, I had finally gotten a place of my own. It
wasn’t nice at all but it was a place of my own. It had all the necessities I needed and thats all I cared about. From that point on, I saw Dashie almost every day, we spent almost all of our time together. We soon became the best of friends and we found out we had so much in common. We both are pegasi, we both prefer cupcakes over normal cake, and that we both dreamed of being part of the Wonder Bolts.
___________________________________________________________________________
It was a crisp, sunny morning in Cloudsdale. I was only a little older and had lived in Cloudsdale for about a year after meeting Dash, and I began searching for my cutie mark (as all the other foals my age did) at our first session of flight school. I stood on the outside corner of a giant mob of other little pegasai foals, looking out for my only friend. She was the one who convinced me to go to a public flight school instead of trying to learn by myself. I was most insecure about going but knowing Dashie being there with me, all my fear drifted away.
“Hey Derpy!!” cried out a loud and proud voice in the distant and I saw a sky colored filly gallop through the clouds over to little me.
I smiled and replied “Hi Dashie, are you excited for our first flight lesson?”
“You can bet your hooves I am! I’ve been dreaming and waiting to fly with the other ponies.”
Rainbow was always talking about soaring along side the other pegasai in Equestria, and I always knew she and I would.
Our giggles and smiles were suddenly interrupted by a loud intercom coming out from a tall speaker that all the foals were standing around. The voice directed us as to who our coach would be, what time our lunch is, and various rules. I found out that Dash doesn't have the best patience when she shouted out ‘C’mon I don’t need to know all these rules and stuff, I just want to fly!!’ But I couldn't blame her at all. Our dream was to fly, and that was something Dash wanted to start right away. It was to my true surprise that we had the same coach to well...coach us. I was personally surprised because I’ve never had the best of luck.
“Can you believe it Derpy! They put us on the same team! My letter worked!” Dashie explained cheerfully to me.
Letters? Oh yes i remember now, she had sent in letter after letter requesting that we would be put in the same coaching team, and I thank her dearly to this day for that.
After finally being dismissed to our coaches we approached our tall, strong coach. The colt began to address us and started to call out roll call. When he got to me and Dash, he smiled at her with a approving grin, and looked at me with the weirdest look that I can never forget. As if I was some kind of mutant. He eventually explained to us the keys of flying and after what seemed hours of him preaching the tricks and tips of how to easily fly and land, he let us go off on our own to practice. Rainbow, of course, was amazing; it was as if she was doing it since the moment she was born! She flew with so much elegance and grace along with the best agility that made her stand out more than any other pony. Or it could of possibly been that she had trailing rainbows whenever she flew.
“Amazing Rainbow Dash! I’ve never seen a filly your age fly with such beauty and agility! Good work!” Coach announced overwhelmed with her performance.
All the other foals flew over to my friend and begged to know her secrets and how she flies so well. Not one foal came to me. I tried and tried to fly but i could only get a few inches off the ground with buzzing wings, but I knew if I wanted to be a Wonder Bolt I would absolutely have to learn to fly. So with all my strength and might, I finally burst into the sky with such speed I couldn’t believe it! But my joy came to a sad end when I was so caught up with excitement that I crashed into a roaming cloud and smashed down to the cloud floor.
Every single foal laughed, and laughed at me...
“Good job Derp FREAK” cried out one colt who I think I can recall his name being Dumb Bell, or so i think, that's at least what his cutie mark was.
“Hey you leave her alone! She's trying her best! Just because she is different does not mean you can bully her!!” Dashie bursted out, trying to defend me.
Her and all the other colts got in the biggest argument I had ever seen, and just like that, she had lost all respect from all the other foals just for trying to defend me. Thats how you know you have a true friend, that's how you know you have somepony you can rely on.
We spent the rest of the day trying to help me learn to fly and although I was not amazing, I could now fly as good as any other foal. One thing I remember is that not only once did Dashie help a struggling pony like me, but she did it again. A small, yellow filly with a long pink mane was being bullied by the same exact colts who were bullying me, to a result of Rainbow, yet again standing up against them, they had a race. A long, challenging race, to prove who was the better flyer, and surely, Dash was honored and rewarded by Celestia for her bravery and loyalty. She did the most amazing thing I had ever seen in my entire life. She did a Sonic Rainboom. I couldn’t believe my eyes after she landed back on the clouded floor with a trail of a sparkling rainbow following her and when I saw a bright, new, cutie mark on the sides of her flanks. I was so proud of her and after flight school, we went down to Sugar Cube Corner and engorged ourselves in colorful, delicious cupcakes I had ever eaten in my life.
___________________________________________________
A year or two passed after that day. We were now somewhat older ponies, but still considered foals, and we're still trying our best to continue flying and performing tricks. I had gotten a ton better and could fly almost as well as Dashie could, she did tutor me and all. The only thing was, I still did not have my cutie mark. Most foals my age had gotten their cutie mark but I just could not figure out my own special talent.
Dash was just finishing up a wonderfull trick with rainbows and flips and all sorts of different things, and I was thinking so hard about my cutie mark. I guess my face was noticeably because Dash cut off her trick earlier than expected and landed by me.
“Haha wasn't that trick amazing Derpy! It took me a long time to get just right, maybe it would be good enough to show the Wonder Bolts.” Dashie told me with a bright smile, but it soon changed to a confused frown. “Derpy? Is everything alright, you’ve seemed really down lately.”
“Huh? Oh, I'm just thinking about how I still don’t have my cutie mark..”
And just as any good friend like Dash would say, she replied saying-
“Well, I sure don’t want to see my best friend all sad over something that she should have! C’mon we're gonna find your cutie mark!”
And, of course, that's what we did. Dashie pretty much thought that if i was to get my cutie mark, it would be in the Everfree Forest, which was the one place i did not want to check. I was, and still am, terrified of the Everfree Forest. It was full of monsters and all sorts of things. But, I had to trust my best friend, let alone, my only friend, and we wandered into the dark, horrific forest.
“Alright, now lets figure out that cutie mark of yours buddy!” Dashie said excitedly to me, winking at me cheerfully.
After hours, and hours, and hours of searching and trying pretty much everything imaginable, nothing. Absolutely nothing. I didn’t understand, was I not destined to have a cutie mark? I was told and I believed everypony did. I finally concluded after trying so hard, my differences made me so different, I was a cutie mark-less pony for life. But, that all changed within 10 minutes. 10, terrifying, brave minutes of extreme courage.
“Hey Dashie, do you hear that noise?” I asked timidly, not understanding what was going on.
“No Derpy. What do you hear bud?”
It was pitch black now and the moonlight was shattered from a deep, misty fog hanging low to the ground. We could barely see anything and all I could hear was the sound of a low moan, coming from different parts of the forest.
By now I was trembling out of my coat. I had not a single idea of what in the world was going on but finally, a large, beastly red dragon crawled out of the bushes, preying on something, and the something, or somethings, where us.
It came closer, and closer and our only instinct was to scream and run, and deeper, and deeper we got into the pitch black endless maze of the forest. It was so dark we could not fly off without crashing into the large trees and branches that blocked the sky. The single thing I could even think of at this point was to fight back. Rainbow and I hopelessly looked for some kind of weapon, or some kind of way to defeat the monster, but it was hopeless scrambling.
“Derpy what do we do! I-I can’t seem to find the way we came!”
The monstrous beast swong and lunged at us and we swiftly dodge its deadly blows, then I remembered something vital that could, and did, save our lives forever.
When I was a younger filly, I had a passion for bubbles. I owned at least a dozen different bubble wands and created my own bubble soap, always trying to create a soap that would make, as I said ‘the biggest bubble in all of equestria.’ But, as all kids dream of obscure things they have in mind, that did not happen. I would bring my bubble wands and custom made soaps to school but would only get my time consuming soaps and precious expensive wands destroyed by the other school foals. But even after all that, I still had a passion for them. I could stare at them for hours on end. The way they gleamed in the sunlight with a pallet of many colors and their sweet, flowery scent, the small but powerful spheres soothed me; made me feel special, made me feel that even a dumb looking pony as myself could still see beauty at its simplest. I did not have a passion for bubbles. I loved bubbles.
In the midst of my thought, I heard an ear-piercing scream from my cyan friend and she was pinned down by the beast. My only thought was to create a bubble soap to just, well as I though, dump it into the monsters eyes. Using the ingredients around me, I quickly created a weak, but still soap bubble solution. Dash was now kicking her hooves at the creatures scaled head, desperately avoiding the blows from the monster's jagged teeth. I quickly flew over to the dragon and clutched onto its head, beginning to dump the fluid into its eyes. The beast lunged back, roaring and holding his eyes in pain; thrusting his head back and forth before he threw me into the bark of an Olk tree. I never knew dragons could cry before that day.
After a few moments, the creature ran off into the darkness of the forest, leaving us with tear filled, fearful eyes.
It took Dash some time to finally regain herself but when she did, she lunged for me, weeping so hard you could fill a river.
“Derpy..yo-you saved me, you are amazing, thank you...I-I am so lucky to have a friend that would save me like you.” The rainbow pegasus staggered out to me over my shoulder.
“I’m just glad my best friend is still alive.” I replied after hugging her back with misty eyes.
By the time we finally got out of the forest, Dash pointed towards my flank and instead of a pale grey blank-flank were blue, shiny bubbles.
I had finally gotten my cutie mark, from something not only brought me joy and pleasure, but saved me and my sky winged friend.
_____________________________________________________________
About 10 years passed after that day, and we were now fully grown ponies. We were no longer the young, child looking foals we once were, but beautiful, strong mares. Well, I could say that about one of us. Dash was beautiful. She had the most lovely rainbow mane and a perfect cyan coat. Perfectly angled graceful feathers that were just tied up with her enormous pink eyes. I, on the other hoof, had a pale grey coat. Big,normal looking feathers and a semi-neat blonde mane. The only thing you could call 'pretty' about me where the gold color of my eyes, but that was all taken away by the odd shape of them and how ‘derpy’ they were.
My flying, along with Dashie’s, had gotten immensely better, and it was finally the time that the Wonder Bolts were holding tryouts for the team. Week after week, month after month, Rainbow and I trained for this day and we had finally gotten our routines down. Although we still had about a few days until the try-out, Dash was willing to work every last second to make sure she would fit into the team. I sat back, and believed that if I was destined to get in then I would. I had trained with my friend every day for almost 4 months and personally felt prepared. Dashie though always had a hard time believing stuff like that.
“Dash, you have the best flying I have ever seen in my entire life! How could they not accept you into the team!” All I could do was motivate her.
“Best flying!? Try telling that to the Wonder Bolts! If I’m even going to get in I’m going to need to be absolutely perfect!! Which means practicing over and over again until I feel I am ready!”
She completely ignored everything I had said until the day of the try-outs and on our way to them. I thought she was ready, and she was, but my athletic friend was still very nervous. Once we had gotten to the tryout center, Dashie seemed to calm down.
“Hey, when we get accepted into the team, we should be known as the pair of best friends called...um... I know, ‘Bubbles and Rainbows!’ That way everyone will know how great friends we are!” Dashie told me with an anxious smile on her face.
“Here Derpy, I want to give this to you.” Dashie said to me and handed me a necklace of her cutie mark that said ‘Dashie’ on it, and she put on one of bubbles that said ‘Derpy’ on it, “This is to let all the ponies in Equestria know that we are best buds forever!”
I thanked her for the pretty necklace and put it on. It was nice to see that she was warming up and not being so worried, but that all changed once a young filly came and got us from the waiting room to try out. She told us Dash would go first and then I would follow her routine, which I was not really pleased about, as I remember, but anything to even try out.
I sat on the sidelines, cheering on my friend and wishing her good luck. The few Wonder Bolts judging all the pegsai trying out stared at Dashie for what seemed like forever as she stood still in the middle of the room, judging her on how fit and how well kept she was. They then signaled the routine to start and my rainbow friend began her amazing audition.
It was only about half way through her performance when everything went wrong.
I’m not too sure on what happend but all I remember is that a tray of the most moist, delectable, soft muffins were brought into the room and I had not eaten in days, due to me supporting Dash with us going on a 'Wonder Bolt body diet', and also muffins were, and still are, my all time favorite food. It only took a few seconds for me to fly smack into Dash while trying to get to the muffins and also trying to avoid my friend. Although I was only about an inch off the ground, I had forgotten that she ducks down to do low rise tricks. She spun out of the air and smacked right into our faithful judges.
Frantically, I tried my best to help everyone up but all of them brushed me away. One Wonder Bolt, who I could not recognize, stared me down with a glare, and the proceed to whisper to his fellow teammates. He then stepped forward and began speaking to us.
“Rainbow Dash, is this...filly your friend?”
“Well...um...yes, but she is trying out too, it was a complete accident, if you would just let me-”
“That won’t be necessary, we only need the most loyal, and amazing pegasai on our team, not silly...messy flying ponies with the weirdest....friends who think this is just a way to spend time with famous ponies and hang with their friends, we can not make our team look bad when we perform for royalty. We need ponies that would think more of their dreams then showing off with their friends. Now, goodbye."
The same filly who brought us in escorted us out, and Dash did not say a single word. All she had was her head down and her eyes wide with shock.
After getting out of the building where the tryouts were held, Rainbow glared at me with the sickest, meanest glare that pierced my heart.
“How could you...” she began.
“What do you-?” I staggered back.
“HOW COULD YOU RUIN THIS FOR ME!” she bursted out with angry eyes filled with tears. “You know I wanted this so badly, you know I have spent my entire LIFE working for this, and you went and ruined my life! For what, some stupid MUFFINS!?”
“Dashie...”
“Only my true friends call me Dashie!! How could you do this to me! I thought we were friends but now I know you're nothing than a...a stupid eyed FREAK! Why...why don’t you just go back to whatever freaky weirdo land you CAME FROM and STAY OUT OF MY LIFE”
Dashie then flew off, not saying another word, not even hearing my apologies and sobs...
____________________________________________________________________
That was the pretty much the last time I had ever heard from my best friend. I went the rest of my life working as a weather pony, creating bubbles for them, and a mail pony, delivering mail to all the ponies around Equestria. Whenever I did see my old friend though, she would completely ignore me.
She was crowned the Element of Honesty, which she is and deserves to be, although she left me to be alone. I tried entering the Best Young Flyer competition to try to get back our friendship, but lost immensely to her, and her sonic rainboom that she yet again did. I saw then that she had entirely new friends, including the one filly that she saved at flight school. I saw her at the Grand Galloping Gala that year and I tried to get her attention, but she only sent me glares and ignored me. The only time I remember her ever speaking to me again was when we were assigned to work together to fix up Town Hall, but anytime she talked to me, she would talk to me in a mean, harsh tone.
Years after that, Dash was accepted as a Wonder Bolt, and years after that, she was flying as a leader alongside Spitfire. I went to every one of her shows, and cheered for her, just as I did that day of the tryouts. I only wished she knew I still longed to be her friend.
So, here comes the time I finally get to leave this world, sure I did live a happy life, I worked as a bubble maker, I helped with Winter Wrap Up each year, and I was able to watch my old friend live her dream, when I did not fulfill my own. It was all because of my eyes, my eyes set me apart from making friends, finding in love, and being respected by others. All because I was different. The only friend I had, the one who accepted me for who I was, I lost because I couldn’t help being who I was, and all she saw when I crushed her that day was how different I was and not how I was her friend that did not mean for that to happen. She never accepted my apologies and just saw me as everyone else did. A freak. I always did try to deliver any mail that was addressed to her to her house, hoping she would want us to be friends again, but that never happened.
I will never forget her, I will never forget the adventure we went on, all the different stories we told each other, and all the different things we always dreamed about. I remember all the things we had in common.We both are pegasi, we both prefer cupcakes over normal cake, and that we both dreamed of being part of the Wonder Bolts.
Only she got her dream though, but thats ok with me, as I said. I still always wanted us to be ‘Bubbles and Rainbows’ again, but remember her last words, her painful, last words she said to me, that was never going to happen.
I closed my eyes, my derpy eyes with tears going down my cheeks, hugging the rainbow cutie mark necklace I had gotten as a gift from my friend with a smile on my face, and remembered all the times we laughed and smiled.
I had kept those images as my last thoughts for a few things only...
For myself,
For happiness,
For always knowing in my heart we would always be Bubble & Rainbow,
