WE'RE NOT SO DIFFERENT
by GeodesicDragon
A thick cloud of dust billowed across the town square as yet another building collapsed. In the middle of it all sat a baby dragon, who was all too aware of the many eyes fixated on him. Looking around, he saw that the townsponies faces were twisted into looks of pure, unadulterated anger — a rare sight to behold.
The last time I saw everypony like this was when Trixie was here.
He got to his feet slowly, the townsponies backing away slightly, their eyes still locked onto him. He hung his head and sighed.
"I know you're all mad at me." he said. "So just get it over with."
"Mad?" one pony shouted from the crowd. "We're not mad, Spike. We're FURIOUS! This has given us a clear idea of just how violent dragons can be! You may not be an adult now, but you will be in the future, and I for one certainly won't feel safe!"
"Yeah!" another pony added. "Dragons are driven by greed, so what's to stop you doing this again when you're older?"
Many more of the townsponies voiced their agreement, their voices getting a bit too loud for Spike's ears.
"It'll be years before I'm fully grown!" he replied. "And when I'm old enough, I'll just go off somewhere and start again!"
He looked towards a group of six mares. Two unicorns, one white and one purple, looked at him with sympathetic eyes, a blue pegasus was looking at him with seething eyes, while the other three were looking at the ground.
Spike raised a hand and pointed a claw towards the purple unicorn, who looked shocked at his actions.
"Twilight knows I'm not all bad." he said confidently. "She knows that this was just a phase, and that you'll have nothing to worry about in the future."
He looked into Twilight's eyes with a pleading gaze. Twilight scuffed a hoof along the ground nervously.
"But what if they're right, Spike?" she said, avoiding the crestfallen look that now adorned his features. "When I hatched you, I was overjoyed at the prospect of making you into a productive member of society. But after what I've seen today, I've realised that you are still a dragon, with all the potential for violence and greed, much like what you displayed earlier."
"And you used me as a battering ram!" the white unicorn piped up. "You nearly killed them, as well as me! And that... scares me. I always thought I could look at you as a friend, Spike. But after today... I'm not so sure any more."
"Rarity... you don't mean that."
"I'm sorry, Spike. But I do. The aggression you showed today really frightened me. Yes, you may have turned back into a baby, but in a few years, you'll be back to being a brute of a creature, who cares only about himself. Friendships like ours will become meaningless as you only look out for number one."
"That's not true!" Spike replied.
"Isn't it?" Rarity said sharply. "It certainly seemed that way when you bellowed in my face earlier."
"But I wasn't being myself! I—"
"That's the thing, Spike. You were being yourself. Or at least, the you you will become in a few years. It was a terrifying glimpse into your future, and I'd like to distance myself from it as much as I possibly can."
Rarity turned and walked away, the crowd of ponies parting to let her pass. The tears in her eyes ran down her cheeks, and the words she had said created a bitter taste in her throat.
One of the townsponies spoke up again.
"Rarity's right!" he yelled. "We won't be safe with a fully grown dragon living amongst us! We should kick him out of town now, and save ourselves from any future problems!"
A few townsponies stomped their hooves in approval.
"Wait a moment, that's a bit too drastic!" Twilight replied. "Surely we can just accept his apologies and move on?"
"And just sit around and wait for the next incident?" the stallion replied gruffly. "I don't think so!"
"Everypony please, calm down!" Mayor Mare yelled. "We are not resorting to such measures. All the same, I think it would be best if Spike stayed out of Ponyville for a while, at least until we rebuild. His presence here is causing tempers to flare, so it is my belief that his absence will allow everypony to cool down."
The stallion grunted contemptuously. All eyes were on Spike again. With a heavy sigh, he shrugged and turned around.
"I'll just go and wait in the park then." he said. "I can't see myself getting into any trouble over there."
He set off, making his strides as big as he could, eager to get away from the assembled townsponies, as they began the task of repairing the devastation he had wreaked upon them in a flurry of greed-induced rage.
***
Under the shade of a tree, Spike idly picked up stones, tossing them between his hands before nonchalantly tossing them into the river opposite.
It was only one little mistake. He thought. And now that I know what I'll be like, I can hopefully prevent myself from getting like that when the time comes naturally, rather than through some horrible growth spurt fuelled by getting stuff.
The slow fluttering of wings caught Spike's attention as something landed behind him, followed by the sounds of hoofsteps and the sound of someone sitting down on the grass. Spike looked around to see a grey pegasus sitting next to him, her mismatched yellow eyes trying to focus on the dragon in front of her.
"Come to vent your own frustrations at me, Derpy?" he asked. "Didn't get a chance to do it in the town square, huh?"
Derpy looked puzzled for a moment before shaking her head.
"No." she replied. "I was sent away from Ponyville while they started the repairs. I wanted to help, but I kinda made things worse when I accidentally demolished another part of Town Hall."
The last sentence was spoken with an air of melancholy.
Spike snorted.
"So you're not here to chew me out?" he asked. "You don't hate me, like everypony else in town does right now?"
"Why would I hate you?" Derpy replied, almost shocked. "While I can't say that I've ever destroyed the entire town, I have made enough mistakes to annoy everypony to the point they're just itching for an excuse to get rid of me."
Spike sighed.
"I'm sorry." he said. "I shouldn't take this out on you. It would seem we are both in the same situation. Everypony wants rid of us because they're afraid of what we might do. They're scared you might completely destroy the rest of Town Hall—"
"Unless you beat me to it." Derpy interrupted, chuckling weakly. Spike gave a hollow laugh of his own in response.
"Yeah." he replied. "Though I kept telling them that I won't be at that stage for many years. It would seem everypony just needs somepony else to do something wrong, and that is enough for them to cast judgement for the rest of their lives."
"And I'd know all about being judged." Derpy said. "I can't help the way I am — it's how I was born. But my eyes cause me to make mistakes, and that in turn makes everypony think I'm stupid, whereas I'm anything but."
A look of shock spread over Spike's face as Derpy's tone of voice became slightly more aggressive.
"If I was stupid, would I be able to take care of Dinky all by myself? Would I be able to have an intelligent conversation, like the one I'm having with you right now? Would I be able to deliver all that mail? No, I don't think so. Everypony thinks that because I look different, that gives them the right to label me."
"And everypony thinks that because I acted like... well, a dragon, that gives them the right to fear and reject me — even if I'm no longer like that, and won't be for decades to come."
The two of them sighed and sat idly, listening to the sounds coming from Ponyville. Shouted instructions, whistling, the banging of hammers, and the occasional crash as something fell to the ground.
Above all the noise, the voice of a certain purple unicorn could also be heard, as she used her organisational skills to get everything back on track as quickly as possible.
Hearing Twilight's voice brought tears to Spike's eyes. As Derpy saw this, the fire in her own eyes vanished, replaced with concern. As she opened her mouth to speak, Twilight's voice reached her ears, and she realised what the problem was.
"You're upset because your friends didn't stick by you." she said.
Spike nodded.
"They let all that rubbish the townsponies spouted about me cloud their judgements." he spat. "I thought they were better than that. I thought that the Elements of Harmony, of all ponies, would stand by me. I guess I was just deluding myself."
Covering his face with his hands, Spike began sobbing. Derpy moved closer to him, wrapping a wing around his shaking form. Spike wrapped his arms around her, burying himself into her coat, his tears running freely down his cheeks.
"It's okay, Spike." Derpy soothed. "I'm still your friend. I know just how bad everypony can be when they're riled up. But holding a grudge just isn't in their nature. Otherwise, I'm pretty sure I would have have been exiled from town by now. They'll forgive you eventually, I'm sure of it."
Spike sniffled and extracted his head from Derpy's body. He wiped his eyes and looked up at her.
"I'm sure they will." he said. "It's just that I've never been in this kind of situation. Sure, I annoy Twilight every now and again, but never have I seen an entire town mad at something I did. I don't know how you can cope with being in everypony's bad books pretty much every week."
Derpy sighed and looked towards the sky, observing the pegasi flying around, some of whom were carrying various building materials between them.
"Everypony makes mistakes." she said. "It just so happens that I make them more than others. Such as grabbing a lightning cloud instead of a rain cloud, or getting the letters mixed up. I do the latter a lot, as I'm sure you can imagine."
She looked down at Spike and pointed a hoof towards her eyes.
"It makes it hard to focus on the hoof-writing." she explained, letting out a small laugh. "A simple mistake, but I have been yelled at for it by the occasional pony. They just don't accept that I have a problem, they just think I'm stupid."
Spike nodded sympathetically.
"It can't be easy for you." he said. "Being labelled as a klutz. I can only imagine what you've had to put up with in your life."
Derpy ruffled her feathers, her wing still wrapped around Spike.
"Flight Camp was the worst." she said. "I'm still surprised I managed to pass, given how many times a week I'd crash into a building, one of the other foals, or even one the instructors. But I was determined not to let the mocking get me down, so I just concentrated as hard as I could and gave it my all."
"And you passed?" Spike asked.
Derpy nodded, a smile appearing on her face.
"I did. And I got out of Flight Camp as soon as I could. I moved out of Cloudsdale shortly afterwards. I didn't want to take my chances with flying, so I came to Ponyville. At least here I can walk around and nopony will care, because Fluttershy does it a lot too."
"You make Flight Camp sound like a nightmare." Spike said. "It wasn't all that bad, was it? Surely you made some friends?"
"Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were the only two friends I had. As you know, Fluttershy is a weak flyer and Rainbow Dash kept crashing too — though not as often as I did. The three of us got picked on a lot, so we kinda stuck together, and became good friends over the years. Eventually, Dash grew confident enough to stand up for herself, and us. The bullies soon left us alone."
Spike snorted.
"If only she had shown me that kind of loyalty." he said bitterly.
Derpy retracted her wing, folding it back around her body, not noticing the disappointed look on Spike's face.
"I know Dash can be a bit hot-headed at times." she said. "But she's only being like this because she cares a lot about her friends. And since a lot of her friends were affected by this, she'll want to stand by them. By her logic, it's easier to anger one friend, rather than five. It'll make apologising a little bit easier."
Spike put a hand to his chin as he processed what Derpy had said. Eventually, he nodded.
"I guess that's a good way of putting it." he said. "Usually it's Twilight who says stuff like that to me. Er, no offence."
Derpy smiled.
"None taken." she said. "It's not often I get the chance to have a proper conversation with somepony. The conversations I do have are usually just 'Hello, how are you?', 'Good, thanks! How are you?', 'Not bad, thanks for asking!', 'Okay, bye!'."
Spike laughed.
"In fact," Derpy continued, "I think this is the longest conversation I've ever had."
Spike's laughter grew in intensity as Derpy let out a small chuckle.
"Well I'm glad we had this conversation, Derpy." Spike said, clutching his sides. "I feel a lot better now. I just hope everypony is willing to forgive and forget."
"Me too." Derpy replied. "It's good to know I'm not the only one in Ponyville capable of mass carnage."
She laughed at her own joke as Spike rolled his eyes.
"Well I think you've got a long way to go before you top me in the all-time damage league." he said pompously, polishing a hand on his chest before holding it in front of him. "Maybe next time you could blow up Town Hall, instead of break the roof?"
Derpy giggled.
"I'll try." she said. "But I'm not promising anything."
Spike got to his feet, Derpy standing up with him. They looked at each other bashfully for a moment, their faces turning crimson.
"You know something, Spike?" Derpy asked. "I've really enjoyed this talk. It's made me realise that you and I, we're not so different. And it's good to know I have a friend I can rely on if things get bad."
She paused for a minute.
"We... are friends, right?" she added hesitantly.
Spike nodded.
"Of course we are!" he said. "And you're right, at least when everypony else is giving you grief, you can always come and talk to me. I'm not judgemental like they are."
Derpy smiled, wrapping both wings around Spike in a hug.
"Thanks, Spike." she whispered. "I think everypony should be done by now. Let's head back. But maybe we can... I dunno, have lunch or something soon?"
"Sure we can, Derpy." Spike replied. "Any time."
"How about tomorrow then?" Derpy said cheerfully. "Perhaps we can meet for breakfast and plan how best to destroy the town?" she grinned wickedly.
"Sure." Spike said. "I think Twilight will be more than willing to give me the time off — it'll be her way of apologising to me."
The two of them began walking into Ponyville, Derpy draping a wing over Spike, who put an arm around her in return. They set off down the path, into the centre of town, neither of them seeming to mind the bodily contact.
"You know something, Derpy?" Spike said. "I think this could be the start of something wonderful."
Derpy smiled.
"Me too, Spike." she replied.
She sighed contentedly.
"Me too."
