"Mommy?" Dinky Hooves looked up at her Mom as they sat next to each other in front of a fire.
"Yes Muffin?" Derpy looked up from the fire.
"How did you meet Daddy?" Dinky asked. Derpy smiled sadly and said,
"Well...
10 Years Earilier...
“Hah! That’ll teach you to mess with us you little freak show!” A blue filly with a yellow mane smiled as she shoved Derpy Hooves into a mud pile. The blue filly was surronded by two other fillies, one with a lilac coat and another with a blueish silver one. Several badly drawn crayon drawings of a brown colt next to a blue box fell out of her saddlebags.
“Oh, what’s this?” The purple filly standing next to the filly picked up the drawings, “is this your Dad, smiling because he’s leaving you forever, because nopony wanted you? Or is it your imaginary friend, because you have no real ones.” She smiled and threw it into the puddle again, “C'mon Tidal Splash, this freak is a waste of our time.” She tossed her mane back arrogantly and walked away from the schoolhouse.
“I-I’m not a freak...” Derpy whispered to herself as the trio of fillies laughed openly and looked back at Derpy, giggling. She picked up the drawings with her mouth and stored them carefully into her tattered saddlebags. She walked home with her head bent down sadly, just as it started to rain. When she got to the big brown building that was the orphanage she walked past the other foals playing and laughing together. They didn't pass a sideways glance at Derpy, she was just a freak, a loner. Derpy walked straight to her bed and pulled out the doodles. She laid them on her bedside table, hoping they would dry by tomorrow morning. Her eyes started to water. Every day since she had seen the funny looking colt with his magic blue box she had drawn pictures about him, not wanting to forget it. Every day since she had started going to school she had also been bullied by a trio of the meanest fillies in school, Tidal Splash, Silver Sky, and Lilac Curls. She hadn’t been able to make friends because of her funny looking eyes and clumsiness. Nopony wanted to be friends with a freak.
She curled up into her bed whispering to herself, "I'm not a freak. I'm not stupid. I'm not unloved." But she couldn't convince herself, she was a clumsy and stupid freak. That night at the orphanage, Derpy cried herself to sleep, clutching to the mud soaked pictures. None of the other orphans heard the quiet sobbing, if they had, they wouldn't have cared. Derpy looked out the at the starry night sky and remembered the first time she had gone to school.
Derpy was standing in a crowd of other ponies, not knowing any of them. She was so excited, her first day of school, the first day she could learn and make friends. When Derpy glanced around at the other ponies, her face fell. They were all in groups, talking and laughing. Maybe one group would talk to her. After a few minutes Derpy started to look around, trying to find a group that would be nice enough to become her friends. Just as she was about to take her first step a group of three fillies walked up to her.
"Hi!" She cheerfully looked up at the three ponies.
Tidal Splash ignored the question and looked at Derpy's messy mane, derping eyes, and her old saddlebags. "What's wrong with your face?"
"When I was little, my Mom and Dad got killed in a chariot crash and my eyes became this way." She paused for a moment, remembering a story she had read when she was little. "Or maybe I'm a wizard, and my eyes are the symbol of a dark spell an evil unicorn named-"
"Wow." Silver Sky was smirking, "You're a weirdo, who has those kinds of thoughts?. We knew you would be a loser, but we didn't know you'd be this stupid as well." She turned her back on Derpy and muttered, "Come on guys, we don't need freak faces for friends." The trio of fillies walked away, openly laughing at the grey filly.
The next day Derpy was starving, and sick. The ponies taking care of the orphanage had told her to stay at the orphanage and stay in bed.
“You shouldn’t have gone straight to bed after walking in the rain. You should’ve gone to dinner and then had a hot bath.” The white unicorn with a purple mane had told her with a strict face, then she had left with a bowl of tomato soup and a glass of ice water on a tray.
When she had left to take care of the rest of orphanage Derpy opened the windows and looked outside. The sky was a clear blue, not a single cloud in the sky. The bright yellow daffodils waved gently in the wind. Derpy suddenly heard a strange but familiar noise.
"What is-" Derpy put her hoof to her forehead. Maybe she was really sick and was hearing weird noises, she closed her eyes and tried to focus. When she opened them again the funny magic box was on the hill! She fell out of her bed, grabbed her pictures and climbed up the windowsill and out of the window. In her haste, she stumbled on her pillow and the tomato soup splashed all over her bed and mane.
"Ow, ow ow ow!" Her pictures were covered in tomato soup now, and her eyes were watering. She closed her eyes. It didn’t matter, she couldn’t lose him this time - the last time she regretted it. She ran as fast as her stubby little legs could carry her, coughing as she finally fell in front of the magic blue box. It said, “PONY BOX” In white letters in a black square on top. She stood there for a moment, a amazing feeling filling her body. A brown stallion opened the door and looked back at her awestruck face, smiling at little filly. He had an hourglass for a cutie mark and messy brown hair.
“Hello, I’m the Doctor, what’s your name?”
***
"So when you met Daddy, you had tomato soup all over your mane?" Dinky asked, with a smile on her face.
"Yes Muffin. I felt very silly." Derpy said, nuzzling her daughter.
"But what happened to those bullies?" Dinky looked angry for a moment, " Did you and Daddy go back and fight them?"
"No Muffin, I went back to school a couple weeks later and...
***
"Oh look, it's little freak face!" Tidal Splash and her friends sniggered at Derpy as she walked into the almost empty classroom, with her head held high.
"I'm not a freak." She looked up at Tidal Splash.
Lilac Curls tossed her head back arrogantly and put on a air of fake confidence, "So? It's not like we care."
Derpy smiled confidently. "You seemed to care a lot back on the playground. "
Lilac took a step back, annoyed that her usual bully tactics weren't working, "Well, um, ponies can... um change their mind." Her air of confidence was rapidly fading away.
"Really? maybe you changed my mind about being a freak face."
A trotting noise could be heard outside the classroom, the trio of fillies stopped and looked around, worried that a teacher might have overheard them.
"Lilac Curls, Tidal Splash, Silver Sky." A teacher, a sky blue colt with a navy blue mane. He walked into the classroom with a very stern look on her face,
"Um, well, we were just-" Silver Sky was visibly sweating, all of her confidence gone.
""I have just recieved several reports on bullying from you three since the start of term, come with me to have a serious talk about the school's bullying tolerance with me and the principal." As he and the three fillies walked out the classroom he winked at Derpy. As the trio of bullies walked away, Silver Sky hissed at Derpy, "We'll get you for this you freak face."
***
"Doctor!" Derpy ran up to the Doctor after school. "I- I did what you told me, a-and now those bullies are in big trouble with there parents and all the teachers, and they-"
"Sh, Derpy. I'm very glad about this, but something very important has come up."
Derpy's smiled faded. "T-this is one of your trips. You and the TARDIS..."
The Doctor looked down, "Yes Derpy, this means I have to leave again. Maybe when you're older I can-"
"But I don't WANT YOU TO GO!" Derpy fell on the floor of the TARDIS, sobbing. "Y-you were the closest thing to a Daddy I e-ever had, a-and now you h-have to leave again."
The Doctor stroked Derpy's banana yellow mane. "Shhhh.... It's alright. We'll see each other again, I promise. I'm sure the orphanage will take good care of you. Now I have to go, I'd love to stay but the universe needs me."
***
"And then what happened?" Dinky looked at her Mother, her eyes shining with excitement and anticipation.
"I went back to the orphanage for another year, then got adopted by Bubble Cloud and Sweet Tart. Sweet Tart taught me about magic of muffins, and Bubble Cloud helped me get my cutie mark. When I was old enough to get a job, Daddy came back and we married each other and had you!" Derpy smiled at the memories. "Now lets go to bed."
"But-"
"No buts Muffin, that's enough stories for tonight."
After Derpy had put Dinky to bed she went to her own room. A few tattered and muddy crayon drawings were hanging from the wall. She picked them up carefully and put them on the table next to her bed.
(Authors Notes
This is my first fanfiction, so critiques and comments are welcome!)
