Flightless

"Derpy, get off…” I pushed the mare away with my hooves, releasing her grip on my aching body.

“I…I’m sorry Scootaloo. You looked sad so… I just thought….” She replied, sadly.

“You’d cheer me up by crushing me?” I raised an eyebrow.

“I didn’t mean to. I’m sorry.” The mare stepped back and sat down, looking extremely disappointed with herself.

I suddenly felt a little guilty for upsetting her like that,

“It’s cool.” I reassured Derpy, “Just next time, not so rough okay?”

“Okay!” Derpy leapt to her feet, “I’m really glad you wanna hang out Scootaloo, I was worried you might say no. Rainbow said you might say no… and I was worried… but I’m happy you didn’t.”

She bobbed up and down energetically. I was a little afraid, thinking that Derpy might leap in for another hug, but she managed to contain herself this time.

“It’s no problem. Any friend of my sisters is a friend of mine.” I replied, which only made the mare smile more. “So… what are you up to these days? I haven’t seen you around Ponyville very much ever since, urm… for quite some time.”

“Oh you know,” Derpy replied, shuffling her hoof at the ground as though she wasn't sure how to answer, “Just, usual stuff."

“Oh… that’s cool.” I answered, still wondering what in Equestria this mare actually did for a living.

The two of us stood in silence for a moment, just smiling at one another. It was pretty awkward.

The sky was beginning to grow dark already, and the sun was completely blocked by clouds. It appeared the weather ponies were preparing for quite a downpour this afternoon.

Suddenly, Derpy gasped, as though she just had a mental breakthrough.

“Rainbow Dash tells me you like to race!” She said loudly,

“Yeah, I’m pretty fast on my scooter.” I replied with confidence.

“Would you like to race me?” Derpy flapped her wings, excited at the thought,

I struggled not to chuckle. “Race you? Urm… well… I guess so? Where to?”

“How about to the riverside?” Derpy fluttered her wings a little and hovered,

I nearly chuckled again, the riverside was just on the edge of town. Me and Rainbow Dash used to race each other way further than that.

“Okay Derpy, you’re on.” I replied. This was going to be interesting, to say the least. “Lemme just get my scoote…”

And just like that, the mare spread her wings and took off,

“Wait Derpy! I never said go!”

Derpy was flying crooked, but I had to admit, she was much faster than I had expected. I wanted to fetch Firefly, but I was afraid to turn my back on the clumsy mare for a second in case she hurt herself - or somepony else. So instead, I charged after Derpy as fast as I could on my own four hooves, shouting for her to slow down. It was strange; Derpy was older than me, and yet I suddenly felt like a concerned parent trying to retain control over a rebellious child.

The mare was soaring pretty low to the ground, bumping into almost every building, tree, and pony in her path. She didn't even seem to notice when they looked on at her in annoyance. In fact, she even smiled and waved at a few of them.

“Derpy, look where you’re going! You’re gonna crash!” I shouted, as I struggled to keep up with her.

“You’re too slow Scootaloo!” Derpy teased, glancing back at me for a moment.

"Derpy stop! Look out!"

*Crash*

“I told you to look where you’re going!” I scolded the grey mare as she rubbed her head, having flown smack into Carrot Top's vegetable stall.

“Did I... win?” She asked, swaying as she struggled to stand up.

“Derpy, what are you doing?” Carrot Top was less than impressed, a few of her prized carrots had fallen off the counter onto the muddy pathway. The curly maned mare really loved her carrots, she owned a farm which purely focused on growing and selling them.

"Carrot Top.. I urm... uh..." Derpy suddenly realised what she had done, and looked as though she was about to cry.

“If you’re going to fly like that, you should at the very least do it in the open fields, not in the middle of town." Carrot stomped her yellow hoof angrily.

Derpy lowered her head, "I...I'm sorry. I'm playing with Scootaloo, we were racing to the river... and... sorry. I'll buy the carrots off you. I'll bring you some muffins in exchange, lots of muffins, just for you. I'll go and fetch them right now!" She gave a hopeful smile, but I could see that Carrot Top still wasn't happy.

"Derpy, do you remember the last time I tried one of your muffins?" She said coldly,

Derpy's odd eyes widened, as though she suddenly remembered something, and by the looks of it, it was a painful memory.

"Uhuh." She replied, "I used the wrong... I got..."

"They had salt in them." Replied Carrot Top. "You made the entire batch using salt, instead of sugar. I gave them to my family! They thought it was some kind of bizarre joke."

"Yeah, I'm sorry... it's just, salt and sugar look so much alike." I saw Derpy's ears droop, but Carrot Top didn't look at all sympathetic.

"I'll... I'll fetch some money." Derpy added timidly.

Even though the whole incident was entirely her fault, I felt kinda sorry for the clumsy mare. She was only trying to have fun after all, she just wanted to show me how fast she could fly.

I trotted to her side,

"It was just an accident. We will get some money to pay for the carrots." I assured Carrot Top.

The farm pony looked at me, then at Derpy. She then gave a sigh, and finally took pity on the pegasus. "No, don't worry about it. They're not that damaged, I'll wash them and give them to some rabbits or something."

She then smiled, and although it did look rather forced to me, Derpy was overjoyed.

"Thank you so much!" She exclaimed loudly.

I thought she was about to tackle Carrot Top to the ground with another brutal hug, but she managed to resist.

Derpy then turned to me, "Come on Scootaloo, let's go to the river!" She reached for my hoof and levitated off the ground, forcing me along with the street with her.

I was both confused and intrigued by Derpy's attitude. If I ever crashed into Carrot Top's stall on Firefly, I'd probably be feeling pretty down about it right now. Then again, scooting was kinda my thing, and flying didn't really seem to be Derpy's thing. It feels much worse when you mess up doing something you're actually supposed to be good at.

Come to think of it... what was Derpy's thing?

Her cutie mark was a group of bubbles. So did that mean she like blowing bubbles? Popping bubbles would be more understandable. Then again, she was a mail pony so... bubble wrap? Perhaps she just really liked popping bubble wrap, and getting her cutie mark was what inspired her to become a mail pony in the first place?

I wanted to ask for the story, but now didn't seem like the right time. Derpy was dragging me along, flying so quickly that my hooves were scarcely touching the ground. Luckily, we made it out of the streets without crashing into anything else.

The riverside was relatively peaceful, but darker than usual. The clouds really were building up, covering the sun, along with most of the sky. The wildlife that usually populated the area were no where to be seen, clearly they were aware that we were going to have some pretty bad weather soon.

"So, what do you want to do now?" I asked Derpy as we finally came to a halt.

Derpy scrunched her muzzle, and scanned the sky.

Do you wanna play Weather Ponies?” She asked.

“Weather… Ponies?” I had never heard of that game before.

“Me and Rainbow Dash used to play Weather Ponies all the time when we were foals.” Derpy explained, "It's really fun!"

That eased my concern a little, if Rainbow liked this game, then it must be pretty cool. "How do you play?" I asked,

“It's easy!” Derpy suddenly started flapping her wings, she then flew upwards and grabbed hold of a tiny grey cloud. There were a couple of actual weather ponies nearby, who looked rather annoyed at this, but Derpy didn't seem to notice as she carried the cloud down to the ground.

“You jump on the cloud, and make it rain! Try it!” She hopped up and down excitedly, as though demonstrating.

I felt rather excited about this game, Rainbow Dash had never let me jump on rain clouds before.

Derpy helped me up, and I had to admit; standing on a rain cloud felt pretty awesome. I understood why the other pegasi were annoyed with Derpy for bringing the cloud down for me; rain clouds had to be positioned with great precision, to ensure every inch of Ponyville received as much water as needed. This rain cloud was so small though, it was barely big enough for me to fit onto; surely they wouldn't miss it?

I bent my knees, and jumped excitedly. Sure enough, little droplets of rain fell from beneath the cloud and splashed gently onto the ground. It was so cool, I wondered why Rainbow Dash had never taken me up into the sky and let me jump on real rain clouds before, being a weather pony must be so much fun!

My jumping got faster, and the rain cloud gradually dried up. I grinned, proud of my accomplishment.

"That was amazing!" I told Derpy,

She looked extremely happy to hear me say that, "Really? You like it? Then wait right there Scootaloo!"

The pegasus flew back up into the sky, and grabbed a slightly bigger rain cloud, much to the disapproval of the weather ponies.

"Derpy, cut it out!" One of them shouted.

No pony tried to stop Derpy though, so I guess it wasn't that big a deal after all. They had so many clouds, so even if we took a couple to play with, there would still be plenty of rain for Ponyville.

This time, the cloud was big enough for both me and Derpy to stand on, and soon we were jumping manically upon it. The raindrops fell faster and heavier, creating a small puddle which soon soaked into the grass below.

We were laughing and bouncing up and down, having the time of our lives. It was like we were creating our own miniature storm. Rainbow Dash was right; hanging out with Derpy was pretty cool after all!

Once the cloud was out of water, Derpy ascended back into the air, this time flying much higher than before.

She seemed to take a few precautions this time to avoid the weather ponies. The sky was now completely covered with clouds, so it wasn't too hard for her to stay out of sight. She soon reappeared on the ground beside me, with her hooves grasping a bigger, and much darker rain cloud.

"This one looks awesome!" I grinned,

"Yeah, I got it from really high up, so there will be lots of rain this time!" Derpy said, smiling happily.

We climbed onto the cloud,

"Okay ready?" I started the count down, the first jump was always the most fun, and if we managed to jump simultaneously, the rain would fall super heavy.

"One...two...three...JUMP!"

We bent our knees and leapt into the air, and then....

*ZAP*