How Sweet It Is

by Cranberry Muffin

Rating: everyone
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Romance, Derpy Hooves, Slice of Life, Thunderlane
Length: 6110

Derpy is having major anxiety over her turn at snack duty...And it's Thunderlane to the rescue?

When Rainbow Dash makes some changes to the Ponyville Weather Crew's weekly team meetings and implements a snack duty rotation, a certain clutzy pegasus finds herself with some major problems -- The main one being the fact that she can't cook to save her life.

With her scheduled snack date fast approaching, poor Derpy has no clue what do, other than fail miserably and get laughed at, as per usual.

Fortunately, it's Thunderlane to the rescue!

Author's note:

This is my first ever finished Pony-fic and I'm excited about it. However, I'm the only one who proofed it, so if you find any mistakes or errors, please don't be shy about telling me! I love comments in any form.

Also, this did not start its life as a shipfic...But somehow became one anyway.

Anywho, enjoy!

Published 2012-09-28 12:44:01 UTC
Last updated 2012-09-28 12:44:01 UTC

Cranberry Muffins

“There are going to be some changes in the team meetings.”

It was a simple statement, but it had a huge impact on the congregated pegasi clustered together outside the library. They’d been chattering amongst themselves, laughing, joking and discussing –of course- anything other than work.

The team meetings were regarded by most of the weather crew as something of a joke. Nopony -not even Rainbow Dash, who had organized them- took them seriously, but rather viewed the meetings as nothing more than semi-regular get-togethers for the weather ponies, which revolved around stories, snacks and an hour-or-more takeover of Ponyville’s library.

Rainbow Dash’s statement, however, was enough to silence everypony.

Almost collectively, they turned to look at their leader where she stood in the door of the library, somehow managing to still look larger than life in such a mundane setting.

“We have to step it up if we want to be recognized as the best weather crew in Equestria.” Rainbow Dash continued, gaze scanning across the crowd in a bid to make sure everypony was paying attention, “From now on, we’ll be meeting regularly, each week, at the beginning of the week. During these meetings, we’ll talk about the upcoming week’s weather schedule and I’ll pass out weekly assignments. You’ll have time to talk with the other members of your team and make sure everypony is on the same page about the task.”

A ripple of agreement and head nodding spread through the assembled weather ponies; this indeed sound like a good plan. There had been some awkward mishaps with the weather lately; nothing serious, but things like wayward clouds and unscheduled sunshowers that caused Rainbow Dash no small amount of embarrassment. For the most part, these problems had occurred due to confusion over who was supposed to do what when and Rainbow Dash was beginning to suspect their “meetings” needed improvement to eliminate such problems in the future.

“In addition, we’ll stop mooching off Twilight Sparkle.” It had been Twilight herself who helped Rainbow work through the improvements to the team meetings, helping her hash out a solid agenda and purpose for the meetings, citing statistics and numbers and creating a plan to bring glory to the Ponyville Weather Crew --- A plan Rainbow had eagerly embraced. “We’re going to find our own meeting place to serve as a base of operations, where you can also meet with your assigned team or check in after completing a task.”

It was a lot to take in and Rainbow Dash knew it, but the enthusiasm she felt over these changes seemed to be catching, if the excited murmuring of the crowd was any indication. Bolstered by their apparent support, she grinned, plowing forward with the final change to their agenda.

“And you’re all going to be taking some responsibility for our meeting’s snacks. I know you ponies like treats as much as I do…But it’s not fair for me or Twilight to be providing them all the time, just ‘cause I organize the meetings and she offered the use of her space. We’re going to have a snack rotation and everypony is going to be expected to bring enough to share on their night.”

This was met with outright cheers. Many of the town’s pegasi were show-offs, though not on the grand scale that Rainbow Dash herself was. And given the abundant assortment of goodies and ingredients available for purchase around town, there was no limit to what a creative pony could do in the face of snack duty. The group had silently come to one conclusion: Snack duty was to be a competition to see who could bring the tastiest, most impressive treat.

It helped that they all also really liked to eat.

Flying required a good amount of energy, after all.

Rainbow Dash’s announcement ended as the smaller groups of friends and companions broke into excited chatter. Ponies who were constantly paired together for the same task were eagerly exchanging ideas and tossing around plans for the weeks to come. Some were already bragging about recipes they were going to try and how awesome it was going to be –Everypony knew that the only way to go about this was from scratch. Buying something would be a copout.

Only one pony stood alone in the crowd, forgotten and unenthused about the last part of this new plan.

More regular meetings? Sure, that would be awesome. Consistent knowledge of what task you were scheduled to complete and who you were to work with? Even better. A cool pegasus hangout? The best yet.

Having to cook for the entire Weather Crew?

Derpy knew she was doomed.

-

“What’re you going to do, Derpy?”

The meeting had ended almost abruptly, with little knots of pegasi drifting off to get dinner or relax or continue their plans for their upcoming duties. Rainbow Dash had wandered back into the library and anypony lingering in the vicinity could hear her crowing victoriously over the positive reception of her announcement.

Derpy headed off alone, ambling in the direction of home, head lowered, both eyes –for once- fixed on the ground beneath her hooves. She was lost deep in thought – How could she possibly pull this off? Half the time, she could barely manage to make a meal for herself without setting things on fire, boiling something over, or making a gigantic mess. There was no way in Equestria she was going to be able to cook or bake something that tasted good in amounts enough to satisfy the entire Weather Crew.

It was the sound of approaching hooves that brought her back to the present more than the question and one eye swiveled up towards the sound of the voice.

Thunderlane had fallen into step beside her, a not uncommon occurrence after the sporadic meetings. It wasn’t because they were particularly good friends or anything, but rather due to the fact that she rented a small attic bedroom from Thunderlane’s family.

They got along well enough, though, probably due in part to their shared reputation as troublemakers. It was no secret that everypony thought Derpy was a clumsy screw-up. It was also no secret that Rainbow Dash thought Thunderlane was lazy, despite the fact that he’d been legitimately sick during hurricane duty. He was a somewhat meek stallion, one who didn’t particularly like drawing attention to himself, even though he was a fabulous flyer and an expert at implementing scheduled thunderstorms.

Perhaps it was just because he wasn’t as big a show-off as the rest of the pegasi that left everypony willing to believe that he was lazy, Derpy wasn’t sure. But whatever the case, she could easily sympathize, since she wasn’t quite what they all thought either.

“I dunno…” She sighed in response to the question, finally lifting her head to look as fully as possible at the stallion trotting at her side. “Everypony already thinks I can’t do anything right. This is just gonna make it worse.”

“Maybe it won’t be that bad?” Thunderlane ventured. And for him, it wouldn’t be. He was no great cook either, but he was fortunate enough to still live with his parents and his mother knew her way around a kitchen. And he had his little brother Rumble, an enthusiastic partner in any adventure, from cloud chasing to chocolate chip cookie baking.

Derpy gave him a bit of a cross look, a look that was foiled by her own lazy eye. Instead of looking stern, she just looked silly. “Maybe it won’t be that bad.” She replied flatly. “Didja forget what happened when I tried to make that cinnamon apple cake for your mom to thank her for when she looked after me when I was sick last winter?”

“Oh yeah…” Thunderlane winced at the memory of exploded batter all over the interior of the oven. Derpy had been really disheartened by that mishap and it had taken hours to scrape all the semi-burnt goo from the oven walls. And though she had tried not to let it show –Derpy had meant well, after all- Thunderlane knew his mom had been pretty annoyed over the mess in her kitchen. “You could just buy something. Nopony would have to know, right?”

“Somepony would know.” She wasn’t even mad at him for suggesting it; she knew he was just trying to help. And he wasn’t really like a lot of the others, who teased her for things she couldn’t help and made fun of her kind of lopsided flying. “It’s a small town…And you know somepony would say something to one of the other Weather Crew members and then everypony would just laugh at me more.”

“Hey.” He nudged her gently when her head lowered again, “Don’t worry too much about it. We’ll figure something out.”

She didn’t look up, but one eye did again stray in his direction and a small smile, obscured by her mane, flickered across her face.

There was something reassuring about that “we.”

-

As it turned out, Derpy wasn’t scheduled to bring a snack until some weeks in the future. She wasn’t sure if Rainbow Dash had put her so late in the rotation by accident or design, and she was equally unsure if she was feeling relieved or more worried by the fact that she had time to stew over the problem.

If she’d been one of the early snack ponies, it would be over and done with and she could get over the humiliation of failure that much quicker. But now, she had time to agonize and sort it all out in an attempt to not fail at the task, though she doubted that would happen.

Thunderlane had been scheduled early on and managed to produce a decent snack: glazed carrot chips. He’d surprisingly refused his mother’s help, stating that he could do it himself and show Rainbow Dash he wasn’t lazy, and only a few of them had gotten burned.

And, well, maybe he hadn’t really done it entirely by himself; he’d dragged Derpy –protesting all the while- into the kitchen to help peel and slice the carrots.

She had argued with him, stating that he wasn’t really doing anything himself if she helped and making several attempts to escape back to her teeny little room, one of which resulted in honey spilled over the side of the counter and pooling on the floor.

She’d stopped at that, sighing down at the mess, shoulders sagging in defeat. And as she fetched a damp rag to clean up her mess, she quietly agreed to help.

-

Later, she was curled up on her bed, hooves tucked neatly beneath her, when there was a knock on the door.

“Come in…?” Her inflection made the simple statement a question. She didn’t get many visitors; there were few ponies in town she was friendly enough with to bother inviting them over, so the list of possible guests was a short one. And yet, it still came as a surprise when Thunderlane poked his head into the room.

“Hey…” He offered a small smile, stepping in, but not shutting the door behind him. “I’m sorry I kind of forced you to help me…” He offered sheepishly, scuffing one of his front hooves against the wooden floor, “But, um, you do realize you helped cook something without burning the kitchen down, right? And the only thing you cut in the process was the carrots.”

There was a moment of silence that was broken by a grin spreading across her face, followed by her excited exclamation of “you’re right!” And it was true; nothing had been broken or caught on fire. Nopony had been injured. And, aside from the honey spill, there had been absolutely no mishaps. “I can do it.”

At her excitement, Thunderlane’s smile grew. “And it really won’t be so bad.”

-

The following day was her scheduled day off and Derpy was determined to practice making something, just to be sure she really could do it.

Bolstered by the previous day’s success, she had wandered into town, armed with a recipe torn from a cooking magazine. Scanning over it and perusing the list of ingredients, she came to the conclusion that it seemed easy enough, making muffins herself.

All she had to do, after all, was follow the recipe. Simple, right?

Except for the fact that the recipe had been hastily ripped out of a tattered copy of Cooking Made Simple and she wasn’t especially good at ripping things straight -- Some of the ingredients and subsequent instructions were, therefore, missing.

After completing her shopping, she returned home, saddlebags bulging with ingredients for chocolate chip cranberry muffins.

Glancing over the recipe, she preheated the oven –was that supposed to be a three or a five?- then set about setting out the ingredients and gathering the necessary kitchen gadgets.

Everything was laid just so on the counter and she once again glanced at the instructions, then began dumping things into the bowl, all the while humming cheerfully. Half the measurements were gone, left behind in the torn center of the magazine, so she just fudged it, guessing what the numbers were supposed to be. Or –after some confusion and internal debate- deciding whether the recipe called for tablespoons or teaspoons of salt, vanilla and did that say baking soda or baking powder?

The batter came out a little lumpy and she completely missed the part where she was supposed to grease the muffin tins before filling them, but still. Derpy slid the pan into the oven, smiling proudly as she set the kitchen timer.

She had done it.

And now, the rest of the weather crew! They would be so surprised! When it was her turn to bring snack to the team meeting, she would show them all that she wasn’t as hopeless as they all thought and she could do things without totally screwing up.

She had surprised herself as well, that things had gone okay, aside from the lumpy batter. Derpy had learned early on that the kitchen likely wouldn’t survive her cooking attempts, though she was never quite sure why – Didn’t she do exactly what the cookbooks said?

Sort of.

Sometimes she was impatient and rushed things.

But not that day! Not that day at all and the muffins would be perfect and--!

The smell of smoke jolted her back to reality.

The muffins were on fire.

Leaping into action, she grabbed a pair of oven mitts and yanked the charred baked goods out of the oven. One of the mitts had a small hole in it and she yelped, dropping the hot pan on the floor.

Fortunately, it landed upside down, forcing out the small tongue of flame still smoldering atop one sorry lump of muffin.

And Derpy plopped down on her haunches, sticking her throbbing hoof in her mouth and sighing.

So much for that endeavor.

-

“I can’t do it.”

She wasn’t prone to whining, or giving up, either, and Thunderlane knew it. But this was a block she just couldn’t get past and it was beginning to wear on her.

Derpy had tried living up to the old adage “practice makes perfect”, but it was turning out to be quite difficult. After the first failed attempt that left both the muffins and the pan a smoldering mess, she’d tried several more times.

The second try had resulted in her forgetting to hold the mixing bowl and batter all over the kitchen.

The third time, she’d completely overlooked a key ingredient and the resulting muffins were rock hard and shriveled.

The fourth time, something had gone terribly wrong and Derpy was left wondering how something could possibly overcook and undercook at the same time.

And the most recent attempt…Well, she didn’t even want to think about it, but the look of abject horror on Thunderlane’s mom’s face at the sight of her kitchen would be forever seared into Derpy’s mind.

She had tried her best.

And she had failed miserably.

It was on the tip of Thunderlane’s tongue to contradict her, but the dejected look on her face stopped him short.

They had duty together that day, checking the park for damages after a hail storm the previous day. Hail was not a scheduled weather pattern, but it did come part and parcel with a particularly nasty thunderstorm now and again, and it usually left a lot of damage in its wake. Nopony really enjoyed being part of the clean-up crew, which mostly involved wandering the park and clearing out debris.

Derpy didn’t mind it, though; it was an easy task, one that was hard for her to goof up. Sure, she tripped on branches sometimes, but other than that…It wasn’t so bad.

Thunderlane, however, hated it, because it involved a lot of physical labor and he preferred the before jobs, not the after ones – He loved making it rain, but usually grumbled his way through clean-up.

“Maybe baking isn’t the way to go about it.”

At Thunderlane’s comment, Derpy glanced up from the haphazard pile of broken branches and limbs she’d been working on collecting from beneath a weathered oak. “What do you mean?”

There was a moment of silence as he just looked at her, taking in the thoughtful frown tugging the corners of her mouth downward, the one amber eye fixed on his face, the other wandering off to look upon the sky. He was polite enough to ignore the fact that she very rarely looked completely at him and the way it took her a little bit longer than every other pony to figure things out; those were things, in fact, that made her very much herself and he genuinely enjoyed her company.

“I mean,” He finally continued, “there’s no reason you can’t make something else to bring for your snack night. It doesn’t have to be baked goods. I didn’t really bake anything and everypony liked it. Well, I mean, the carrots did get baked, but they weren’t, like, cookies or anything.”

She nudged another branch into the pile, considering the suggestion. It wasn’t really a bad one and it was true as well. While most of the others did bring cookies or muffins or cupcakes or even the occasional pie, there were the occasional trays of sandwiches or fruit kabobs and somepony even brought pumpkin soup on a chilly day.

Those snacks had been well received.

But she wasn’t really popular enough to pull off something less than spectacular, was she? She had to make it good, or everypony would just laugh at her, like always.

“I dunno…” She looked away again, gaze wandering anywhere but Thunderlane’s direction. This whole business was giving her more anxiety than anything in her life ever had and it was beginning to wear her down. “I just don’t want anypony making fun of me.” They had plenty of reasons to pick on her as it was; it wasn’t like they needed another one. “And if I mess this up…”

“Nopony will make fun of you.” Thunderlane had continued with his work, calm and steady. He was raking up clumps of wet leaves knocked loose by the storm and stuffing them haphazardly into a sack for disposal. It was one of the worst parts of clean-up; anypony with that job usually wound up damp and chilled by the time they were finished.

He had volunteered to do it, letting her have the easier task.

Derpy just looked at him for another long moment, trying to figure him out. Thunderlane was a decent friend, though he wasn’t usually this helpful or confident. And besides, what he said didn’t make any sense; most of the other pegasi hardly needed an excuse to laugh at her. She was not a strong flier; sometimes, she was directionally-challenged and her up and down got confused. She crashed into things a lot, usually breaking something, or at least damaging herself. There was an unspoken pecking order among the weather pegasi and she knew she was low in that order.

Thunderlane knew it too, which is why Derpy was peering at him intently, waiting for him to elaborate.

He didn’t look up, though he paused in his work, giving his wings a gentle rustle. “…I won’t let them.”

And because his gaze was riveted on a soggy mess of leaves, he completely missed the look of wide-eyed surprise and the gentle blush that crossed her face.

Maple Candy

Winter fell and the first snowfall of the season was put into effect shortly before Derpy’s scheduled week to bring snack.

She liked winter, in some ways. It was a time of rest for most citizens of Ponyville, and with the weather expected to be somewhat dreary and grey, the Weather Crew had more time off than usual.

And the attic room was sometimes drafty in the cold of winter, which meant she was invited to spend more time downstairs than the rest of the year. And those nights, spent in the warmth of the sitting room, playing board games with Thunderlane and Rumble, telling stories, or just relaxing…She treasured those nights, because it felt almost like having a family again.

She had a lot of stories to tell; a lot to say – Not that many ponies would listen. Derpy was adventurous, despite her limitations and shortcomings. She never let her mishaps bring her down and when she crashed, she simply picked herself up, dusted herself off and plowed on to the next thing.

She’d experienced a lot in her young life.

A lot, which she enjoyed talking about and Rumble -who had never before left Ponyville- enjoyed hearing about it.

It was the first such night of the new winter and Derpy was in the middle of a long, disjointed story about some casual acquaintance who got her tongue stuck to a snowflake machine because she couldn’t resist a dare.

Rumble was listening in rapt attention, wide-eyed and dazzled by the mare’s descriptions of Cloudsdale and the Weather Factory. It didn’t bother him –it never did- that her story jumped all over the place, straggling off into rambling tangents before she remembered the point and got back on topic. It was in part her ability to tell ten stories all at once that somehow tied together that made listening to her enjoyable.

Thunderlane was only half-listening, munching on caramel corn and leafing through a storm chasing enthusiast’s magazine. He’d heard the main part of the story before, but a digression involving a bowl of honey spilling in the snowflake room and freezing caught his attention, his ears perking as he swiveled his gaze to look at Derpy.

This new little bit of the tale had given him an excellent idea.

-

“Where are we going?”

It was the following morning and Thunderlane was nudging Derpy out the door after hastily bundling her into her boots and scarf. He was clearly excited and therefore too impatient to let her fumble with her outerwear herself. He’d been practically trotting in place as she stuffed her hooves into the boots and when the scarf wound up tangled in her mane, he’d haphazardly unwound it and wrapped it around her neck.

“I have an idea…An idea for your snack!” He started off in a brisk trot, expecting her to follow along.

She hurried to keep up, nearly tripping over her own hooves several times as she attempted to match his pace. “But…Where are we going?” She asked again, her breath puffing out in little clouds.

“To the market; we’ve got to get there before all the lazy ponies taking advantage of the weather decide they want to get up and make pancakes.” He glanced over his shoulder at her, grinning. He wasn’t going to tell her yet what the plan was –it was so simple it was positively brilliant- and the anticipation was killing him.

Despite the early morning sunshine, it was a frigid day, windy and brisk. A few snowflakes swirled here and there, settling in their manes and sparkling in the sun. Though they’d only been outside a moment or two, Derpy’s cheeks were rosy, her eyes dancing at the excitement of a surprise shopping expedition even as she stumbled into a snow drift on the side of the path.

She looked happy, and Thunderlane realized -as he helped her from the drift and dusted her off- that he really liked seeing her happy.

And it struck him then, in the cold, early hours of the morning, as she gave herself a little shake, her lazy eye lolling off in some odd direction, as he retrieved her scarf that the wind had snatched away…He just liked her.

She flicked a clump of snow out of her tail, oblivious to his sudden revelation, and reoriented herself in the direction of town. “C’mon, Thunderlane…You’re the one who knows where we’re going.”

“…Right.” He tucked aside the question of what to do with his newly discovered feelings for later consideration, and gave his wings a flap. “It’ll probably be faster if we fly.”

-

She had, when they left the house, thought they would be embarking on some sort of epic shopping quest and it therefore left her a little less than impressed when the single purchase of the morning was a lone jug of maple syrup.

“How are we going to make something with just that?” She cocked her head, looking at the jug with one eye and him with the other. She knew –even with her limited cooking capabilities- that no matter what a pony was cooking, they needed more than one ingredient.

“You’ll see.” They were in the kitchen and Thunderlane was rummaging in one of the cabinets. After a moment, he came up with a wide, shallow pan likely used for baking cakes. “Here, take this outside and fill it with snow, will you?”

Derpy blinked, looking from the jug of syrup to the pan, still not comprehending what his plan was.

Thunderlane smiled again; he’d hardly stopped smiling all morning. It may have just been because he knew what was going on, but he figured he was more excited about this project than Derpy was. “I promise; it’ll make sense in a minute. Just go get the snow, okay?”

She shrugged, dragging the pan outside and heaping snow into it. She did it quickly, pausing only briefly to stamp her hooves against the cold – In a hurry to see what Thunderlane had planned, she hadn’t bothered to bundle up to go out.

With the snow-filled pan safely back in the kitchen –somehow, she’d managed to cart it back in without stumbling or spilling, even in a rush- Thunderlane uncorked the syrup. “Give me a minute…” He paused for a second, smoothing down the top of the snow heap so it was level, then carefully poured a little whorl of maple syrup over the snow.

Derpy watched both his face and the pan of snow simultaneously, still uncertain what he was making. She’d never seen anything like it! Her parents had been too busy to cook for or with her on a regular basis and she had never learned much beyond the basics herself. “But…what is it?”

“Try it!” With the tip of a hoof, Thunderlane slid the then-hardened swirl of maple syrup from the snow, offering it to the perplexed mare.

She took it, popping it in her mouth whole. What had once been maple syrup had frozen into a little twist of crunch with a chewy inside that melted in her mouth. She closed her eyes, savoring the taste that reminded her of autumn; of sunshine and bright colors. This whatever-it-was that Thunderlane had made…It was like a little bit of heaven.

Oh yes.

This was going to be a hit.

Thunderlane watched her face carefully, his heartbeat quickening as her eyes slid shut and an utterly blissful expression softened her already childish features. She was cute, though most ponies probably didn’t notice, because they were too busy snickering about her wonky eyes and clumsy gait. But Thunderlane, who had lived in the same house as her for the past two years and had spent more time with her in the months since the snack rotation had been put in place, was able to look beyond those things that made Derpy Derpy only on the surface.

And beneath her awkwardness, she was a pony with a warm, welcoming heart, who tried her hardest and didn’t deserve to be picked on when she fell short.

“What do you think?” He asked quietly, already knowing she’d be onboard with the plan. Her expression said it all; but he had to break the silence, for fear of doing something that would only scare them both, like kissing her while her eyes were closed.

“I think,” She opened her eyes again, for once focused and looking directly at Thunderlane, “that nopony will make fun of me if I bring that for snack.”

-

Two nights later, Rainbow Dash found Derpy alone in the Weather Crew Cloudhouse, pulling things out of her saddlebags and arranging them on a table.

The weekly meeting wouldn’t be beginning for another half-hour. Derpy was notoriously late, rushing in to things at the last minute. It therefore took Rainbow Dash a moment to figure out what she was doing there, then she remembered – It was Derpy’s night to bring snack.

In a rather impressive show of self-restraint, the blue pegasus remained silent, watching from the doorway as Derpy set several small serving platters on the table, arranging them just so. That task completed –and remarkably disaster-free- she lifted a snowflake motif tin onto the table and pried the lid off.

Rainbow hadn’t been sure what to expect –other than something utterly inedible- and the little brown lumps Derpy was cheerfully arranging on the platters were not encouraging her to believe otherwise.

“Oh!” And when Derpy turned, she stopped short at the sight of Rainbow Dash standing just across the threshold, brow furrowed as she peered beyond Derpy at the table. “Um, hi Rainbow Dash.” She tried to sound cheerful, but…Rainbow had a habit of being very blunt in her opinions. “I brought snack.” That much was obvious, but she wasn’t sure what else to say.

Rainbow trotted further into the room, peering at the small spread on the table. “…What is it?” She asked, one eyebrow quirking upwards, a small frown crossing her face. The plates were full of brownish lumps, unidentifiable and strange-looking, exactly as she expected.

“Um…” Derpy swallowed her nervousness, trying not to shuffle awkwardly. Individually, they looked okay; kind of pretty even, comprised of random swirls and whorls. But piled up on the plate…They looked like one giant cowpie. And what if the rest of the crew didn’t think they tasted as good as she did? What if this was all just some mistake? “It’s maple candy.”

“Maple candy, huh?” Rainbow strode forward that final step, reaching to take one off the plate for a taste. She was stopped by a gentle tug on her tail and turned, her frown deepening as she glowered at Derpy.

But the grey pony just looked her in the eye, a small frown crossing her own face. “Nuh-uh.” It took a lot for her to stand up to Rainbow Dash, even on an issue as minute as this. “You gotta wait until later, just like everypony else.”

The other pony’s mouth opened, then shut again. Rainbow had been about to argue that being the boss, she deserved a sneak preview of the snack, but Derpy was looking right at her, mouth drawn in a thin line, a sure sign that she would brook no argument. And given that her usual expression was one of cheerful obliviousness, not this blend of anxiety, tension, and tightly controlled…fear?

Rainbow Dash knew when to back down.

“…Right.” She stepped back from the table, smiling awkwardly, “I’ll wait for the meeting to start.”

-

It was torture, waiting for the rest of the crew to arrive and the meeting to begin. Derpy had been so worried about arriving late that she had gotten there too early and she knew it. The twenty minutes between her exchange with Rainbow Dash and the start of the meeting had been the longest of her life and she spent the time pacing in front of the table, bumping it occasionally, and even once feeling like she wanted to crawl under it and hide.

Though she inadvertently drew attention to herself with all of her disasters and accidents, Derpy was actually not fond of being in the spotlight. She knew that when other ponies noticed her, it was usually for all the wrong reasons.

And though she’d spent all that time worrying, the maple candy was met with a rousing success.

Derpy couldn’t have told anypony what had been discussed at that night’s meeting. If it weren’t for the parchment with her assignments for the week scrawled on it, she wouldn’t have a clue what she was supposed to be doing in the coming days. All she would remember of that night was the fact that she had done something successful; something that she hadn’t thought she could do and yet…She had!

And it was all thanks to Thunderlane.

She had hardly forgotten that fact.

-

The night was crisp and clear, Luna’s moon shining brightly in the sky.

Derpy was prancing along, still riding high on the wave of pride that came with a job well done. Her hooves barely touched the ground, despite the fact that she was walking rather than flying, and a grin was plastered on her face, her head held high.

And beside her, again, Thunderlane was trotting, easily keeping pace with the smaller mare. “I told you we’d figure it out.” He said jovially, a hint of pride creeping into his voice. It had been his idea, after all, and he was proud of himself for coming up with it; proud of her for pulling it off. She had worked hard and done a great job and the end results? They had been awesome.

“You did.” Suddenly, she stopped, turning to look at Thunderlane as he slowed, peering up at him through the moonlight. “And you really helped me a lot…”

Though she was still smiling happily, she was shivering a little –it was cold- and he took a daring step closer, pressing their flanks together for extra warmth. “Yeah.” He ducked his head a little, still shy at the thought of anypony really giving him special attention, “It was nothing…”

“No!” She shook her head vehemently, the word coming out on a little puff of breath, “It means a lot to me, because nopony’s ever tried to help me like that. You really, you know, encouraged me and kept me from getting too worried and messing up even more.” She shifted a little, unintentionally pressing their bodies closer together, “Um, and I have something for you…Kind of like a thank you present.”

Then she stepped back away, flipping open one of her saddlebags and tugging out a small package wrapped in plain brown paper. She offered it to him, looking in two other directions at once, but not at him. “So…thanks.”

He took it, gingerly removing the wrapping to see what small treasure lay within. It was a maple candy – likely the last one from the batch. But unlike the rest, it wasn’t a curlicue, or a swirl, or even a squiggle. For a moment, he thought it was just a coincidence, but when he glanced up at Derpy and saw –even in the faded light of the moon- the blush blossoming across the bridge of her muzzle, he knew the lopsided heart shape of the candy was deliberate.

As he looked back down at the candy resting in his hoof, she lowered her head, unable to look at him, but smiling hopefully down at the snowy ground.

It came then as a surprise when he pressed a soft kiss against her cheek, and her head rose again, only for their eyes to meet.

He smiled -“I’ll save it for later.”- and tucked one of his wings snugly around her shoulders. “Let’s go home.”

She nestled against his side, suddenly unaware of how cold it was; unaware of anything other than the fact that Thunderlane had just kissed her and her heart was threatening to pound its way out of her chest.

Maybe she would remember something about the night besides just the candy after all.