"Come on, Scootaloo! Go faster!"
"I'm going as fast as I can, Sweetie Belle!"
"But we need to go faster if we're going to get our hang gliding cutie mark!"
And with this, Scootaloo found it in her to push just a little harder, propelling her and her friends faster towards the cliff. The three held on tight to the bar of their home-made hang glider and prayed to Celestia it would hold together. They reached the edge of the cliff, and all three jumped from Scootaloo's scooter out into the open air. The hang glider held! They glided along, Scootaloo shouting for joy, Sweetie Belle taking in the scene, and Applebloom squeezing her eyes closed until they were done.
Then, suddenly, there was a ripping noise, and a flower pot tore through the fabric of the hang glider.
"Oh no!"
"We're going down!"
The three girls screamed as they fell, thinking this was the end. A sudden updraft caught them, however, and slowed their decent enough for them to land in relative safety. As they pulled themselves from the wreak of their hang glider, Scootaloo looked up into the sky.
"What in Equestria was that?" She asked. No sooner than she asked, a grey pegasus mare landed next to them, a look of concern on her face.
"I'm so sorry you guys. Is everypony okay?" Derpy Hooves asked, looking over the wreck with dismay.
"Yeah, we're fine Miss. Hooves." Applebloom said.
"Please, call me Derpy." The mail mare said, sitting down and smiling. "Is there anything I can do?"
"No, we're fine. Did you see what happened?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"Well, about that..." Derpy looked down at her mail bag, pointing to a dirt-stained hole in the bottom. "I just don't know what went wrong..." She frowned.
"It's okay, Derpy. It's not your fault. Things happen sometimes." Scootaloo said, reassuring the mare.
"Okay, great!" Derpy said, instantly perking back up. "Well, I'm glad everypony's okay. I guess I'll be off now." She stood up, readying herself for flight.
"Derpy, wait!" Sweetie Belle said. Her two friends looked at her weird. Why would Sweetie Belle want Derpy to stay? Sweetie Belle ignored the looks and walked up to Derpy. "I've always wondered... How did you get your cutie mark? What does it mean?" She asked, pointing to the bubbles on Derpy's flank.
"Oh! You wanna hear my cutie mark story? Okay! I guess I got time." Derpy said, sitting back down and looking at her mail bag. "I'm not sure anypony wants this mail anymore anyway. It's covered in soil." She turned back to the three fillies, who had gathered around her. "Well, it all started when I was just a little filly, though I was a bit older than you three..." She began...
A young Derpy Hooves sat in a classroom in Ponyville, patiently waiting her turn. She was waiting to present her project. It was the biggest project of the year, and it was also Derpy's favorite, since she was able to pick her own topic. The only requirement the teacher had given them was that their topic had to be something "important." For a while, Derpy had a hard time coming up with something important that she wanted to present. Eventually, she settled on the most important thing she could think of.
Soon enough, it was her turn to present. She walked to the front of the room, her project under a blanket on her back. She placed it on the front table and turned towards the rest of the class. She was ready.
"My name is Derpy Hooves, and I did my project on my favorite thing in the whole wide world." She ripped the blanket off of her project, revealing it.
"Muffins!!!" she yelled enthusiastically. She paused, waiting for the class's reaction. All she got was a snicker from the back of the room, which was quickly hushed by the teacher.
"Go on, Derpy." The teacher told her.
"Thank you. Now, muffins are a great source of many different..." Derpy began her presentation, explaining everything she knew about muffins, which was quite a lot. She told the class about where muffins came from, how they are made, all the different kind of muffins, the many health benefits of daily muffin consumption. She even had a picture of the biggest muffin ever made.
"It was as tall as Celestia herself!" Derpy proclaimed, emphasizing her words for effect. After a moment, she recovered herself and smiled at the class. "And that's my presentation. Thank you."
All was quiet in the classroom for a moment. Even the teacher just sat there. Then everypony burst out in laughter.
"That's what you think is important?"
"Muffins don't matter to anypony!"
"She really thought muffins were important to Equestria."
"That's Ditzy Doo for you!"
These were just some of the comments Derpy heard over the roar of laughter. She couldn't believe it. These ponies didn't think muffins were important. They were calling her names, saying she was... Tears appeared in Derpy's eyes. As the teacher tried to calm everypony down, Derpy began sobbing. She looked around at her jeering classmates, then took off out the door. The teacher tried to follow her.
"Derpy! Come back!" The teacher called after her, but Derpy didn't go. She didn't even look back. She could barely see due to the tears. It was a wonder she made it home so soon. When she did get home, she busted through the door crying. Hey parents were quite surprised.
"Derpy, darling. What are you doing home so soon?" Her mother asked. Derpy ran into her hooves, holding on tightly.
"The other foals at school..." She managed to choke out. "They... They made fun of my muffins..." Derpy said. Her mother looked to her husband, unsure.
"They... Made fun of your muffins?" Her mother asked. "Dear, that's silly."
"Yeah Derpy." Her father chimed in. "Your muffins are the best!"
"No, you don't understand!" Derpy cried, tears pouring out. Why didn't they understand? Why couldn't they see?
"Derpy..." Her mother let her go, looking at her daughter with concern.
"No! You just..." She sobbed. "You just don't get it!!" Derpy screamed at her parents. She turned from her mother and ran back out the door. This time, she ran. She ran, not caring where she went. Her parents didn't understand. Her classmates didn't understand. Nopony understood her. She ran until she couldn't run anymore. She finally opened her eyes again, having closed them against the barrage of tears. She looked around, not sure where she was. Why did nopony understand her...
She sat down in the grass. She was on a hill, overlooking Ponyville. She cried. Why was everypony so mean to her? What was so bad about her? She was always nice to everypony. She always tried to help. Her heart was in the right place... So why was it always getting broken?
Her eyes closed once again. She tried to hold back the tears, but she couldn't. So she let them flow. She let out all the hurt. She let out all the pain. She let out all the... What?
Derpy felt something brush against her mane. She opened her eyes, tears still flowing. Were those? Bubbles? They were. What were they doing there? Wait, they were floating away... Not knowing what else to do, she followed them. She took off, following the bubbles through the air. When she finally landed again... Was that... Ponyville? It was. The town that hated her. The town that made fun of her. The town that rejected her. Derpy felt the tears welling up again. Why was she so different? Why was she... She looked up. The bubbles were back. They floated around her. They seemed to be trying to show her something...
As soon as she had this thought, the bubbles began floating up. Her eyes followed them, when she saw... It was beautiful...
The hill she was now on overlooked Ponyville. The view was wonderful. The sun was setting... The bubbles swirled around her. It was... So beautiful. Another tear came to her eye. But this one wasn't of pain or sorrow. This was a tear of joy. For little Derpy Hooves finally saw. She saw what her life meant. She saw how to overcome the hate and the jeers, and how to see past other ponies' views of her. She saw how to find the happiness in her life.
As she ran home, Derpy felt a tingling on her flank. When she looked down, she saw bubbles, not floating along side her, but part of her. An everlasting reminder of what it meant to be special. What it meant to be Derpy Hooves.
