After eating the other two muffins, she lay back and blew the rest of her bubbles out through the little toy the kind unicorn had given her. Realizing what time it was, she got up and turned to head back home, slamming straight into the tree. She shook her head to clear the dizziness, and continued on back toward the house.

When she got to her house, she ran inside to grab her things. It was the first day of school, and she didn't want to miss it. It was so exciting, she got to go meet all the other colts and fillies her age, and learn all sorts of exciting things about Ponyville. Grabbing her little saddlebag, she threw in an orange for later when she would want a snack, some notebooks, and a few quills to write with, as well as a bottle of bubble soap for when she was sure they would let her outside.

---

She was so excited when she got to school that she tripped over her own hooves when she ran through the door to her classroom. As her hooves slid out from under her, she fell in an awkward heap on the floor. Her face was pressed against the floor in such a way that she had trouble getting up. The entire class of colts and fillies burst out laughing.

She started laughing with them. It was fun to laugh, even if she didn’t know why everypony was laughing.
"Look at that derpy pegasus, she can't even stand on her own hooves." One colt called out.
"Uh DERP!" said another.
Ditzy managed to get back on her hooves, smiling at all the attention she was getting on her first day.
"What's wrong Derpy Hooves? So scared you can't even walk straight?"
Who was that filly talking to? That wasn’t her name.
"She's so stupid she can't even walk through a door without falling over."
"What a dope!"

One or two of those last words finally stuck with her. As she realized what was going on, Ditzy’s face grew hot and her eyes began to fill up with tears.
"Hey, cut it out!" a squeaky voice called out from beside her. Ditzy turned to see a small pink filly with curled pink poofy hair standing next to her, staring defiantly at the class.
"You guys are all just a bunch of big mean meanie pants. Leave her alone!"
Taking advantage of the sudden distraction, Ditzy turned and ran from the room as fast as her little legs could carry her, eyes shut tight as tears streamed down her face. She wished they would all just go away.

Tears blurred her vision as she ran, causing her to bump into several large objects along the way, stumbling over nearly everything in her path. Those fillies were so mean, she wasn’t stupid. A little clumsy maybe but she had always been like that. It wasn’t fair.

At some point her hooves had left the ground, and when her tears stopped, she found herself on the roof of the school. Not caring how she had gotten there, she pulled out her little bubble cone and began to blow bubbles. She had always loved the way they floated so freely on the breeze. They could just fly wherever they wanted to go, not a care in the world, and no mean colts and fillies to think about.

Watching the bubbles allowed her to relax; she could just let all of her troubles drift away in the wind. As she lay on her back, staring up at the little floating circles, she wished that she too could just fly away for awhile, up near the clouds, but her wings weren't quite strong enough yet. Someday they would be though, and she’d fly far away from Ponyville, so she could see the world.

"Are you okay there filly?" chirped a voice from behind her.
She rolled over to see the same pink filly who had defended her against the whole class. "You've been up here a really long time, everypony's really worried." Had she? She hadn’t noticed the time pass. Ditzy sat up, eyeing the pink pony.
"Hi, my names Pinkie Pie, what's your name?" Ditzy looked down, unsure of whether to respond or not. Pinkie Pie's face appeared under her downcast gaze.
"Aw come on, nopony likes a frowny face. Everything's fine, those meanies aren't gonna bother you anymore, don't you worry. Let's see a smile on that nice face of yours."

Ditzy looked up, forcing one cheek into a sort of half smile, then shifted her gaze up to the floating bubbles overhead. Pinkie Pie followed her eyes, looking up at the cloud of bubbles drifting away on the wind. They both stared for a good long while, untill the bubbles had drifted far out of sight.
“You came up here to blow bubbles? I usually come up here to play hide and seek, or just to watch other ponies run around. It’s a lot of fun, you should try it sometime.” Pinkie Pie said with a grin.

Ditzy couldn’t help but smile. Bewteen the bubbles and this pink filly, she was feeling a lot better.
"See, there's a smile." Pinkie Pie said, grinning really wide. “Doesn’t it feel really really great to smile?” she asked. Ditzy nodded, grinning further, and letting out a small giggle. “Well, we should get back to class before everypony really freaks out." Pinkie Pie said, getting up. “Come on.”

They were up really high, Ditzy couldn't figure out how she'd gotten up here. Pinkie Pie showed her the way down, and after several small drops and a light bounce, they were back on the ground. The way on and off of the school was just a simple hop, skip and jump between conveniently placed sections of the roof. It was actually surprising that none of the other fillies hadn’t found this way up to the roof before. As they walked into class, one of the colts who had bullied her earlier noticed and pointed at her.

"Hey look it's the d-" He stopped short as Pinkie snapped her head around and shot him a stern look. The pony who had made the remark jumped back a foot, leaning back and holding his foreleg in front of him defensively, with a frightened expression on his face.

Pinkie Pie smiled and trotted along back to her seat. Ditzy followed, feeling a lot better knowing her new friend could defend her. She took the empty chair next to Pinkie and looked up at the teacher in the front of the room. Pinkie helped fill her in on what she had missed before she arrived. Ditzy had, after all, gotten to school very late.

---

After school got out, Ditzy walked down the front steps to the school and turned toward home. she got about five paces before she was stopped by her pink filly friend.
"Hey, you still never told me your name, silly filly."
"Oh, um… it's Ditzy Doo" she responded.
"Well, Ditzy Doo, why don't you come over to my place and we'll throw a party! I love parties, they're the best way to make new friends."
"Um, okay" Ditzy replied.

They made their way across town, to a dirt road that led into some trees. It had begun to grow dark, and Ditzy looked up at the sky through the trees and noticed rain clouds covering the sun.
“Ooh it looks like it’s gonna rain,” Pinkie said, “Good thing this is an indoor party, we’ll be nice and dry. Not that a party in the rain wouldn’t be really fun either, I love playing in the rain. Rain, rain, rainy rain.” She began to sing a song she had clearly made up on the spot, about the rain.

The trees soon ended as they crossed over a bridge, and the road led up and along the side of a mountain. On their left was a rock wall, and not too far to the right as a cliff, that dropped off to the river below.
“Ooh look, there’s my house. Yay we’re almost there, now we can party!” As they came around a bend in the trail, Pinkie stopped singing to point out that her house had just come into view.

Pinkie lived on a farm, a rock farm to be more precise. She led Ditzy over to a tall silo out in one of the fields. It had been painted multiple shades of pink, with all sorts of candies and smiles all over it. She certainly liked pink. Inside there were lots of balloons and streamers everywhere, and a small assortment of cakes and goodies were on a table in the middle. Pinkie Pie selected a vinyl record from a stack by the wall, and placed it on a record player, which then began to produce a melody. It was a party theme.
“Come on, let’s party!” Pinkie Pie grabbed her by both front hooves and began to rock back and forth on her hind legs in a very bouncy and energetic fashion. She sure knew how to party.

A few minutes later, as the song ended, Ditzy had an idea.
“I think I have something that will make this party even better, Pinkie Pie”
“Oh really? Cool. What?” Ditzy reached into her bag and brought out her bottle of bubble solution, and two bubble wands.
“Bubbles!” she said, giggling.
“That sounds like a great idea!” her friend exclaimed.

She and Pinkie sat blowing bubbles for about an hour. Eventually they ran out, but the room was completely filled with them by that point. Ditzy stared up at all the little floating orbs, remembering how free she felt every time she did. They seemed so peaceful. If only she could just float away on the wind, or a cloud. That would make her so happy. As she thought about this, she realized that she didn’t have to worry about what the other colts and fillies thought of her, she always had a friend, and no matter how mean they got, she still had this bubbly escape.

Ditzy suddenly noticed a bright light coming from somewhere near her, she turned to see where it was coming from but it was gone in a flash. What was that? Pinkie Pie seemed not to notice. Shrugging, Ditzy turned to scratch at an itch on her flank... except it was different this time. Where normally there was just an empty blank space, etched into her skin were seven bubbles of all different sizes.

Her face lit up with joy at the realization of what had just happened. Warmth spread throughout her entire body, and her heart began beating faster than it ever had before, as the full impact of her realization finally hit her in one giant exclamation. SHE HAD HER CUTIE MARK!
“Oh Pinkie, look LOOK!” she squealed, gesturing to her flank as she jumped up and down in excitement. Pinkie Pie looked, and began to bounce up and down along with her.

“I’ve got to go show Daddy!” Ditzy squeaked, and ran off to find Alphie.
She could barely feel the ground, wet beneath her hooves as she raced back to the house. She couldn’t wait to show Alphie, he would be so proud of her. This was definitely the best day of her life! Unable to contain her joy, she out a squeal of delight, she giggled in excitement as she raced on through the rain.

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