Ditzys secret

I wiped the last tears away and took another sip of Ponet's homemade pea soup. It wasn't the best, but it calmed my nerves. My tail swung nervously back and forth and my ears slumped. My wing like fins held firmly to my back. I could faintly hear the chatter in the front room where Ponet was attending to a customer.

The smell of fresh paint had long ago stopped smelling so fine and began to give me a head ach. Looking around the room I could see paint cans, canvases, and a large amount of other art supplies littered the room. The only other room beside the front and back was a small bathroom.

I dropped from the chair and went into the small bathroom to my left. It was the only other room in the shop. Inside it was a toilet, a small bath, and a fogged up mirror.

I looked into the mirror and another tear rolled down my face. Life was so unfair. Why did I have to be born like this? And to a mother and father that never wanted me? After that one day I ran away I heard that they left town and went to Canterlot, only to be arrested for one thing or the other. It seemed that Darling Doo and Fish had just disappeared from existence.

If it wasn't for Raindrops, I would never be able to cope. She knew all about me. We told each other everything. This morning she had even gotten me a job at the post office. But what would I know about a job like that any ways? I lived in the forest for most of my life. I didn't even know where half the people lived.

Not to mention that my foster parents were dead. Raindrops had told me that they were on a safari during dragon season. The beasts had scared a heard of caribou and a stampede had started. The two were trampled. And now this.

He seemed nice enough, but would Ponet be able to keep a secret? I watched my gills flare and relax every time I took a breath. The seaweed in my hair rustled every time I moved my head. My damp skin shimmered in the faded light in the bathroom. I loved this form, but it had so many draw backs. I was practically starving despite the soup. I hadn't had any meat in two days.

I looked away from the mirror and went back into the room to find that Ponet was back in his seat. I looked down at my hoofs as I made my way back to my chair. Ponet cleared his voice and I looked up. His eyes went directly into mine.

Those eyes. I had only seen the passion that was reflected in Ponet’s deep green eyes in one other pony before…

Flash back…

“And that is how you draw a pencil.” A young colt with a brown coat looked up at his sister. The colt had a red fizz of hair, just enough to hide his undersized horn. On his back sat a pair of unusable wings, too small to ever fly.

The filly standing next to him was an older gray Pegasus with crooked yellow eyes.

“Wow Fish. If you keep this up you’ll be famous!” the filly exclaimed. The colt looked up at her with a silly grin on his face, his deep blue eyes full of love for his art and for her, his sister…

"You look gorgeous." Ponet said, snapping me out of my thoughts. I could feel the heat in my face as I blushed furiously. The stallion got up and walked around me, studying me like I was a new piece of artwork.

"Your mane is a beautiful gold, just like Celestia's sun. And your skins, green like the deep waters of a lake. And your wings. Magnificent. Oh but I just love your eyes!" He paused for a moment before his own eyes lit up.

"May I paint you?" I was slightly taken aback by his forwardness to dump paint on me. He noticed my mistake and reframed his question in a softer tone.

"May I please paint a portrait of you?" Now understanding the question, I said yes, still in a daze. The stallion smiled with glee, like a colt that just got to go on his first nightmare night.

"So you can do telepathy to! Mind telling me more?” when he said this, I realized my mistake of saying yes with my mind and not my mouth. I didn’t have time to go over my whole life, so I set all my memories into his head. When I did this he gasped and fell down for a moment. He looked off into the distance like ponies do when they have flashbacks. He did that for almost ten minutes.

I was starting to get worried that I may have overloaded his mind, when he finely broke out of it. He just stared at me a moment.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know."

"I'll be here tomorrow. How about five?" this time I spoke with my voice. He nodded as I got up. I could feel myself changing back slowly. I had been there for almost three hours and my skin had dried off. Ponet did a quick heating spell to speed it up and I thanked him. My eyes where again back to their Derpy selves.

I trotted out of the shop. When the sun hit my face, I broke into a smile. I was so happy. Raindrop had been the only one to ever know about my situation. She had always thought of it as a problem. This colt, he thought I was beautiful.

This was the first time anypony had ever said it to me other than Luke all those years ago. This time I vowed that I wouldn't try to eat him. Instead of going straight home, I curved my path and went towards the woods.

When I got to the edge of the forest, I paused. Looking around I saw no pony. I quickly rustled through the underbrush until I found it. My secret stash.

On my runs through the forest I would usually find prey and freeze it, storing it for winter like a squirrel. In this pile were two rabbits and a leg of something. I quickly chowed down on the leg and rehid the rest. Now with a full belly I trotted around town.

I saw some fillies playing with a small read ball, tossing it back and forth with their magic. One of the fillies got distracted and the ball flew towards me. I clumsily caught it and was about to toss it back when I saw that the fillies disappeared. I just kept the ball. I would take it to them next time I saw them.

I decided to go home. I started to trot that way again but tripped over a rock. The first thing to hit the ground was my face. It only stung but I completely forgot about it when the rest of me hit. Pain shot through my hoof and I held back a scream of pain. Ponies walked past without even a second look except for the ones who began to laugh.

Slowly I rose to my other three hoofs. This stupid clumsy body. If only every pony could be like rain or Ponet, I wouldn't have to worry about this stuff happening. I tried to walk forward, but with my eyes separated, I couldn't coordinate with just three legs. I ended up just falling again.

As another chorus of laughter rang, I managed to get up again. As a last resort I tried to fly. I flapped my wings furiously with no result. It was so much more stressful than swimming. Mostly because flying meant fighting against the gravity. Swimming wasn't like that.

I decided to change tactics and got up on my hind legs. Now at an angle, I started flapping again. The cool air spun through my feathers. I felt my hoofs lifting off the ground. I leaned forward a bit and started moving. Inch by inch, hoof by hoof, yard by yard I started making my way up Everfree Street. (Kind of ironic if you ask me)

When I finally made it back to Rain’s place, no pony was home. I put ice on my sprained hoof and lay down. I closed my eyes for just a second...

I woke up with a start. How long had I been asleep? I tried to get up, just to fall back onto the couch when my hoof hurt. It wasn't as bad as yesterday though. There was a blanket on me that hadn't been there before and I could faintly see the sun rising outside.

I got up again, this time not putting too much pressure on my leg. I slowly walked it around until I decided that it would be fine for the day. After that I made a quick note for Rain to say where I was going, and then I left.

I decided that today I would see how Marvin was doing and hunt. I would only be gone for about an hour. After that I would go to the post office and check out the new job rain got for me. Later at five I would make my way to the art shop. I went through the town, lonely as it was still early morning. I passed by sugar cube corner and passed what Raindrops said was Fluttershy’s cottage.

I soon came to the forest and bounded in, splashing in puddles as I went along. As soon as I could, I sent out a message to Marvin saying to meet me by the lake. I swiftly caught a squirrel and a vole.

When I made it to the lake, burnt orange and eight heads filled my view. Time passed quickly as I chatted with Marvin. Before long I was on my way to the post office to start my job.

Outside, the place looked newly painted and clean. It raised my hopes and I trotted into the doors. The sight surprised me.

Smoke clouds filled the room. Letters, packages, and trash littered the floor. I asked the desk clerk and she pointed me towards my new bosses office. I went in, and in the chair sat a short but very fat unicorn pony. He didn't say a word, just nodded his head towards a bag of mail. I got it onto my back and left as quickly as I could. All that smoke had been killing my lungs and I thought I had seen a rat in there.

This job would take some getting used to, but I thought I could make it. Rain had already given me a tour of my rout and told me the rules of the job. She said she had quit the monster hunting team and would be helping me on the job some days.

I cantered along my rout, dropping off mail at each stop. No pony seemed to realize me. It almost felt like I was invisible every time I walked through town. Ponies passed by not giving me a first look let alone a second one. Finally I made it to my last stop. Rainbow dashes house. I'm sure she had heard of my '"death" all those years ago, and would start asking questions.

My second trouble was that I would have to fly up to her cloud house. I didn't like flying because it made me uncoordinated and I usually bumped into something. But a mare had to do what a mare had to do, so I started flapping. As I gained altitude my eyes kept going everywhere. I tried to go forward, but ended up going left instead. I rammed headlong into Rainbow’s house (which was pretty hard packed for a cloud) and I lost my balance.

My wings tucked in automatically and I started to fall. I tried to think and open them but my body was too scared to move and the wind held them at my side. All I could think to do was close my eyes. I counted down my approximate seconds till death.

Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three. I hit. It didn't hurt, just a sharp pull in my stomach and...Wait, was I moving back up? My eyes shot open and I was surprised to see a cyan arm wrapped around me. I and my rescuer touched soft cloud and I turned to her, the embraced flush growing on my face.

"Either you got a death wish or your wings are broken. That could have killed you ya know. Are you alright?" Rainbow had a gruff look on her face but not one of recognition.

"Yah. I'm okay. I just got off balance and I kind of...froze..." I blushed even more. It wasn't the first time I had been in a near death experience, but it was the first time I had to be rescued before. I stuck my hoof into the saddle bag on my back and pulled out a now crumpled envelope.

"I just don't know what went wrong. But here's your mail." I gave her the mail and flew down to the ground. It was almost five o’clock and I didn't want to be late for my portrait. I dropped my mailbag off and went to the paint shop. When I got there the closed sign was already on but I knocked anyways.

A shout of come in sounded through the door way and I made my way in, heading straight for the back.

"I'm here Ponet!" I shouted out and heard a mumbled reply from the back room. I went back to find Ponet in a closet trying to hold everything in it up to keep it from falling. It was a significant fail, for as soon as he locked eyes with me, everything collapsed on top of him. I galloped over and pulled of now busted paint cans and multiple other art supplies.

The pile shivered as Ponet pulled him out of it. When he was all the way out, I couldn’t help but snort. Paint splotches covered his body, making him look silly. When noticing this he laughed a deep smooth laugh. Suddenly in a playfully mood, I found one of the busted cans, and threw a blob of paint at Ponet. The two of us just laughed harder and there began a paint war.

Yellows, greens, pinks, and blues flew through the air. The paint, having small amounts of water in it, made my eyes go normal and my coat faintly shortened.  The two of us finally stopped laughing and collapsed onto the floor next to each other.

Despite myself, I snuggled up close to my new friend. Ponet made no objections. With his magic he floated a blank canvas into the room and got it set up onto a stand. Then without moving he cleaned the whole room and got a fresh easel of paint and clean brushes set up. All the while I lay next to him, falling into a peacefully sleep. After a while of quiet, Ponet nudged me awake.

"Time we get started on that picture." I reluctantly got up as did he. He moved to his supplies, while I stood in front of him. Just as I was about to get myself wet to change for the portrait, a small bundle of purple flew into the room.

"Daddy, Daddy!" Ponet looked at me apologetically and turned towards the filly. I frowned and turned the sink off. If I had known Ponet was married earlier, things would have been a bit different.

"Dinky. You need to go back home. Daddy's busy right now. What happened to Aunt Sparkler?" I almost laughed out loud at the face the filly gave her father.

"I might have accidentally told her that you didn't need her to foal sit me today." Ponet sighed. He looked completely stressed out.

"Sorry Miss Ditzy. We will have to wait until tomorrow to do the portrait. Besides it’s getting late." I trotted towards the door ready to say my farewells.

"Well, then. I guess I should leave..."

"No Wait! Um sorry. You wouldn't mind staying for dinner would you? Actually I wasn't planning to cook anything so we could go out."

I smiled. I had planned to go hunting again tonight and I hated all this pony food, but I nodded my head. Maybe over dinner I could find out more about him. It didn't seem that he would turn me in for telling him that I ate meat. Together we all walked out the door, dinky skipping besides us. I tried to keep my distance from Ponet seeing that he must be married although I had no idea where his wife was.

Dinky suddenly ran ahead of us and started jumping after a butterfly, not thinking to use her magic to catch it. I saw this as my chance to talk with Ponet.

"So. Not trying to be rude, but where’s Dinky’s mother?" I blushed, not thinking before I spoke so outright. Ponet looked down a second.

"She died five months after Dinky was born due to a failing heart. Her name was Calico rose." We walked in silence for a few moments.

"So. Can you tell me about being a... you know... a mermare." he whispered. He was now grinning like a colt on his first Hearths warming eve. (Have I already used that before?) It must have been contagious because the sad mood soon turned bright and curious.

"Well, ask away." So we talked and I filled in the details from the little life story I had sent into his head earlier. I told him how I ate meat and my siren song, and all the changes I had experience. I also told him about Luke and my life in the forest. Then he told me how he had seen me running from the pond during the summer sun celebration. All the while Dinky galloped around in front of us chasing the butterfly. Before I knew it we had come to the only fancy restaurant in town, madam de floure. I was surprised when we continued to go inside. I was surprised because not only was it the most fancy restaurant in Ponyville, it was also the most expensive.

"Are you sure you want to go somewhere so expensive Ponet?" I asked worried. I had no bits to pay him back.

"My sister works here so I get a discount. Dinners on me." he smiled and winked.

We got sat down and looked at the menus.

Hay fries appetizer

Daisy and crabgrass salad

Carmeled nectarines

There was much more but I knew the closest thing I could eat to 'tasting good' was the nectarines. Sweet, juicy, and they had the ability to fill an empty stomach. Food came, we ate, we talked, and we laughed. I even made plans to babysit dinky later on. But all too soon it was over. Ponet walked me home and I stopped at the door, turning to him.

"Tomorrow at five?"

"Tomorrow at five. And I won’t be late."

"Then it’s a date. Wait... I mean um. Yeah see you then." he blushed and I chuckled at his awkwardness.

"It’s a date." He blushed even more and I turned to go inside but something small and fuzzy had come and hugged me.

"By Miss Doo!" I hugged Dinky back and a tear formed in my eye. I had never felt so close to any pony just after meeting them before.

"Goodbye little muffin. I will see you on the morrow." I softly let go and opened the door. Once I was inside I closed it and sighed. I drifted through the house, feeling as if I had just been for a swim. My feet where so light. I was so happy. I couldn’t wipe this stupid grin off my face.

"Someponys got their head in the clouds." I was so into my emotions I hadn’t even seen Raindrop leaning against the kitchen counter.

"What do you mean?" I asked confused. That was usually a term for some pony that had gone crazy or was...

"Looks like you’re in love." Raindrops giggled along with Carrot top who I had also failed to notice until now.

"AM NOT!!!" although I denied it I knew it was true. We had even agreed on a 'date'.

"Oh really?"

"Who’s the lucky stallion?" I blushed.

"Shut up." I mumbled.

"See? I told you she would be able to make friends here Rain. Seems that she was even able to make more than friends." again giggling filled the room and my face burned. I stormed out of the room and into mine. I jumped onto the bed and screamed into my pillow. It wasn’t a scream of fear or anger. More of a scream of happiness or excitement. I couldn’t wait until tomorrow.