Derpy was feeling anxious. She was standing alone in the corner of the WBE’s waiting room. She had really hoped there would be more ponies here that she knew. As it was, the only other pony from Ponyville in the competition was Rainbow Dash. Miss Dash was a neat pony and nice enough to Derpy, but she kept disappearing into the stadium, so Derpy was unable to speak with her. Miss Dash was the champion and that meant she could go where ever she pleased. Derpy, however, was still in the preliminary stage, so she had to remain in the waiting area. It was a nice enough room. There were comfy seats, snacks, and things to read. Sadly, the waiting room was deep inside the stadium, so there weren’t any windows for bird watching. Derpy sighed since, in the end, the only thing she could really do in the room was wait. She had been doing a lot of waiting lately.

Derpy had arrived at the stadium bright and early the day before the competition had started. Unfortunately, arriving early did not mean she could enter the stadium, get a spot, compete, or win earlier. She had to wait.

Derpy had tried to keep her mind occupied by playing a game. She counted the number of blades of grass in a square area. She then ordered the count by the lengths of the blades of grass. She had then gotten hungry and ate some of the grass. She was then sad when she realized that her numbers were now hopelessly incorrect, and she would have to start over.

It was about then that Derpy’s friend, Carrot Top, had shown up and brought Dinky with her. Derpy was incredibly happy to see her daughter again. The trio had a picnic that tasted much better than grass. It even had muffins! It then started to get late and Dinky was getting sleepy. Dinky had wanted to stay and sleep outside with her mommy, but Derpy had insisted she got a good night’s sleep in a bed. Carrot Top had left. She would watch over Dinky and keep her safe. Tomorrow, they would come to the competition and sit in the front-row seats that Derpy had purchased. The day had come to its end, and Derpy had fallen asleep. The next morning she had awoken with a thud.

The thud wasn’t from Derpy falling out of her hammock this time. It was instead from a pair of judges setting up a table. The stadium’s grounds were full of activity as ponies got everything ready for tonight. Derpy was happy she got to be first in line. The judges had said that there had never been a contestant who had camped out overnight before. So, she was first in that too!

Derpy had mixed ingredients together for the judges. After they had finished scraping off the dough from their faces, they had said she passed and gave her a number. Number one! Being number one didn’t mean she had won the competition, though. It meant she had got to be in the first group of ponies to be tested inside, the first to enter the waiting room, and the first to wait for all the other ponies to finish.

It was hour number three of waiting when a pony approached Derpy. This made Derpy smile. Talking to the other ponies was fun. One of Derpy’s eyes looked at the approaching Pony. She was an earth pony with a light-brown coat and dark orange mane. Derpy’s other eye observed the approaching Pony. This caused her eyes to widen in shock.

“Hi!” the approaching pony said. “I saw you standing over here by yourself. My name’s Morning Dew. What’s yours?”

Derpy crouched on her front legs and lowered her head into the best bow she could manage. “Derpy, your highness.”

The royal pony’s mouth hung open. Her head darted around the room, and she looked down at herself. She nervously said, “What—ah... why do you call me ‘your highness?’ I’m not that tall.” She laughed weakly, then lowered herself to whispered at Derpy. “What are you doing?”

“I’m bowing!” Derpy whispered back.

“Why?”

“Because I’m supposed to bow to the princesses. It’s the rules.”

“Please stop bowing.”

“Okay!”

Derpy got up. She had successfully obeyed a royal command! It had always been a fear of hers that one of the princesses would ask her to do something she was unable to. However, this had been easy. Derpy eagerly awaited her next task.

“Now, what’s this about me being a princess?” the princess asked softly.

“It’s because you’re Princess Luna. Everypony knows that Princess Luna is a princess.”

Princess Luna looked around again and laughed nervously. Derpy’s ears popped and all the other noise in the room suddenly became muffled.

“There, I gave us some privacy,” Princess Luna said. “Now, I don’t understand. No one has been able to see through one of my disguises before. How is it that you did by just looking at me?”

Derpy smiled even wider. Another easy question! “It’s because I’m good at remembering!” she answered. “I can look at one pony and then remember seeing them again later. It’s real helpful with delivering mail. Sometimes I see a pony at their friend’s house, and I remember their name. I ask them if they want their mail now. Most of the time they say, ‘No, deliver it to my house,’ but sometimes they say, ‘Yes!’ And those times make me really happy because I remembered them!”

“That... makes sense, I guess. But I’m in disguise. How did you see through it?”

“It was difficult at first since you’re missing your horn and wings and you’re a different color. But then I noticed your eyes.”

“My eyes?”

“Yep, not many ponies have the same color eyes as you. I knew I had seen your eyes before so I thought real hard, and then noticed your bags!”

“My bags?”

“Yep, they’re real inconspicuous. Exactly the type of bags a princess would use if she was in disguise and didn’t want anypony to know she was a princess. So I went through my head and there was only one pony that had your color eyes and was a princess. And that’s you, Princess Luna!” Derpy closed her eyes and started trotting happily in place. She was getting all the answers right!

“That... is actually really impressive detective work. But couldn’t I have just been a pony you’ve never met before that happened to like simple bags?”

Derpy stopped her celebration and thought about what Princess Luna had just said. “I suppose so... but then you would have said you weren’t Princess Luna, and I would have felt embarrassed for making a mistake.”

Princess Luna hoofed herself between the eyes. “Me and my big mouth,” she said.

Derpy was so excited. Another pony she knew was in the competition. And she was a princess! And she was in disguise. This could only mean one thing. Derpy gasped. “Princess Luna? Are you a super hero?”

Princess Luna stared at Derpy. “What?”

“A super hero! Mild-mannered Morning Dew by day. But by night? Super Luna! With a bolt of lightning, Super Luna appears to save the day!”

Thunder rumbled outside, and Derpy’s face lit up. The ponies in the room started looking around. Princess Luna looked towards the double doors that led towards the main hallway.

“That thunder was quite loud to be able to hear it so clearly through my spell,” Princess Luna said as she narrowed her eyes. “I wouldn’t think Ponyville would schedule a storm for the day of a competition.”

Derpy was disappointed that Princess Luna hadn’t transformed into Super Luna. Maybe it took more than just thunder. Derpy carefully reached forward and touched Princess Luna’s necklace. She then quickly drew back her hoof and watched intently.

“What are you doing?” Luna asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Trying to activate your necklace to change you into Super Luna!”

“What? Okay, first off, this disguise is magical, and I can cancel it at any time I want. Secondly, my necklace isn’t magical. Well... I guess technically it is now since I created a teleportation anchor from it. But it doesn’t activate by touching it. I have to think about it in order to teleport myself to it. Anyway, thirdly, I’m not some sort of super hero that goes around Equestria searching for crime to fight.”

“Is that why you’re here?” Derpy asked. “Are there bad ponies trying to sneak into the competition in order to take over Equestria?”

“No, of course not! I mean. I hope not. I’m just here to learn about the competition and how it is that so many ponies have this bad baking ability.”

“Oh, I understand. You’re on patrol. That’s really smart thinking, Super Luna.”

“Please stop calling me that.”

“Right! Can’t let your secret identity get out. Then the bad guys can threaten the ones you love and care about. Your secrets safe with me!” Derpy winked. “Morning Dew.”

“Ugh. I’ll never be able to convince you I’m not a super hero, will I?”

“Nuh-uh! It makes total sense now. That’s why you have magical powers and can fly!”

Princess Luna shook her head. “Only because I’m an alicorn. My sister is one too. Does that make her a super hero?”

Derpy couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Not only had she discovered that Princess Luna was a super hero, but she now knew that Princess Celestia was one too. Derpy was probably the only pony in Equestria to know the truth! Princess Luna was hitting herself on the forehead again. Derpy suddenly became frightened. She was the only pony that knew the truth. She was a danger to their safety. No, to all of Equestria’s safety! She had to do something.

“Princess Luna!”

Princess Luna pressed her hoof against her forehead and sighed. “You really need to sto—”

“Make me your sidekick!”

“...What?”

“I know your secret identity! I’m a danger if the bad guys catch me! But if I’m your sidekick, then I can be a hero too. Then I could beat up the bad guys and not tell your secret. Please, can I be your sidekick? It’s either that you’ll have to melt my brain with your heat vision, so I’ll forget.”

“My what vision? I don’t want to melt your brain!”

“So I can be your sidekick? I could be The Mail Mare! Or The Muffin Master! I know! Derpy, the Mare of Mystery!”

Princess Luna opened and closed her mouth several times. She must have been communicating telepathically with her sister. The begging wasn’t going well. Derpy had to do something to save her brain.

“Just for today?” Derpy pleaded. She tried to do that sad eye thing Dinky could do.

Princess Luna stared at Derpy then closed her eyes and shook her head hard. At first Derpy thought she was saying ‘no’ but then Princess Luna said, “Fine, just for today. But no more calling me by my name. Only call me Morning Dew while I’m in disguise. And stop it with that eye thing. It’s really creepy.”

Derpy stopped using her ‘sad eyes’ and again trotted with joy. She was a sidekick! She was going to show Super Luna that she could be the best sidekick ever.

“I’m going to drop my privacy spell now. Remember, don’t use the ‘L’ word.”

Derpy nodded. “You got it, Miss Morning Dew.”

Derpy’s ears popped again as the background noise became clear.

“—that you know how this will work, I need the fourth group to come with me,” an official-looking pony was saying. “The rest of you will remain here until your group is called.”

A group of ten ponies followed the official-looking pony through the set of double doors. Princess Luna had her mouth hanging open again. She must have been telling her sister the good news.

“What did she just say?” Princess Luna said, turning to Derpy.

“She said, ‘I need the forth group to come with me. The rest of you will remain here until your group is called.’”

“No, before that!”

“She said, ‘Attention, all newcomers. We have divided you into groups of ten. You can see which group you belong to by checking the chart next to the door. Testing takes about an hour per group. Please remain in the waiting area before and after you are tested. We may call you back for a second trial. Now that you know how this will work…’ and then she said the other part I already told you.”

Luna stared at Derpy in shock. “I thought I had a privacy spell up. You heard all that? Did everypony else hear us talking?”

“Oh, no. I just remember that from the last three times she said it today. I’m good at remembering. So, am I a good sidekick?”

“Yes. The best sidekick ever. Now, I should go check what group I’m in.”

Derpy was so excited. She was the best sidekick ever! The princess had said it; that made it official. She would have to keep an eye on Super Luna. And keep another eye out for trouble. Derpy then realized that left no eyes for watching where she was going. She frowned. Being a sidekick was going to be tough work.