The Temp.
Prologue
Carrot Top stood alone on her farm, between the carrot patches. As far as her eyes could see, there was nothing but hordes of hungry rabbits charging towards her. All that stood between their vicious fangs and Carrot Top's livelyhood, was the orange mare, seemingly the only one still standing. It was a million to one.
Carrot could live with those odds, or die with it if she needed to.
Yelling loudly, she jumped at the first wave hooves first!
And awoke with a small thump as she rolled out of her bed onto the floor.
Chapter 1
The grumpy Carrot Top continued her way down, still groggy. She was always the first pony out of three to awaken, having been raised on a farm instead of a mail office or wherever it was Derpy grew up. Come to think of it, where DID she come from anyway? "Question later. Coffee now." thought Carrot Top to herself. She had a little trouble finding the kettle in the fog, but got it set up anyway. As she poured her cup, and sleep left the pony's head, she then thought to herself: "Hang on, WHY THE HAY IS THERE FOG IN MY HOUSE!?"
Carrot kicked open the door and found the area around her house completely fog-less, to her surprise. From the outside, it looked like her house was filled with white cotton candy. Oddly enough, it didn't float out of the door, or any windows, but stayed put. She walked back inside through the thick fog-bank when she heard stumbling upstairs.
"Mom? Aunt Carrot? Anypony?", called a voice from one of the bedrooms upstairs.
"Dinky?", Carrot yelled up the stairs "Is that you? Did you make this mist?". Dinky was one of her two housemates, along with her mother, Derpy. Dinky was a young, friendly, lavender unicorn.
"No! I..I don't think so. Did I?", the young unicorn spoke back.
Carrot heard a door opening, and a pony walking out. "Why is everypony yelling? Did I mess up again?..." said the third voice, belonging to Derpy Hooves, Carrot's housemate and best friend.
"No, it's okay." Carrot said resolutely. She felt like she had to take charge here. "Everypony come downstairs, and let's get this sorted out."
And so they did. Nopony knew where the fog came from, or why it was confined to the house, but among the three of them, they should be able to fix it somehow, right?
Chapter 2
"Pegasi move clouds, right? And fog is just low-hanging cloud, right?", Carrot postulated out loud, "So why don't you just push the darn fog OUT of the house!".
"It's not that simple!", Derpy snapped back, "See?!" as she tried leaning on the fog with both front hooves, and promptly fell flat on her face.
"Ow."
"Fine, fine. Then how about magic?", Carrot said, looking down to Dinky, who tried waving the fog away with one hoof.
"Inside the house? After what happened last time?", asked Dinky, a little fearful.
"Good point. Maybe we need somepony with a little more... experience with succesfully casting spells. No offense, Dinky.", Carrot said.
"None taken, Aunt Carrot.", said Dinky bitterly. She knew it was for the best, after she blew half the roof off, and got herself put into the hospital, last time, but it still hurt being passed over for something like this.
"We should ask the library pony!", said Derpy suddenly, "She's really good at magic, remember?"
Carrot Top remembered quite well how good Twilight was at magic, and shuddered remembering the mind-control doll and the Parasprite invasion. But, without any other options, she relented. "That's probably a good idea, go get her quickly!"
Derpy ran to the door and took off. To everypony's surprise, the fog immediately faded from the house and followed Derpy! She was too far away to recall, and from Carrot and Dinky's perspective it looked like a big white stripe pointed toward Ponyville.
Ten minutes later, Carrot and Dinky saw a familiar white cloud coming over the trail to her house. "Carrot!", a voice came from somewhere within the fog, "I went over to the town and I think I took the fog with me somehow and that's really scary and I think I've been cursed and I don't want to mess up your house and...!" Carrot heard how upset Derpy was, located the source of the voice, and pulled into a hug for a minute.
"Thanks Carrot." Derpy said as the two pulled apart again.
"No problem. So have you figured out what this stalking fog is yet?", Carrot said as she turned to Twilight, who had a purple light coming from her horn like a foglight. Dinky was staring at the light, both envious and mesmerized at once. Her own attempts at magic tempted to either fizzle out, or blow up spectacularly.
"Well, there have been a couple of cases like this, I think. I read about it in my book on cryptopathology, but I'm afraid I don't have enough information about this... cloud-magnetism." Twilight said with a hint of dissapointment in her voice. "But we could consult the royal library of Canterlot, of course."
"We can't." said Derpy resolutely. "I need to deliver mail or I won't get paid. If I don't get paid, I can't buy food. If I can't buy food, poor Dinky will starve."
"I'd never let her.", countered Carrot Top. "And do you really think you can deliver mail in this state? Wouldn't the letters get soaking wet?"
"A little... But I've messed up letters WAY beyond that, and I still got paid!", Derpy replied, fighting a losing battle.
Carrot mused that that was probably because her boss went so easy on Derpy. Anypony else would have been fired long ago. Derpy has something of a special kind of charm to her, you really can't stay mad at her for long.
"Uh, pardon me?", said Dinky softly. "Couldn't we just deliver the mail for you, Mom?"
Derpy thought this over for a minute. Carrot would like to object and tell Dinky that her carrots couldn't go unattended for a full day, but truth of the matter was that one day of obsessively straightening carrot plucks and watering every ten minutes was expendable, if just this once.
"Carrot? Is it okay with you? Can you do it?" Derpy said as she turned towards Carrot Top.
"Sure I can. It's just delivering letters, right? Shouldn't be that difficult." Carrot said, already starting to regret her choice of words.
Both Derpy and Dinky let out an enormous "GASP!" in response. Carrot braced herself. Twilight looked confused at the whole situation, and decided not to intrude, but to observe.
"Carrot! You have no idea how incredibly adventurous delivering mail is! You.. you... you cannot grasp the true nature of delivery! The mail must go EVERYWHERE!, no matter how far, dangerous or downright strange the destination!" , Derpy yelled at her, despite only standing a few feet away.
"Mailponies give their lives every day so that society does not crumble beneath the crushing hooves of noncommunication and disorder!", she continued, assisted by a nodding Dinky next to her, "No pony is an island, you know? They're ponies, not islands! Why would they be islands?! It doesn't make sense!! It doesn't!!!".
By now, Derpy was shaking Carrot's head around while getting less and less coherent. Dinky and Twilight just looked at the odd couple confused.
"I think I get it now. Mail VERY important, don't screw up.", Carrot concluded dryly.
"Huh? No, you can screw up very much. Just try not to.", Derpy said as genuine advice. "Also try to look innocent."
Derpy turned to Dinky, leaving Carrot more then a little confused. "Dinky, I already know you are the bestest little assistant a mailpony could ask for, but today I need you to be the big mailboss for Aunt Carrot, okay? You've helped me tons of times before, can I count on you to help your aunt as much as me?"
"Sure thing mom! Just watch; we'll be the fastest, safest and accuratest delivery ponies ever!", replied the enthousiastic Dinky.
Derpy pulled Dinky up to her with her hooves, and hugged her goodbye. She did take after her mother in that aspect, jumping into situations headfirst. Derpy stepped towards Twilight, who was still patiently watching the moment.
"Okay then, I think I've done all I can do for now.", said Derpy, "Be very careful, and I'll try to be back as soon as possible."
"Just come back healthy, okay?", said Carrot Top, "I'm too young to be a single aunt!".
Though she knew Carrot meant it as a joke, somewhere deep down Derpy felt some measure of terror as she subconciously imagined leaving Dinky and Carrot forever. She put on a brave face to fool everypony present, as to not make a bad situation worse.
"Ok, which way is Canterlot?", Derpy asked Twilight, because she couldn't see through the cloud surrounding the group.
Twilight answered: "I think it's that way, but I'm not so sure if...WHOOAAAH!".
Derpy snatched the purple unicorn up from a running start and soared off into the skies at lightning speed, clouds following in her wake. "No time to waste! Got to get un-cursed quick! Family needs me!", she shouted.
Chapter 3
Carrot and Dinky slowly made their way up the small mountain housing the post office. "Why did pegasi insist on making their places inaccesible to any other ponies?", thought Carrot Top to herself. Dinky didn't seem to mind, as she was almost skipping along the path excitantly. "Wonder how long it's been since she's been there?", Carrot wondered. Before the two moved in with Carrot, Derpy and Dinky lived in the post office. Carrot had never been there herself, the few times she had needed to send something big she just asked one of the mailponies themselves to pick it up.
"Just a liiitle further, Aunt Carrot!", said Dinky.
"You said that three miles ago too!", replied Carrot. Fortunately, Carrot was a hardworking pony, more than capable of trekking up the mountain. She just felt like playing off off the giddy little unicorn.
A little while later the post office came into view. It was quite an unusual structure, to say the least. A middle-sized wooded shack with two extra floors and some sort of tower placed on top. The building didn't look very stable to Carrot, but apparently it withstood the harsh winds up here with ease.
Dinky galloped towards the front door and bashed it open with gusto. A thundering "IIIII'MMMM HHHOOOOOMMMMME!" careeened down the mountain.
Carrot followed her inside shortly. Just as she entered, she saw a large brown pegasus stallion descend from one of the upper floors, down to Dinky.
"Uncle Carryall!", Dinky shouted as she jumped to him, even before he landed.
"Oohmph! Little Dinky, is that you? You've grown so much bigger since I last saw you! Stronger...too..." he replied, losing his breath to the choking bear-hug from the little unicorn attached to his neck.
After Carryall had regained his breath, Carrot and Dinky explained the situation as best as they could.
"All right, we can handle that.", concluded Carryall. "I can arrange it so that you just have to deliver local mail, I'll divide the other jobs between the other mailponies and myself. I don't know if you're up to the task, but I have no choice.". He turned to Dinky, "I know it can't be easy for you, Dinky. If you think you can't do it, just tell me now. We'll figure something out."
"No, I can't.", stated Dinky after a seconds' pause. "Not alone. That's why I brought Aunt Carrot with me here. Together, we can."
"Very well. Just be careful.", said Carryall, barely hiding a sense of almost fatherly pride behind a stoic facade.
A pair of pegasi flew down from the mail room upstairs, carrying a big brown pair of saddlebags between them and set it down in front of Carrot Top. "Try it on, please.", said one of them.
Carrot did so. "This is not that bad actually. Lighter than I expected.", she thought to herself.
"Okay, fill 'er up!", shouted the other pegasus next to her, who promptly started stuffing Carrot's bag with stacks and stacks of letters and packages.
The sudden weight increase caught Carrot off guard, and she fell to her knees swiftly. The pegasi suppressed a scoff, and offered to lighten the load. However, Carrot Top was a lot stronger than she looked, and rose up again despite the burden.
She felt like she was going to break in half, but shouldered the load regardless. Her best friend had now both figuratively and literally saddled her with her burden.
"Easy...peasy.", she told Carryall, who stood there doubting her mentally. Did Derpy actually fly around with this much weight on her back daily? Carrot felt like she could barely walk, much less fly.
"It's kind of a big mail day, sorry. Lots of birthday presents or something.", Carryall said "Maybe somepony ordered an entire gala's worth of supplies by air mail? You'd be surprised how often that happens."
Dinky jumped up towards the mailbags, climbed halfway in and pulled out a list of adresses from it. She started shoving Carrot out the door: "Come on, Aunt Carrot, we've gotta go! Mail always needs to be on time, otherwise society collapses! You remember the speech! Go! Go! Go!"
A bemused Carrot Top walked out the door, Dinky in tow. But before the two had even gone ten meters, they were suddenly pulled up into the air by a flight of mail-pegasi. Settling Dinky on his back, Carryall and the others offered them a ride safely down.
As Carrot and Dinky were set down in the center of the awakening Ponyville, and the mailponies went on their seperate assignments, Carryall remained as the last one.
"Miss Carrot?", he asked, "Might I be so rude as to invite you and little Dinky for dinner with us tonight? We've got a lot to talk about, and now is just too short."
Before she could reply, Dinky had her answer ready: "YES! Of course we'll come! Uncle Carryalls' pancakes are MUCH better than yours, Aunt Carrot! They're awesome! Delicious! Edible even! You will make pancakes, right? Please make pancakes!"
"Well, who am I to deny such a grateful little filly.", Carrot Top said with some dissapointment, "We'll come by after we've delivered all the mail, mister Carryall."
"Thank you, miss Carrot. I'm sure we'll all have a good time.", he replied before taking off, "Make Di...Derpy proud of the two of you, ladies! Good luck!"
Chapter 4
"First stop, Ponyville library. We'd better tell Twilight's assistant where she's gone off to with Derpy.", said Carrot.
"Hang on, I think there's a delivery for there in the bag somewhere!" said Dinky, who leapt into the saddlebag face-first.
Carrot could barely hold the added weight of the wriggling filly and struggled to keep standing. "OW! Careful, Dinky! That hurts!", she said as she felt repeatedly stabbed by Dinky's poking around in the bag.
"Got it!", Dinky said happily, poking her head out of the bag and carrying a big book in her mouth. "Wonder what it is?"
"I'm going with "book", now get out of there!", said Carrot.
An undisturbed Dinky jumped out, and put the book over her horn with one of the ropes of the packaging. "What kind of book do you think it is? You think it's a book about dragons? Or about knights? Maybe about knights fighting dragons! Think I could borrow this book from the library?"
Carrot was used to Derpy going along with Dinky in her hyper-moments like this, not herself. She hoped she could bear it the entire day. Dinky was a nice filly, really, but once she got going, there really was no end in sight. Carrot caught herself thinking like that, and felt ashamed because of it. She didn't have a foal of herself, yet, but she felt like an inept parent for getting so irritated, so fast. But nonetheless, Derpy had asked her to take care of Dinky, and by Celestia she would!
Carrot, still asking herself if all days of parenthood were like this, failed to notice that the library was very close to the town center, and smacked her head against its front door a bit. Still dazed, she saw a small purple dragon claw open the top half of the door.
"There's only one pony I know who knocks doors like that, especially this early in the morning! D'you want a muffin and tea, Derpy?", said the baby dragon while opening the bottom half of the door too. "By the way, have you seen... Hey! You're not the usual mailpony!"
"We're the temporary mailponies, mister Evil-Dragon-Sir... (please don't eat us)!" said Dinky, quickly hiding behind Carrot Top.
"Dinky, behave yourself!", said Carrot Top sternly. "sorry, she's been reading too much stories lately. We have a delivery for the library, and I should probably tell you that Derpy more or less foalnapped Twilight towards Canterlot for some un-cursing."
"We'd-d-d still like a mu-mu-mufffin please, sir.", Dinky said, trying her best to stand bravely beside Carrot.
A few minutes later Carrot and Dinky left the library again, one book lighter and two muffins heavier.
"Next stop?" asked Carrot, optimistic about her temporary job. So far, so good.
"This package is for a "Miss Rarity" at the Carousel Boutique. Wonder what this one is?" *Rattle rattle* "Wanna have a look?", said Dinky machievously.
"We can't just start rifling through other ponies private mail! And I'm pretty sure we're not supposed to shake it around like that! Give me that!", said Carrot. She felt bad about being so harsh, but there were some pretty straightforward rules about mail delivery.
"You're no fun either...", grumbled Dinky.
The two walked silently along, up to the boutique. Carrot knocked on the door, with her hoof this time.
A white and purple figure flew out the second story window and tackled Carrot to the ground, screaming: "I HAVE YOU KNOW, YOU FEATHERED FARCE OF FASHION! RELINQUISH TO ME THAT HIDEOUS EXCUSE FOR A !...". Rarity paused as she stared straight into Carrot's face. "My... Derpy! You've... had some work done?", she tried halfheartedly.
Carrot crawled out from under the alabaster assailant, while Dinky rolled on the floor,laughing her ass off. She wasn't much of a fashion-following type of pony, but on occasion she liked wearing a fancy dress or something. She'd met Rarity once, maybe twice?
"First off, why'd you think I was Derpy? Secondly, why would you tackle me if I was!?", Carrot said angrily to the just recovered Rarity.
"In my defense, Derpy has been rather... escapive in my last few attempts. I was just being precautious is all.", Rarity defended herself.
"Escapive? What would my mom be escaping from?", Dinky asked confused.
"You tell me! All I want to do is make just the teensiest tiniest bit of modifications to that horrid brown piece of cloth... currently... within.. reach... GOTHA!!", Rarity said, snatching the mailbag off Carrot's back and running back inside.
"Hey! Give it back! That's a family heirloom!", Dinky shouted inside. Carrot looked at her confused.
"Well, it will be one day anyway. After her!"
Dinky and Carrot followed inside the boutique, a brightly lit place filled with numerous moving racks of clothing. A large pile of packages identical to the one Carrot and Dinky were supposed to deliver was lying in the corner. As the two stepped further inside, a rack filled to the brink with saddlebags of all sorts came barreling from a back room, followed by Rarity herself.
"Darling! You woudn't BELIEVE the trouble your friend usually gives me! I've been trying for weeks to get her to let me replace that hideous brown blemish! Sadly, we've reached an... impasse in our little dispute. But, now that you're here in her place, I'm sure you'll make the right decision for her! Now how do you like this one? *She pulls out a bright pink and white fuzzy set of bags* No? Too flashy? Oh, nevermind, I've got TONS more! Bwahahaha!"
Carrot was quite overwhelmed by the whole situation, and just nodded her head at the torrent of words. Dinky however, had a clearer opinion on the matter:
"GIMME BACK THE REAL MAILBAG!", she shouted as she crouched down into a fighting pose, readying herself to leap at the thieving white unicorn.
Before she could do anything though, she was picked up by Rarity's magic, and floated towards the back door.
"Now you run along now, Dinky, this is a matter for big ponies. Go play with Sweetie Belle or something, will you?", Rarity said while lifting Dinky away.
Dinky struggled in vain as she got tossed in the side room, landing upside down on the couch. She ran up to the now closed-and-locked door and started banging against it. "Hey! HEY! Let me back in! Give me back the mail and let us go back to work! Ponies are counting on us!", she shouted to no avail. She slumped down against the door, defeated: "Mom is counting on us..."
The desperate Dinky thought to herself: "She'll be stuck here for hours, and when she's done, Mom's mailbag will have been stolen and replaced by some useless overblown fancy piece of..."
"Hi Dinky! What're you doing here? My sister's got your mom trapped again?", said a white unicorn filly that just entered the room because of all the ruckus. Dinky recognised her as one of her classmates, Sweetie Belle, Rarity's little sister.
"No, she grabbed the next best thing. Me and my aunt, We're covering for her today, she's off to Canterlot to get rid of some curse.", Dinky replied, relieved to find a vent for her frustration that can't toss her out of the room with magic.
"And now she's gone away and we have to do her job and my aunt's been ponynapped and we'll never be able to do it in time and I'm gonna be a bad daughter and... and... and...". Dinky sobbed softly and covered her face with her hoof for a moment.
Then she steeled herself; "But I'm not giving up now! I just need to get Aunt Carrot out of here now that there is still time! But how? I don't think even the two of us can bust that door down..."
"No, not from this side at least. But I've got an idea that'll give us a shot, and we'll only have to commit a small bit of wanton vandalism for it...", said Sweetie Belle in a far more sinister tone than Dinky could've imagined coming from her.
Meanwhile, back in the boutique itself:
Carrot had gone through fifteen different sets of clothing in barely a few minutes, and she was quickly losing her patience. Sure, a stop for a few minutes was nothing too bad, and to be fair, she never had too many chances to play dress-up, but there was something about the whole situation that was rubbing her wrongly. It didn't feel nice to go and replace Derpy's own mailbag outright, especially since she apparently was very opposed to Rarity's insistent pushing. On top of all that, Carrot didn't buy Rarity's explaination that Dinky voluntarily ran off to play with her little sister.
Rarity approached Carrot with her next item: "So I have this GORGEOUS little bag right here, but you know what? I think that voluminous orange mane of yours really doesn't match it at all, wouldn't you agree? So if you'd just be so kind as to put on this little wig I threw together just for this occasion...?" She produced a clump of blonde hair, disturbingly accurate to Derpy's mane, and held it on the back of Carrot's neck.
"Really, wouldn't it be MUCH simpler just to ask Derpy herself when she gets better?", Carrot said annoyed.
"Yeah, I tried that a bunch of times", Rarity said, glancing at the pile of packages in the corner, "But she keeps flying away and all that. Poor thing must be way too shy to let me make her presentable!"
"Or just offended and annoyed enough.", Carrot thought so loud it almost slipped out.
"OKAY DINKY! I THINK PRACTICING UNTRAiNED MAGIC ON MY SISTERS VERY EXPENSIVE PORCELAIN TEA SET IS A WONDERFUL IDEA! LET's TRY GENTLY MOVING THIS ONE LITTLE CUP A SHORT DISTANCE!!", a filly's voice yelled out from somewhere in the non-boutique portion of the house, followed by the sound of expensive things shattering.
Rarity's face pulled into a snarl, then into a fabricated friendly face: "I'll be riiight back, Carrot Top. I just have to... take care of something small... in the house.". She stomped off to and through the barricaded door.
When she was two seconds past the door, Dinky quickly but quietly ran out from behind it towards Carrot Top: "Idonthavetimetoexplainwegottagonow!", she half-whispered as fast as she could, "We've got 11.7 seconds before she finds Sweetie Belle alone!"
Carrot snatched the original mailbag and contents away from behind a box where Rarity tried to hide it and ran for the door. The two ran around the corner of a nearby house just as they heard Rarity desperately call out to them for about ten seconds, then getting back to work like nothing happened at all.
Chapter 5
After their narrow escape from the overly proactive fashionista, Carrot and Dinky decided to go for a lunch in one of Ponyville's restaurants, Chef Spicey Brew's Diner. After Dinky vehemently opposed the waiter giving her a little filly's chart and insisted on the grown-up chart, only to find out she didn't fancy anything on there, they had some time to kill before served.
"Hey, uh... Aunt Carrot? Can I ask you something? Something kinda important?", asked Dinky. Carrot nodded in agreement.
"If... if my mother can't get this curse removed, or something else happens, could I.. stay with you?", Dinky said with some effort.
"What? But why would you..? Oh, Dinky, really. You shouldn't think like that!", Carrot said, and took Dinky's hooves into her own. "Your mom is really good at getting into trouble, but even better at getting out of it! You know that better than anyone! Just you wait, she'll be back, healthy as a horse in no time."
Dinky sighed, a little relieved but still as concerned as any child fearing for her parents. "Thanks, Aunt Carrot. But I really mean it, if Mom's never comes back, I want to live with you. Uncle Carryall is really nice, but it I go back there you'd be all alone again. Mom always said that you were a very lonely pony before we moved in. I don't want you to be lonely again, Aunt Carrot."
Carrot couldn't hold it all in anymore, and cried a little, pulling Dinky up to her chest. Dinky followed suit immediately after.
After a few minutes worth of venting, Carrot and Dinky let loose again.
"This.. *sniffle*, this is why Mom works on her own.", Dinky said with a smile, "too much cuddling, too little working."
Chapter 6
"You packed a giant slingshot, by any chance?", Carrot asked Dinky.
"No, and even if I did, we'd need to dig a trench at least 20 metres down, and get a huge elastic...", Dinky replied, oblivious to the sarcasm.
"Nevermind.", Carrot cut her off.
The problem facing the two replacement-mailponies on the ground was that their intended destination was about a hundred meters straight up. Rainbow Dash's cloudhouse hovered overhead, far out of reach.
"How does she normally do this?", Carrot wondered out loud, oblivious to the obvious answer.
"Can't you just... magic... the letter up there or something?", Carrot asked Dinky.
Dinky, painfully reminded that she couldn't do succesful magic yet, snipped back: "Can't you grow a carrot big enough to climb on up there?"
Carrot had the idea stir in her head for a few seconds, then snapped back into reality.
"How about we just ask a pegasus to fly up there?", Carrot asked.
"No, we gotta do this ourselves. If mom didn't think we could do it, she would've asked somepony else.", Dinky replied, irritated. "But I've got a great idea. I just need you to get me some stuff..."
Scantly fifteen minutes later, Carrot Top returned, carrying a bag filled with the various trinkets Dinky asked her to gather from their home. She returned to find Dinky having dug a small hole directly underneath the cloud-house that was their target.
"All right, now CAREFULLY give me the stuff from my room, please.", Dinky asked with a cold, careful tone in her voice.
Carrot complied, although now painfully aware that whatever Dinky had made her fetch was quite a bit more dangerous than she thought.
Dinky meanwhile, was in her element, tinkering and fidgeting with glee. As she finished putting together some sort of contraption from the junk, she carefully buried it ten centimeters deep, and put the letter on top of the site, attached to a small sack.
"Ok, that oughtta do it. Now take cover! I'll explain in a moment!", she said, jumping away from the set-up as soon as possible.
Carrot didn't waste a moment diving after Dinky behind a ditch. "Dinky! What the hay are you up to here!? Were you building a bomb in my house!?", she said, angrily realizing what the filly had been up to right underneath her nose.
"I wasn't building a bomb! I just... had the right stuff for it lying around... for some reason. I wanted to try something I read in my book, okay!? I... wanted to build a rocket, so I could fly up to Cloudsdale. I'll have to start all over again now, thank you very much.", Dinky confessed.
"Why would you want to fly a rocket up to Cloudsdale?! That might be the dumbest idea I've ever heard, and I've heard somepony suggest I start growing muffin trees!", Carrot shouted.
Dinky sighed deeply. "Because Mom doesn't want me to go anywhere near there, and I think she's hiding something from me. Everytime somepony mentions it, she changes the conversation somehow. Did you never notice it?", she answered honestly. "I.. I think my Dad might be there too... maybe not. But I just want to know, I do."
"Dinky...", Carrot began, disarmed of her anger.
"No, It's okay. I probably shouldn't have been snooping around like that, and really probably shouldn't have been gathering explosives in your house. I will accept any punishment you want to give me, even if you want to kick me out or something."
"No, no I don't want to kick you out. Believe me, your mother and I are going to have some talk when she gets back, and I think she'll be the one to decide how you are to be punished, but for now, you're fine. Just don't EVER do something like that again without telling me.", Carrot said. "Now tell me about your plan."
Dinky flared up at the question. "Well, it's really simple! I've put the reactive chemicals from the book in the dissolvable bag, and when they eat through and react with the surrounding air and soil, the explosion should be enough to blow the letter straight up into Ms. Rainbow Dash's house!", she said with glee.
Carrot Top, an agricultural pony well versed in the field of soil composition, and having attempted to build a rocket in her youth herself, felt the need to prevent Dinky from repeating her own mistakes all those years ago: "What about the high phospherous levels around Ponyville?"
Youthful, oblivious and overeager, Dinky replied: "What phospherous levels?"
As if listening to the conversation at hand, awaiting the best moment to strike, a giant explosion blasted from the hill, temporarily deafening all within earshot.
Chapter 7
The first thing Carrot heard again was the jubilant cheering of the filly beside her.
"YEEAAAH!! It totally worked! Blew straight into the sky!"
Dinky raised her hoof for a brohoof from Carrot Top, who gave her a glare in return.
"And I will never ever try to build one in your house again.", she quickly added.
Carrot looked up, dreading what had happened to the house of their destination. To her reassurance, the big cloud mash-up was still mostly there, though with a small hole right in the middle, and some small cloud parts drifting off.
"Did we get it? Did we hit the target?", Dinky asked while jumping up and down excitantly.
"I think we did a little more than hit it, you little pyromaniac, you almost blew somepony's house up! Again!", Carrot replied angrily, but with some hidden amount of pride.
Dinky whimpered and lowered her head again.
"Sorry."
"But did the letter arrive safely?", she asked after a few seconds.
As luck would have it, the letter was released a few dozen meters above the house, and safely drifted down onto the "floor" of the cloudhouse. Being adressed to a pegasus, the letter could lie down on top of it. With the aid of a small-scale telescope Dinky had Carrot bring, they could see the edge of the letter from through the cloud.
Satisfied that their mission was complete, Carrot and Dinky turned back towards Ponyville to deliver the rest of the letters, as small clumps and bits of earth rained down behind them.
Chapter 8
The end of the day loomed, and lo and behold; the job was almost complete. Only one more letter remained in the mailbag.
"Hey, I fink thif if the laft one!", Dinky said, pulling the last letter out of the bag with her mouth. "Lets see... it's adressed to a... Miss Golden Harvest The Fifth? That's odd, the address is our house... Did your house used to belong to some wealthy lady or something? Nah, what lady would want to live in some musky old farmhouse when she could have a castle? Maybe it's for...".
Dinky didn't get to finish her puzzlements as Carrot snatched the letter off of her, annoyed. She started reading the letter.
"Dear Carrot Top (Twilight made me use your secret special name on the envelope, sorry),
we used the instant-letter-bringer-spell to send you this! Please don't tell anypony or I might lose my job again. We have gotten rid of the evil curse! Turns out you really shouldn't eat those delicious blue flowers that grow in Haygraze Meadows. There is a little bit of a problem with the curse-remover though, I'll tell you more when we get back. About coming back, it won't be until tomorrow, I'm afraid. Tell Dinky carefully. Tell her Mommy is very sorry, and she'll do her best to be back tomorrow.
I hope the mail duty goes well, without any complications. Watch out for the crazy pony at the boutique.
Love, Derpy Hooves
P.S: Say hi to Carryall for me!"
Carrot felt mixed. On one hoof, the curse was gone, and Derpy was coming back. On the other hoof, she had heard Derpy (and Dinky) use the phrase "a little bit of a problem" on situations of varying little-ness before. In any case, the job was done, and it was time to return to the mailstation. She told Dinky about the content of the letter on the long walk up the mountain.
"so... Mom's not here tonight...", Dinky spoke softly. Ever since she was born, Derpy had remained a very close parent. She really disliked leaving Dinky's side for and kind of reason. Leaving her at school was hard enough on her, let alone not being there an entire day and night.
Dinky inhaled proudly to raise her spirits, "That's cool. No big deal. Big pony. I'll be fine."
Carrot knew better. The first night she slept in her own farm, away from her family, she was secretly terrified of being alone at night. And she was a grown pony then, imagine what this little filly is going through. She walked up next to Dinky, and put one of her hooves around her neck.
"No, Dinky. WE'll be fine. You're my little muffin too, you know?", she said in her best attempt to sound like Derpy in one of her motherly moments.
Dinky snorted and laughed a bit at that, and smiled up at Carrot.
"Thanks, Aunt Carrot.", she said sincerely. Carrot smiled back. Spirits raised, they concluded the final part of their journey up the mountain.
Chapter 9
Carrot was astounded at the piles upon piles of pancakes that seemed to vanish inside the little unicorn with lightning speed. This must have been like her thirtieth plate or something!
"OM NOM NOM!", came from Dinky, happily devouring her twenty-first syrup-sugar-and-apple-pancake. Uncle Carryall's were the best!
Carrot had had a long day, but after her third pancake, she decided to stop. She stood up from the table and walked up to Carryall, busy whipping up the next batch for his goddaughter.
"Amazing. We have to try to get her to eat more than two back home, you know?", she said jokingly.
"Really? Always has been a big eater, that one. Bit of a sweet-tooth too, if you ask me. I try making potato-cakes once, she threatens to run away and go eat in the big city, "because everypony can eat whatever they want there, all the time!", he replied jokingly back.
"I waffnt feriouf!", Dinky shouted with her mouth full. "I waf juft upthet becoff I don't like ffegetablef!"
She swallowed. "But I still wanna go to Manehattan one day."
A few rounds later, and even Dinky called it quits. Satisfied, the ponies laid down in front of the fireplace.
"Hey Dinky!", Carryall said, "Wanna see what I dug up while you were away?"
Dinky jumped up to her hooves again, and nodded in agreement.
"Then you oughtta go check your old room upstairs! We kinda remade it into a recreation room after you and your mother left though. Feel free to play with anything you can find!", Carryall said encouragingly.
"Yes! Thanks Uncle Carryall!", Dinky said while storming up the ladder to upstairs.
Carryall's face turned serious the moment Dinky was out of sight.
He turned to Carrot Top and spoke in a deep, serious voice: "Miss Carrot Top. You have been taking care of my girls for more than a year now. Derpy would never say anything negative about anypony, but I need to know. When she came to live with us, it seemed like all the world conspired against her. Everypony and thing was so hellbent on bringing her down... What I want to know from you, honestly, is if life is better for her now. Has she found her real place?"
"I.. don't understand. Was it that bad? I know she doesn't like to talk about anything before she came living here with you, or even that very much, but...", said Carrot Top, taken aback by the sudden shift in conversation.
"Hm.", said Carryall, "I don't know how much I can just tell you, Miss Carrot Top, but Derpy speaks of you as one of the best things that has ever happened to her, although her standards are quite low on that."
He sighed. "Very well. When I met the pony you call "Derpy", she was just a little filly, a little younger than Dinky is now. I had just started my own mail business, and was still doing most of the fieldwork myself. One day, I was making a big delivery up in Cloudsdale when I tripped over somepony..."
Chapter 10
[FLASHBACK]
"Father! Father I think I hurt somepony! Help!", shouted the small gray pegasus filly into the nearby cloud-building.
"Ditzy! I thought I told you to stay out of trouble for Just. One. Day!", said an angry dark gray pegasus wearing a blacksmith's apron and muzzlecap. "Now get inside right now!"
Ditzy was scared witless, and ran inside as fast as she could, forgetting the blanket and toys she was just playing with.
Her father did not, and folded the toys in the blanket, then tossed it inside after her. "And take your junk with you!". A yelp of fear and pain came from inside the building.
He turned to the brown mailpony buried under the collapsed cart. "Hey buster! Watch out where you're going next time! You almost hit my shop, and I'm not paying for your incompetence!" He kicked the mailpony in the ribs lightly, and saw him flinch. "You're fine, now scram!"
A few minutes later, as Carryall was leaving again, he heard ruffling in the wall of the house, and turned to it. He saw the filly's head pop out from the clouds in the corner.
"sorry mister! Really really sorry!", said Ditzy, looking down, away from Carryall.
Carryall couldn't help but smile a little at the disembodied apolegetic head sticking out of the wall. "Apology accepted, little pony. Are you allright? You're not hurt, are you?"
Ditzy looked up, and Carryall saw that only her right eye looked straight at him, the other one looking off to the side. "I'm fine mister. But Father doesn't like me being out of the house because I am a stoopid pony, and stoopid ponies shouldn't go outside. But it looked so nice outside... I just wanted to play...", she said with sorrow. "Please don't tell Father I was outside!"
"I promise." Carryall felt really bad for landing the filly in so much trouble, but he knew his delivery couldn't wait any longer. "I have to go now, little filly. I have to bring my cargo to my destination."
Ditzy liked how nice this mister was to her, just like Grandpa and his friends at the old ponies' place. She didn't want him to go, but if this "Des Teenation" pony couldn't wait, she understood. "Okay...", she said. "Will you come back someday? I promise I won't play outside then!"
"Please don't promise that!", said Carryall, "Fillies like you shouldn't stay cooped up inside all their lives! I can't promise if I'll be back, but if I have to make a delivery here in Cloudsdale, I'll fly by and see if you're here, okay?"
"Okay, thanks mister! Don't tell Father! Bye bye!", Ditzy said, and popped her head back inside.
Carryall smiled and flew off again.
[END FLASHBACK]
"And I did see her a few times after that, always in that same corner. She told me all about everything. Her father being a very grumpy and mean pony, her mother rarely being there at all and the ponies at school that bullied her. What struck me about her was that she never seemed to let it get to the pony inside. She always found something to be happy about, even if it was just the conversation. One time, I accidentally dropped a letter up there. Next morning, I found her sleeping at my front door all the way down here! Turns out she tracked me all the way to Ponyville just to bring it back to me! That's when I saw her tenacity for real. I offered her a place in my company when she grew up. In the end, I took her under my wing, so to speak. The little filly from the corner."
Carrot was silenced by the whole story. She knew her friend hid something from her past, but to hear it laid bare like this... She felt divided. On one hoof, she wanted to know more, to understand, to sympathize. On the other hoof, nopony but Derpy herself should be telling all this. Before she could decide whether to stop listening or not, Carryall continued.
"As you probably can imagine, school was a terrible place for a sweet, naive and clumsy pony like your friend. She told me everything. Bullies, impossible lectures and tests, everything. Worst time was when she thought a colt liked her for real, then just turned out to be another bully. Despite that, through everything she persevered. When she eventually passed out of flight school, and came working for me, it seemed to go so well. She spent more and more time with me and the other mailponies, and less with her parents. I'm really glad that part worked out, at least. The others and I never made fun of her, she became part of our little family..."
"Then, one day she turned up in the evening, looking like hell. She gave me a flying tackle like she hadn't seen me in forever, but I just saw her that morning. If I didn't know any better I'd say she grew years older in one day. Few weeks later, she keeps getting sick in the morning, eating all kinds of random stuff and soforth, turns out she's months pregnant! Never even knew she had a mate. We tried to get her to tell us who it was, but she kept on saying it was a miracle and everything. Pregnancy made her cranky too, so we didn't prod too hard on that. Besides, she had enough of that... Her parents were the worst that time. If I didn't have the resposibility of the entire company back then, I would've done some terrible things... They were furious, of course, but then they became much worse. From what Ditzy told me, they never even considered the possibility of letting her keep her foal after it was born, if they even were going to let it come to that. She moved out permanently not soon after."
"When she couldn't move anymore, we brought her to the hospital, under heavy protest of course. She was always well enough to work. Didn't like being cooped up in there. When she was due, we all finished work at triple speed, and waited at the hospital. Waited three days. Then we were allowed in with her. I still remember seeing the two of them together for the first time. I actually accidentaly gave her her name, you know? Asked how the little dink was doing... went from there."
"She wasn't the only one getting named that day. Ditzy Doo wanted to leave everything of her behind, and she did. Taking on the insults thrown at her by almost everypony in her life, Ditzy Doo became Derpy Hooves. Not out of shame, but out of pride. Ditzy Doo the failure, but Derpy Hooves the proud mother and friend."
Chapter 11
Carrot was blown away. All this time, she just thought her friend was just a silly pony with a talent for causing trouble, and the charm to get out of it. But now she knew. And she felt terrible for it. Every time she had scolded Derpy...Ditzy...whoever! haunted her now. Every time she considered removing her from her home, every time she got mad at her for breaking something, every time she plundered the fridge at night, everything.
Carryall noticed this.
"Don't.", he said sternly.
"Don't change how you treat her. She chose to live with you because you treated her fairly, without any prior knowledge. For us, it's natural to do whatever we can to make it easier for her. For you, that's your choice, and that is why she's better with you. I'd never be able to get angry at her, and neither can anypony else here, but you can, and you must. Treat her like her own pony, Carrot Top."
"But what if I can't help it? After everything you've told me, how can I do nothing?! You want me to just trot on out of here and act like nothing ever happened?!", she replied.
"No, I can imagine that would be impossible. But consider this: do you think Derpy would have been able to scold Dinky for building a rocket, like you told me you did? Raising a foal takes more than just hugs and kisses. You need to be the straight pony, the one to keep them in line whenever that's needed. You may be the most important pony in both their lives right now, and that's why you need to treat them fairly.", Carryall said.
"I... understand. But after all we've been through today, I think I'll go for a big hug the moment I see her again...", Carrot said.
Carryall gave her a big bear hug right then, right there.
"You do that, Carrot Top. Hugs are good. Hugs are good...", Carryall said with small tears in his eyes, proud to leave his little family in her care.
Chapter 12
After hearing an afwul lack of rummaging about coming from upstairs, Carryall walked back downstairs carrying a sleeping filly to between his wings.
"Fell asleep in the middle of a pillow fortress and a pile of comic books.", he whispered.
He put her gently inside a mailbag, which seemed to feel natural to Dinky, as she immediately rolled into a more comfortable position.
Carrot picked up the mailbag carefully and slowly, and walked up to the door.
"Oh yeah, Wait! Wait up!", he spoke quietly as he flew upstairs and back down again. He came back with a bunch of comics, and a small envelope, placing them in the other side of the saddlebags.
"Little present for her. One for you too. Don't open it until you're back home again, and don't worry, I've got like a dozen of them", Carryall said. "Now come on, let's go."
Carrot and Carryall walked off into the quiet evening, not speaking much for fear of waking their precious cargo.
Chapter 13
Dinky was safe and sound in her bed again. Carrot put the bags down in the living room, and went for a glass of milk. The water damage had ruined her curtains, couch and probably a lot more. No biggie, Ponyville's merchants always were prepared for widespread distruction of property, for some reason. Actually, Carrot wanted to remodel a little for some time now. Now she had an excuse. Carrot grinned a little.
Now what was that gift that Carryall was talking about?
Carrot walked up to her room, which still had some dry areas, to open the envelope. Inside were a bunch of small black-and-white picture of about twenty pegasi posing for a group photo on a ground-level-cloud. Carrot recognized the boss, Carryall in the middle, and a few mailponies she had seen once or twice before. But what stood out the most for her was the rightmost pony, a small, timid pegasus filly with her eyes looking in two different directions. There were a few more photographs in the envelope, each one a group shot. In every picture, Derpy seemed to walk closer to the center of the group, and looking more radiant too. In the last few ones, she saw the big difference having Dinky had had on her, just like Carryall described, she looked like she aged years between pictures, but with the biggest smile of all, holding the sleeping foal in her front legs.
Carrot had known Derpy for a few years, starting when she hired the mailponies to haul her first own grown batch of carrots to her parents far away in Muzzletreal. Accidentaly striking up a conversation about how good carrots were for improving eyesight maybe wasn't the best start, but in the end it did help form a connection between the two. Plus, over half the carrots actually arrived on their destination, which Derpy assured her was well over the average. Since then, they became best friends. Derpy came by for tea, muffins and carrots a few times per week, and occasionally Dinky came along too, still just a foal. Then when she started going to school, Carrot jokingly suggested that both of them move in with her so mountaineering didn't need to become part of Dinky's everyday routine. Since then, both duos became one big trio.
Carrot put the photos back in the envelope, laid down and sighed. It had been a heavy day for her, physically and emotionally. She wasn't a mother herself, but she knew this was pretty much how it was meant to feel. All the effort and trouble, but also that overwhelming sense of pride at the end of the day.
She laid her back on her pillow and fell asleep immediately.
Chapter 14
Old habits die hard, so Carrot arose early yet again. The lack of fog actually only made it seem emptier inside, reminding Carrot of Derpy's absence. Not that Derpy was actually ever up at this hour, but still. She missed her more than she could rationalize, at least this early. Well, off to check the fence for holes.
Carrot thought to herself as she walked out the front door: "Freaking rabbits! Small, all-devouring monsters is what they are! If Fluttershy let another bunch of them run free I'll...AAAH!"
Carrot tripped over some sort of pink, coiled up abberation lying on her porch. "Owie! What was that?", it spoke with a voice that Carrot knew all too well.
"Derpy!", Carrot shouted and crawled over to her for a hug without standing up first.
"Hey Carrot! I didn't want to wake you and Dinky up, so I took a nap here. You need to get a more comfy door...", Derpy responded happily.
The hug was broken after a moment, and Carrot saw Derpy wearing an eye-blindingly pink hoodied sweater and cape-ish-thing.
"Why the candystore wardrobe, actually?", she asked.
"Because... I liked this one better than all the rest?", Derpy tried, with her left eye frantically looking around.
Carrot stared right back with both her eyes, winning the stare-down instantly. She was very good at that.
"Okay... But don't laugh at me, please.", Derpy said relunctantly. She pulled down the hoodie and revealed a very bald pony underneath.
"Apparantly this makes a "partial colonization of extradermal pegasus tissue by a semi-parasitic meteorologically non-conforming metabolic plant-based lifeform" go away faster. And it does! See, no clouds! It's... also kind of the reason it took so long...". Derpy made something on her back wiggle around underneath her clothing for emphasis.
"You poor thing! That'll take weeks to grow back!", Carrot said, not helping her friend feel better at all.
Dinky's sleepy voice came from within the house: "Mom? Mommy? MOOOOM!", before she jumped into a flying hug that knocked all three ponies in a big laughing pile.
"Where's your hair?", Dinky asked as blunt as possible when she got a good look at her mother.
"It's... gone for now. It'll grow back!", Derpy responded. "I hope...", she added.
"Oh... You can have some of mine, Mom, if you want to! It's the same color anyway!", Dinky offered.
"No, you keep it. I think it looks better on you anyway, muffin.", Derpy said, ruffling her hoof through Dinky's mane.
Carrot remembered the incident with Rarity, and said: "Ooh! I know where we can get you a uncannily-accurate wig for the time being! Though I don't think anypony else is up yet... Wanna get a glass of milk and hear what we've been up to?"
TIMESKIP
"And then I found my old Steel Stallion comics again! And then I made the biggest pillow fort ever! And then... I actually don't know what happened then. I woke up here. Guess Aunt Carrot brought me here. Thanks Aunt Carrot!"
Dinky was laid down next to her mother on the floor, with the couch being soaked and all.
"Sounds like you've been having quite the adventure.", Derpy said motherly, "Now come on, go get washed up, we've got to buy new furniture for Aunt Carrot."
Dinky ran and leapt up the stairs, jubilant.
Derpy turned to Carrot Top as soon as she heard the door to the bathroom close. "I had absolutely no idea she was building a rocket in the house.", she said quickly. "I must be the WORST parent in the world, letting my daughter play with things like that! I thought she was painting or something! What... what would've happened if she kept tinkering with it... and then... and...".
She started to break up in tears a bit, but Carrot stopped her very soon after: "I know you're not the worst parent... Ditzy."
Derpy immediately froze up and stared straight at Carrot with both eyes.
The two ponies stared at eachother for about a minute, Carrot warmly and Derpy frightened and shocked. In the end, the look in Carrot's eyes told Derpy everything she needed to know at that moment.
"You...? You..? You.? Know?", Derpy stumbled.
"I do.", Carrot stated.
Suddenly, Dinky came bursting out the bathroom, having done a half-assed job at drying herself off just to be done quicker. Just before she walked into the living room, Carrot whispered a tender "Later." to Derpy, who was still awestruck.
Chapter 15
With her brand new mane and tail, but still wearing a blanket over her featherless wings, Derpy sat down at the restaurant for breakfast, along with Dinky and Carrot.
"I wanna seeee!", Dinky whined, "Lemme see your wings, pleeeease?!".
"No! That's not a sight for little fillies like you, Dinky!", Derpy responded slightly annoyed.
"FINE!", Dinky said and pouted for about five seconds before being distracted by the menu.
Carrot was actually pretty curious herself, but didn't prod so much. She brought up another topic:
"So what happens now?", she said, "You can't fly, but the mail's still gotta be delivered."
"Well... I was kinda hoping you two could cover for me some more. At least until I can get somepegasus from work to take over my delivery shifts.", Derpy responded.
"Yeah, I thought so. But Dinky has school again tomorrow, and I've got a slightly less than succesful carrot farm to run. Although I suppose if she goes to the morning group, and I get somepegasus to help me as a farmhoof part-time...", Carrot said with a smile.
"Thanks Carrot, you're the best!", Derpy replied before hoof-bumping Carrot. "And I've got a great idea for my part of the farm! All I need are a bunch of muffin seeds and a shovel!"
Carrot slapped herself lightly in the face with her left hoof, realizing what she'd gotten herself into.