Well, I got nothing to say here, other than the fact that I was busy! So let's see how it all turns out...

After Sombra's horn was separated from Derpy's head, the black crystals that Derpy conjured were dissipating as smoke, and all of the shields around the buildings vanished.

Twilight and Starlight both stood over Derpy, who made a few faint groans as she slowly opened her eyes. When she looked up and saw the Princess standing over her, a sad look appeared on Derpy's face as she started tearing up.

"T-Twilight..." Derpy said softly. "...I...I'm sorry...! I-I'm so... sooo... sorry!"

She kneeled with her face at Twilight's hooves, crying. Twilight brought Derpy's face up to meet her eyes, and Derpy prepared to witness the angry death-stare of the Princess... but instead, the Alicorn gave a sympathetic smile.

"It's alright, Derpy." Twilight said. "This wasn't your fault."

"It was King Sombra." Starlight said. "He was warping your mind to make you evil. You didn't choose for that to happen, did you?"

Derpy shook her head. "I-I just don't know what went wrong..."

At that moment, a group of angry ponies all walked over to the scene.

"There she is! The Demon Mare!" a Unicorn stallion said.

"Catch her and lock her up before she does any more damage!" a Pegasus mare added.

Twilight stepped in front of the group. "Stop this! Violence won't solve anything!" she demanded.

"P-please...!" Derpy begged. "I didn't mean to do any of this, I really DIDN'T! I'm s-sorry...!"

" 'Didn't mean to'? As if!" one mare shouted. "You know what you did, trapping me in that shop! You even laughed!"

"And I still can't believe you turned me into a statue!" a stallion accused Derpy. "I was afraid I would sit there forever, never able to move again!"

"Enough!" Twilight shouted over the crowd. "Derpy apologized! The least you all can do is forgive her!"

"You know what? NO!" A mare shouted. "After all that, she doesn't deserve to be forgiven!"

"She could've killed us all!" A stallion added.

"Why are you defending her!?" Another mare shouted.

Twilight scowled. "Because it was NOT her fault! Not directly, at least."

"What do you mean 'it was not her fault'? She knows what she did!" a pony at the front of the group said.

"The thing is... Sombra was promising Derpy that he would help her fix her situation." Twilight said. "He took advantage of her predicament to easily trick her into doing what he wanted. Given how desperate she was, it was guaranteed to work! And once he merged his horn with Derpy, Sombra began to use her body as a vessel, manipulating her thoughts, and making us appear bad while making himself appear good to Derpy."

"So you see," Starlight said. "Derpy never wanted to cause any harm to Ponyville or Equestria... she was just turning to somepony because she needed help, and she just didn't know it was the wrong pony!"

The rest of the Mane Six, now back to their normal selves, caught up with Twilight and Starlight.

"Twilight! Where's Derpy?" Rainbow Dash said. "I'm gonna give her a piece of my mind!"

"Oh yes, most certainly!" Rarity said. "This absurdity that she has delivered upon us is most despicable! I believe she must be punished most accordingly!"

"Finally, somepony who understands!" some random pony in the crowd said.

The rest of the crowd all gave comments in agreement. However, Doctor Whooves quickly stepped forward, as did Dinky Doo.

"Now, see here!" Doctor Whooves interjected. "Derpy has no fault in any of this! It was not her own thought to concoct such vile schemes! It was the darkness of that malevolent horn... it was controlling her mind!"

"Yeah!" Dinky said. "My cousin Ditzy wouldn't hurt a horsefly!"

"Cousin!?" Pinkie said, surprised. "Derpy, I always thought you were Dinky's mother!"

Derpy looked surprised herself. "No! I'm only twenty-three! I'm still single! What makes you think Dinky was my daughter?"

"Well... you two look a lot alike." Pinkie said.

"In any case..." Doctor Whooves continued. "...I ask that all of you not blame Derpy, but rather the spirit of Crystal King Sombra, for the misfortunes that have happened to you."

"Oh, like it's just that simple." a pony said. "We nearly got laid waste to! It's gonna take something really big to get me to have any level of trust that she's still not under Sombra's control!"

"Enough!" Twilight said. "The horn is off of Derpy. It's over now. He has no more hold over her mind. I think all of you need to take some time to think about how things will pan out from here..."

Sombra's horn began to glow right behind Twilight as she continued to speak, and some strange, glowing red smoke was coming from it. It appeared to be hovering behind the Alicorn.

"Uh, Twilight..." Rainbow Dash said.

"What?" Twilight asked, oblivious just before the smoke flew into both of her ears.

Ceasing her speech, Twilight gasped and looked surprised as the glowing smoke entered her ears. After the glowing smoke was in her head, everypony could still see the glow of where it was inside of her, and it converged on a single spot in the middle of her throat. After the glowing red spot in her throat went out, Twilight fell to the ground with her forehooves at her neck, and started making hoarse, struggling breaths. It seemed like whatever Sombra's horn did, it was trying to stop Twilight from breathing.

Sombra was making a final, desperate attempt to exact his revenge on his mortal enemy's sister-in-law.

"Oh no! Twilight!" Starlight said, rushing over to her teacher. "She's choking!"

"Oh, dear! We must do something, posthaste!" Rarity said.

"It's King Sombrero's horn!" Derpy said. "I gotta get it away from her!"

Derpy quickly picked up the horn, and tried to carry it away whilst flying. But all of a sudden, the horn encased her in a red aura that immobilized her in midair.

"Now Derpy... must it really be this way that all must transpire?" Sombra's voice said in Derpy's head.

"Sombrero!" Derpy said.

"It is Sombra, my dear." Sombra corrected her. "And I feel like you have just let yourself out of a great opportunity. You had power... why are you throwing it away?"

"Because it's not what I wanted! I wanted everypony to respect me! Not with power, but just for who I am!" Derpy argued.

"Now Derpy Hooves... I suggest you put my horn back atop your cranium right this instant!" Sombra demanded. "Or Twilight Sparkle shall never draw another breath!"

"Derpy, hurry up!" Rainbow Dash said. "You gotta find out how to get out of that force field, fast! Twilight's face is dark blue!"

Derpy could still hear Twilight struggling to breathe.

"I shall provide mobility of your forehoof in an upward motion, and you would do well to use it for replacing my horn on your head! And be quick, as your Princess of Friendship shall shortly asphyxiate!" Sombra said.

The red glow around Derpy's right-hoof foreleg went out, and she could move it... but only upward. She only had two options: rejoin with Sombra... or let Twilight die. Neither option seemed viable. The only real way this could be done was to get the horn out of Twilight's proximity.

"Okay... I've made up my mind." Derpy said.

"Good..." Sombra said. "...now put my horn back on your forehead where it now belongs."

Derpy closed her eyes and held her breath.

"...NO!" the Pegasus said, using the upward motion she was restricted to in order to lob the horn some distance away.

She hoped that it could land far enough away... and she was right.

The red light that imprisoned Derpy in midair slipped off of her, and Twilight started taking heavy gasps to regain her breath. Glowing streams of crimson smoke emerged out of the Alicorn's mouth and ears, merging with the same field of red light that encased Derpy. It remained in midair for a brief moment, and then vanished.

"Woah... that was close!" Pinkie said.

"Oh, yes..." Fluttershy added. "...that was very scary!"

Starlight helped Twilight stand back up.

"I thought that was it for me..." Twilight said. "...that has to be one of the worst ways to die."

Doctor Whooves cleared his throat, capturing the attention of the crowd. "So, now do you see? Derpy does not want to cause any harm! All she desires is respect for her efforts! She's a flawed pony just like me, you, and anyone for that matter!" he said.

Derpy nodded vigorously. "Yeah! I didn't want any of this to happen! Sombra was messing with my mind! But I got rid of him with the help of Twilight! You all believe me, don't you?" she asked.

The crowd mumbled among each other for a moment, before a few began to speak.

"Well... if you decided to make yourself powerful once again, all just to mess with us..." one pony said. "...then yes, we probably wouldn't have forgiven you."

"We thought you would put the horn back on your head! But discarding it was enough to convince me that you're not a bad pony!" another pony said.

"I'd say we should give Derpy another chance!"

"Yeah! So what if she's made a few mistakes? Haven't we all?"

"Well, she might not be very... coordinated. But I'm sure she's good at heart."

Twilight stepped up to Derpy, along with the rest of the Mane Six.

"And Derpy, just know that we're all ponies. We make mistakes." Twilight said. "There were times when I neglected some vital parts of my studies in place of the fine details, and when I felt guilty about it, Princess Celestia explained that mistakes are a part of learning."

Starlight was next to speak: "And Derpy, I too made the mistake of believing that absolute equality was the only surefire way to create a perfect society. I learned that lesson the hard way... but Twilight helped to steer me on the right track."

Derpy began to lighten up a bit.

"Believe it or not, Derpy, I've made a lot of mistakes myself." Rainbow Dash admitted. "Flight school was one thing that I was good at... but when it came to real school, that was another story. I did horrible on a lot of my tests. I was even suspended for two days after getting into a fight with some of the other school ponies."

"And, um, also, Derpy..." Fluttershy said. "...I wasn't good at flight school when I was little. I was a weak flyer, and I couldn't pass the physical tests. But one day, I happened to fall from Cloudsdale to see the world below... and ever since then, I started visiting the ground more often... even if hovering to and from Cloudsdale took a while... and eventually bought my cottage."

"And ah made quite a slew of mistakes mahself growin' up!" Applejack said. "Ah would sometahmes buck improperly and hurt mahself, and ah would sometahmes misposition the basket and wind up with a lot of bruised, dirty apples on the ground."

"And then there was my job at Sugarcube Corner when I came to Ponyville." Pinkie said, falling from her bubbly mood. "There were times that I messed up orders and had the wrong baked goods delivered to the wrong ponies, and I've spilled and wasted a lot of ingredients and made a ton of messes over the years... even to this day."

Rarity sighed in regret. "And I, too, I hate to admit, have had my moments of misfortune, Ditzy. I had shipped out the wrong orders, much like Pinkie Pie, misaligned my sewing patterns, neglected to use softener or starch, depending on the case, and countless times, I have misjudged dimensions of some dresses, resulting in different size portions of each dress being made into a single dress... I sometimes do not even notice my mistakes until it is too late."

Derpy was completely surprised by the confessions of the Mane Six.

"Y-you mean..." Derpy began. "...I'm not a-alone in this...?"

"Of course not, Derpy!" Twilight said. "There is nothing wrong with you! I just get the feeling that everypony's being too quick to judge you."

Twilight turned to the crowd of Ponyville denizens.

"...Isn't that right?" the Alicorn asked.

The ponies all began to look fairly on-the-spot by this question.

"...Um... well... see..."

"...th-that is... uh..."

"...we just thought... y'know..."

"Just thought what?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Derpy doesn't deserve to be treated the way you've been treating her! So what if she's a bit clumsy? So what if she has crossed eyes? She's a good pony! I know this because we went to flight school together, and, like with Fluttershy, I stopped bullies from picking on her!"

"Rainbow Dash is most certainly correct!" Doctor Whooves said. "I do believe that you all owe a sincere, heartfelt apology to Derpy!"

"Yeah! My cousin's had enough! Tell her that you're sorry!" Dinky added.

All of the ponies briefly whispered to each other, before taking a simultaneous breath. "We're sorry, Derpy." they all said at once.

Derpy smiled. "It's okay." she said.

"No, it's NOT okay..." came the voice of Captain Express as he stepped forward. "...Ditzy. I was being completely unfair with you when I put you on suspension. I overreacted. I should've known that, after all... things happen. I did not know that you were under a lot of pressure as it was, and I only added to it."

"Oh, Captain!" Derpy said. "You don't need to—"

"Let me finish." Captain Express said. "I would also like to give you back your job, and I'll expunge your suspension. It's really the only way that I can truly apologize for what has happened."

"Oh, thank you!" Derpy said. "Thank you so much!"

"And Ditzy..." Parcel Post said as he approached. "...I myself am sorry for being so insensitive towards you. I did not know that you were being bullied by many others, and I also let my own prejudice get the best of me."

Derpy started to tear up in joy. She was absolutely convinced that she would never see this day. Everypony was finally apologizing to her! They finally accepted her!

"So, now that all's well and good..." Pinkie said, just before she pulled her party cannon out of nowhere and fired it. "...LET'S HAVE US A CELEBRATION!"

Okay, I believe that there will be one more chapter after this one. Again, sorry about the long waits, but I've been burned out like Hell! I know this probably wasn't one of my best fics, but I kinda wanted to do a MLP fic with Derpy as the lead character; I feel that she doesn't get the attention she deserves. Anyways, ciao! Keep holding on...