A Place To Lay My Head

It's way too early to be up. Five AM felt like hell, even the sky looked like it was on fire with its radiant hues of orange and red. But all of the weather ponies were called out early to set up an early downpour for Sweet Apple Acres. it would be fine if the rainstorm was just for Ponyville, but noooo, the pesky farmers on the far outskirts of town drew every pegasi and their brother away from the soft embrace of a bed of clouds and out to this little patch of earthen hell.

Every one of the pegasi was sluggish and pushing clouds about lazily...well...all but one. One pegasus in particular was laying on a fluffy white cloud, his eyes closed and his body rising and falling steadily. His dark blue coat matched that of the slowly retreating night sky, but his stark red mane resembled the sunrise in the east. Many may call him a slacker at this exact point in time, but when you stay up past 2 AM and are expected to be up and around at this ungodly hour? Well, he's more worn out than he is a slacker.

"LIGHTNING!" His golden eyes bolted open when his name was yelled, then they leveled at the poly-chromatic pegasus in front of him. His boss, the wicked mare of the west, Rainbow Dash. "I thought I told you to go help Cloudchaser wrangle the cumulus clouds from Fluttershy's cottage! You know she's no good at wrangling, remember what happened last time?" In fact, everypony did, not to go too into detail...but let's just say you cant describe it without using the word 'cluster'.

"Ugh..go away Dash...I'm tired..." He rested his head back on the soft cloud and closed his eyes. Which resulted in him getting a hoof right to the snout. "OW! Hey! Uncalled for!" He gingerly rbbed his sore nose and gave his boss a rather cross look. "Fine...I'm up. What do you want me to do?" He stood, now insanely irritated and wide awake.

"You know what? I'm putting you on accident patrol." Dash once again, gave Lightning's head a taste of her hoof and flew away, mumbling something about laziness.

Accident Patrol was the nice way of saying 'Derpy's Foalsitter' in weather pony talk. As of now, it was his job to watch over the klutziest pony in all of Equestria. With a sigh and a flap of his wings, he was off to find his new charge. Where was she and what was she doing? Well it was as simple as following the sounds of destruction across the orchard.

Sure enough, after catching an nice updraft, he heard the sound of wood splintering and a thunderous crash.

"Aaand there she is..." Lightning let out a might groan and followed the sound of klutzy destruction until he happened upon the scene: Derpy, a rubber ball, and an apple tree in splinters. How she did it, Lightning didn't want to know. He knew that it was his job to stop her from doing it again. "Derpy?"

"Huh?" The gray mare raised her head from the blue rubber ball at her hooves, one of her yellow eyes focused on him, the other seemed to be gazing at the clouds forming above. "Oh, hi!" She gave a warm smile and stood up. "I..hmm...I don't think I've seen you before.." She took several steps closer and narrowed her gaze, it came to the point where the mare was coming uncomfortably close, her muzzle nearly touching Lightning's.

"Riiight..." He placed a hoof square in the middle of her forehead and pushed her away. "I'm Lightning, w-" Before he could finish his sentence or push the wall-eyed mare out of his bubble, she voluntarily backed away and looked at the sky fearfully.

"Lightning?! Where?!" Her good eye searched the sky while the other seemed to wander around a bit, looking at a bit of everything. The mare looked genuinely terrified of the clouds gathering above, something you don't see out of pegasi often.

"No, no, no. My name's Lightning. There won't be any actual lightning here for a while..." He stepped closer, while everypony was annoyed with Derpy usually, they still cared for her and wanted her to be safe, hence why she had a watch for her.

"Oh.." The gray pegasus stood uneasily, she was calmer, but one eye still focused on the sky. "Hehe, sorry.." A sheepish smile followed the statement. "I just don't have a very good history with lightning...or clouds...or flying...or the ground...y'know what, I just don't have a good history."

"Oh...umm..yeah." Lightning cast a furative glance at the tree, still curious as to how this transpired. "Hey Derpy?"

"C-can you please not call me that? My name's not Derpy..." Both of her eyes fell to the ground in an odd synchronicity that the two orbs rarely possession. Lightning was about to ask what her name really was when she decided to explain it without prompting. "My name's Ditzy, Derpy is a name that the others gave me because of how klutzy I am..." The mare frowned and closed her eyes. "It's not very nice..."

At that moment, Lightning came to a realization. Derpy-er...Ditzy wasn't an idiot like many ponies made her out to be, she was just a mare with bad luck that everyone vilified. She was simply a sad mare down on her luck, nothing more. It made Lightning feel bad about all of the times he made fun of her with his friends, or commented on her eyes.

"I...I'm sorry. I didn't know.'"

"Yeah...It's okay...not many ponies do."

As soon as Ditzy finished her sentence, rain started pouring down from the heavens. It wasn't a light drizzle as the farmers had requested, it was more of a downpour. The droplets pounded upon the heads of both ponies, Ditzy stood up slowly, and started to fly away. Lightning was ready to follow her when lightning struck and the loud crash of thunder followed. As soon as the bright light reared it's head, the gray pegasus immediately grounded herself and got as close to one of the hulking apple trees as she could.

The blue stallion touched down and trotted over to her. he was fully used to flying or just going around in storms. The rain didn't bother most pegasi, well except for Ditzy apparently.

"You alright...?" He stepped closer, a hoof reaching out to the now quivering mare. Another flash of lightning and crash of thunder caused the mare only to whimper and quiver. "I will take that as a no..." Lightning only sighed and sat by Ditzy. "It..It'll be alright.." Lightning wasn't a very...intimate equine, especially around ponies that were considered social pariahs. his cobalt wing unfurled and rested itself on Ditzy's back.

After another bout of thunder and lightning, the wall eyed pony gripped Lightning tightly and buried her face in his chest in fear. One thing was sure, this was going to be one long storm.