Bubbles is a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic oneshot. The writer is anonymous, but the story was written early in the fandom's lifespan.
The story is about the foalhood of a background pony referred to by most as "Derpy Hooves". Derpy is ignorant to the fact she's considered different from other foals. Her mother, on the other hand, is well-aware of her daughter's disabilities and hates her for it. Derpy doesn't care though—she's ignorant to the harshness of her home life.
Bubbles provides examples of:
- Abandon the Disabled: Derpy is abandoned in the woods by her mother at the end of the story.
- Abusive Parents: Derpy's mother is emotionally (calling her a retard, yelling at her) and physically (hitting her) abusive. It's also implied that she tried to poison her and then she abandons Derpy in the woods.
- Adaptation Expansion: This fanfic explains Derpy's klutziness as her having a disability that makes movement and eyesight bad.
- Ambiguous Situation: While it's heavily implied that Derpy's mother tried to poison her, it could have just been that Derpy ate too much.
- Bittersweet Ending: The story ends with Derpy being abandoned in the woods. The only thing making this a "Bittersweet Ending" and not a straight up Downer Ending is that it's about an established character's childhood, so obviously she ended up fine in the end.
- Dark Fic: It's a story about parental abuse and disabilities, based on a cartoon about talking ponies.
- Friendless Background: Derpy is kept inside most of the time and doesn't have any friends her age.
- Good Parents: While Derpy's mother is abusive, her father tries to support her and give her what's best.
- Innocent Inaccurate: Due to either her young age, her disability, or both, Derpy sometimes misunderstands serious things:
- She doesn't understand that her mother is abusive; she thinks she's just loud and that she's calling her a "retard pony" because it's just a pony subtype, like a pegasus or a unicorn.
- When she has to go to the hospital, she doesn't realise and thinks it's just a cool new place.
- The Klutz: Deconstructed. Derpy is very clumsy, but it's because she has a disability.
- Mature Animal Story: A pegasus foal is abused by her mother for being born disabled.
- Offing the Offspring: It's implied that Derpy's mother tried to poison her, but it didn't work.
- Parental Abandonment: The fic ends in Derpy being abandoned in a forest by her mother.
- Parental Neglect: Derpy's mother does the bare minimum to take care of her and prefers to avoid her.
- Potty Failure: On her first (and apparently only) day of school, Derpy had an accident. It's implied she was laughed at by the other kids, but she doesn't take much notice to it.
- Third-Person Person: The fic is told from a first person POV but Derpy refers to herself by her name.
- Unfortunate Names: Derpy's name is often deemed negative. In the context of the story, it makes sense that her abusive mother would give her a demeaning name.
- Unnamed Parent: Both of Derpy's parents are unnamed.
- Vague Age: Derpy is very naive in this story, but it's hard to tell how much of that naivete is due to her disability and how much is simply due to her young age. The disability is vaguely-defined, so she might be a developmentally-normal four-year-old with physical disabilities, or she might be a developmentally-delayed twelve-year-old. She's younger than a teenager, though.
- Would Hurt a Child: Zigzagged. It's implied that Derpy's mother tried to poison her, but maybe Derpy just ate too much instead. However, she does abandon her in the woods at the end.
