Crimson Plash
By the Russianbrony fraternity
It was 7:00 in the morning in Ponyville, and Derpy's alarm went off, warning her that there was only one hour until she would need to go to work. She fluttered out of her bed, emotionless, and still exhausted from yesterdays extra shift. Recently, she needed more money to pay for Twilight Sparkle's tutoring services. Her daughter was finally using magic, and Derpy was willing to sacrifice her body, and more so that the petite gray unicorn could accomplish more than her mother had.
Without a word, she went into the kitchen and set the coffee maker to on, automatically looking in the refrigerator for a bottle of milk, and a box of oats. Derpy poured the milk into a medium saucer, and lit the gas stove, placing the saucer on the grate. While she waited for the coffee to brew and her milk to warm up, she sat on the dining table seat with a blank expression; clearly lost in her own thoughts. When was this life going to get better? But if I stop trying now, my daughter will have to face the same problems I had. *BING* The buzzer on the coffee machine erupted giving her a small jump. She deactivated the machine, and shut off the gas valve on the stove. Pouring the warm milk onto her oats, and then Dinky's. She set up the table and poured both of them some coffee, making sure to add milk, and sugar to Dinky's cup; just how she liked it.
Derpy trotted over to her daughters room, and opened the door. Her room had a pleasant earthy feel to it, from the forest green carpet, and royal green curtains, to the warm browns and oranges of her drawers, and bedstand, all made from polished oak. Before, waking her small package of joy, Derpy looked around on the walls. Pictures of Dinky and her mother were ever present, but the most symbolic of the pictures was a mural Derpy and her had painted, not 1 year ago. The mural was a picture of a unicorn looking excited in a forest, while a angel pony looked down from the heavens. Derpy smiled, and trotted over to the sleeping unicorn, nuzzling her.
“Hey come on sleepy head,” Derpy whispered softly, “It's time to get up.” The small unicorn shifted slightly, illiciting a small moan of protest. However, this was quickly replaced by a warm grin from her.
With a quick sigh, Dinky proclaimed, “Ok mommy, lets have some breakfast.”
In a few minutes, the two were eating quietly, and mentally preparing themselves for the day ahead. Dinky was doing her best to feed herself by levitating the spoon of tepid oats to her mouth; she was only occasionally succeeding. Derpy meanwhile was trying to get her head together so that she wouldn't fail an assignment today, as she had been told that this was her last chance. She needed this job, more than she needed to eat. After Paper Moon left her, she had been forced to support Dinky all on her own, and that only made it harder on the pegasus. Not only did she have to care for Dinky, and be there for her as was expected from a mother, but she now needed to provide the finances. She could not get fired. And I won't! She proclaimed inside of her head with confidence.
The mother and daughter finished their meal, and Dinky volunteered to wash the dishes while Derpy went to the closet, and gathered what she needed for work. She grabbed her saddlebags, and delivery pony hat. She realized she hated the thing, and shoved it into her saddlebags mercilessly.
Derpy kissed her daughter, and bid her a fair day before turning around and walking out into the streets. All around her, ponies were making their way around town, going to where they needed to be. She realized with a start that she was almost late, again! She galloped down her street, and turned left at the main street. She continued galloping until she got to a sign that read, “Crafty Crate's Delivery Services” underneath the sign hung a motto, “We deliver anything, and everything!”.
Panting, she entered the shop, and only just in time, as the bell tower hammered 8 long dongs. She walked past the faculty door, and stepped into the briefing room, where ponies were briefed on their flight paths for the day. Although the briefing had already begun, Derpy already knew her flight schedule. Dedication to her job was only just below dedication to her daughter on her list of priorities.
The office was cramped with the half-dozen ponies in it, not to mention the mess of papers. The desks were cheap, but sturdy; made from Everfree wood. Derpy trotted over to her 'task box' which contained all of her deliveries for the first shift. To her delight there were only 3 deliveries to make, she looked at the packages, and saw a note signed to her.
Derpy, I need you to drag these to Canterlot, Trottingham, and Cloudsdale. The small one is to Canterlot, to Donut Joe's shop. The purple present goes to Trottingham, 420 Dark Alley, Alley. The big one needs to go to Cloudsdale, weather factory, East entrance. Make me proud!
- Crafty Crate
P.S. : I am sorry about the change of plans, but these deliveries came in with the fast shipping option, and I know you want to redeem yourself after the mishap last week.
Derpy looked at the note, and winced as she realized that what Crafty had said was right, she did want to prove herself to the brown pegasus. She grabbed the packages, and strapped them to herself, proceeding to double strap herself, to avoid last weeks problems. Recognizing that the biggest package was the heaviest, she decided she would go to Cloudsdale first. This was most fortunate considering it was the closest city to Ponyville. It was also the city in which her ex-husband currently lived. She just wanted to get Cloudsdale over with so she could deliver the rest of the packages in a state of equanimity. She flew off with a swoosh.
Derpy entered the city in the clouds, and looked around. The plushy clouds were the very fundamental building blocks for the city, literally. The whole city was mostly built of clouds. She could not enjoy its splendid architecture in her current state of emotional despair. Around every corner, she imagined her ex-husband, with his friends. Knowing that if she made any contact, he would just laugh her off like she was a piece of rubbish. Sadly this fact would be hard to refute. Her eyes really didn't help, and her recent failure in a delivery caused her some unwanted attention. She decided to just hurry up and get the task over with.
Coming up on the entrance to the weather factory, she knocked. Then waited. After a few more minutes a pony opened the door, and greeted her warmly.
“Why hello! How may I be of service?”, he gently asked swirling his electric blue mane.
Derpy responded to the weather pony, “I have a delivery here, for the factory.”
The stallion looked thoughtful as he took the package, and then said with a grin, “Ahhh! This is the new piece of machinery needed for the rainbow factory. Thank you for the brisk delivery!” They gave each other a kind goodbye, and Derpy flew off. Heading to the town of Trottingham.
Once within the town of farmer ponies, she flew to the main street looking for the Dark Alley, Alley. She finally found it next to an abandoned corner hotel. The street looked dilapidated and dark, as if it was a ruin. This was not far from the truth, because she passed a few burnt down houses. 411 Dark Alley, Alley. 415 Dark Alley, Alley. 417 Dark Alley, Alley. 420 Dark Alley, Alley. The house was smaller than the rest, and a lot dimmer. Almost no lights were present, just a small flicker in the bedroom on the second floor. Derpy knocked on the door, and waited. She didn't have to wait long. Derpy heard the sound of galloping hoofsteps, she was a little concerned. Slowly the door opened, just a crack held back with a few chain locks. A fearful gaze appeared from behind the closed door.
“Who is it”, a voice whimpered, “What's wrong with your eyes?”
Derpy was not pleased with this remark, but she continued, “I am the deliverymare, and I came to deliver this package.” She said this while pulling out the purple colored parcel. The door closed once more, and the sound of chain locks being unlocked was audible. The door swung open, and two lavender hooves shot out grabbing the parcel, and sucking it in at an alarming speed. The door rudely shut in Derpy's face, and the wind sent her mane flying. Derpy decided to disregard the rudeness and proceed to her last task which would probably take her the rest of the day. She flew into the air, and began flying to the gleaming castles in the distance. She always loved how the city was positioned on the ridge. It was a truly beautiful sight to behold. Less than two hours later she walked out onto the small courtyard, adjacent to Joe's Donut shop. She had come here when she was a little filly, and enjoyed some of Joe's elaborate donut cake designs. She remembered the delicious treats, and decided to buy a donut for Dinky. She gave the package to Joe, and ordered a donut. A glorious glazed donut, with plenty of sprinkles, just like she loved it. She took the donut bag, and placed it carefully into her satchel. Again, she flew off.
Two hours later, Derpy, looking tired and worn, walked inside of the delivery shop. Her weary expression told Crafty Crate everything he needed to know.
Crafty Crate decided to start with the first question, “So? Did you deliver those packages?”
Derpy replied, “Yes Mr. Crate, all of the packages went to where they were suppose to. What should I do next?”
Crafty Crate told her, “Well, I made sure that you don't have that much more today, so I had some of your original deliveries taken care of by the chariot delivery system. All you have left is a couple of small parcels, and a few letters.”
“Thank you Mr. Crate! For taking care of some of my work.”, Derpy whinnied. Crafty just grimaced in amusement, and nodded, turning back to his own work. Derpy grabbed the small pile out of her box, and looked at the wall clock. It was 4:49 p.m. So, if she hurried, she would be able to make home before Dinky returned from Twilight Sparkle, and surprise her with dinner. Derpy flew off in the direction of her first customer, excited.
5:12 p.m. Derpy was so excited she could squee! She only had 6 ponies to go to, and she was in close proximity to all of them. She started to fly fast, almost too fast, this was the earliest she had ever gotten home in a very long time. Promptly in her joy, she shut her eyes to feel the wind aerodynamically blanketing her coat. In that sweet moment of bliss, the Crafty Crate delivery carriage fatefully flew in the way of the unsuspecting pegasus's flight path.
Derpy, unable to make sense of what had happened opened her eyes; they were more lopsided than usual. She saw what looked like a few hazy figures staring at her, looking down. Everything was double vision, and she had a wrenching headache that caused her to wince at any noise sent her way. She saw the yellow pegasus with teal mane say something, her mind began trying to understand what the conversation was about.
“She deserves a punishment!” The mare said pleadingly.
“No! We just grab all of the fallen crates, and continue on our merry way.” The other yellow pegasus said.
Making a face of disapproval, the teal maned one muttered, “I can't believe we are just going to let her get away with leaving not only a dent in the company carriage, but possibly damaged merchandise.” She turned around, loaded the last of the fallen crates, and flew off with the other mare. Derpy re-entered a state of syncope, and continued to lay in between the two houses, virtually traveled by nopony.
Derpy, awoke with a start and accidentally bucked an empty barrel at her feet. The barrel crashed down, and hit her on the stomach, blasting the wind from her lungs. She squealed in pain, and shock. After a few minutes of light tearing, she got up, and dusted herself off. It was dark, when she was flying it was still not even time for the sun to set! She quickly ran into a plaza and looked at the clock tower. It was 9:34 p.m. Derpy looked at the truth in disbelief, trembling. She fell on her haunches and began to cry, her mane was dirty, she had a horrible headache, she had trouble breathing from the fallen barrel, and now she missed what could be her last opportunity to spend with her daughter today. She still had to deliver the last letters. After a few minutes of weeping, the sobs became tame whimpers that she could hide when delivering the mail. She flew around town giving the packages to their designated ponies.
The last letter was given to a stallion named Big Mac, from the school teacher. That last delivery, just so happened to be perfectly parallel to Berry Punches bar. Derpy had on a few other occasions gone there, got drunk, cried, and then was helped home by Berry Punch herself. Berry Punch had grown to feel really empathetic to Derpy, especially after an enlightening conversation between her and the distressed mare. Obviously, Derpy remembered no such conversation, and didn't remember how she cried in Berry Punches hooves while telling her how much her life sucked, and how only Dinky was keeping her from ending it all.
Derpy hesitated, and for a couple of seconds couldn't decide on whether to enter the bar. She thought about Dinky, always waiting for her at home, always deciding to go to sleep before she got home. She was a horrible mother, how could she take care of her daughter when she couldn't even take care of herself. I need to do this. A small voice echoed in her head. She sighed a deep sigh, and began trotting painfully to the inviting neon lights of the bar.
Berry Punch saw her favorite customer, and smiled warmly. She honestly felt bad for the poor gray pegasus. Her life was not her fault, her eyes forced others to look away, she got unlucky with the stallion she had married, and was simply not made for the monotonous job of delivery pony. She still blamed all of this despicable treatment on herself. If I could help her in any way other than discounted booze, I would. Berry Punch thought to herself grimly as she pulled out a jar of Granny Smiths “Frontier Blast”. She wordlessly slid Derpy the jar, and told her that the first round was on her. Berry Punches copious amounts of tips easily gave her the opportunity to occasionally give desperate ponies what they needed.
Derpy's mind swam, her headache was gone, and so was any other indication of the pain of todays impact, or more accurately yesterdays impact. It was around 2 in the morning, but Derpy could no longer focus well enough for the numbers to make sense. All she felt was the crusty coat around her eyes, salty from the river of tears that had erupted her after the second jar of moonshine liquor. She stopped thinking about her earlier sadness in order to avoid another breakout. Focus, I need to go... I need to go home? I need to go home. The pony inside of her head was confused. Having no clue where home was any longer, she followed her hooves where they dragged her. Luckily for the blonde maned mare, her muscle memory had indeed brought her to her home. Collapsing on the front doorstep, she reached into her saddlebags to grab the key to the lock. After a few minutes of fumbling, she grabbed the rigid metal object, and threw it at the lock with her hoof. In a rare occurrence of luck her hoof made impact with the door handle and the key slid into place. Slowly turning it, she opened the door, and dragged her fallen body inside. She bucked the door shut, and proceeded to lay on the floor, enjoying the soft carpet.
After a good 15 minute nap, the little pony in her head returned in a malicious attempt at revenge. The little pony conjured up images of Dinky happily dancing in Cloudsdale with her father. As they rejoiced in something. She didn't care that it was with Paper Moon, she was just happy that Dinky was happy; Derpy couldn't remember the last time she saw her daughter laugh. It was true, she was the thing that got in the way of Dinky's happy childhood. She started sobbing once more. She knew that her Dinky would have a better life if her terrible excuse for a mother would just die. Still crying, but with a new sense of strength, Derpy lifted her hurt body, and she willed herself to trot the bathroom. Once inside, Derpy locked the door. She began opening the cabinets looking for something. She caught a glimpse of something shiny in her saddlebags, and nodded in agreement to the object that would suit her purposes. Holding it in her muzzle she turned on the water in the bathtub, and climbed in. She sat on her flanks facing the pale porcelain of the bathroom, and the harmonious shimmering of the chrome coated faucet. The faucet was spewing out lukewarm water and it felt very comforting on her skin. She reflected on all of the things she had done wrong, how she couldn't be the mother Dinky deserved, but logical thoughts seemed to escape her mind as another stage of potvaliancy hit her. She took the box cutter in her muzzle, and began to violently slash at her hooves, she felt the warm dribble of her blood on her chest before she could actually see it, her eyes fixated on destroying herself in a fit of fury. In her head, voices screamed in pain and rejoiced in her passing.
“You are worthless without me! The only thing you bring to this family is those stupid eyes! You should be thankful my daughter didn't get the fucking problem, or else I would kill you!”, Paper Moon exploded in her mind.
“Mommy, when can I see daddy?” A younger Dinky spoke in her psych.
Through trembling tears, and choking sobs Derpy replied to the ghost in her mind, “Soon my dear angel, mommy will help you get to daddy soon.”
As Derpy began to lose feeling in her legs, and her breaths had become rapid and labored, she moaned out again, “Dinky, my little bundle of joy, I love you sweetie, remember to visit mama's grave sometim... sometim... times.” Derpy had lost her ability to speak, the numbness she felt earlier, she now felt melt into a comforting warmth. She was almost there, she was almost at her goal. All she needed now was two or three minutes to bawl about the rest of her miserable life. To her parents she cried, to her ambitions she wept, to her childhood of torment she howled. She was ready, the creeping warmth was now near her chest, and soon it would envelop her completely. This was the only thing she could do for her daughter to be happy, and not be made fun of for having a stupid looking, and acting mother. For that torment to end, she had to disappear. Derpy's thoughts began to clear, and she was more aware of the pain in her fore hooves, but before she could protest she heard a high pitched scream, and the world calmly faded to nothingness.
~~~
A few hours earlier.
6:04 p.m. Dinky finally finished her exhausting tutoring session with Twilight, and came back home. She was hoping to see her mother soon, so they could enjoy some tea time before bed. She really did feel bad for Derpy; she was now old enough to understand that everything her mother was doing was for her.
8:45 p.m. Bedtime was nearing, and Derpy was not home yet. Normally, Dinky would be bothered by this, but this is not the first time her mother had been drastically late from work. Again, Dinky didn't blame her. Instead, she headed to the bathroom, took a short shower, brushed her teeth, and headed off to bed.
Dinky awoke to a blackness, not her room she noted. This was an engulfing darkness, an absolute lack of light; no stars, no moon, only nothingness. She was not scared though, because she did feel herself, there was her hooves, and her mane. She lit up her horn. A weak light struggled against the darkness. Although her new ability was working as intended, there was nothing to light up. Now she was worried. Where am I? She thought to herself.
Without a noise the emptiness began to fill up itself with ground, rock, and grow all sorts of life. The self creating world appalled Dinky. She merely stood on her plane of existence agape, not knowing whether to scream in terror or enjoy the beautiful world that was being formed around her as she thought. In only a few minutes, the environment looked like a better copy of Ponyville, but she couldn't exactly tell why. The sun beamed down on her gray body, and she felt its warmth. Dinky slightly grinned, she still did not know what was going on. She examined her surroundings; she was in the Ponyville town square, but it was vacant of all ponies. Dinky decided to return home, to seek shelter from this strange, dream. Assuming it was a dream of course, she couldn't think of anything else that it could be.
Once she entered her home, she saw Derpy sitting on a kitchen chair reading a book.
“Mommy!” She yelped as she ran to her for an embrace. Derpy also smiled, and accepted Dinky into her hooves. Dinky was still under the suspicion that this was a dream, but now she wanted this dream to continue. However, Derpy's mood rapidly declined as she became downtrodden and sad. Her awkward eyes in a painful wince, as she held back tears. Dinky saw her mother grit her teeth, and begin backing out of the room.
“Mommy, mommy wait, where are you going?” Dinky began. Derpy began backing out of the house. Dinky had a shot of panic through her when she realized she was glued to the floor. She couldn't move, but her eyes were still on the older mare, still backing off at a constant rate.
“Mommy?! MOMMY! Don't go mommy!” She whinnied, and began to cry, bucking at the floor she couldn't move from. Dark, wet, lines on her muzzle traced the paths of her tears. Starting to lose hope entirely, Dinky buckled to the floor and tried to reach her hoof towards the now barely visible pegasus, but her hoof was sealed on the ground. This dream had turned into the worst kind of nightmare. Before Derpy disappeared Dinky thought she could make out a single phrase.
“Dinky, my little bundle of joy, I love you sweetie, remember to. . .” Barely audibly came the voice of Derpy.
Dinky was now sad and confused, she yelled out in emotional pain, “Remember what! Mommy please come back!” But the gray mare was already far out of sight of the weeping filly.
With a pummeling force, Dinky was thrown back into reality as she screamed a horrifying, and shrill yell. When she stopped screaming, she was sitting in her bed, cold sweat glistening all over her coat, and dampening her mane. She was panting, but needed to check if her mother was ok. Rocking out of bed, she briskly trotted to the closed door and entered the rest of the house.
It didn't take her long to pinpoint Derpy's location. Water was flooding the home, the source being the locked bathroom. Dinky in a frenzy, applied her magic to the lock, fumbling with the tumblers, but eventually unlocking it. The scene that she took in was something she would never be able to forget.
The bathroom was hoof deep in water, the tap running uncontrollably. Her mothers saddlebags were laying on the safe perch that was the sink. The water around her was not just water though, interwoven between the water was a crimson cloud of blood. Dinky's eyes followed the path the cloud had made in the water, and her eyes landed on what looked to be a hoof, or at least what used to be a hoof. The ridges in the flesh left it looking more like tree bark. Before she had time to make sense of the traumatizing scene before her, she was broken out of her concentration by a soft whimper. Dinky, barely hearing the noise moved her attention to what made the pathetic noise. She felt her heart punching the back of her ribcage as she felt a wave of insane trepidation jump on top of her. The defiled creature in the bathtub, laying slashed, was nopony other than Derpy.
The door to the Doo residence exploded as the disheveled filly ran to Twilight Sparkle, the only mare that she could think of that could help. Tears running freely now, and the screaming at a constant volume, she ran down the street forcing lights to be turned on all around. Dinky stepped down a step, but her hoof landed at an awkward angle, the resulting discomfort crippling her to the ground as a bullet of pain shot through her. Blood was coming out of her now, but Dinky couldn't feel it. The mere sight of the substance, and the now steady plash of droplets made her more nauseous than she had ever felt in her entire life. The memory of her ruined mother pushed Dinky on, until she reached the dark library. She crashed into the door of the tree, hoping somepony would hear. Dinky was in luck, as not a moment too late, Twilight opened the door, book floating next to her.
“Hello, how ma. . . Dinky! What are you doing here, why are you covered in blood?! Oh my! You're hurt, come in Dinky, tell me what happened!” Twilight spoke with concern in her voice.
The filly sniveled, and began to rapidly yell, “Miss Twilight, you need to go to my house, and help mommy, I think she is hurt, she might be dead! Oh please don't let her be dead, please Miss Twilight, please save her. I don't think she has much longer. I promise I'll stay here if you go now!”
Twilight, called out to her assistant, “SPIIIIKE! Come down here NOW!” She waited for the dragon to walk down the stairs looking annoyed, but speedily changing his expression once he saw Dinky's condition, “Spike! Listen to me, I need you to take care of Dinky while I go check on her mother, OK?!” She sternly added.
“Ummm, ya. Yes, I'll keep her safe. You can count on me.” Spike replied. He took her by the hoof, and moved her into the kitchen where the medical supplies where kept.
~~~
Next day, Afternoon
Derpy, felt her body take in a breath of sterile air. Then she felt the pain, she was no longer under the sedative effects of alcohol, and could feel the fire on her hooves, and she could feel lots of bruising around her abdomen, and chest. She made an attempt at a deep breath, but her ribs tightened across her chest, and she coughed. Returning her breathing to it's original diminished state, she opened one eye to see where she was. She could have already guessed that she was in the hospital, by the smell, but this was final proof. She was in a small examination chamber, and was bound to the stretcher she was on. She opened her other eye, and looked at the machines attached to her body. Out of experience she knew that one of the droppers on the hook was to replenish her body of the fluids she had used up during her binge. With a stark realization, she remembered last night, at least bits and pieces of memories that floated to her. Clearly she had drank too much, but did she really try to kill herself? Her fore hooves certainly felt chewed. She shuddered at the thought, instead shifting her attention to the sleeping figures in the room with her. There was a total of 4 ponies, all sleeping in the room with her. She saw her daughter huddled in a corner, covered by a thick blanket; she relaxed. Who were the other three ponies? She thought to herself.
She tried to move her body, but she was still dizzy from her loss of blood. In the end she just decided to continue sleeping to help her recover enough to find out what had happened. However, before she could close her eyes and return to sleep, the filly in the blanket began bucking violently at nothingness. Derpy's heart burned, she knew this behavior all to well. Dinky was reacting to a violent nightmare. When Paper Moon had left, Dinky had often woken up screaming, bucking, and weeping for her mother. During those first few months Derpy had taken to sleeping around her daughter so that she could more effectively calm her, and return her to bed. Now it's happening again, oh what have I done! Derpy was getting more disappointed in herself. Not only did she feel responsible for her own failure as a mother, but now she even caused her child nightmares.
“You awake Derpy?” the inquisitive voice of Berry Punch was heard from one of the dark masses, curled up on the floor. Derpy's concentration on her nonfulfillment was obliterated, now she just wanted to flee in embarrassment. The condition of her voice was chillingly raspy, as if she had a really strong cold.
“Y-yes, Berry is that you?” She asked.
Berry responded, “Yes, are you alright?”
“Dinky is having a nightmare, would you please pet her? It seems to work when I do it.” Derpy asked sincerely. Without words, Berry Punch brought herself next to the compact bundle, and began to stroke the filly's mane, whispering something that seemed like a lullaby. After a couple of minutes, the action did the trick, and the sleeping Dinky was calm once more. Berry turned to look at Derpy with a perplexed expression. Derpy could see that she was feeling responsible for what happened the night prior. Unfortunately, Derpy had no way of convincing her otherwise. Instead, she decided to ask a question that was bothering her since she had woken up,
“Why did you stay here? I-I mean couldn't you have just left after knowing I'm safe?”
Berry Punch smiled whilst holding back tears, “Derpy, all of us stayed because we love you. We are the ones who are to blame, because we are your friends, and we did nothing to help you.” with the last word, Berry leaked one tear, but quickly deteriorated into silent sobs. She softly trotted to Derpy and embraced her as best as she could while Derpy was lying in bed. Her tears ran freely onto Derpy's body; they were graphite stains on the gray coat. The yellow maned pegasus couldn't hold in either as she also began to cry, hugging back. They were locked in a tight embrace for what seemed like hours, but eventually Berry Punch let go of her grasp, and spoke to Derpy,
“I'm so happy you are still alive Derpy. You don't know how sad I would have been if you happened to kill yourself.” Derpy winced at this, still not fully remembering what had happened. She turned her head in shame a drop of salty water landing on the warm, hospital, sheet.
The conversation had aroused one of the other sleeping ponies. Still in a whisper, the gruff voice of Crafty Crate echoed serenely in the atmosphere of their surroundings,
“Derpy! Why? Whats wrong?”
She looked into his icy eyes and whimpered, “I don't know, I think I felt like I was losing control, and my life has been one screw-up after another. The alcohol didn't help”. By the end of her line, she was crying again. Crafty Crate, strode to her side, and confidently stroked her mane, occasionally telling her that everything would be alright, and that she was not alone in this town, that people did like her. Derpy simply put her muzzle into his breast and hugged him, thankful for the support.
While in embrace, she began opening up to him to what tortured her to see no other option besides suicide, “A while ago, *sniffle* when I had accidentally forgot to go buy some groceries for the house *sniffle* Paper Moon, who was my husband at the time, h-he got so mad. I had never seen him this angry in my entire life. He beat me, I even had to go to the hospital so they could fix my wing *sob*. He broke my wing because I tried to get Dinky out of the room. Instead he forced her to watch him *sob*. . .” she was interrupted by a heavy, but gentle hoof. Crafty Crate then removed his hoof and nodded in understanding, making it clear she didn't need to return to bad memories.
After another couple of minutes he said, “Just know, that if you ever have any more trouble, don'tchyou hesitate to come and get some help from your close friends. We will always be there for you if you need us to be.” He felt her nod in his grasp.
“Oh is she awake?”, Twilight Sparkle asked groggily.
“Yes” Berry Punch returned, “I think she feels better, but lets let her rest up some more, not every pony can lose that much blood and live.” Once more, Derpy winced at the mention of exactly how close she was to dying, alone, in that bathtub, and then it hit her. She turned to Twilight and asked, “Twilight, when I was in the tub, and I felt like everything was melting away, I heard a scream. What I'm trying to ask is that, who or what saved me?” To this Twilight smirked, and walked over to the bundle of blankets that was still snoring in the dark. Twilight gave her a small pat, and answered Derpy, “You don't need to know the specific details, but this little filly had a bad dream about you leaving her, and she woke up to find that there was some flooding. She easily found the source, and. . . got into the bathroom. Once she saw what happened, she was very disturbed. So, she ran to the library, and I was informed. Then, I just ran back, and galloped you to the hospital.” Derpy was stunned. Her own little filly had saved her life. The dream was even more peculiar, could it have been a coincidence or were there higher powers at work? The thought impaled inside of her brain like an icepick. In the end she decided to not give it credit, and was just thankful that everything worked out relatively ok.
“We ought to give Derpy some time to recover. We'll leave Dinky here, so you two can talk when you're both healthy enough.” Crafty spoke with calm intention. Derpy nodded, and headed off to sleep. The party of three ponies departed the dark enclosure, and shut the door.
~~~
Two hours later
Crafty reclined in his tan, suede office chair, deep in thought. His mind was a wreck, he really liked Derpy. He had known her for many years and yet he knew nothing of her. To him she was always a hard worker that always struck bad luck. Even when she didn't work for him, she was often known for exhibiting a destructive behavior. He chuckled to himself, he believed that her naïve innocence was a major reason for his great admiration towards the gray pegasus. She was always so very adorable when she found a small thing in life that all ponies took for granted. Derpy was well known for her amazing abilities with bubbles, and was always great with the foals. Crafty sighed and looked down at his heavy, oak, table. It was lined with sturdy drawers that had variety of different implements.
The bottom left drawer contained a bottle of his favorite liquor. A horrid looking, half opaque, quartz colored moonshine, made locally. He loved this liquor for one reason only, the pain he usually felt for the wrongs in this world would silently melt away with every swig.
By the time the bottle was half way gone he began to feel vexed. What sick fuck, would put his only child through such a despicable scene. Let alone do it in the first place.Crafty Crate also began to feel dreadful about how little he actually did in order to help Derpy. As an employer his obligation was to the business, but this was so much bigger than shackling, associative, labor. He didn't want these crimes to go unpunished. Paper Moon needed to pay for this great injustice.
The bottle lay empty on the ground, still as the great expanses of space. A single droplet was on the lamp illuminated table, greedily being absorbed by the crude, dry, wood. Crafty was violently shaking in his chair, his rage threshold reaching the point of no return. With vicious intent his hoof was sent into the space on his desk. Pens, pencils, papers, and his lamp were rocketed off of the table. He sat there, fuming, and breathing with great heaves. The papers and notes that flew away from their positions, settled to the ground.
He stepped to the office floor, sending his chair back several feet before it crashed into another work station, he didn't care. He was going to find that son of a whorse, and do justice upon his broken soul. Before heading out onto the now gloomy streets of Ponyville, Crafty grabbed a black cloak to shield himself from the wicking power of the dense fog in the sky. He looked once more to the offices of his company, turned off the lights and locked the doors. His composure was maimed from the alcohol, but pegasi were masters at their art. Only a fluttering black cloth could be seen ejecting into the air as he took off to Cloudsdale.
He was flying smoothly, letting his aerodynamic body slice through the mist like a boat through calm waters. The night was forebodingly dark from the cloud cover, but the darkness was without the slightest breeze. This made the gift of flight all the more pleasurable to the resolute stallion.
Within the hour, he made it to the city of Cloudsdale. The pillars of fluffy white clouds were gray from the dark atmosphere and saturation of water hanging, and blanketing everything in sight. He remembered that the last time he had visited the city in the clouds he was almost as unsullied as Derpy. This city, the city he once loved was morally lost; it was locked in the ignorance that the pegasi were the ultimate ponies. Their lack of empathy was mostly because of their disconnection with the rest of Equestria. In fact, many of them were born, and died, never really getting a good feel for life below the crest of the troposphere.
Crafty Crate's morals were what drove him to flee this ethical wasteland. He was always considered by his flight school peers as the sociopath, when he was desperately trying to get to know about the culture of the earth ponies, zebras, and unicorns inaccessible because of his untamed wings. After the last day of flight school, he decided he would reward himself with a trip to the earth. Not even Celestia could have predicted what happened next. The variety of life he witnessed took his breath away. His life had been lived in a shroud of white, gray, and the occasional spectrum of other ponies.
He was standing in the same street that he had when he was getting ready to leave. His memories of the racism in this defiled city flushed blood into his head. He didn't yet know what he was looking for, but he knew it was here.
Paper Moon had family in Cloudsdale, and had always been a strong supporter of pegasus superiority. This connection often lead him to the post office so that he could deliver tokens of adherence to reassure his parents he had not transformed into a traitor. Crafty gagged in disgust. However, he tried to remember where those packages were always mailed. It took him a minute of wandering the streets to have the number pop into his mind.
He walked a few blocks down the main street and walked up a flight of fluffy, smoky, cloud stairs keeping his gaze steady, concentrated on the door, made out of a concentrated cloud that was similar to a brick. He came to the door and slowly knocked on the door, a voice came from the deep reaches of the home.
“Who is it!?” the crackling voice yelled. Crafty simply answered with another set of knocks. The sound of hoofsteps coming closer. The door cracked open a scrawny, old, and angry looking mare who was once a vibrant teal color glared at him.
She asked, “What in the Abyss do you want?!”
Crafty replied in cold calculated sobriety, “I need to see Paper Moon. We need to talk.”
“Heh, that foal is probably at the Cirrus Club”, the mare replied, “Just like his waste of a father!” With the final statement she slammed the door in his face. This, he anticipated, and stepped out of reach.
If he remembered correctly the Cirrus Club was a mare club, and was definitely for mature ponies. Crafty Crate made his way out of the cramped streets and to the neon blasted building, situated in a plaza. He didn't want to attract the unwanted attention of the guard ponies dressed in intimidating, thick, textile barding. Instead he was going to wait outside, until the chocolate stallion had his fill of the young and exploited mares.
He sat there for a few hours, entertaining thoughts of himself obliterating Paper Moons smirk that he was so very well know for. Suddenly, the doors flew open. A moderate sized stallion stepped out onto the cloud carpet, he was followed by two other ponies. These ponies were much younger than Paper was. More of his manipulative betrayal. He thought in his mind as he approached the group. One of the young stallions had a basketball on his flank, but Crafty couldn't make out the other ones mark. He assumed it wasn't anything too intelligent. The group was engaged in an involved conversation about which mare was the most attractive; the talk was unrestrained and downright offensive.
Engrossed in their talk the ponies didn't notice the cloaked pony getting into a bucking position. A second later it was too late. His hooves impacted Paper Moon's skull with a sick crack. The pegasus fell off to the side, incapacitated. His companions looked on it absolute shock, they had no words. This only lasted for a second though. Crafty Crate spun around, and began wildly flinging his hooves in an attempt to punch the now fleeing equines. He relinquished his attempts when the pair were galloping in the other direction, for fear of their life.
Crafty looked down at Paper Moon's fallen body, the stallions left fore hoof was shaking as he felt the blood trickle from his nose, and cranium. Yet, he did not moan. Crafty took his mane in his teeth, and dragged the limp stallion into a dark alley, adjacent to the plaza they were currently on.
“Why are you doing this to me?” Paper Moon whispered in an effort to conserve his breath.
“Derpy.” He replied with clenched teeth. The silence was smashed with the resonating pummels of Crafty's hooves against the other stallions body. His features released sounds of crepidation whenever Crafty decided to hit him in his now broken ribs. The force of his hooves met with the limit of Paper Moon's body. He continued to swing until the latte colored stallion lay limp in his hooves. Not dead, but not conscious. With a smirk, Crafty turned and walked away, leaving the bloodied, and bruised pegasus to his fate.
~~~
Concurrently
Derpy felt a gently pressure on her side, this was followed by a nuzzle into her blanketed body. She looked at her little angel through the darkness. She was curled up in a ball, using her mothers warm body for comfort. Derpy smiled, she took off her blanket, and engulfed the little filly with it. She proceeded to give the filly a hug, and pecked her gently on the face. Dinky was only somewhat awake at this point, but she shifted into her mothers form, burying herself deeper.
“I love you mommy”, she said in a tired voice. Derpy's eyes shook in emotion. She couldn't conceive the feelings shooting through her. Deep in confused affection, she did the only thing that came to her head.
“I love you too muffin” The conversation was short, but the purpose was meaningful. Dinky had not blamed Derpy for screwing up, she had not even mentioned it. Instead, Dinky showed her that she forgave her for everything that had happened.
The next day Derpy was discharged from the hospital, and the two ponies trotted home; keeping a slower pace, as they were both still quite weak. When they reached their door, Derpy unlocked it. The entrance was cleared, and the damage was evident. There had been minor flooding, and there was knocked over furniture all over the floor. Dinky was the one to break the tension.
“At least we can clean all of this up together!” She practically squealed in delight. Derpy just smiled back, proud of Dinky's optimism. She also felt horrible for making her daughter null to such situations. She was again blaming herself for everything, the doctors had specifically told her not to do that. Instead she trotted over to the broom closet, and removed a pair of mops.
“Alright muffin, mommy will clean the bathroom, and you can start in here.” Derpy told Dinky.
“Ok mom” She replied, taking the mop telepathically in her magic. The gray mare smiled, and walked to the bathroom. An electric light was still turned on inside, and was visible through the crack of the doorway. Derpy lightly pulled the door open. A shudder of pain rang through her body, and she began to shake. For the first time, she had truly witnessed the damage she had caused. The bathtub was filled halfway with crimson water. There was dried blood on the sides of the tub, puddles lined under the places where it had fallen. The wet slippery floor was also a pink shade. Derpy shut her eyes and regained her composure. She stepped into the room and began to wipe away the blood, flushing it into the bathtub. She was not only washing away the physical signs of her attempted suicide, but also ridding herself of all of the emotional horrors that followed her wherever she had strode. She caught a glimpse of something shiny at the bottom of the tub. Reaching her hoof into the garnet water, she felt the object, a box cutter. She dropped the object as if it was on fire. Her hoof touched her face, and she accidentally tasted the metallic flavor of her blood. Once again, she shut her eyes, and calmed down.
Filling herself with confidence, she took the blade from the tub, and chucked it into the waste basket. Her mind was at ease, and she continued cleaning. Her thoughts filled with how her life would now be better. She would love Dinky more, she would go to her friends more, and she wouldn't blame herself for everything that happened.
The End
