Going Up
Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, there lived a pony.
Now, this was not a particularly unusual thing. Many creatures lived in Equestria once upon a time, after all, and a fair number of them were ponies. In fact, being a pony living in Equestria was perhaps the least unusual thing to which a pony could aspire, were that pony to aspire to being usual in the first place, which would itself be quite unusual, I think you’ll agree.
No, this pony was a very ordinary pony. She lived in an ordinary town, where she tended an ordinary farm, had an ordinary house, and led a very ordinary life. She was so terribly ordinary, in fact, that if one were to try to write a story about her, it would prove quite impossible. After all, who would wish to read a story in which nothing out of the ordinary happens?
But that all changed one day. That day was the day that Carrot Top, Ponyville resident, carrot farmer, and thoroughly wingless earth pony, learned how to fly.
*****
Of course, the day didn’t start with Carrot Top learning to fly. No, the day started with a muffin. Or rather, it started with the smell of a muffin. It is a little-known fact that the smell of a muffin is the third best thing to be awakened by in the entire world, the first and second being a firm but gentle hug from a loved one, and the sound of a wheelbarrow full of coins being emptied onto the floor at the foot of your bed, respectively. But despite these opportunities for improvement, Carrot Top could be excused for thinking that the day had gotten off to a good start indeed as she inhaled deeply, savoring the sweet scent of bran-cranberry goodness that was wafting in through her open window.
In short order, she was in the living room, enjoying one of those very same muffins. With her was Derpy Hooves, a pony more often associated with consuming muffins than she was with sharing them. However, if there was one thing for which Derpy was known besides her love of baked goods, it was her eyes (which had a distressing, if amusing, tendency to drift askew). And if there was one thing besides that for which she was known, it was her job as a mail carrier. But, if there was one thing besides that for which she was known, it was the depth of her friendship. And, as it happened, Carrot Top and Derpy were very good friends indeed.
So it was that Derpy had brought a batch of fresh-baked muffins to Carrot Top’s house and (stifling first her base impulse to simply eat them, and then her only slightly more refined impulse to go jump up and down on Carrot Top’s bed until she woke up so that the two of them could enjoy the muffins together) waited patiently for the subtle aroma to reach her friend. It's true that she did ultimately give in to her impulse to eat five of the six muffins at breakfast while Carrot Top was left with only one for herself but, to be fair, Carrot Top hadn’t really wanted more than one to begin with.
Now, I said earlier that a story in which nothing happens is hardly a story at all, and I think you and I can both agree that a tale of muffin consumption, however delicious those muffins may be, really isn’t much of a tale at all. Let us therefore skip ahead a bit, passing over some crumb-licking, plate-washing, and small-talking, to the place where our story truly begins: with the two ponies resting on the front porch, looking out over Carrot Top’s garden.
The two friends had been sitting in companionable silence for several minutes by this point. Being a Sunday, Derpy had no mail route to rush off and complete, and for her part, Carrot Top was in no hurry to get up from her porch swing and do any actual work. Although it’s often said that farmers have no days off, Carrot Top was of the opinion that getting a late start on a Sunday had never hurt anyone. Had she known all the details of how Princesses Celestia and Luna defeated Discord over a thousand years ago, she might have reconsidered that stance. But she didn’t, so she didn’t.
Derpy broke the silence with, as was her wont, a hypothetical question seemingly plucked out of the blue. She and Carrot Top could happily wile away the hours discussing and debating all manner of oddball imponderables. Once they had both missed lunch while passionately arguing over whether burgundy or chartreuse was a more pretentious shade of red. Carrot Top was quite adamant that not only wasn't chartreuse a pretentious shade of red, but that it wasn’t a shade of red at all. Derpy had not been convinced.
But the question which Derpy posed today was of a more conventional sort. “If you could go anywhere, where would you go?”
Carrot Top didn’t answer right away. Instead, her eyes glazed slightly as she pondered some scene visible to only her.
“I’d go to the Isle of White,” Derpy declared. “I think that it’d be fun to be the most colorful pony around for a change.” She looked ruefully at her dull grey coat.
Normally, Carrot Top would at this interval (depending on her mood) either point out that not everything on the Isle was actually white, or reassure Derpy that even if she didn’t have the flashiest of coats, grey is one of those things that never goes out of style. But something about Derpy’s question had caused her to begin thinking in an entirely different direction. “I think...” she began.
“Yes?” prodded Derpy.
“I think I’d like to go... up.”
Although there was no particular answer which Derpy was expecting, “up” wasn’t on the list of things she would have been expecting if she had been expecting anything at all, which she wasn’t. Needless to say, this left her quite confused.
“‘Up?’” she repeated. “You mean like, to Cloudsdale?”
Carrot Top smiled, continuing to gaze into the distance. “Well, maybe. It wouldn’t have to be, though. I’d just really like to go... up. Into the sky. To fly around.” Finally, her eyes returned to focus, settling on a perplexed Derpy as they did. “You know, like you do. Like any pegasus.”
Derpy scrunched up her nose in thought. “Couldn’t you just ask Ms. Sparkle if you could borrow her balloon? I bet she’d let you borrow it if you asked nicely.”
“Derpy, you’re missing the point.” Carrot Top waved a hoof for emphasis, though what it was supposed to emphasize was unclear. Which was probably just as well, since it wasn’t a terribly emphatic hoof wave to begin with. “If I just wanted to be in the air, then sure I could go up in a balloon. Or, I could take a trip in one of those airships they have in Canterlot. Or heck, I could just ask you to give me a ride on your back.”
“We’d look awfully silly,” Derpy pointed out.
“Yes, we would. But the point is, I could do any of those things, but that’s not really the same as going up. That’s just... just, being taken up. I mean, I have this idea that flying, really flying, must be so much fun. You can go anywhere you want, see things from every angle, it all just sounds so... so...”
“Free?”
Carrot Top started, blinking a few times. “Yes, exactly. Free.”
Derpy nodded sagely. “When I’m loaded down with so many packages that I can’t get off the ground, I always feel like I’m trapped.” She scrunched up her nose again. “But, I thought only pegasus ponies were supposed to feel that way. Aren’t earth ponies supposed to like being on the ground? Are you saying you wish you weren’t an earth pony?”
“Well, I do like being on the ground,” Carrot Top began. However, she didn’t finish the thought. Instead, she worked her jaw soundlessly for several seconds before glumly lowering her eyes. “I guess you’re right. It’s not like flying’s something that really matters to me, anyway—it’s just a silly daydream. I mean, I’m happy being a farmer, and whoever heard of a pegasus pony growing carrots for a living?” She looked at Derpy and smiled, but somehow the smile didn’t quite reach her eyes. “I like being an earth pony just fine, when it comes down to it. That’s good enough, isn’t it?”
Derpy briefly un-scrunched her nose so that she could re-scrunch it once more. “Carrot Top,” she said, slowly, “if you could fly... really fly, not just be taken up... would that make you happy?”
“Well, I mean, it’s not really imp—”
“Carrot Top,” Derpy interrupted, which made Carrot Top sit up in shock. Derpy never interrupted her. “Would being able to fly make you happy?”
“Well...” Carrot Top managed to find something very interesting on the ground which required her full attention. “Well, I guess it would. Yeah. But—”
But her “but” died on her lips as she realized she was talking to herself. Derpy was already gone.
*****
Several hours later, Carrot Top was hard at work, weeding her garden. It was repetitive, back-breaking work, and she would take any opportunity to complain about it to anyone who was willing to listen. Unsurprisingly, few ponies were, but she never let that stop her. Nonetheless, she might be willing to admit if pressed that she felt a little surge of proud satisfaction every time she glanced back down the row behind her and saw a straight and true line of green shoots surrounded by an otherwise unbroken sea of dirt, with no interloping dandelions or clover to spoil the perfect pattern.
“Hey Carrot Top,” said Derpy, “lemme see your hoof.”
This would have been an odd enough request under any circumstances, but, considering that Carrot Top had thought herself alone in a wide-open field until Derpy spoke, she could most certainly be forgiven for being caught off-guard by this out-of-the-blue demand. Before her brain could come up with a suitable reply, perhaps something along the lines of “what do you need my hoof for, and when did you get here anyway,” her body took matters into its own hooves and obligingly lifted one up for Derpy to inspect.
Which is precisely what Derpy did. While Carrot Top sputtered in confusion, Derpy critically examined the hoof, rapping on it just as one might tap a watermelon to determine its ripeness, eyeing it closely with a jeweler's loupe which she had acquired from who-knows-where, taking a few lengths with a measuring tape, and jotting down row after row of numbers in a tiny notepad while muttering under her breath. And before Carrot Top could piece together a coherent sentence, Derpy looked up with a smile, chirped “Thanks a bunch! That’s all I needed to know!” and took off at a speed that would have made Rainbow Dash proud.
Carrot Top was left standing in the middle of her field, one hoof in the air, feeling very confused.
*****
Another hour or so passed before Derpy came back. By then, Carrot Top had had plenty of time to think about the bizarre exchange and to stew over the many things she might have said last time. As such, you might expect that Derpy’s reappearance would be met by a Carrot Top who was much less flustered than before—and much more vocal.
One thing Carrot Top had not taken any time to think about, however, was what she would say if Derpy, appearing beside her with just as little warning as the first time, opened the conversation by bluntly asking her how much she weighed.
Now, there are many differences between humans and ponies. Humans have hands and feet, while ponies have hooves; humans play horseshoes for fun, while ponies simply play shoes; humans consider using their mouths to open doors a health hazard, while ponies consider it the only practical way for non-unicorns to enter a room. All of these things are different between the two races, and a thousand other things besides. But one thing upon which both ponies and humans agree: one simply does not ask a lady her weight.
Caught totally off-guard, Carrot Top sputtered, then named a number.
Derpy gave her a very critical look.
Carrot Top looked down, then quietly muttered a slightly larger number.
Derpy smiled and left.
Carrot Top thought of several very clever things to say, not all of which were terribly polite, just a little too late to share them with Derpy. Frustrated again, she kicked her hoof and said a few of those things anyway, since it seemed like a waste not to. Then she went back to work. After all, friends might act strange at times, but weeds are remarkably predictable. And one of the most predictable things about weeds is that they don’t weed themselves.
*****
Derpy came back once more not long thereafter. This time, though, she didn’t ask any strange questions. Instead, she simply said “All done!” and sat back on her haunches, looking incredibly pleased with herself.
Carrot Top turned and gave Derpy a cool look. “‘All done?’ And just what are you ‘all done’ with? Are you ‘all done’ appearing and disappearing without warning in the middle of conversations? Are you ‘all done’ asking very rude questions? Are you ‘all done’ acting like a little foal? Because those are a few things I think I’m just about ready for you to be ‘all done’ with!”
If Derpy was even a little bit embarrassed, it didn’t show. “Maybe! But mostly, I’m all done with your surprise! Come on, lemme show you!” With unexpected enthusiasm, she began herding Carrot Top off towards whatever it was she was so excited about.
Carrot Top almost dug in her heels and refused to go along. After all, Derpy had been acting odd all day, and Carrot Top was getting tired of being left in the dark. But she was curious what this “surprise” was, and besides, Derpy was her friend. A very strange friend to be sure, but isn’t it worth putting up with a little bit of strangeness from your friends every now and then?
And so they trotted off together, Carrot Top wearing an expression of resignation, and Derpy one of ill-concealed glee.
*****
After a couple minutes of trotting, they reached The Hill.
Now, most ponies knew The Hill (if they knew it at all) as merely a hill, one hill among the many hills in a very hilly park on the outskirts of Ponyville. But to Derpy and Carrot Top, it was The Hill. The Hill was where the two went whenever they felt like picnicking together, or wanted to do a bit of stargazing at night, or just when they wanted to relax somewhere away from their homes. The Hill was grassy, with a lone blueberry bush that never seemed to have any blueberries on it, but made the place feel a bit more inviting nevertheless. Moreover, sitting on The Hill gave one an excellent view of Ponyville below, of Canterlot far off to the north, and even of Carrot Top’s farm near the edge of the woods. It’s true that many of the other hills at the park afforded just as nice a view of those same things, but for all that, none of them were The Hill.
On top of The Hill, Derpy had set up a simple but strange contraption, which I shall attempt to describe. At its center was a rubber pad, just large enough for a pony to stand on without feeling uncomfortable. This pad was set in a pool of soapy water, and resting in that pool was a plastic ring. This ring was looped like a lasso, such that a pony holding it could loosen or tighten it with a simple tug.
Carrot Top looked at the... thing, her confusion plain to see. “Derpy, what is this?”
“It’s your surprise!” Derpy beamed. “Come on, I’ve got it all worked out! Now we just need to coat your hooves with this”—Derpy held up a bottle of olive oil which, Carrot Top couldn’t help but notice, had been taken from her pantry—”to help minimize surface disruption and put you on the pad!”
Despite it having started off so well, Carrot Top was quickly growing tired of the way her day was going. And could you blame her? Nobody likes feeling like they don’t understand what’s going on. And when it’s your best friend who’s making you feel stupid, that’s even worse. After all, wouldn’t you feel like you were being made fun of, if you were in Carrot Top’s place? “Derpy,” she growled, “I’ve had just about enough of this. I’m going home.” And with that, she turned around and started down The Hill.
In an instant, Derpy was in front of her. “Wait, Carrot Top, I finally got it all set up just right! It’s all calculated out and everything! Where are you going?” But Carrot Top just shouldered past her and continued towards her home. “Don’t you want your surprise? I’ve been working on it all day...”
Carrot Top could be a bit stubborn when she was in a bad mood. Derpy’s plea didn’t even make her slow down. But then, as she trotted off, she heard a quiet sniffle behind her, and that one little sound stopped her in her tracks. She turned around and saw Derpy snuffling, body flat to the ground and tears in her eyes. “I just wanted to make you happy...” Derpy whispered miserably.
Well, Carrot Top may have been upset a moment ago, but everyone knows that friends don’t make friends cry. She rushed to Derpy’s side and sat next to her on the grass, a hoof around her shoulder. “Derpy, please don’t cry. I didn’t mean to... I mean... Derpy, I’m sorry...”
The two stayed there a few minutes, both stewing in their own guilt. Once Derpy’s eyes were dry, she spoke.
“Carrot Top, I’m sorry I made you mad. I know sometimes I act weird, and I know I can be annoying, but I—”
“No,” shushed Carrot Top, “Derpy, I’m the one who should be sorry. You’re not annoying, you’re just... well, sometimes I don’t understand what you’re doing, and then I get upset. But it’s really myself I’m upset at for not understanding, not you. I’m sorry I made you cry.”
Derpy nodded slowly, uncertainly.
“Now,” continued Carrot Top, “I still don’t understand what you’ve been up to all day, but if I oil up my hooves, am I going to find out?”
Derpy’s eyes lit up like a pine tree on Hearth’s Warming Eve.
*****
In as little time as it takes to tell, Carrot Top was standing on the rubber pad, hooves thoroughly greased. The pad, she noted, was greased as well, which was making it hard to stand on. Still, she patiently waited for whatever was to come next. Derpy, quivering with anticipation, grabbed the plastic lasso in her teeth. With measured, deliberate flaps, she slowly lifted herself into the air, bringing the hoop along with her.
As the hoop rose, a thin, clear film of soapy water rose with it. Derpy carefully tightened the lasso as she hovered higher, drawing the film ever tighter around Carrot Top. Then, just at the moment when the film was so tight that it was nearly touching the rubber pad, Derpy quickly closed the loop all the way.
With a pop, the film closed at the top. Simultaneously, it raced together at the bottom, speeding over the greasy pad. Carrot Top jumped as it came together under her hooves, and to her surprise, she found herself standing in the middle of a very large bubble.
For a moment, she watched in fascination as the soap danced and swirled all around her. She reached out a hoof to touch the bubble surrounding her, then stopped as a thought occurred to her. “Derpy,” she asked, “will the bubble pop if I touch it?”
Derpy’s smile was a mile wide if it was an inch. “I sure hope not!” she said. “It took a long time to get the consistency juuust right, after all. I’d hate to think I messed up after all that work!”
Carrot Top cautiously poked the bubble and, to her surprise, it held firm. She pressed against it a little bit harder and, to her great surprise, it rolled forward, right off the pad. She cried out in stunned surprise as she lurched forward along with it.
Then, she gave an even louder cry of utter, absolute, no-two-ways-about-it surprise when she found that she was not stumbling off of the pad and landing with a splash in the pool of bubble-water, but instead was floating a foot off the ground.
Now, perhaps you are wondering just how a bubble can fail to pop when a pony puts her full weight onto its surface. Perhaps you’re wondering how that bubble could possibly hang still in the air while that same pony is currently standing inside it. Perhaps you’re thinking about the many bubbles which you’ve no doubt blown in the past, and are remembering what fragile, short-lived things they were.
If that is the case, I would like to remind you that, in Equestria, every pony has a cutie mark which shows what their special talent is. That mark shows the one thing that they do better than anypony else, the one thing at which they are truly expert. And do you know what Derpy’s cutie mark was?
Seven bubbles.
So, if these things are still bothering you, I would like to respectfully suggest that maybe Derpy knew a few more things about bubbles than you or I do. Don’t fret, I’m sure that you have plenty of talents of your own, but when it comes to giant bubbles that can lift a pony off the ground, perhaps it would be best if you and I deferred to the undisputed authority on the matter.
“Derpy,” Carrot Top breathed, “I’m floating. How am I floating?”
“That’s not all!” chuckled Derpy, as she flew giddy circles around her friend. “Try going up.”
Carrot Top frowned, though her eyes were still full of wonder. “Derpy, I don’t know what you mean.”
“Duh, I meant what I said! Try going up!”
Slowly, uncertainly, Carrot Top raised her hoof to the bubble’s surface once more. This time, instead of pressing forward, she carefully brought her hoof down on its curved side, as if she were climbing a set of stairs.
The bubble obligingly rose a few feet further into the air.
“Derpy...” Carrot Top couldn’t bring herself to finish the sentence. Instead, she tried climbing a little higher, then moved side to side. She took an experimental step down, and the bubble obediently sunk at her command.
Then, as a massive grin broke out over her face, she took off into the sky at a gallop. Derpy flew alongside her, the two rushing through the air as fast as their wings and hooves would carry them, laughing all the way.
“Derpy, I’m flying!” cried Carrot Top, as she ran between clouds. “How did you do this?”
“Magic!” Derpy shouted in reply.
“Only unicorns can do magic!” shot back Carrot Top.
“Oh! Then I guess it was science!”
“Derpy, that’s not how science works!”
“Well then, it must be magic after all!”
If she were sitting on her porch at home, with the floorboards under her hooves and her farm spread out before her, Carrot Top might have countered that point. Instead, she laughed even harder and ran even faster as she and Derpy darted to and fro over Ponyville.
*****
It was hours later before the excitement of flying—really flying!—wore off enough that Carrot Top could think about anything other than how different everything looked from above, as she bobbed and weaved among houses and trees, leaving everypony who saw her speed by scratching their heads and asking their neighbors if they’d seen the same thing just then. “Derpy,” she began, reluctant to voice her concern in case speaking it should make it come true, “This bubble has to pop eventually, doesn’t it?”
Derpy nodded, giving her friend a sheepish grin. “Actually, I was going to suggest that we might want to get down to the ground pretty soon. Bubbles don’t last forever, you know.”
Carrot Top sighed. “I know.” She trotted towards the ground, stopping while she still hovered a few feet in the air. “If I land...”
“...touching the ground will pop the bubble,” finished Derpy. “But, you know, you can always go back up another time! I mean, there’s no reason we can’t do this again!”
“I know,” said Carrot Top, as she looked wistfully towards the setting sun, “But it won’t ever be the same, will it? It won’t be as exciting, or as unexpected. It won’t be as special.” She shook her head. “It won’t ever be like this first time was.”
Derpy thought about that a moment. “Nothing’s ever the same as it is the first time, I don’t think.”
Carrot Top looked at the ground, so close beneath her now, closed her eyes, and took another step down. As the base of the bubble touched the earth, she heard a soft wet pop, and felt dirt beneath her hooves. She opened her eyes, and saw that the bubble was gone. Nothing remained of it but a damp ring surrounding her. She looked up at the clouds above her, now beyond her reach once more.
Derpy stood next to her, shuffling her hooves. “I’m sorry it didn’t last longer. Maybe next time I can—”
“Derpy,” Carrot Top cut her off, “thank you.”
The two friends smiled at one another then: the kind of warm, genuine smiles that folks share when there really isn’t any need for words, because everything that needs to be said can be summed up in a single grin. Carrot Top broke the pleasant silence first, giving Derpy a friendly tap as she started towards Sugarcube Corner.
“Come on, you crazy magic pegasus,” she said, “let’s get some dinner.” Her eyes glinted as an idea popped into her head.
“And maybe next week, we can take a day trip to the coast. I hear they run ferries out to the Isle of White.”
Derpy gave a little squeal of excitement as the two friends trotted off together.
THE END
