Once the front door had closed with a soft click, and Derpy saw the comfort of her living room ahead of her, she lowered her head to shoulder level and released a sigh.
She had made another costly mistake at work, and her boss had only stared at her silently before walking away this time — which wasn't a good sign. Nevertheless, she forced herself to look on the bright side of things: at least she was living in a small town, where there weren't a lot of expensive or important things for her to mess up. She would always miss her family's home in Cloudsdale, but the weather factory was really important and really expensive to fix, so she could live with very occasional and brief visits in order to save ponies from that kind of disaster.
Perking up, she looked over her shoulder and gazed at the seven bubbles that were on her flank with a smile. Despite her blunderous nature, and the many problems that it caused, she knew that she was a very lucky pony. Being one of the rare ponies whose magic wasn't solely from one tribe, her wings allowed her to do things that other pegasi couldn't do. She could even be the fastest pegasus in all of Equestria if she wanted to be, but the amount of concentration that would require made that prospect rather discouraging, and her general lack of interest pretty much decided that she should do something else with her abilities.
Speaking of which, she figured that it was about time to put those aforementioned abilities to use again. So, after grabbing a quick snack, she spread her wings, focused on her magic, then gave them a good, deliberate flap. To an observer, she faded to nothing within a second while ascending into the air; to her, the view of her home was instantaneously replaced by the "space" between universes.
It wasn't actual space, but the explanation that she had been given for it, back when she had been a young filly, had gone right over her head, and by now she had completely forgotten what that explanation had been. Either way, it wasn't a place where a third-dimensional being like herself was equipped to sense in any fashion, but time and repeated, accidental exposure, in conjunction with her developing brain, had allowed her to adapt enough to "see" other universes and navigate between them.
Unfortunately, that'd had a negative impact on her perception and awareness in the third dimension, with the only obvious physical sign of it being her misaligned eyes, due to the abnormal development of her brain. She could see straight under certain circumstances, or with a great amount of effort, but it usually wasn't worth it. As a result, she was prone to being clumsy and ending up at places where she shouldn't be. Before she had accepted her condition and learned to see the good in it, she had tried to have her eyes fixed with surgery. That's how she had learned that there had been nothing wrong with her eyes and that the actual cause had no known remedy. With her family's support, as well as Princess Celestia's, she had been able to make the best out of it. Now, as she peered through a "void" that couldn't be discerned as being any one thing, to peruse the universes that looked like bubbles to her mind, she could only feel excitement for what she might experience next.
It was a matter of will instead of legs or wings that allowed movement, and she did so with practiced ease as she traversed beyond the universes that she had already become familiar with. While every bubble was nigh identical to one another, she could somehow tell which one was which — a stark difference from what she could do in her home environment.
Upon finding an unfamiliar universe, she placed her widely-separated forehooves onto its surface and focused, eliciting a window into the universe to appear between them. At her behest, a countless number of images shuffled by in the span of an instant, until she saw something worth investigating. With a child-like glee, she dove through the image in the window head-first and appeared within the universe, from the perspective offered by the image.
Considering how often she found herself in the air when she entered universes, it was more out of reflex than from awareness that her wings went to work. Which was a good thing in this instance, because she was enthralled by the large, green statue before her. While the statue didn't look exactly like the one in Manehattan, it was too similar for her to pass up a closer inspection, as well as the opportunity to learn more about the creatures that had built it.
It wasn't until she got to the broken shackle at the figure's feet that her brain finally began to register the sounds that stood out from the ambient noise around her. When she cast her attention downward, she saw a bunch of creatures that appeared to be the kind that the statue had been based upon, although their clothing wasn't anything like what was being worn by it. They were staring up at her, pointing, gesticulating in various ways, speaking and yelling things that she couldn't understand, or trying to give her something — that something being thin and rectangular in every case, as far as she could tell.
Although Princess Celestia and several others had cautioned her about a great many things, and repeated themselves whenever she related an experience where she hadn't heeded them, she still managed to make mistakes. Because of her focus on the statue, for instance, she hadn't remembered to check its surroundings first, which — to her embarrassment — turned out to have a strong similarity to Manehattan as well. Since she had no idea if the bipedal creatures were safe, that meant that she should avoid them until they were deemed so.
With a sheepish smile, she waved goodbye to the crowd that she had attracted and began to fly inland, in order to find a better area to study things without being noticed. This brought her over the bustling city, which proved almost too distracting for her to stay on task. That changed when she noticed one, then two, weird-looking and noisy flying contraptions heading her way from two different directions.
Seeing that there were more of those creatures in the closest one, she worriedly looked around herself for an escape route that would accommodate a fast and relatively straight course. Upon doing so, she furrowed her brow and stuck out her tongue as she forced her eyes to align themselves, then she concentrated and imbued her wings with magic. When she was ready, she held her wings up for a second before bringing them down hard and fast, which shot her forward with a loud boom.
She clenched her teeth and squinted her eyes against the wind as she deliberately beat her wings several more times, leaving the city limits by the second one. It wasn't long before her concentration broke, so she transitioned into a glide while she reoriented herself to the way that she usually saw the world. Said world was now filled with many trees, some mountain ridges, and not much in the way of habitation. In an attempt to stay out of sight, she descended until she was just above the forest canopy, so there would be far less vantage points to be seen from.
...A couple accidental encounters with treetops later, she came upon a small town whose center mostly consisted of row houses. Nearby was a decrepit-looking bridge that led to the biggest — and most modern-looking — building in the immediate area, which reminded her of some of the schools that she had seen in Equestria's cities. The road that led to it, along with the others attached to the center of town, wound through the trees, where she found a smattering of other dwellings. Since she hadn't seen many of the creatures from earlier, she chose her current location to have a more thorough investigation of what she had seen so far.
After satisfying her interest in the creatures' vehicles, and watching some of their activities and interactions, she decided to see more of the area before evening turned to night. She proceeded to follow a road that went up the local mountain, where she planned to get a view of her next destination, although it was by no means a direct way to the top. When she was a short distance from where she wanted to be, however, she couldn't help being distracted by a sizeable clearance amidst the trees, where she found a building in between two roads, close to where they met. It looked like some kind of restaurant, and the space around it was covered in gravel, with a fair number of logs lined up in a purposeful manner here and there.
What really caught her attention, though, was the brown-haired figure sitting on one of the logs that was farthest from the building and out of sight from any of the windows on its facade. It seemed like a good opportunity to make contact with the only sapient creature that she had seen thus far, so she began her descent after looking around and making sure that no one else was about. Wanting to avoid any gravel getting lodged behind her hooves, she found a patch of sand between it and the road, which was a couple yards away from the object of her interest.
Once she had settled on the ground, she took a moment to get a better look at the creature that she would be trying to interact with. Based on her observations of them thus far, this one appeared to be among its young, though perhaps not too young since she couldn't be sure if she had ever seen one of their youngest yet. If their attire was anything to go by, which didn't look too dissimilar from some of the things that she had seen some ponies wear, she could only assume that they were male. Either way, at the moment he was hunched over his legs, with his face buried behind his crossed forearms. Said forearms were covered by angry-red splotches, which seemed to look out of place with the complexion of his skin, at least as far as she could gather from the uncovered parts of his arms and legs.
While she was aware of the language barrier that existed between them, she opted to get his attention verbally instead of traversing across the gravel to use a physical means of communication. Besides which, the distance would be safer in case he turned out to be hostile. So, with a smile and good cheer, she proclaimed, "Good evening!"
Puffy and red-rimmed blue eyes peeked over their owner's arms and stared for a few seconds. Then, he sat up and began to rub his eyes with his forearm, but stopped with a wince before he could finish and continued with the heels of his hands instead. He returned to staring afterward, and the expression on his face looked close enough to what she would expect of someone who had a hard time believing what they were seeing.
Eventually he opened his mouth and said something, so she tilted her head and looked at him questioningly, to express that she couldn't understand him. That seemed to discourage him, and before long he decided to return to what he had been doing previously. Considering the state of his eyes, and his decision to wallow in the feelings that had caused it, she felt a pang in her chest and her ears fold down. Out of the many scenarios that she had ever imagined her first meeting with another creature to be like, this kind had not been among them.
She didn't know how to cheer him up, especially without him being able to understand her, so after some thinking she opted to try her usual method. It took her a moment, but she eventually figured out how to get the idea across: with cloud sculpting. There was really only one thing that she could sculpt successfully every time, but — fortunately — that happened to be the one that she needed to make.
After over a minute of preparation, she got his attention and raised a muffin-shaped cloud up with her wing. She pointed at him, then the cloud muffin, before taking a bite out of it. She made a show of anticipating his answer, but no answer came aside from a blank stare. When she tried again and got the same result, she covered up her discouragement and pointed between her stomach and what was left of the cloud muffin before pretending to take a bite of it. From there, she moved it down to her stomach and looked at him expectantly — hopefully.
Rather than any of the answers that she had been expecting, he stood up and warily approached. She tensed and readied herself to take flight at the first sign of trouble, until he slowly outstretched his hand toward her, at which point she relaxed somewhat and offered a hoof to meet his questing digits. He jerked his hand away upon first touch, as if it had been hot, but marveled at her, saying something in awe when nothing bad happened and he was allowed to prod and explore her hoof.
Once his amazement passed and his curiosity seemed to be sated, she once again tried to communicate what she was offering. This time he nodded his head, so she turned aside and motioned for him to sit on her back. While it would have been better to leave by herself and return with the muffins, she suspected that he had been alone for a reason and wanted to offer him a more comfortable and safe place to get away to, as well as a place where she could keep him company.
He hesitated for a second before awkwardly climbing onto her back, due to being careful around her wings and said back being a bit higher than his waist. Once he was holding on tight and she was able to get across the message that he should close his eyes, because of how disorienting and unsettling it had been for her to see in between universes before she had adjusted to it, she extended her wings and made the trip back to her house as quickly as possible. Since she could will herself directly to a known universe, and it only took a fraction of a second to bring up a view of her living room in the window, she was home in almost no time at all.
The first thing that she noticed, when she felt her living room rug beneath her hooves, was that her passenger seemed lighter, and his legs weren't pressing into much of her barrel anymore. When she looked over her shoulder to get an answer for this change in tactile information, she was surprised to see a pegasus colt instead of the creature that she had brought with her. While baffled about that, she couldn't help noticing the family resemblance: his coat was marginally darker than hers, his hair was only a tinge of orange away from her own, and the structure of his face reminded her of some of her male relatives.
When he opened his eyes, which — yet again — were just a bit more orange than her own, he gasped when he looked down at himself and proceeded to tumble off of her back. She quickly moved to help him up and look him over for injury, and while she did that she heard him say something that she didn't understand, making her realize that he was the creature from that other universe. Fortunately, he didn't seem hurt, or find his fall to be as important as his transformation, because his wide-eyed gaze swept all over himself even as he barely managed to keep himself from falling over in the process. Eventually, he turned his attention to his surroundings with the same gaze, even though her house and furnishings weren't anything special.
Finally, his eyes fell upon her, and he asked her something while having a confused expression on his face. Thinking that he was wondering about the muffins, she hurried to the kitchen and brought back a basket full of them. When she was done setting it down in front of him, he looked ready to say something else but stopped and looked down at a raised hoof for several seconds, for some reason, before turning his gaze to the muffins. He stared at them for a bit before sitting down on his haunches, awkwardly clamping one between his hooves, then taking a bite out of it.
Once again his eyes widened, only this time they closed soon after and he hummed in delight. She smiled warmly as she watched him eat the rest of the muffin with gusto, then immediately swipe another and practically inhale it. After getting him to slow down, she left to get him something to drink, knowing that he would soon need it. When she returned with it, she placed it where he could see it before settling down beside him and silently observing him as he ate.
It wasn't long before she noticed a warmth radiating from within her chest. After a moment she became aware of how different her home felt with someone else in it, and how it felt so much more lively with just the addition of a colt chomping down on muffins, due to the silence that tended to pervade the place. The feeling was bittersweet, however, because she had hoped to have such an atmosphere within her home for a long time, but she'd had no luck finding a special somepony to make that happen. Sometimes she wondered if she would ever find them, but she remained optimistic because of the knowledge that there were a countless number of universes beyond her own, and thus just as many chances to find them somewhere if not close to home.
When he finished eating, she gave him some time to allow the food to settle before bringing him back to his own universe, since he had eaten enough to feel the need to apply his hoof against his stomach in minor discomfort. Before long, though, he looked at her with an expression that asked, "What now?"
Not knowing what to do, and feeling tempted to keep him around longer for her own reasons, she decided that it might be for the best if she returned him to where he belonged. So, with a mental sigh, she got up and put some distance between them before showing him her side and gesturing for him to get onto her back. He shook his head, so she looked at him questioningly while pointing at her stomach. After getting the same response, she looked on in confusion and wondered what was stopping him from going.
As if in answer, he unsteadily got to his hooves and carefully walked over to her. Rather than approach her rear half, where he could access her back, he wrapped his forelegs around one of her own and stared up at her imploringly.
Looking into his eyes sparked a maelstrom of emotions within her, and her body froze as she wrestled with them. On one hoof, she knew that she should send him back to where he belonged, where she assumed — and still hoped — he would be missed by someone despite the state that she had found him in. On the other hoof, she would love to have a child, even though she also worried that she wouldn't be competent enough as a parent, or that she might hurt them by accident or otherwise make their life more difficult.
In the end her dreams and the aching portion of her heart won out, so she offered him a reserved smile and stroked the top of his head, which seemed to make him happy. She would no doubt need Princess Celestia's approval to adopt him, so she decided to see her before it grew too late. She held the princess in very high regard, as one of the few ponies outside of her family that really cared about her, rather than simply being a friendly acquaintance, so she was optimistic about the outcome.
The sun was dipping beneath the horizon by the time Derpy arrived at Canterlot with her prospective son, who continued to marvel at the world while she flew. Since he didn't know how to use his wings properly, she had opted to carry him in the satchel that she used to deliver parcels. If everything worked out, and he became her son in fact, she would be sure to give him a tour of Equestria when the land wasn't dimly illuminated and cast in so many shadows.
She greeted a couple of pegasus guards as she made her way directly to Princess Celestia's chambers, who didn't acknowledge her but allowed her to approach the castle nonetheless. She was aware that it wasn't the normal way for ponies to get an audience with the princess, especially without prior notice, but said princess had given her permission after all of the times that she had gotten lost in the castle, misplaced her security pass and... been the cause of various incidents. The princess was really nice and understanding like that.
Celestia must have noticed her approach, because the balcony doors swung open and her gladsome voice floated out to greet her before she could land. "Derpy! Do come in!"
Heeding her words, Derpy flew past the balcony and landed within her chambers. When she turned to face the room's owner, who was lying on a large, round cushion, she saw her pushing aside a small pile of scrolls and books, so they wouldn't be between them. It made sense, since Celestia often greeted her with a hug.
After sitting up, Celestia extended a welcoming foreleg and wing toward her and said, "It has been—" She paused when her eyes dropped from her face, and she looked mildly surprised before smiling softly. "Oh? Who might this handsome colt be?"
Derpy looked down and saw the aforementioned colt staring at Celestia in wide-eyed wonder. She had momentarily forgotten about him, due to how much she enjoyed seeing the princess. Now that she was reminded of her reason for being there, she turned her head aside and nervously replied, "Uh... I don't know?"
"You don't?" Celestia inquired, her head slightly cocked and brow raised.
"Well..." Derpy temporized, before she was able to meet the princess' gaze and unload a context-light response. "He doesn't speak our language. He wasn't even a pony before I brought him here. I just wanted to cheer him up, because he looked sad. But he didn't want to leave after I gave him some muffins." She lowered her head, with her ears following suit, and continued in a more quiet and subdued tone as she stared down at the top of the current subject's head. "I knew I couldn't allow that without your permission, so I came here..."
After a couple of seconds, Celestia levelly asked, "Do you mean to say that he is from another universe?"
Derpy nodded her head once. "Uh-huh."
There was another pause before Celestia instructed, "Please set him down. I wish to speak with him."
Confused, since she had mentioned the language barrier, Derpy nonetheless lowered her satchel to the floor and pulled its mouth to the same level, so the colt could escape it and move freely.
Celestia proceeded to invite the colt with a gesture while offering him a disarming smile, but he needed a reassuring nod from Derpy before he approached her. Once he was close enough, the princess lowered her head and nuzzled his cheek with her own. Her horn lit up soon after she began, and for a second a transparent bubble appeared around his head, one that had many letters and symbols that Derpy didn't recognize or understand. When it and the aura around the princess' horn had faded, she raised her head and the colt backed a few steps away from her.
"What was that!?" The colt exclaimed, alarmed.
Before Derpy could voice her surprise at being able to understand him, Celestia calmly replied, "A spell that will allow us to communicate for a little while."
"Y-you can do that...?" The colt replied in shock, his jaw left hanging open.
Celestia nodded her head, who couldn't help smiling slightly at his reaction. "And now that we can understand each other, could you tell me your name? I am Celestia."
Still overwhelmed by what happened, and her presence, the colt managed to say, "I-I'm, uh, Blake."
"It's nice to meet you, Blake," came Celestia's cordial reply, before becoming slightly more serious. "Do you know why you were brought here?"
Blake shook his head.
"I am a princess of this land," Celestia gently informed him, whose eyes widened in realization, "so it is my duty to ensure its safety. Frankly, Derpy should not have taken you from your home universe," said pony winced guiltily, "but I will not assume that you are a danger." She gazed into Blake's eyes meaningfully and asked, "So, tell me: why do you wish to stay here?"
Blake lowered his head and turned it aside as he fidgeted with his forehooves. "Um... Because it's interesting? There's no magic where I'm from, or anything cool like that."
Seeing his evasive answer for what it was, Celestia pointedly asked, "What about your family?"
When a reply to her question was not forthcoming, Derpy sat down beside him and draped a comforting wing across his back, since she had seen the state that he had been in when she had first met him. He glanced up at her, got caught by her concerned gaze for a time, then sighed, lowered his head and mumbled, "My parents don't care about me."
Fearing the answer that she suspected, Derpy hesitantly asked, "Do... Do they hurt you?"
Shaking his head faintly, Blake replied, "They usually just ignore me, unless they think I need to be punished."
Having picked up on what Derpy had intimated with her question, Celestia softly inquired, "Were you punished earlier?"
Blake hesitated, briefly looked at Celestia, then admitted, "No... I think dad had too much beer."
While that didn't say a lot, or reveal much about his life at home in general, it said enough for Celestia to come to a decision, considering everything else that she had ascertained about the situation.
"I will accept your request to live here," Celestia eventually stated, which did much to disperse the air of somberness filling the room. Turning her attention to Derpy, she levelly said, "If you wish, you may take Blake to a foster home."
Derpy's ears drooped, and her face fell a little. "Oh. Well, um—"
Before Celestia could address her reaction, Blake interjected while he wrapped his forelegs around one of Derpy's own and regarded the princess with an imploring look. "Can I live with Derpy?" Seeming to realize that the equation was bigger than that, he gazed up at the pony in question and entreated, "Please?"
Seeing that Celestia was awaiting an answer from her, with a knowing look on her face, Derpy regarded Blake with apprehension, as her insecurities bubbled to the fore, and swallowed before saying, "I'd love to have you, but..." She felt a pang in her chest as his expression turned to one of worry. "It's just, uh... I'm accident-prone... And liable to get lost..."
Blake tightened his hold and looked up at her stubbornly. "I don't care: you're nice. I bet you'll make a great mom."
"A-are you sure?" Derpy managed to force through her strained throat, as she unconsciously blinked away the tears gathering in her eyes.
When she was answered by a resolute nod, she gathered Blake up into an all-encompassing hug, who squirmed with embarrassment until he heard her sniffles — not that she noticed either reaction. She didn't know how long she was lost in her own happiness, but she had the good grace to look chagrined when she disengaged from her son and noticed that Celestia was standing near the balcony door and the room was now primarily illuminated by the fireplace.
Celestia didn't seem to mind her behavior, who smiled and asked, "Are you feeling better?"
Derpy could only nod her head in reply.
"It's late," Celestia conversationally continued, as she began the trek back to her cushion, "so I'll arrange for you to stay the night here."
"Thank you, princess," came Derpy's reply, who didn't like the idea of flying back home in the dark while carrying precious cargo.
Once Celestia was lounging on her cushion again, she took a scroll and began to write upon it. While she did that, she split enough of her attention to say, "I also need a name to put on Blake's birth certificate. Do you need time to think of one," she spared Derpy a searching look, "or did you already have one in mind?"
"What's wrong with my name?" Blake interjected with obvious confusion.
Celestia paused in her writing so she could address his question. "It's an unusual name for a pony. For now, at least, I think it would be wise to suggest that you have an ordinary background. Should it become common knowledge that you are not from our universe, there could be a premature opposition to your presence. If not that, then you risk being treated differently instead of being accepted."
Blake's expression turned downcast. "Oh..."
"However," Celestia continued, "I think it would be remiss of me to deny you a choice in the matter. After all: your name might raise questions, but good answers can prevent problems." She regarded Blake in an open and tender manner as she added, "I primarily recommend the change to help you bond with your new mother."
Blake blinked his eyes while he considered that information, then turned his gaze to his new mother, who worried her bottom lip as she looked back at him with hope shining in her eyes. Eventually, he smiled and asked, "Can you give me a new name, mom?"
Derpy lit up with delight in response. She had conceived a name for her child a long time ago, inspired by a foalhood delight that — even now — she would enjoy partaking in. She would really like to share it with her son as well, especially once he learned how to fly.
Drawing her son into another hug, more gently this time, she softly told him, "I'll give you that and all of my love... Bubble Burst."
Author's Note
This story was initially sparked by the colt that Derpy was with in The Cart Before the Ponies. I couldn't remember seeing him anywhere before, and he wasn't even present in Twilight Time (where, in one scene, there were forty school-aged colts and fillies in one shot).
Of course, I couldn't help trying to do something unique to explain his existence and connection with Derpy, and that's how she ended up becoming an interdimensional traveler (of all things). The idea probably calls for a larger story, but I can't commit to anything big right now, so... Yeah. I dunno if Derpy's been given this kind of ability in fan-fiction before, but people can use the idea either way, or even continue this story. In the unlikely event that people like this story enough to want a sequel, I won't rule out putting some time aside to write it.