The rest of the night went pretty straight; most ponies at the party continued enjoying themselves without seemingly even notice that I was there. Very few looked at me badly for before, but still having in mind what Twilight told me outside, I just ignored them. I gave my apologies to Pinkie Pie, though of course she acted as if nothing happened (makes you wonder how some ponies seems unable to feel any kind grudge; I sure as hell would like to learn how to do the same), then I did nothing but chill during the party, hanging mostly with Twilight and her friends. I could do little else after all, with all that crowd of ponies inside the library I would’ve hardly be able to search for any book in particular. Thankfully, it didn’t last too long, two hours circa, then ponies started slowly leaving the place to go back home. Twilight, Pinkie, Dah and Spike remained there to clean up the mess left there. I offered to help, but Twilight assured me there was no need for that, and as for the book, it was better for me to come back tomorrow. I agreed; showing myself too much obsessed for one book would’ve definitely brought up suspicion.

After asking to go alone, I walked down the streets of Ponyville. It was full night now, but not quite dark. The shapes of the buildings were still made clear by a gentle white-ish light; I raised my head to see the origin of it... That's when I discovered the moon. This big, white ball with slightly gray stains of it, illuminated like a light bulb in the sky, something I saw only in the old, illustrated kids' books of my Stable, was above me. Bigger than I ever imagined it. I must've spent several minutes staring at it, exploring of all it stains with my eyes alone. When I finally looked back down, remembering that I shouldn't have make Applejack and family wait too long, it seemed to me that all the buildings were even more clear, almost as in daylight. There was no comparison to the cloudy, pitch-black darkness of the Wasteland nights. To think about what me, and everypony else I knew, had lost for so long... oh Celestia, I had to go back! I had to give the moon back to her place!

I was now walking down the road that held the market; no sign of life, just the empty stalls still standing along the side of the road. The picturesque houses behind the stands were silent, doors and windows closed shut. I didn't like it; memories of me walking down the ruins of the desolated Ponyville of my time returned back into my mind; sure, the houses weren't half-standing and covered by dust and dirt this time, and the ponies inside it were all but psychotic raiders, yet the quietness of it all made me way too wary of my surrounding, as if waiting for something to pop out somewhere. The silence was only interrupted by the noises in my head of guns firing, grenades exploding and...

And the sound of something crashing came from my left, louder than all the others.

In the millisecond that came after, I made a jump to my right and crouched into fight position, as if I was ready for such moment since the beginning. I noticed one of the stands was crushed in half. "Who's there?!" I shouted as aggressively as I was able too. "Come out! Now!!".

I had Little Mac pointing right at the stall... until I realized I didn't have it with me. I didn't have any weapon with me. Not even my PipBuck. Suddenly, I felt naked and defenseless, like I hadn’t felt in a long time. Meanwhile, something was moving out from that pile of broken wood that was once a stall; it had the shape of a pony, but my instinct would've rather been safer than sorry. I levitated some broken pieces of wood, making them pointing close to that figure.

"I warn you," I said not shouting, but still trying to sound menacing, "Show yourself and don't try anything stupid! I'm not the right pony to mess with..."

"Oh please, don't be mad," the figure responded while slowly moving out from that broken pile. "I didn't mean to break it, I'm sorry"

Finally, the pony was close enough that I could clearly. It was a grey colored mare with blond mane and tail. Nothing out of ordinary, except for her left eye looking upward. Wait... where had I seen that before?

"Uhm, that wasn't mine," I said while levitating back down those sharp looking pieces. To think I was almost ready to pierce her neck with those...more nerves of steel, Littlepip. "What were you doing, anyway?!" I sounded condescending now, perhaps to let out some steam from the scare of before. "You could've awoken the whole street like that. How didn't even see where you were going?"

"I... don't see well in the dark." she responded shamefully. Right, because of her funny eye probably. Well played Pip really well played! "Usually I'm not out at this hour, but you see, Mrs. Wooly asked me to deliver a letter to her cousin in Manehattan this morning, but the city is so big, and there are so many ponies with her name, so I spent the whole day searching, and when I found her the sun was setting down, so I flew as fast as I could back to Ponyville, but then I found out it was better to take train, so..."

"Ok, ok. I get it." Yet another motormouth of a pony. As one wasn't enough to make feel dizzy.

"Oh, I don't think I saw you before in Ponyville", she said while looking at me with suddenly sparkly eyes. "Are you new here? What's your name?"

"Uhm, it's Littlepip. And yeah, I... arrived here just today."

"Littlepip. That's such a cute name," she said while smiling at me. That was weird; nopony ever complimented my name like that. It felt pretty nice.

Suddenly, striking me like a bolt from the sky, I remembered why those eyes were familiar. The grey mane... The blond hair... her work as a mailpony at Ponyville... Oh Celestia's big rump, don't tell she is...
"Hey, uhm... what's your name?" I asked her, even if deep down I already knew the answer.

"Ops, sorry! I asked your name and I haven't told you who I am. My name is Dizzy Do, but ponies her call me Derpy, though I don't know what that means. I deliver mails and packages, so I know all the ponies here. Nice to meet you!"

I saw it coming, yet I still remained as immobile as a stone, my heart bumping like crazy. It was Dizzy! Sweet butt of a princess, how wasn't I able to recognize her? That wobbly eye of hers shouldn't have been a damn good clue, but again, seeing her without the decaying skin of a ghoul and with an actual mane made her unrecognizable for me. She was prettier than I could've ever imagined her as a pony to be like.

Inside me, I felt the urge to hug her as strongly as I could; I'd finally found a familiar face, no, an old sweet friend of mine, in this alien place of the past. But the reality of it all blocked myself from doing it; she wasn't the Dizzy I knew... well, not yet that is. For her right now, I was just a pony who never lived here before. My luck once again spat on my eyes.

Some seconds must have passed without me saying a word, lost in my thoughts, as Dizzy spoke again, noticing it. "Uhm... oh, your lost in thought. It happens to me a lot too."

"Wh-what?" I replied, awakening from my daze. "Oh. Sorry..." I blushed shamefully, even though she didn't care.

"It's all right." she said smiling, patting my shoulder. "I do it a lot when I'm confused or trying to remember something..."

"Yeah, that's right." I said trying to cut her short. Staying there with her a few minutes more and I would've start feeling tears on my cheeks. "I remembered I have to go back to the Apple farm. I'm being a guest to the Apples, and I don't want to make them wait too much at this hour, you know?"

"Wow, staying Applejack and family, that must be so cool! Ok then, I should be home too. Nice to meet you, Littlepip, and sleep well."

"Thanks, you too." I forced a smile with those words.

I started walking away down the road, but not even half a minute passed that I felt the urge to tell her one more thing. I turned around and she was flying clumsily in the air, already some meters away from me.

"Hey, Dizzy!" I shouted, then gritted my teeth remembering ponies were sleeping around me. Nevertheless, she turned around looking at me. I looked around hoping no light was turned on in any of the houses, then shouted again. "I'm sorry for scolding you before!"

"It's allriiiight!"

We parted ways for good. I bolted back my way and trotted at almost a running speed, hoping to be far away before somepony opened a window to check who was shouting.

Not long after that, I was past the bridge connecting Ponyville to the main road, heading down the path leading to Sweet Apple Acres. I kept sobbing until that point; the fact of seeing the kind of pony Dizzy was with my own eyes, knowing what l was going to happen to her, seeing her own little world, her family, her friends reduced to dust, being forced to live alone for two centuries without them as a monster... I fought the urge to cry before then, but I just couldn't take it anymore.

I looked at the sky above, to find a distraction from those thoughts. The moon has now moved higher, almost above my head, so the sparkling stars were now more visible to me. I sat down for a few minutes, staring at them; they were much more beautiful and mesmerizing then the faded copies of them found inside the illustrated books of my Stable. Memories from my sad but gleefully ignorant childhood reemerged from the deeps of my mind; I used to steal the fluorescent paint from the janitor's compartment and use it to paint many dots on the ceiling of my bedroom, to make it as less grey as possible and to give me the illusion at night to sleep under a beautiful starry sky at the surface. They always caught me before or after the deed, and I got punished severely all the time, as stealing, and messing up with the Stable structure (it was just the ceiling of my bedroom, for Celestia's sake!) was an extremely punishable crime, and they went softer with me only for being a little filly. Yet, I never learned the lesson and continued trying to paint the ceiling; doing something against the rules was still more exciting than my ordinary, boring life inside the Stable.

Starring at sky didn't do much to improve my mood, so I returned on my way shortly after. It took me less than a mile before I finally reached Apple farm. The lights inside the house were still on, and I feared that the whole family had stayed awake late just to wait for me. In front of the outside door I saw Applejack sitting down, waiting for me; except, judging by the hat half down her face, it seemed she was sleeping...and I was right. When being beside her, I gave a loud "u-uhm" and she slowly raised her head. When she saw it was me, shestood up in a flash, as if she wasn't asleep at all.

"Welcome back, Ms. Pip," Applejack said chirpily, wrapping a foreleg on my neck. "Enjoyed your welcome party? Hope Pinkie wasn't too attached on your back. She does that a lot ta’ newcomers."

"N-no... it was all right," I lied to her. Better not telling her what happened, for now. She was a friend pf Pinkie Pie, after all. "Also, forgive me for being late. It's... hard to follow the time at night."
"Oh shoot, don't be sorry for that," she responded while I followed her inside. "It was for the better too; me an’ Big Macintosh got more time to free some space up there. Hope our bed of fortune would be enough comfy for you."

"Thanks. You really didn't need to bother yourself this much, just for me," I said while smiling with shyness.

"No bother at all, helping ponies in need is second nature to us Apple ponies. Double for me if that pony is a friend of Twilight."

"F-friend?!" I asked with big surprise. I could've count on my four hooves only the number of people who ever wanted to my friend in my whole life since then. Now Twilight Sparkle, of all ponies, being a friend to me too? Unbelievable.

"We’ve... just known each other for a day, and I couldn't tell her much about me because... you know."
"Ooh, don't be modest like that, Ms," she responded smiling, pocking her hoof on me. "I knew Twilight for long enough to know, from her eyes, that she cares a lot for you. She ain't like Pinkie, who does that to anypony she sees, so that means she must've seen a friendly good pony in you."

Good... obviously she didn't know me well enough. I doubt she would've thought the same way, if she knew the things I'd done.
"I... I guess so," I muttered, not knowing how to respond.

"If you want my opinion" she added, "I think ah’ can see that too." She started looking at me an almost inspective way. "Seems to me you got traits of an Apple. Are you sure you ain'ta long distant cousin, or something?"

Sweet sun badongas! How the hay did she figured that out? Did she had secret detective skill I had never read about?! I must've start looking scared and panicked, since right immediately the apple pony guffawed while blushing a little from embarrassment. I followed by emulating as much of her laughter as I could, hopefully while not looking too awkward at it.

"O-oh Nelly!" She said while starting to calm down. "I'm so sorry I scared you, that wasn't my intention. See, my family is so big and so spread out all over Equestria, I have trouble at remembering all the faces and names belonging to it. So, I got this pet peeve of mine where I start seeing Apple-like traits on ponies I never saw before. It rarely works, though."

"It's fine, don't worry. At least we had a good laugh, eheh." Praise the Sun pony, she didn't figure it out. Better to keep it a secret as long as I was here. "Anyway, was nice to talk with you, but I feel tired. Can you, uhm, show me where to sleep?"
"No sweat about that. Follow me."

We started to climb up the stairs slowly, trying to not awaken those sleeping already, while I suddenly stopped in my tracks. "Uhm, Applejack?"

"Yes?"

"Could you do me just one favor?"

"Of course, as away."

"Please... don't call me Ms. Pip. Sounds awkward for me."

"Well, how about if I call you sugarcube then?"

Sugar...cube. For some reason, that sounded awfully nice. "Yeah, I like it," I responded while smiling.

Author's Notes:

I thank Book_Wyrm for being my editor, grammar checker and story consultant.