A Look Through Crossed Eyes

Chapters

Prologue
1st Entry
Back to School
A Grain of Salt

Prologue

Dear Ditzy Doo,

As your parents, we are very proud of you. We would also like to wish you a happy 5th birthday. While it's not a pair of butterfly wing covers like you asked, we got you this (unreasonably thick) diary to help you with your transition into 1st grade. It will present some challenges for you that you may not necessarily be ready for quite yet. Some things may happen that we as your parents might not be around for. This, however, does not shake our faith in your astounding ability to escape sticky situations and to come out of an experience better than when you first went in. We have taught you so much already, and we are prepared to help you through anything that may come your way. Although, we do understand that there may be things that you may not want to talk about. While we hope that you will still come to us for help and support, this diary will help you get anything and hopefully everything off your chest. Sometimes things get stressful with a new school and not everypony is the most inviting. We especially promise not to read this. As soon as you write into the pages of this diary, it becomes strictly confidential to you.

But don't let our ambiguity disturb you; elementary school will also be an exciting experience. You will make more friends than you did in kindergarten, learn more new and exciting things in class, and get to experience the first step of growing up. And as we have mentioned before, we will ALWAYS be here for help and support. No matter what you do, we will help you and care for you through thick and thin, through sunny and cloudy days, and steer your life in the best way suited for you. We know you can anything you set your mind to and even have the most amount of fun in the process. Your ability to turn a predicament into a hilarious occasion is absolutely remarkable. Ponies all across the land have become dumbfounded by your ingenuity and amazing sense of humor. Friends seem to cling to you left and right. You are a very outgoing filly with so many unique possibilities open to you. We believe you will have no problem adjusting to your new environment. Since your unicorn mother cannot focus enough magic to live with us in Cloudsdale, we both still believe it is in your best interest to learn with others like you. And don’t worry, while your mother may live down below in Ponyville, she will still be with us both. We will still be one family and every weekend we will fly down to visit her when she is not carrying mail. You will have to learn to fly correctly before we can, however. This is another reason why we have you in Cloudsdale Elementary. You must learn with others who are starting out like you. We have the utmost faith in your ability to learn and even exceed the expectations of your teachers and peers.

I don’t believe we can ever mention this enough. We WILL be there for you. We will support, defend, and help you through any situation you might be experiencing. We try to be the very best parents for you. We teach you the necessities of life in the hopes that you will grow up to be just as good of a parent as we perceive ourselves to be. Although it is difficult to handle your continuing mishaps, especially as your ability to use your wings have recently developed, our patience has not wavered one inch. We stand strong to give you the best foundation we can. We try to teach you patience and responsibility the best we can. While we may sound redundant and repeat ourselves a lot, just know that what we say, or what we write down is the honest to Celestia truth. No doubt, that what we mean is in your best interest and meant to strengthen our relationship as a family. We will never leave you. Your life will always come first because you are worth any cost no matter how great. You are our first priority in this world and we are proud to say so. You are truly the cutest, funniest, and brightest filly we have known. You are sure to mature into a wonderful mare and we are proud to be your parents.

Our instructions for you are quite simple. We would like for you to write in your diary at least once a month. Anything you put in here is strictly your choice. You input your ideas or experiences. You can even write down any secrets you may have, because as we have mentioned before; the contents of this book is purely confidential. Though you may not wish to share everything with us, it is said that life is much better when your thoughts are put out somewhere. This diary will contain your thoughts and unclutter everything going on in your head. Every day, you can start with a fresh mind without ever forgetting who you are what you choose to become. It will even help you remember the best of times you’ve had with your friends. You’ll be able to recollect your best experiences easily and practically relive it as many times as you want. As you get older, new experiences may take the place of others in your memory and you may not even want to let go of some of those memories. We completely understand, and we wish that you always remember your best days and learn from your worst. This diary can be your timeline if you allow it. While it may not be what you wanted, we have also taught you to give things a chance and make the best of it. Life is only as fun as you will it to be.

We're here for you, and we love you very much. Happy birthday sweetheart.

Love,

Your mom and dad

1st Entry

Dear Diary,

This is Ditzy Doo, your new writer person. I guess I should tell you a little about myself. I am a pegasus with a grey coat and a blonde mane. I like to play and make lots of friends. My favorite food is muffins, lots and lots of muffins. I haven't quite learned just how to bake them but I'm still practicing. I haven't recieved my cutie mark yet. My parents keep saying it's too early for me to get my cutie mark. Maybe they're right, I don't know anyone yet who got their cutie mark, but I'm still very curious. I can tell you that it's not going to be for baking muffins. That just can't be right based on my past muffin batches. I also have a lot of accidents. It's nothing embarrassing or anything like that, I just don't seem to think things through before I do them. Like sometimes, I forgot my muffins and my mommy found here muffin pan melted in the oven. I was one of the smarted ponies in my kindergarten class, but the teacher told my parents that I lack something called "common sense." I can't help it, I just like to do anything that looks fun and exciting. Like one time, I slid down a rail on a set of stairs and my plot smashed into the end. It hurt for a week and the end of the rail broke in half. My teacher was probably right, but the slide was really fun before I hit the end. Now it looks like I won't be seeing my old teacher very much anymore since me and my daddy just moved.

Me and my daddy just moved to Cloudsdale while my mommy stayed in Ponyville at her mailmare job. Our new house is made entirely of clouds, just like anything else in Cloudsdale. I asked Daddy about robbers breaking through the walls since they're just clouds. He said that these clouds were really "dense" and pretty much act like normal walls do. The house is very big. It's 3 floors tall and I think it's too much for just me and Daddy to be staying in. But it is really roomy for if I accidently crash into something, I won't destroy other things around the house as much. In fact, that's what Daddy said was the reason for him to buy this house, in case I crash when I learn to fly or just when I have one of my accidents again. Even though this huge place is nice, I'm going to miss some of my friends from kindergarten. Not all of them were nice to me but the rest were my friends. But I think I may have seen somepony who may be one of my new class mates. He's kind of lightish-blue and even has a blue mane and I saw him carrying a pie on his wings. He might like pie as much as I like muffins. I also saw this other filly who was also lightish-blue but with a rainbow mane. She seemed very competetive from what I've seen so far. Both those fillies that I saw looked like really cool friends. I'll have to meet them at school when it starts soon. Like everypony keeps saying, I'm good at making friends. Mommy and Daddy both agree.

Daddy is a pegasus just like me, but my mommy is a unicorn and can't walk on the clouds without a spell. She can do the spell but she says it would use too much of her focus to live on the clouds with us. Still, Daddy said that I needed to be around other pegasi that were also learning how to fly like me. That's the main reason why we're moving up to Cloudsdale. He said it would help me learn if everypony else was learning too. I wish my mommy could see me fly too, but I'll be too high up in the sky for her to see me. Daddy says that when I get the hang of flying on my own, then we can visit Mommy whenever we want. I REALLY need to learn so that I can see her soon. I love her so much and I think my daddy will be lonely without her too. Saying goodbye to her made me and Daddy pretty sad. I think Daddy was sadder than me because he hasn't been getting out of his bed much since we moved up here. I've tried to cheer him up with muffins but I keep burning them in the oven before I can even get them to him room. Although, I don't know why HE just doesn't fly down to see her anyways. He probably thinks it's unfair to me or something. But I don't really care, as long my parents are happy. I'm going to practice as much as I can so that he can see my mommy again. I just have to.

On the other hoof, flying is the only thing about me I want growing up. I'd like to be little forever. People keep saying how cute I look. I blush when they say that stuff, but it still feels nice. Growing up looks hard too. I don't see very many older colts or mares that have fun. I REALLY like to have fun, play games, and make friends. The most talking I see between the adults is when they're late for something and just say "hi" and "bye" to each other. It doesn't look fun at all; I'd like to stop and talk to them for a long time. Others say that I'm a very social pony and that maybe I should go work with my mommy at her mailmare job in Ponyville. Even though I'd get to see my mommy, I don't want to work. I don't want to grow up. I like being 5 years old. I want to stay like this for ever, because people are very nice to me. I hear that people start to get mean when they grow up. I don't want to be mean, and I don't want anypony being mean to me. My daddy and mommy say that we all have to grow up eventually, but I wish that wasn't true.

Back to School

Dear Diary,

I'm sorry; I forgot to write something for last month. I know the note in the cover says to write every month but I was practicing muffin baking a lot last week. I almost have it down. I think I've got the oven heat and stuff right, but now I just need to keep the muffins from exploding or deflating. I should probably clean the oven up sometime. It's a mess in there, but luckily Daddy doesn't use the oven anyways. In fact, the oven was left from the last owners of this house and I'm sure if it wasn't for them we might not even have an oven. Anyways, nothing much has happened around here. Other than baking muffins I just played around the house a bit.

Oh, I also flew for a couple seconds, last month, without crashing! I was so excited that I ran up to Daddy's room to show him. I think he was actually happy when I showed him. Maybe it was because he thought we could go see Mommy sooner than he thought. My little wings were SO tired after that, though. This was the first time I could actually control my flight. That was probably why my wings felt really sore. Before, I would lift off the ground and fly into a wall or something. Before, my face would be sore from the crashing, but now it's my wings. I guess I'll just have to get used to it if I want to see my mommy again.

Anyways, school started this month. I found out who those other ponies were I was talking about earlier. The blue-maned pony carrying the pie was, I think, Soarin. We sit right next to each other in my class. The rainbow-maned pony was Rainbow Dash but she's in a different class. She likes to play with a slender, shy, yellow pony during recess. I didn't meet her, though. She was too shy and started to shiver when I got to close. Back to Soarin; he seemed really nice. As it turns out, he REALLY likes pie, especially apple pie. He also seems to be able to fly better than me. Maybe I can learn a little from him sometime soon. He is very friendly.

My new teacher seems really nice. She let us pick our first seats when we entered. Actually, that's how I met Soarin, I saw that he was in my class I pretty much jumped into the seat next to him to meet him. But our teacher also gave us all some candy. I traded other ponies for anything that tasted like blueberries. Soarin traded for apple and cinnamon flavors. He was probably trying to make an apple pie flavor. Then the teacher made us do some activities so we could meet our other classmates. Not very many ponies seemed like they wanted to be my friend, though. There was only Soarin, whom I had already met, and a yellow and orange pony named Spitfire who seemed interested in being my friend. We all played together during recess. Spitfire is also a surprisingly good flyer just like Soarin. In fact, both of them seemed to impress our flight coach today. He said they almost need to be in the advanced flying classes.

The other ponies seemed nervous; I guess they were just shy. I started all of the conversations on my own but I didn't get to know any other ponies. I answered some of their questions about me, but they refused to answer any of my mine. I REALLY tried to make them my friends but I couldn't even get them to open up. A lot of them didn't even look at me because they were so shy. Soarin and Spitfire also had the same problem I had. The shy ponies really made our days pretty wierd. Their not the worst of worries, however, there were some ponies who were just plain rude. I didn't bother getting to know them because I didn't even want to know them. They liked to interrupt me and make fun of just about everypony; including me. I heard them making fun of Soarin and Spitfire, too. I tell you, I didn't like them at all. I'd rather be stuck with the shyest and most uncomfortable ponies, like the yellow one earlier, than those ponies. I just hope they leave me alone. I don't even want to talk about them right now. Soarin and Spitfire are both good friends to start off school with anyways.

Anyways, I need to say that I probably won't be able write too often in this diary. The teacher gave us a lot of homework for first couple of days and I'm swamped. Also, our flight coach is really pushy with the flying. I can control my flight a lot better now, but now my wings are sore almost every day. He even makes us practice at home, too. If the homework wasn't enough, I have to be able to fly a complete lap around the field by the end of the week without landing. At least we don't have a set time limit, but I can already tell that it's going to get real hard, real fast. I guess I can only hope that I'm ready for it. My daddy told me that I'm going to have to practice a lot if I'm going to keep up with the other ponies at school.

But before I cut this entry off, I'd also like to add that there is a baking club after school on Wednsdays. I am going to try and join it next week. Anything to get better at baking my muffins. I'll even get to meet other ponies who like baking too. My muffins are still deflating like balloons any my daddy could really use something to cheer himself up. Maybe when my muffins can withstand their own weight, I'll do a big surprise for daddy. Yeah, that should put a big smile on his face. I haven't seen him smile too much lately anyways, like I said earlier.

Anyways; so long for now. I hope it won't take too long to write another page.

A Grain of Salt

Dear Diary,

Well, like I said, it would be while before I got back to this diary. It’s time for my summer vacation, finally. The winter and spring breaks don’t help at all; they only make me wish for more days off so I can play. I may be just as smart as all of the other ponies, but I seriously hate homework. All of the things that we have to keep repeating over and over again are just boring. Do these pages, write this down, if I have 3 pennies how many cents do I have. I already know the stuff; just give me a test already! Anyways, I passed every class with flying colors as usual. Daddy never doubted me for a minute. Even though he's been kinda sad for awhile when we moved, every time I do something great he can still bring up a smile.

Oh, and he finally started coming out of his room. I think it was because he felt better when Mommy visited for Hearth’s Warming Eve. She used this spell that allows other ponies without wings to walk on the clouds without falling through. She came up in a big hot-air balloon and spent the whole day with us. I was really scared when she jumped out of the basket, I even screamed for her before I saw that she wasn't sinking. My daddy was super happy that he got to see her again and started smiling like he used to. I was also extremely happy, I don't think I've ever seen Daddy so happy in so long. I hadn’t seen my mommy since we left Ponyville that summer. Now, my daddy and I feel great, and Daddy is finally leaving his bedroom in the morning to go to work at the weather factory during the day.

Also, we can visit mommy whenever we like! I finally got control of my flying from the training at school. My wings don’t strain or feel sore anymore like they used to. It took a lot of work and now Daddy says I’m good enough to fly down with him to Ponyville. In fact, I asked Daddy if I could stay with mommy for a week or so over the summer. I could help her at her post office some days and just spend a lot of time with her. He said, “Yes,” so I’ll get to go to Mommy’s house next month.

When I go, I should bake her some muffins. I forgot to tell Mommy that I was in a baking club when she visited last. Later I realized that it would be a great chance to surprise her with a basket full of different kinds of muffins. I am actually very good at baking muffins now. They don’t explode like bombs and don’t deflate like balloons. They are also very delicious and even cheered Daddy up a couple of times. He even asks me to bake some for his friends and even his breakfast sometimes. I wouldn’t be surprised if something about muffin baking turned out to be my cutie mark.

Oh, I almost forgot when I was flying during the training, something really bad happened. I don't even like talking about it, but I crashed really hard into a lightpost. I just don't know what went wrong; I thought I was flying pretty good down the track. When I hit, there was actually an imprint of my face on the metal because of how hard I flew into it. Then, a light bulb fell out of a socket and hit me in the back of the head. I was told that I was knocked out for 2 days. When I woke up, I noticed my view of everything was really weird. I could see the ceiling and my bed at the same time. When I looked at the mirror, my eyes were pointing in different directions. Daddy said that I was lucky nothing else happened from the hit to the head. I just have what he called, “Lazy-eyes.” The way my eyes work now is that as long as I can focus enough at something, my vision will be fixed for a short time. Now I’m actually used to seeing with lazy eyes. Although, I still don't like it. I just wish things would go back to the way they were before this dumb accident. Daddy just keeps on saying, "You're just going to have to take it with a grain of salt." I don't even know what that means!

Thing is, when I went back to school a week later a lot of the other ponies started making fun of me. They kept saying that I was dumb and stupid. They kept calling me very mean names until somepony, I think his name was Hoops or something, started calling me “Derpy.” Then all of the other ponies began calling me “Derpy.” I didn’t even know what Derpy meant and it still felt mean. It was a horrible first day back; I just didn't know what to do. But then, Soarin and Spitfire started comforting me. I began crying a lot at school because of the meanies, but thankfully, Soarin and Spitfire were there next to me whenever I did. Soarin even explained to me that “Derpy” actually meant “clumsy” and weren’t really saying that I was dumb or stupid. I felt a little better when he said that, because I am very clumsy. That’s how I crashed to begin with.

I’m very lucky to have Soarin and Spitfire as my friends. They help me out whenever I need help with work or coping. They are always there and make feel almost as good when I see my mommy. They are also very fun to be around. Soarin always obsesses over pie and is even pretty goofy when he does. Spitfire is a very cool Pegasus and funny too. They’ve even helped me with my flying when we would hang out outside of school. They are the best friends anypony can ever have. I don’t know what I would do without them.