Sunbeams shone through the widows of a small thatched cottage on top of a hill. They playfully danced across Derpy's face. Blinking, she woke up. With a yawn, she stretched her wings, glancing through sleepy eyes at the alarm clock that stood on a shelf across the room.
"Oh Muffins! I slept in!"
Quickly, she rolled out of her loft bed and landed on the ground with a thud. Getting to her hooves, she galloped into the kitchen. On the table, there was a paper bag, with a note.
Have a good day at work Mama!
~Dinky
Derpy smiled. She snatched the bag from the table, and then took off as fast as she could. She beat her wings faster and faster, trying to make up for lost time. Remembering the front door, she quickly turned her head to make sure it had closed.
"Good, I wouldn't want to have rabbits in my house like the last time. It took Fluttershy and me FOREVER to get them out." Satisfied that she had remembered to shut the door, Derpy turned her head back around to see Rainbow Dash coming straight at her.
"Whoa! Watch out!" Rainbow Dash called out as she quickly corkscrewed out of the way. Derpy, however, swerved to the left, crashing headlong into a cloud bank.
"Derpy! You should watch where you're going."
"Mmt mmm mnna mmwy!" Derpy called out, her voice muffled from the depths of the clouds. She pushed against the cloud, attempting to dislodge her head.
"What was that?" Rainbow Dash said, as she pulled on Derpy. "You've got your head literally 'in the clouds' ". There was a 'POP' and Derpy's head came out of the cloudbank. She collided with Rainbow Dash, and both pegasi fell to the ground, landing with a resounding thud.
"Owww..."
They scrambled to get back to their hooves. Derpy shook her head.
"Sorry about that Rainbow Dash." She said brushing the dirt from herself with her hooves. "I slept in and I am trying to get to work, I'm running a little late.”
"Late? I saw you flying around making deliveries earlier today." Rainbow Dash said, grunting a bit as she rubbed her wing with a foreleg.
"You sure about that? I've been inside all morning."
"Never mind... Just... Be careful, OK? Don't want to see you in the hospital."
"Don't you worry Rainbow Dash. I'll be careful." Derpy said as she grabbed the paper bag from where it fell. And with that, she took off.
As the grey pegasus took to the skies, Rainbow Dash shook her head.
"I swear I thought I saw her earlier this morning." Shrugging it off, she took off in the opposite direction.
A few minutes later, Derpy landed at the back door to the post office. She opened the locker and set the paper bag inside. She noticed that her mailbag was missing. "That's weird. Where did my mailbag go?"
Trotting into the sorting room, she called out to the Post Master. "Hey Post-sir! Sorry I'm late. I slept in. Have you seen where my bag went?"
"Derpy! You're back already? Your mailbag was with you when you took off this morning."
Derpy tilted her head. "But I just got here."
"Oookay." Post said, confused. "Anyways, just make sure you bring it back to work with you tomorrow. I don't have any more mail for you to deliver."
Confused, Derpy went back to the locker room. "Maybe I'll figure this out on my way to the park. She sighed, thinking aloud to herself. "First Rainbow Dash and now Post Haste. What is going on?" Removing the lunch bag, she made her way towards the park.
Derpy's eyes focused down onto the street in front of her. "I just don't get it." Derpy said to herself. "How come everypony says I am somewhere I am not?"
She would have continued that train of thought, had she not collided with Pinkie Pie who was gleefully hopping the other way. An explosion of muffins exploded from a basket in Pinkie's saddlebag, raining down on the two ponies.
"I've heard of bumping into somepony, but this is crazy!" Pinkie Pie said cheerfully, as the muffins finished falling.
"Oops, I should have looked where I was going." Derpy said as she stood up, a muffin fell from the top of her head. She began to pick up the muffins and put them back into the basket.
"It's okay! I was looking for you any ways! I went all over Ponyville! I looked in the joke shop, the book shop, the fan shop, the costume shop..."
As Pinkie went on, Derpy continued to help pick up the muffins. When the last muffin made it back into the bag, Pinkie said
"And that is why I had no ice cream at the last party I threw. Anyways, It's a good thing I ran into you. Here are the muffins you ordered."
"Huh?" Derpy said, puzzled at what the perky pink pony had said "I didn't order any muffins"
"Yeah you totally did. You totally came in this morning and was all, 'Hey! I want to place an order of a dozen muffins.' and you said you wanted them delivered. Though you sounded totally different than you do now."
"I didn't stop by Sugarcube Corner at all today."
"Oh I know! You're part of that group of ponies that do random silly and fun things! I heard about them up in Manehatten! Like how they just stopped like they were frozen in Grand Equestria Central! That was so funny! Where did you ponies meet?"
Pinkie bounced up and down, continuing to ask a whole bunch of questions. Pinkie Pie noticed a pony out of the corner of her eye. This Mysterious Mare looked exactly like Derpy. The Double Derpy trotted past the two mares. Pinkie stopped asking questions and called out.
"Hey Derpy!" Pinkie continued with another couple of questions before she realized what she just saw. She stopped bouncing and hung in mid air a bit. "What the Hay?" Pinkie said as she fell, landing square on her hooves.
Both mares looked at the Derpy-clone that just walked past. "Did you just see what I think I saw?" Derpy asked. The grey mare looked back at Derpy and Pinkie Pie. It was uncanny how she looked just like Derpy, except her eyes were not crooked.
"After her!" Derpy shouted
The Derpy doppelganger gasped and ran off. Pinkie and Derpy chased after her. The imposter ran through the busy streets of Ponyville. Pinkie and Derpy ran after her, getting closer and closer. She quickly dodged through a back alley, knocking over a trashcan.
Derpy leapt over the overturned trashcan, her wings outstretched. Her front hoof promptly landed straight on a banana peel, and slipped, falling backwards. Pinkie Pie stopped.
"You OK Derpy?"
"She got away!" Derpy growled. Hot angry tears formed in her eyes "She got away, and it's all my fault. It's because I am so darn klutzy! I have four left hooves."
Pinkie put her hoof onto Derpy back. "I know! Let's go talk to Twilight! She'll know how to help."
(I will feature more of the Main six in later Chapters.)