The Life and Times of Tricky Merrylark

Ditzy Doo slung her mailbag over her shoulder and sighed in relief. It was finally time to go home!

On her way home, Ditzy ran into a crowd of ponies gathered around one unicorn. Curious, Ditzy poked her head through the crowd and saw Twilight Sparkle the librarian holding two tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala!

Ditzy's yellow eyes lit up when she saw the tickets. She got so excited about it that she almost forgot she had two tickets of her own.
"Oh, yeah! Duh." Ditzy backed out of the crowd and opened her mailbag. Reaching her snout in, she pulled out the two tickets. She crossed her eyes to stare past her nose and admire the tickets.

Ditzy smiled when she thought of how happy Tricky would be to see that she had them. At that very moment, a gust of wind blew past and took the tickets with it.
"Oh, no! Come back!" Ditzy hurriedly flapped her wings and sprinted after the tickets, which quickly sailed out of sight on the breeze.

Defeated, Ditzy sat in the middle of the dirt road and sniffled. Tears welled up in her eyes.
"What a terrible surprise this will be... To tell him I had some tickets but lost them..."

Tricky Merrylark stood perched on a tree stump in his backyard, ready to jump from one to the other.
"I can make it this time, I know it!"
One, two, three, and Tricky launched himself into the air. He saw it before he felt it: his jump was short again. He crash-landed and tumbled into the other tree stump, stopping in time to see his best friend's upside-down sad face.

"Ow... Hey, Ditzy!" Tricky rolled over and frowned when he noticed her expression. "Whoa, what's the matter?"

Ditzy looked down and poked at the dirt with her hoof.
"I was going to surprise you with two tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala, but..." She raised her head to look Tricky in the eye. "... I lost them. I'm so clumsy! It's no wonder they call me Derpy Hoo-"
Tricky interrupted her with his hoof and shook his head.
"It's okay, don't beat yourself up over it." He hugged her as she sobbed. "Hey, I bet we can find them!"

Ditzy rubbed her eyes. "But the wind took them..."

"They had to have stopped somewhere, or somepony must have found them. Let's go!"

Ditzy's tears stopped, and she grinned with new determination.
"Yeah! I'll fly around and see if I can spot the tickets!"

"And I'll start asking ponies if they've seen them!" Tricky raised a hoof, and Ditzy bumped it with hers.

"Let's do it!"

Ditzy's first stop was the Ponyville Library, as that's where the tickets were headed when she last saw them. She flew round and round the giant tree of a library, but didn't see the tickets anywhere. She stuck her face on a window to see inside.
Ditzy gasped when she saw that the library was full of critters. She gasped again when she realized they were cleaning the library! Fluttershy, the pegasus who was friend to all animals, led the critters on a cleaning crusade. They were doing a good job, too, and there was no sign of Ditzy's tickets anywhere.
Ditzy frowned, just as a little bird landed on the other side of the window and watched her curiously.
"Oh, birdy, it's hopeless. I'll never find the tickets..."

After asking everyone he saw from his house to the cafe with no luck, Tricky sat at a table by himself. When the waiter came by to take his order, he just shook his head and slumped in his seat.
"I guess I won't be going to Canterlot this year..."

Soon, Ditzy arrived at the cafe, and both ponies sat glumly in their seats.
"I'm so sorry, Tricky...I ruined everything."
Tricky lifted his head and gave Ditzy a grin.
"It's all right. Maybe we'll find another way to get to Canterlot!"

Ditzy clapped her hooves on the table.
"Yeah! We can-" Her words were cut short by a sudden downpour drenching everypony on the cafe patio. Ditzy's excitement quickly turned to disappointment again.

Tricky shook his mane and looked up to see Rainbow Dash holding open a hole in a cloud. He was confused until he looked down and saw Twilight Sparkle staying dry in the middle of the shower!

What was she doing here? And why did she seem so sad, too?

"I wish I could do that..."

"What?" Tricky snapped his attention to Ditzy, who stared down at the table.

"I wish I could push clouds around like that. Every time I try I just break them up."

Tricky rubbed his chin. "Hm..." He spotted an empty platter on a nearby table. With his horn glowing with magic, he moved the platter over Ditzy's head to block the water. It formed a neat little waterfall all around her, and she giggled.

Later, after the rain had stopped and Tricky and Ditzy had finished their lunch, they were caught in the street by a little purple dragon named Spike. He was running away from Rarity's boutique in a hurry, but stopped when he saw Tricky and Ditzy.

"Hey, Ditzy! And Tricky!" Spike stopped and gasped to catch his breath.

"Hello, Spike! What's up?" Tricky asked.

"Well, I-... Phew... I found something!"

Tricky and Ditzy looked at each other, hopeful. Ditzy tapped her front hooves on the ground in excitement.

"Is it-"

"I found two tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala with your names on it!" Spike showed them the golden tickets, which indeed had their names on them just as Ditzy had ordered them.

"Hooray!" Ditzy flew up into the air and did a backflip, which threw a bunch of envelopes out of her bag and all over the street.

"Wow, thank you, Spike! We've been looking all over for these!" Tricky patted the baby dragon on the head.

"Don't worry about it. There's no way I'd try to use them. You'll never see me at the Grand Galloping Gala! Twilight's going, but I told her I don't want any of that girly nonsense."

Tricky watched Spike walk off, muttering about dresses and dancing. Tricky knew there was much more to the Gala, but figured Spike really wasn't interested anyway. He was just glad to have the tickets back, and Ditzy was very happy that she hadn't ruined everything after all.

Of course, Tricky could never be upset with Ditzy for losing them. He knew that accidents happened sometimes, and getting mad about it would never help anything. Besides, he would take his best friend over a trip to Canterlot (and another shot at the Royal Guard) any day. Having them both made him a very happy pony.