A New Beginning for Derpy Hooves

by ChocolateMocha0

Rating: everyone
Tags: Slice of Life, Sad, Drama
Length: 5028

Following the untimely death of Derpy's best friend, Carrot Top, the young Pegasus pony finds herself taking in Carrot's now orphaned filly, Dinky, as her own, per Carrot's final request, on top of struggling to cope with Carrot's recent passing.

For as long as Derpy can remember, Carrot Top has always been her best friend.

Ever since they were fillies, Carrot was always a friend to her when nopony else would be. If Derpy was being bullied, Carrot was always there to defend her, if Derpy was hurt, Carrot was always there to take care of her, if Derpy was scared or upset, she always knew that Carrot Top would be there to comfort her and tell her that everything was going to be okay… except now, when the Pegasus mare knows that she needs Carrot Top there at her side the most.

The only time when she can't be.

At first, everypony thought that it was just the flu or a harmless bug going around when Carrot Top suddenly fell ill, having endured nausea and fatigue for days on end, almost a week. It wasn't until she passed out cold one day and was rushed to the hospital when she discovered that she had a rare, but fatal illness that was only giving her a few more weeks left to live, at the most. Derpy had promised Carrot Top that she would be there for her, and that she would do anything she could to make sure the Earth pony got better. But, no matter what Derpy tried to do for her, no matter what anypony else tried to do for her, Carrot succumbed to her illness, only a few days following her official diagnosis, leaving Derpy alone, and beyond devastated.

In the following days, Derpy struggles to cope with the abrupt loss of her friend, the grief near crippling, even with Amethyst Star there, trying her best to help her through it.

With time, things slowly seem to improve for Ditzy Doo Hooves, until, as if to make the already terrible situation even worse, they learn that Carrot's husband, Written Script, decided to run out on and completely abandon the young unicorn filly they'd had together, Dinky Doo, in the midst of the night. With nopony to turn to and no other options on the table, Derpy decides to take in her best friend's foal as her own, remembering something Carrot Top had told her not long before she passed, only to quickly realize that taking care of a young foal, all on her own, is a lot more difficult than she thought.

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A/N: If my memory serves me correctly, I uploaded this one a couple of years back before deleting it for revision, only to forgot about it completely and that revised version never came. A few days ago, I unearthed the chapters of the original upload and decided to re-write it completely while I was going through some writers' block on another story I was working on.

I also think it's just fair enough to warn any readers that updates will probably be few and far between. Long story short, I'm going through a lot right now in the real world after being diagnosed with a severe anxiety disorder, so I don't have as much time as I'd like to write happy, Technicolor ponies into sad, tragic situations, but I will try to update this whenever I get the chance, as long as enough people like it.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2017-01-10 02:04:47 UTC

Chapter One

Celestia's Sun shone brightly over the small town of Ponyville.

The sky was a brilliant cerulean hue, not a single fluffy cloud to hide it. Everypony within the small town seemed to be out and about, as if it were a crime to not be out on such a beautiful day. Even at the local schoolhouse, the young fillies and colts were out on the playground rather than spending the day in class: a light yellow Pegasus filly doing a few airborne twirls above her awed, grounded friends, a young Earth pony and unicorn sitting on a see-saw, the unicorn colt manipulating it with his dark blue magic to the Earth filly's glee, and three young Earth ponies galloping by, playing tag with each other.

Meanwhile, there was a sole Pegasus filly, her coat a light bluish-grey, her blonde mane and tail both a mess, sitting alone on one of the swings, pushing herself back and forth with gentle beats of her tiny wings, a small smile on her face. She was smiling because she knew that this was the day. This was the day that she was going to fly for the first time in her life. After being diagnosed at a bitter age of being completely incapable of flying, young Ditzy Doo Hooves had dedicated her free-time to proving them wrong. And this would be the day that she did it.

It took several minutes to get enough momentum on the swing, but once it peaked forwards, nearly twenty feet up, she carelessly leapt off, wings spread, her forelegs outstretched in front of her, her tiny wings beating against the wind as hard as they could. And, just for a moment, she thought she was doing it, that she was really… flying!

Ditzy grinned widely, savoring the feeling of the cool air through her mane and tail, before her entire body burst with pain as she came crashing to the ground, one foreleg making a sickening crack upon landing that made her cry out. She wearily blinked her pale golden eyes open, flinching as she felt blood flow from a small, but deep laceration just over her right eye, forcing her to close it. Ditzy Doo lied there for a long time, her whole body sore, especially the foreleg she'd tried to break her fall on and the cut on her head. She didn't want to get up, she just wanted to lay there and wait for somepony to notice and rush to her aid.

Ditzy brightened a bit as she heard a few hoofsteps coming in her direction, but, weakly glancing up, she quickly realized that the three foals approaching her weren't there to help her.

"Hey, check it out, Ruby!" one of them, a grey colt, directed at a pale, red-maned unicorn filly that seemed to be their ringleader. "Looks like little 'Derpy' was trying to fly… again."

"Hah, yeah! Face it, foal," Ruby added, stepping forward and flicking Ditzy's nose with a hoof. "you may be a Pegasus, but those wings of yours"—she stepped to Ditzy's side and grabbed one of her small wings with her dark pink magic—"are useless!" She twisted the wing in her magical grip, just enough to make Ditzy cry out in pain and attempt to pull away from her, only worsening the pain. "Now, now, 'Derpy'," Ruby scolded mockingly. "you wouldn't it to come off, would you?"

Ditzy shook her slowly, until the third foal, a pink Pegasus filly, decided to finally chime in, "Yeah, yeah! Tear 'em off! She's a sorry excuse for a Pegasus, maybe she'd do better as an Earth pony instead!"

The grey filly flinched at the threat and nearly screamed as Ruby jerked at her wing, as if she really was going to rip it off. "N-No! Please… p-p… please… stop!"

"Hey, I think I know what's wrong with her!" the colt spoke again, approaching her. Her ears drooping, tears beginning to form in her eyes, Ditzy shakily asked, "Wh-What…?"

"Her eyes! They're too… 'derped'! She can't even see straight, much less fly straight!"

"Or fly at all!" the pink Pegasus added.

As the foals began laughing mockingly at her, Ditzy curled up into a ball and hid her eyes behind her forehooves, ignoring the pain of her broken leg, as tears began to stream from them, whimpering softly and struggling to wait out the foals' bullying. Only half listening, she felt a hoof thump one of her ears as Ruby asked, in a mocking, faux concerned tone, "Aww, is da wittle derpy filly gonna cr…?" She didn't even get the last word out, before another, unfamiliar voice loudly cut her off.

"Hey! You leave her alone!"

The trembling, sobbing filly finally blinked her eyes open again, noticing that the trio's focus was no longer on her and, instead, on another filly, a light yellow Earth pony that she didn't recognize. However, Ruby simply narrowed her dark red eyes and said dangerously, "What did you just say?!"

"I said, leave her alone! What did she ever do to you?!" the yellow foal retorted without missing a beat.

"Oh! She didn't do anything, she's just such an easy target and it's so fun to..." the pink foal began, before Ruby forced her mouth shut with her magic and proceeded to walk menacingly towards the yellow filly, but the latter held her ground, not looking impressed or affected at all by Ruby's intimidation.

"Excuse me? Who do you think you are?! In case you haven't noticed, this is my turf! I run this place! Not some peasant that thinks she can just stroll up here and…!"

"Actually, I'm pretty sure your teacher runs this place, in case you've forgotten," the yellow filly retorted, bitterly thumping Ruby's chest, knocking her back a couple of hoofsteps. "and I'm sure that she'd be really happy to hear about how you and your friends are treating your classmates. About how you and your friends are torturing an innocent filly. And I'm sure your parents would be so proud to hear about how their precious little foal is a complete monster out on the playground! Maybe think about that, before you go around hurting ponies and bossing them around!"

Ruby just stood there in shock, her mouth agape and her eyes wide, having never been stood up to in such a way before. She glanced around, opening and closing her mouth several times, unable to think of the words to say, before the yellow filly spoke again in her place, "Now, I would advise you to get out of here and I might just consider sparing you."

With an enraged snarl, Ruby stared angrily at her hooves for a long time before abruptly shouting, "Ugh… fine! Ditzy Doo's a waste of our time anyway! And… a-and a waste of yours too, if… if—if you knew what was good for you!" Beginning to run out of insults to direct at either filly, she furiously stormed off, her friends quick to follow close behind, the pink Pegasus glancing over her shoulder and blowing a raspberry at the yellow foal before they left.

Staring after them until they disappeared to another section of the playground, the yellow filly scoffed, muttering something about "peasants" under her breath, before approaching Ditzy, still curled on the ground, crying softly, her entire body trembling. The sobbing, shaking image in front of her broke the Earth foal's heart. "H-Hey," she said, gently resting a hoof on Ditzy's shoulder, causing her to tense up. "hey, it's okay. It's okay now, Ditzy, they're gone, they're not going to hurt you anymore."

"R-r… r-really?" Ditzy whimpered, looking up to face the Earth filly. She gave Ditzy a calm, kind smile at first, before her expression suddenly turned into one of horror when she noticed the bleeding cut on Ditzy's face and her bruised, twisted foreleg.

"Oh, my… are you okay?! Did… did they do that to you?" she asked, near panicked, reaching out and gently touching the cut with a hoof, causing Ditzy to flinch.

"Ow, ugh… no. L-Like they said, I'm a Pegasus… but I can't fly. I try to, sometimes, but I usually get hurt. Real bad."

The yellow filly groaned in disgust at the blood staining her hoof, but attempted to wipe most of it out of Ditzy's eye regardless. "You should really see the school nurse about this." She lifted Ditzy's shaking, broken foreleg in her own hoof, causing Ditzy to cringe as the filly curiously examined it. "Ugh… that's… definitely broken." she said, before abruptly perking up and adding, "Oh! And where are my manners? I forgot to introduce myself; my name is Golden Harvest, and… you're…"

"Ditzy Doo!" the Pegasus cut in, forgetting that Golden had overheard it from the bullies before. "Or… you can just call me Derpy Hooves. That's what everypony else calls me anyway." Her voice had a touch of sadness in it as she said that, her ears beginning to droop against her head once again.

"'Derpy'? Why call you that?"

"It… it's because of my weird eyes! I… o-one of my eyes… it can't focus on anything well. It's… 'derpy', they say. Everypony here says it's strange… weird, so… they just call me Derpy."

"Well, I don't think you're strange or weird." Golden said, watching as Ditzy's left eye rolled off focus a bit, while Ditzy's right eye retained its focus on her. "I… actually think it's kinda… cute."

"Heh… really?" Ditzy began to smile slightly.

"Yeah! You're just a little different, but that's okay! If everypony was the same, it'd be boring. Right?"

"Yeah… right..." Ditzy agreed softly. "I… you know, wh-why did you do that?"

"Do what?" Golden asked, continuing to caress Ditzy's bruised foreleg.

"Stand up to Ruby? Nopony's ever done that for me before. Most ponies just kind of… ignore it."

Golden raised a skeptical eyebrow at her. "Really? Then why didn't you go to your teacher and tell her about it?"

"Because… I… I-I thought she'd… punish me for it."

"Well, why in Equestria would she do that? Those ponies were bullies, Ditzy, and they were the ones who would be punished, not you."

"Nopony's ever defended me before so… I just assumed she wouldn't either."

"But, what about your friends?" Golden asked, her expression beginning to turn saddened and concerned.

Ditzy paused for a long time before admitting, her voice barely louder than a whisper at first, "I… don't have any. Like I said, most ponies think I'm weird and don't want to hang out. You're the only pony who's ever really been… nice to me, Gold… G-Gold—den… H-Har… Hair…"

"Golden Harvest." the Earth pony corrected her, smirking slightly. "But my friends usually call me 'Carrot Top', because my mane is orange, like a carrot."

"Can… can I call you that?"

"Of course! I did say my friends call me that, didn't I?"

Suddenly, Ditzy's eyes brightened and she grinned widely, "Really?"

"Mm-hm." Golden nodded a couple of times, smiling again. "Now,"—she helped Ditzy onto her hooves, supporting her with a foreleg as Ditzy limped on only three of her own—"let's get something done about that hoof."

As they walked away, Ditzy had mostly forgotten about the pain in her leg or the pain from the cut. All she could really do was smile: she'd finally made a friend!

Ditzy Doo Hooves was snapped out of her memory by a startling crack of thunder, suddenly, painfully remembering just where she was. The sky was thick with clouds, making the mid-afternoon look like late evening. Rain fell lightly onto her and the ponies around her, the clouds thundering only every now and again, few and far between. They stood in a small cemetery, the green grass beneath their hooves soaked and squishy with rainwater. Beside her was a pink unicorn mare with a short violet mane, eyes of an identical color, leaning against her… until Derpy realized that it was the other way around. Surrounding both of them were several ponies, Earth ponies and unicorns dominating the crowd, many of them clad in black. Some of them were leaning on each other, some were sobbing quietly to themselves, many of them holding (or levitating) tissues in front of them.

In front of them was a wooden podium where an elderly, dark gold unicorn mare stood, reciting something from an open book in front of her that Derpy wasn't listening to. To the podium's right was a sleek, reflective wooden rectangular box with glistening golden handles on the sides, a casket, the only thing shielded from the rain by a small, dark green tent.

Derpy stared at it, struggling to make her left eye focus on it as well, for a long time, almost in a trance-like state, before forcing herself to squeeze her eyes shut and turn away as tears began to fall from her eyes, becoming lost in the rain that dripped from her blonde mane and soaked her face. Instead, she turned her attention to a couple of ponies, standing the closest to the casket, one a unicorn stallion wearing night-black clothing, along with all the rest, and an abnormally small lavender filly with a pale gold mane.

It didn't take Derpy a second to recognize both of them.

The light grey unicorn stallion with a spiky mane and tail of a dark purple hue and tired, deep green eyes; his name was Written Script. Just for a moment, Derpy allowed herself to get lost in her memories yet again, anything to ease the immense emotional pain that seemed to be tearing her apart from the inside out.

"You're going to come over tonight, like you said. Right, Goldie?"

"Yes, of course! Have I ever broken a promise to you before?"

Ditzy Doo stood off to the side in silence, her head cocked to the side slightly as one eye focused on the light yellow Earth mare, her other eye on the unfamiliar grey-coated, purple-maned unicorn stallion her friend was talking to.

"Heh-heh, of course not." the stallion chuckled.

They both chuckled a bit before Golden Harvest responded, "So, Script, we've been together for almost two weeks now. Has that 'like' turned into 'love' yet?"

"Heh, I don't know, has it?"

"Hm…" Golden paused, glancing away and putting a hoof to her chin momentarily, as if in deep thought. "I think it has." She leaned towards him and pulled him into an embrace with her foreleg that he didn't hesitate to return. "I love you, Written Script." the mare said, almost whispering the five words, but still loud enough for Ditzy to catch it.

"Love you too, Goldie." Written said as they finally pulled apart. "Now, I need to get going. I'll see you later tonight, okay?" He was already trotting away as Golden Harvest called after him with a cheerful, "Alright!"

Ditzy approached Golden's side as they watched him trot away, until he disappeared into the scattered crowd of ponies in Ponyville's town square. The Pegasus opened her mouth to speak, but stopped herself when she noticed the dreamy, trance-like look in Golden's green eyes, a small smile playing on her lips.

"Uh… are you okay, Carrot?" Ditzy waved a feathered wing in front of her friend's face a few times. "Hey! Who was that stallion anyway?"

"Wha… huh?" Carrot gasped, suddenly snapping out of her trance, stumbling briefly. "I… o-oh. I'm… sorry, Ditzy Doo, I may have… blanked out a bit there, heh-heh… Wh-What was it… you said?"

"I don't remember seeing that stallion before. Is… he one of your friends?" Ditzy asked, a bit ashamedly.

"You mean Written Script? Oh, I guess I never did introduce you to him properly. Hmph. He's not just my friend, he's my coltfriend. We met a few weeks ago when we ran into each other at Ponyville's market. We started talking, he said he was one of Princess Celestia's scribes and was just visiting here for a couple of months from Canterlot. I offered to give him a tour of Ponyville and, while I was showing him around, we started talking again and, as it turned out, we actually have a lot in common. He suggested that we get together again the next day, and then we went on an official date the day after that and… and…"

Ditzy's eyes widened as her friend got near breathless going on about the unicorn stallion, not to mention she'd never seen the Earth pony so enthusiastic and overjoyed before. She rested a hoof on Carrot's shoulder, causing her to tense slightly and return to reality, turning to face Ditzy again, "Oh… and there I go. I'm at it again. Sorry about that, Ditzy."

"Um… but… I thought all of the ponies from Canterlot were a bunch of uptight snobs that don't care about anypony else."

Carrot Top's eyes widened at that and her expression turned surprisingly angry at Ditzy's assumption, causing the Pegasus to flinch and cower slightly. "Ditzy!" Carrot began, her voice sounding more than a little outraged. "You can't just—just assume that everypony there is an awful, arrogant elitist and looks down on everypony else just because a few of them are!" Noticing Ditzy's frightened, saddened expression, Carrot took a deep breath and calmed herself down, softening her own expression and resting a hoof on her friend's shoulder. "There are plenty of good ponies that come from Canterlot, Ditzy. Just look at ponies like Minuette, or Lyra Heartstrings. Or... how about me and Amethyst Star? You know we're not uptight, even though we both grew up in Canterlot.

"Written Script isn't either. I mean, sure, he's pretty high-class and elite by their standards, especially since he works personally for the Princess Herself." Carrot paused for a second, before begrudgingly admitting, "And… he does have his condescending moments where he'll brag a bit, but... he's really sweet once you get to know him, and I know that, deep down, he really does love and care about me, no matter what, even if he doesn't always show it. You… can't judge a book by its cover, Ditzy, okay?" Carrot then began to smile again, but Ditzy still wasn't.

"B-But… if you have a coltfriend, th-then… wh-what about our friendship?" Ditzy asked, her voice shaking as if she were on the verge of tears.

"Oh, heh, don't worry about that, silly filly! Just because I have a coltfriend doesn't mean we can't still be friends." Carrot reassured her. She wrapped a foreleg around Ditzy and pulled her into a firm, but comforting embrace, "No matter what happens, or what comes between us, we'll always be best friends forever. I promise. Right, Ditzy?"

Once again, the Pegasus hesitated, before returning Carrot's hug and forcing a small smile in return, "Right."

Derpy unconsciously stared at Written Script, Carrot Top's coltfriend, for a long time, before glancing away, her eyes crossing and beginning to focus on her nose. Some coltfriend. Derpy thought. His eyes had bags beneath them, but he wasn't crying. He hardly even looked sad, just… tired, exhausted, almost bored. She shook her head slowly, before turning her attention to the tiny filly beside him, the image breaking her heart. The stallion held her close with a grey foreleg as she sobbed heavily, her rain-soaked blonde mane falling into her golden eyes, while Written appeared to ignore it.

Derpy knew all too well that that filly in particular was Carrot's filly, named Dinky Doo. She'd never forget when she first really "met" Dinky, a little less than a decade ago, what began to feel like centuries ago to her.

Ditzy Doo walked down a long, sterilized corridor of Ponyville General Hospital. She glanced around, both eyes scanning her surroundings unevenly, with an unsettled expression. Everything around her: the beige walls, the white tiled floors, the searingly bright fluorescent lights lining the ceiling overhead, felt clean, and sterile, to unnatural extents. It made her feel… uneasy, almost sick to her stomach. It wasn't until she accidentally ran into the Earth pony mare that was leading her did she really remember why she was there at all. The Earth pony shot a frustrated blue glare at her for a moment, before smiling quietly and gesturing towards the door they stopped at with a bluish white hoof.

Ditzy looked at it, the number on it reading '212', and the door already cracked open slightly. She glanced briefly at the white mare, before facing the door again and pushing it further open with a trembling hoof, peeking in at first, before opening it all the way and hesitantly stepping in. There, she found Written Script sprawled lazily across a few chairs against a wall in the room. His purple mane was a wiry mess, glistening with sweat, bags under his closed green eyes, his mouth hanging open slightly, leaking a bit of drool onto the chair beneath his head. She couldn't help but smirk at him a bit, then turned her attention to the hospital bed in the centre of the room where a familiar yellow Earth pony mare laid with a thin, pastel sheet over her. Her eyes were closed, her mane just as messy as the stallion's, and her face glistening with sweat drops.

But what really caught the young Pegasus mare's attention was a small pink bundle cradled in her forelegs, causing her eyes to widen in surprise.

She approached slowly, trying her best to not startle either of them, but Carrot wearily blinked her eyes open regardless of how quiet her friend was trying to be, looking terribly exhausted but silently greeting Ditzy with a small smile anyway. Ditzy stood there silently, her eyes wide, one focusing on the weary mare, the other staring blindly on the floor, and her mouth agape slightly, before she took it into account and closed it again, somewhat embarrassed, and leaned forward a bit, softly asking, "Can I… c-can I see her?"

The yellow mare didn't say a word, only responded with a slow nod, opening her mouth wide in a yawn as Ditzy reached forward, gently pulling back part of the wrapped blanket to reveal the face of a tiny lavender foal with a short blonde mane, adorned with pale, almost white streaks. But, what really caught Ditzy Doo off guard was the tiny, smooth-tipped horn on the filly's forehead.

"A… unicorn?" Ditzy whispered, obvious confusion in her tone. "But… why… if you're an Earth pony, then…"

"I'm an Earth pony, but almost everyone in my family was a unicorn, and Written Script is a unicorn too. So…" Carrot calmly explained.

"Ah." Ditzy said in understanding. "Well, she's really… cute. I-I've never seen a newborn foal before. She's so… tiny."

"Mm-hm." Carrot nodded.

After a second or two of silence between the mares, the filly opened her tiny mouth in a small, silent yawn and fluttered her golden eyes open to look at them both, causing Ditzy to gasp softly and respond with an extended "aww" sound, smiling at the tiny filly. Reaching forward a hoof, they watched in silence as the filly grabbed it, as well as she could with her own tiny forehooves anyway, and attempted to bite or suck on Ditzy's forehoof, to little avail. At worst, the sensation tickled the Pegasus a bit and made her hoof tip feel slightly moist from filly's sucking on it, but she didn't try to pull away.

They remained silent for a long time, Carrot looking like she was about to fall asleep again, before Ditzy snapped her out of it, softly asking, "Um… have you thought of a name for her yet?"

"Huh…? O-Oh..." Carrot responded drowsily. "Script and I have been thinking about it, but I think I know what I've settled on."—she paused briefly to see if Ditzy had anything to say; she only cocked her head to the side in anticipation—"Dinky Doo."

"Hm?"

"Well, 'Dinky', because of her small size. The doctors said she's smaller than most foals, even for a newborn, and will probably be smaller than most other ponies when she grows up. And 'Doo' because… she looks a lot like you, Ditzy."—the Pegasus pony's crooked eyes widened in surprise at that statement, while Carrot just smiled and nodded at her—"Don't worry, Ditzy, that's not a bad thing. What I mean is that I wanted her to share your middle name, to reflect that she reminds of my best friend in all of Equestria."

The lecturing unicorn lit up her ageing horn with a brilliant yellow aura and finally flipped the book in front of her closed and began to speak, but not from the book's pages, for one of the first times that afternoon.

"We've gathered here today to mourn the loss of a mare that was taken from us too soon. Golden Harvest was a kind, generous mare, and, though she had her flaws, she was a friend to and beloved by many. As well as being a good friend to anypony that was lucky enough to know her, she was always a loving mother"— she gestured a hoof in Dinky's general direction—"a caring wife"—she gestured a hoof towards Written Script—"and an all-around compassionate, loyal companion to have. She was a friend to any pony that needed one, would gladly give an insightful word of advice to those who needed it, helped out whenever she could, and fed the residents of Ponyville for years at the local Harvest Family Carrot Farm.

"But, like all of us one day, her time in Equestria has come to an end. She will be missed, not just in Ponyville, but in her birthplace of Canterlot, and in the floating metropolis, Cloudsdale. But, even though she's physically gone, she still lives, beyond us in Elysium, and in the hearts and minds of those who loved her and cared about her over the years." The elderly unicorn let out a gloomy sigh and glanced about the crowd of mourning ponies with solemn, dull brown eyes, "Does anypony wish to come and say their last words and pay their final respects to Golden Harvest?"

Derpy felt herself shaking as she listened to the unicorn's words and stared at the casket for a long time, a broken look in her eyes, both of them focusing on one thing for one of the only times in her life. She jumped slightly when she felt a hoof rest gently on her shoulder, until she turned to face Amethyst Star, giving her a forlorn look, but nodding once in the direction of the casket, as if it to say, "It's now or never, Ditzy."

Taking a couple of deep breaths, Derpy let out a heavy sigh, thick with grief, and slowly began to approach the casket. She felt her breathing become ragged and shallow as she lifted a hoof off of the wet ground, shook off the mud and rainwater to the best of her ability, before shakily resting it on the wooden casket's smooth, polished wooden surface, feeling tears begin to sting in the corners of her eyes.

Taking in a deep breath, Derpy began to speak, unable to keep her voice from shaking, "Uh… h-hey there, G-Gold… I-I mean… C-Carrot Top. I-I… I'm not too good w-with things like this, b-but… y-you'll understand… r-right? You… y-you…"—she choked up, but took a couple of deep breaths and continued—"always did. Y-You understood me, C-Carrot, even when…"—she took a whimpering intake of breath, whimpering slightly, tears finally beginning to stream from her eyes—"even when... e-everypony else didn't. I… I… I-I honestly don't know… what I ever would've done… w-would've done… w-without you, Carrot Top. Y-You were always there for me, you… y-y-you always defended me, k-kept me safe, you were always th-there… n-no matter what. N-No… no matter… what…"

We'll always be best friends forever, no matter what… right, Ditzy? The words began to echo relentlessly in Derpy's ears, as if Carrot were right there, whispering them to her.

Best friends forever, no matter what.

Right, Ditzy?

And that's when the Pegasus mare broke down, not even trying to fight the tears anymore, sobbing openly and throwing herself unceremoniously onto the casket that encased her best friend, that would be her final tomb. "Caaarrroot… come baaack…!" she wailed. "You-You… y-you said we'd be best friends! B-Best friends… f-for… forever! But… it hasn't been forever yet! I-I need you, Carrot Top! Dinky needs you, and Written needs you, a-and I… I—I…" She tensed when she felt a hoof rested lightly on her back, Amethyst having approached her to try and calm her down.

"Ditzy…" Amethyst whispered softly.

After several seconds, Derpy's hyperventilating slowed down to deep, trembling gasps once again. "You… y-you promised 'forever', Carrot Top..." she choked out. "But… b-but…"

"Come on, Ditzy, we should…" Amethyst started, glancing away awkwardly for a moment. "we should… go."

"No…" Derpy whimpered, still hanging onto the casket, sobbing heavily as if, somehow, it would make her friend come back to life and come out to calm her down, hug her, tell her everything would be okay, like she always use to. But, deep down, Derpy knew that she wouldn't, that she never would again. And that realization felt like having her heart ripped out of her chest and crushed into the wet grass and mud.

Eventually, Amethyst was forced to physically pull Derpy off of the casket, jerking at her tail with her levitation a few times, gently enough to keep Derpy's firm grip from tipping the casket over entirely. It took a couple of moments, but Derpy finally gave up, her eyes red and puffy, her face soaked with the tears that streamed from them, sniffling as Amethyst supported her while they turned away from the casket and slowly began to depart from the cemetery.

"Everything will get better, Ditzy. It'll be okay… I promise." Amethyst whispered, but Derpy only half-listened to her words, and hardly believed her.

As they left, Derpy cast one final, tear-filled glance towards the casket as a veil of unicorn magic surrounded it and lowered it into the ground, and softly whispered, "G-Goodbye... Carrot…"