Derpy Hooves' Ballad

It had been 2 months since Derpy had started working at Sweet Apple Acres. She knew her way around the farm quite well. She would arrive at 4:30AM every morning. She would arrive 30 minutes early so that she could try and prove to Applejack that she wasn't just some worthless pony who couldn't see straight. She knew everypony on the farm by name. She had grown quite fond of Applejacks older brother, Big Macintosh, or Big Mac as she called him. Derpy had developed a crush on him the first moment she laid her gaze on him. She dreamed about him, some dreams more vivid then others. She loved the way he listened to her when she spoke, the way his mane blew in the breeze, the way he looked after a hard days work. But the thing she loved most about him, was that he was a nice and understanding stallion. He was so accepting of people and was even accepting of his sister dating another mare. He told Derpy that it was not his place to judge others for how they lived, and it was this that made her truly fall in love with him.

Derpy arrived at the farm and saw that Big Mac was getting his wagon ready for another day of applebucking. "Hey Big Mac." Yawned Derpy, walking through the big doors to the barn.

"Hey Derpy," Big Mac looked over to her, seeing her yawn. "Ah see your here early again." He looked back down at his wagon. He was trying to fix the front right wheel for one of the wheel spokes had come off and the wheel had warped. He was having trouble getting the wheel off.

"Well, the early pegasus gets the worm." Said derpy who was now getting her apple barrels ready.

Big Mac chuckled at her bad joke. He grunted as he tried to get the wheel off, but couldn't. He turned to Derpy who was about to head out. "Hey...uh...Derpy."

"Yes?" Derpy looked behind at Big Mac and blushed.

"Can you help me with this wheel?" Big Mac grunted as he strained to pull the wheel off.

"Sure..." Derpy trotted over to where Big Mac was. He got down and lifted one side of the wagon while Derpy pulled the wheel off. She then set it down and grabbed the spare wheel, putting it on. With a grunt, Big Mac placed the cart down.

"Thanks Derpy, I couldn't have done it without you." Big Mac smiled at her.

"U-uh...s-sure, no problem." Derpy was blushing. She couldn't believe how nice Big Mac was to her. She really did feel like he was the one.

Derpy cheerfully trotted out of the barn with her wagon in tow, leaving Big Mac to see her handiwork. He looked at the wheel and saw that she had put it on backwards. He chuckled. "Oh, Derpy."

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Derpy had been working hard that day and decide to get some lunch. She went into the Applefamily kitchen and grabbed her lunch out of the fridge. She opened it, revealing a hay burger, along with some hay fries and a muffin. She was about to take a bite when she heard yelling outside. She grabbed her muffin and went outside to investigate.

Standing there was the blue stallion who had been fired just 2 months before. He looked like he had seen some rough times. His coat was all scraggly and he looked like he hadn't shaved in a week. He looked like he was drunk. He was yelling at Applejack about his old job. "What do you mean you got somepony else?!"

"Ah mean that we already have someone else who has taken your spot." Applejack said scowling at Rusty Pioneer.

"Who did you give the job to?!" He asked raising his voice into a whine.

"Ah'm not telling you that, now get off ma property." She pointed her hoof to the gate. He looked at her than glanced over to the barn to see a gray mare eating a muffin. Derpy cowered back, hoping he wouldn't recognize her. But he did any way.

"I see, you let the retard take MY job?!" He yelled as he started stomping over towards Derpy. Applejack tried blocking Rusty but was only pushed down by his size. Derpy saw this and grabbed her muffin and began to leave when she felt something hard hit her in the face. She flew backwards and hit the door, slowly sliding down. She immediately wrapped her hooves around her face to defend herself. She was mostly in shock than fear. She had been hit her and made fun of before, but no one had ever had the nerve to strike her in the face. She realized this when another hoof came down across her stomach, the air was knocked out of her. She coughed into her hoof, a little bit of blood. She kept thinking about what happened when she heard him speak. "How DARE YOU TAKE MY JOB!" He spit on her. "I knew there was something about you." He started raising his hoof to strike the final blow. "Now I know that you are just FUCKING CROSS EYED RETARD!!"

CRACK

Derpy heard a hoof being brought down but didn't feel anything. She uncovered her face to see Rusty on the ground. His face bloody. His jaw had come unhinged, and flopped over. His eyes lay there, lifeless. She looked up to see Big Mac, standing there with his flank towards where Rusty dropped.

"Are you okay, Derpy?" his green eyes showing sorrow, he lifted a hoof to Derpy. She took it and thrust herself into Big Macs chest. She began sobbing. He wrapped his forehoofs around her. "It's alright Derpy. " He looked to Applejack who was laying on the ground, staring in disbelief at Rusty, then at Big Mac. "Applejack, check him."

Applejack got up and went over to Rusty, she placed a hoof on his neck. "H-he's dead." She had a horrified look on her face.

"Go find Mayor Mare and tell her exactly what happened." He was still holding onto Derpy, who was still sobbing into his chest.

"Why'd you have to kill him?" Applejack staring at her brother.

"He was hurting Derpy, Ah had to do something, what did you expect me to do?" He was scolded Applejack. "Let him kill her?" Derpy looked up at Big Mac, she looked into those big green eyes. She knew what she had to do. She would tell him how she felt about him. "Now go!"

"Alrighty then Big Mac." Applejack always knew to trust her brothers opinion. He had always been her voice of reason.

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Derpy's face hurt, she held a cold pack wrapped in a towel to her head. The cold pack helped the physical wounds, but no the mental ones. She had been yelled at and beaten, all because of her appearance. Another tear streamed down her face. She watched as the Medics wrapped up Rusty's body and carried him off. She watched from a distance as Big Mac explained to Mayor Mare what exactly had happened. That Rusty had been drunk, that he had pushed his sister down, and that he had attacked one of their workers. Mayor Mare nodded and shook her head. Big Mac pointed over to Derpy. Mayor Mare and him began walking over to her.

"Miss Derpy, are you alright?" Mayor Mare asked in a concerned tone. Derpy just nodded, not being able to speak. Mayor Mare then motioned over to Big Mac who was standing just a few feet away. "Did Big Mac really come in and save you?" Derpy nodded again. "Well then." Mayor Mare flipped a chocolate covered Peppermint stick into her mouth, and looked at Big Mac who was waiting to hear what his sentencing was. "It seems that since it was all self defense, and that you were protecting Derpy here, I won't be charging you with anything." Big Mac breathed a sigh of relief, His breath crystallizing in the cold night air.

"Thank you Mayor Mare for the understanding." Big Mac then turned to Derpy who was staring at the ground. "Derpy are you sure your'e alright?" Derpy didn't say anything. She just kept staring at the ground. Big Mac lifted Derpy's gaze into his. "Derpy, Ah'm sorry you had to see this." Derpy looked into his green eyes, and she felt the moment was right. She leaned into him and kissed him. She held it there for a few seconds, before drawing back. Big Mac was surprised, He stepped back raising a hoof to his face. Derpy smiled at him, she then frowned when she realized what she had just done. She got up and began galloping towards the gate.

"I'm sorry!" Derpy ran out of the gate and into the night. Big Mac looked at her as she ran off. He looked to the ground. He had no Idea what just happened or why it happened. He went to go find Applejack who was in her bedroom looking out the window at the very spot where Rusty lay just minutes before. "Applejack." Big Mac began before he was cut off by Rainbow Dash who had just entered the room."

Rainbow Dash ran over and embraced Applejack. "Applejack, I heard what happened." She looked at Big Mac. "Where is Derpy?" Big Mac looked down at the ground.

"She ran ran out of the gate and into the apple grove"

"And you just let her?" Rainbow Dash glared at Big Mac, who picked his head up. "Why would you let her just run off like that? After what she just did to you." Big Mac looked up at Rainbow Dash and glared. Rainbow Dash had seen the entire scene play out, from the kiss to Derpy running out of the property.

"That isn't any of your business."

"Derpy is my business," Rainbow Dash glared at Big Mac. "Iv'e been the one who has watched over her through her entire life, I'm the one who has been there for her. I was there for her when she lost everything! I was even there for her when she lost her baby..."Rainbow Dash stopped her self, she had said too much. Big Mac turned his head down. "So yeah, it is my business." Rainbow Dash then put her head to Applejack's. "Go find her."

Without another word, Big Mac walked out of the room and ran outside to find Derpy.

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Derpy loved this area of the farm. She saw this area on her first day and decide to lay here for her break. It was beautiful, the way the moonlight ran over the apple trees. She curled up under one of the trees thinking to herself. She wondered how it had come to this, why was she like this? She thought back to the first time she was picked on. She was just a little filly back then. She had just gotten home when she noticed that a group of young pegasus stallions had followed her home. They began chasing her, and when they caught her, they beat her up. All this infront of her home. They called her names, like retard and cross eyes. She walked into her home, badly bruised from her beating and found her father, on the couch passed out drunk, and her mother was laying in her bed. Her mother had been sick with cancer, but they couldn't afford the treatments to get her cured. Her memory skipped ahead a few months to her mother's death bed. Her mother was coughing up blood while her father was out of the house probably getting drunk. Derpy was there when her mother uttered her final words.

"I...l-love...you...Derpy." Derpy's mother had passed away at night, during a beautiful moon like this. Derpy cried at her mothers side for hours.

Derpy began crying. "Why me." Derpy then cried herself to sleep under the apple tree.

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"Derpy!? Derpy! Where are you?"

Derpy awoke to the sound of her name being called. She didn't want to be found. She just wanted to stay there under that tree. She pressed herself against the tree, listening. The voice got closer, and it sounded like the voice of a stallion.

"Derpy!?"

She looked past the tree and saw Big Mac. He had a look of worry on his face. He was frantically looking around for her. He had been up all night searching the many acres they owned, trying to find her. Big Mac saw her poke her head out, and ran over. Derpy had never been good at Hide and Seek, Rainbow Dash always found her, no matter where she was.

"Derpy, why did you run off." The bags under his eyes were more prevalent now that he was closer to her. He was breathing heavy.

"I thought that if I kissed you, you would maybe smile, o-or kiss me back. I didn't think you would just stare at me." Derpy wiped her eyes. "I love you."

Big Mac was surprised. "Why do you like me?" He stared at her with surprised curiosity.

"Since the first time I saw you, I had fallen for you." She began. "You were the first stallion who had ever been truly nice to me. The first stallion to not point out my problems. I felt like you and I had a connection." She looked at the ground. "I guess I was wrong."

"Derpy, I was nice to you because I felt bad for you." Derpy looked up. "I felt sorry because I thought you couldn't find a job because of your... disability." The words stung. "I never fell in love with you..." The rest of his words fell deaf on her ears.

She just stared at him, a tear falling from her face. She had just realized that the only reason she had a job, the reason that Rainbow Dash was her friend, that she had anything was because they took pity on her. She looked back on her time at the farm. what she thought she had done right, was in fact wrong and the only reason they kept her was out of pity. She came to the realization that she was, in fact, worthless.

"Derpy, I'm sorry." Big Mac finished, he looked at her and saw no emotion on her face.

She simply turned around and took off into the air.