I Dreamt Of Mommy And Daddy (Derpy I)

There was one dream she had. It wasn't the same every night and yet it was. The colors changed sometimes, different scenarios, too. There were times she dreamt of a brown stallion in a blue box showing her the face of the stars. Nebulae and planets, strange lifeforms and a million adventures with both despair and laughter filling their lives. There were other times where she dreamt of a village close to Canterlot. It was a place so crazy she would never have believed any of her dreams to be true, no matter how much she wanted them to be. She would almost always be the mailmare in this scenario, sending letters and muffins (especially those) to the ponyfolk, often getting them wrong. Sometimes she would live with an orange pony she called 'Carrot Top', sometimes 'Golden Harvest' and she would always eat everything in her fridge. There were times she dreamt of coming home after a day of work and opening the door to her apartment. It would be a small, dull thing with a kitchen, a bathroom, and a room to live in. Its walls were often painted grey and there was always something broken, often by her own mistake. It was a sad little place anypony would've gladly traded for something else.

Every time she opened that door, everytime she dreamt that version of her dream, though, she never thought it sad. Instead she would fly down to the house, get into it, greet the landlord and then open the door to her apartment, a little filly jumping at her and giving the grey pegasus with the funny eyes a warm embrace, laughing loudly while doing so and saying how this specific day was the best day ever. Derpy never got the reason why, because the filly talked too fast for her and she could only understand it if ponies were talking slow. All the ponies would eventually get irritated with her but this little filly would speak slow and say:

"Diamond Tiara said you were the worst mailmare ever and she and Silver Spoon are the worst bullies but Miss Cherilee stepped in and told them that my Mommy is one of the most important citizens of Ponyville and without her, the post would never find its way. This day is the greatest because Mommy is the greatest."

Nopony thought that Derpy was the greatest and she actually doubted she would make a good mother. Heck, even taking care of dolls was too hard for her, as evidenced by a sudden fire on the last Hearth's Warming Eve. Yet there stood the little unicorn filly and called her all that and more with a smile that told Derpy she was truly proud of her. She would always take the filly in her arms and hope that the moment would never go away. Derpy was wanted, needed, something they were proud of. There was despair in the dreams with the small town called Ponyville, but the laughter there was so bright and warm that she always yearned to return.

It was always the same dream, always such strange places and always something different and yet never changing. This time however was different, very different, because Derpy dreamt she was still in Canterlot and she never dreamt of Canterlot. She didn't want to be in Canterlot.

This time however she woke up in her own bed, the one with little rails – because she still fell out quite often – and the atrociously colorful bed linen. She opened her eyes there and looked out of the window, watching the red night outside. It felt weird.

"Rainy? Octy?" She called but nopony answered. "Lyra? Trixie?" She asked but there was nopony else in the room, so she got up. The other beds were torn up and the ground was dyed black with broken toys littered across it. The plush toys they had were there too, their white innards spread across the entire room. She tried not to step into anything, yet she was still a clumsy pony who couldn't do anything right and therefore with every step came a new cut, a new scar and new pain. She still continued, because there was only one road to take.

The filly then reached the hallway and looked across it. The ground was unsteady and everything seemed too big for little Derpy. She took a deep breath. "I can do this," the grey one told herself and took a step, the hoof landing steadily on the ground. A proud smile came unto her face as if she was successfully walking for the first time in her life. Then, she took another step, tripped over her own leg and then the world was spinning around her as she tumbled forward, hitting the rail of the stairs.

The next thing she knew was that everything came crashing down with loud banging and her cries were muffled by the rubble and the rocks, and she held her legs up to her face, to guard herself.

For a while there was nothing and as she let arms down she sat beneath a red sky with black clouds, thunder in the distance and Canterlot burning with ponies screaming. "Did I do this?" She asked. "But I didn't want-"

"Derpy," she heard a warm voice, a familiar voice. It belonged to Hugh and it was the sound of honey for a dream like this.

The little filly turned around, tears of happiness in her eyes. He had come, he would save her, he would rebuild everything once more, like he had done before Raindrops had come and he would be there for her and Mommy. Her uncle would be there for her when her real daddy wouldn't. He'd be her father again. She turned around and the laughter and the happiness of hers faded. Her eyes widened and she felt a horror like none before.

He had no fur, no skin and there was blood coming out of his eyes. He stood there, white on a black and red background and his mouth started moving, repeating the same five words, over and over again.

She couldn't take it anymore and turned away once more. She started running through the burning city and she heard the voices by her side.

"There she is-", they said.

"The one with the weird eyes-" The broken record continued.

The fillies and colts all pointed and laughed at her. Laughing at the pony with the funny eyes, the halfwit pegasus with no idea what was going.

"There she is-", they said.

And then all the voices changed and they repeated the one line, again and again. The one she feared most. It contained just five words.

She ran across the city until she reached the Canterlot Gardens. There she found the last pony. This one was tall and had a beautiful mane, one that looked so familiar.

"Mommy?" she asked.

The mare was turned with her back to Derpy and didn't budge as the filly's voice tore through the silence. Her head was held low and she was shaking all over. Derpy was surprised at this. Her mommy was strong. "What's wrong, Mommy?" she asked. Then, she asked again, taking a step forward. Now the mare's ears perked up. Once more Derpy asked and took another step towards her mother. That one now stood up and then she turned around.

Like her husband, she was but white without a coat or skin and her eyes were black abysses with blood gushing down her cheeks. Her left hoof went up to her neck and then her mouth started to move. At first there came no sounds, but then, slowly, yet steadily something was starting to build, a hoarse, tiny voice, growing stronger every time she finished the line. It became louder, more aggressive and harder to understand, like a beast's roar.

"What are you saying, Mommy?" Derpy asked, wanting to understand, wanting to hear.

Madame Hooves then spoke. She remembered the voice, the calm, soothing voice that was as sweet as honey and as soft as cotton. Teary eyed Derpy listened as the words were formed once more and the line was spoken, the dreaded five words that she had received before.

"It," a sweet mother's voice said.

"Is," an angry father's voice said.

"All," an old friend's voice said.

"Your," a strange doctor's voice said.

"FAULT!" The beast roared and extended its tendrils and fangs, clawing at Derpy and tearing off her wings. The pain rushed through her body both warm and cold and then the dark came. The silence and the dark and the monstrosity swallowed all the pieces that remained of Derpy Hooves.

Derpy opened her eyes wide. She didn't cry, she didn't whine, she didn't ask. All she did was opening her eyes and then she looked at the ceiling of the cave. Glimmering crystals greeted her and she felt that water was rushing down her lower half. Maybe for the better, she thought as she turned on her stomach, watching the side of the cave. She had somehow managed to roll more than four meters in her sleep, judging from where all the others lay. Derpy stood up, looking under herself. Her lower half was soaked but at least she was awake. Driven by thirst, she tried to step a bit more into the water but tripped over her own hindlegs and fell on her back, her entire body being submersed in the cold, clear wet.

She might've been unable to swim but luckily the river was very shallow, which meant almost no risk of drowning, even for her. She came up from the water and had all but forgotten the dream she had had, at least consciously. Her body was still stiff with fear. Derpy made a point out of ignoring that and stumbled towards the others.

They had walked forever after Trixie was gone. They had followed the river as long as their tiny ponylegs had been able to carry them, then Derpy had decided it had been enough and had simply let herself fall down, Raindrops had followed her example, but added some whining to her performance. Whining often did the trick with everypony. And it had worked, too. Not only that, but they had found the water drinkable, too.

It tasted like water with too much sugar in it and Twilight had suddenly announced that she knew that the rivers in the old Crystal Empire all were known to have had a fair sweet taste and smell to them. There were crystals all around them so they figured this was like those 'old' rivers up in the north.

Anyway, Derpy seated herself besides the other sleepyheads and just goggled at them. Madame Hooves had told her that she could watch her own kids sleep for hours. Everypony had a sleepface. Twilight looked mildly irritated, Derpy found, while Raindrops found herself with grin that showed her teeth. Octy was almost never moving and on only a few nights she would lift her hoof close to her mouth, sometimes going so far as to suck on it. The only thing about her was the grinding of teeth while she slept. Lyra never stopped moving and seemed scared of something, but Derpy just thought she misjudged that. She often did.

She had seen Trixie's sleepface back when they had all lived together. Trixie talked when she slept. Of a tower and never wanting to leave, of magic and finding something worth keeping again. Of course, Derpy had not quite understood any of that, but had still tried to be a good friend to Trixie.

After a while the others woke and they all got up and had a drink and did what else they had to do for morning hygiene. They prepared for setting out fairly quickly. Of course, there wasn't much to prepare, but Lyra found herself talking again quite from the start, Derpy and Octavia knocking themselves and each other into the river and Raindrops wanting to wait for Trixie again. Considering these things, they were fast, at least in Derpy's eyes and even if not, they found themselves moving up the river once more. Twilight leaned on Derpy again and had her eyes on the grey pegasus.

"You don't look like you slept well, Derpy," she said in a hollow ringing voice, breaking the silence that had until then surrounded everypony except Lyra. Derpy looked at her, she had bags under her reddened eyes and when she had taken a drink some had splashed across her face, sand was between her hair and coat and her legs were really thin, too. But they might have been that way forever. Despite all that, Derpy still thought she looked nice.

She giggled at the remark, though. "Actually, I dreamt of Mommy and Daddy!" Was what she told her friend.

"Oh, is that so," Twilight said, sadness ringing in her voice.

Derpy didn't care. Even though the details of the dream were fuzzy she remembered some things. She remembered her home, she remembered her parents and she remembered lots and lots of ponies around her. Those were good things and they made her smile.