Limits

“I’m not a real dentist Derpy.” Colgate said busying herself with a large complicated looking machine running the entire length of the basement wall. Derpy watched not because she was interested in what the mare was doing, but because the only time she could get the mare to listen was when she wasn’t focused on turning some knob or twisting some dial. “That was only a costume.”

A large whirring sound left the machine, which had begun to quiver. Colgate took several steps back, a frown on her face as she studied it. She hastily shoved past Derpy, flipping through a notebook while murmuring to herself about some nonsense the mail mare didn’t understand.

“Oh…Then, I’m sorry I bothered you.” Derpy said dismayed. The blue pony made a noise in response, too engrossed in her notes to acknowledge the depressed mares exit. Shoving the cellar doors open Derpy was momentarily blinded by the vibrantly bright sunlight, not yet covered by the scheduled thunderstorm due that evening. As a result she slammed headlong into a brown earth stallion intent on entering just as she emerged.

Her eyes swirled a moment and she shook her head to clear them. She managed to get them set on an even keel for several seconds before the left one decided it would much rather look to the sky.

“Sorry Doctor.” Derpy apologized frantically as she dove at several rolling screws that had fallen from the brown paper sack the brown earth pony had been carrying. He sat on his haunches, using his hoof to rub his flank which, like Colgate’s bore an hourglass cutie mark. She had heard rumors around town that they were in fact a pair of time traveling ponies, but the whole idea sounded a bit too outlandish to be believed.

“Are you alright Derpy?” The stallion asked concerned more for the safety of the gray pony than for the screws he had lost.

“It’s nothing.” She answered, absently rubbing at her jaw with a hoof. “I just wanted to talk to Colgate.”

“It didn’t go well I suppose?” The brown pony said with a knowing smile as he helped the grey pony to her hooves. She shook her head staring at the ground beneath them.

“Oh that’s right!” The mare exclaimed remembering her original purpose for being there. The mail mare shuffled in her mailbag withdrawing several letters addressed to the doctor. The brown pony took them awkwardly in his mouth while trying to balance the paper sack in his left foreleg. It was all very comical and Derpy cracked a smile.

“That’s more like it!” He said noticing, his words muffled a bit by the letters in his mouth. “It was a pleasure to see you again Derpy. Feel free to stop by anytime.” He paused thinking a moment before reiterating what he had meant to say. “Well not any time but you get the idea.”

“All right then. ” Derpy answered watching the stallion disappear down into the cellar. His voice could be heard faintly from within followed by a loud crashing sound. Moments later a thick cloud of smoke billowed up from below quickly followed by the pair of soot covered ponies.

And they all thought she was crazy.

--

Derpy sat in a puddle soaked from head to hoof. She shivered beneath a weak cloud she’d hastily created moments after the rains began. It had shrunk in the time between, growing smaller as the rain slowly dissolved it, streams of water leaking through the thinnest places.

The storm above her was unnatural and unscheduled, at least not by the local weather ponies. It was no big surprise Derpy thought given that show off slacker Rainbow Dash was their team leader.

A spark of light lit the sky as a crash of thunder startled the sleepy pony into waking. She chanced a look above, as another bolt of lightning danced among the charcoal grey clouds. She blinked the rainwater from her eyes. There was something…

The tiny black speck vanished, swallowed by the darkness as the lightning faded. She shrunk back beneath her cloud again as the thunder boomed, louder this time. The sound caused reactions in her body she didn’t understand as forgotten memories caused her muscles to recoil involuntarily. Several moments went by in which there was silence but for the relentlessly pounding rain and the eerie howl of the wind.

The speck meanwhile struggled to remain aloft, his wings numb to the near constant pain. The rainwater threaded through his feathers matting them to the point of uselessness. He was barely conscious, no longer aware of his existence, his animal instincts alone driving him…

“…llo? Yo…kay…?”

Soarin groaned as consciousness slowly found him again. He hadn’t realized he’d fallen from the sky, or that he was now lying on the ground, his wings splayed on either side of his battered body. A grey pegasus pony, her eyes mostly normal, watched him worriedly. The stallion opened his mouth to reply but the sounds leaving his lips bore no semblance to actual words.

The grey pony disappeared for a time as she tried in vain to fix her quickly dissipating cloud. It was the only thing protecting her, and now this unknown pony from the storm, which showed no signs of letting up before morning.

As she moved to check on the stallion again she found he’d fallen once more into unconsciousness, his breathing steady. It was easy to guess why he’d fallen given the deplorable state of his wings. A number of primary flight feathers were bent at awkward angles while more than a few others had been broken or splintered, not to mention his wings were thoroughly soaked, that alone enough to make flight impossible.

Derpy curled up beside the stallion, beneath his outstretched left wing which covered her like a rain soaked blanket. Unable to offer anything more than her own body heat to keep him warm as her weak cloud dissolved completely, the wall eyed mail mare slipped into a quiet dreamless sleep.

--

Soarin twitched as a large drop of rain slid down his cheek. His eyes fluttered open stunned by blindingly bright sunlight, broken only by the damp canopy of greenery above him. His body ached, his muscles protesting with even the smallest movement, eliciting a groan from the battered stallion.

He panicked at finding his wings were numb, breathing a sigh of relief only when he saw they were still attached; though looking worse than he had ever seen them. As he coaxed life back into them, grateful for the prickling tingle, he felt a blunt pain as something solid struck his ribcage. He lifted his wing gingerly, finding a small grey pegasus pony curled up beside him. She flailed in her sleep, her hoof barely missing striking him again as he stood abruptly.

The pony smacked her lips, mumbling something that sounded like… muffins?

“What the hell?” The colt muttered as he looked around, not recognizing his surroundings. He stepped away from the mare, careful not to wake her, before shaking the water from his coat, regretting it as pain flared across his wing. Flashes of unfamiliar memory floated back to him as he noticed the tufts of angry grey cloud still floating above the park.

He didn’t have a headache exactly, but a dull throbbing seemed to interrupt his thoughts whenever he tried to remember what exactly happened, and why he had woken beside this unfamiliar pony.

Be some pony else for a while. A voice he didn’t recognize invaded his scattered thoughts as he made his way toward a large fountain in the center of the park. Clear water trailed into its base from the mouths of two rearing ponies at its apex. He frowned, a stranger staring back at him, as he ran a hoof through his mane, the long navy blue locks falling into his emerald green eyes.

“How can I be some pony else,” The stallion muttered quietly to himself as an instinctual longing pulled his gaze skyward. He gnashed his teeth as an intense searing pain crippled his attempt to spread his wings. “When I don’t know who I am now?”

--

Derpy woke with a shiver and a yawn. She could remember feeling so warm only minutes ago, but as she searched for the source of that warmth all she found was empty air. Her eyes popped open and she fluttered her wings, rising quickly into the air. She slammed her head into a low branch she had neglected to notice was there, and promptly fell back to the ground, her head in a tizzy.

A laugh alerted the cross eyed mail mare to a foal watching her from a stroller and a smile rose to her face. The tiny foal’s mother however only glared, pushing the carriage further along the path and out of Derpy’s sight. A bit sadly the mail mare turned her attention to the absence of the broken pegasus pony, her face flushing, as she found herself quietly hoping it wasn’t all just some crazy dream.

The park was quickly filling with ponies. Most of them she recognized from her route, few of them from the glaring looks and whispered words when they thought she wasn’t looking, or couldn’t hear. She trotted among them for bit searching for the stallion she’d spent the night with, her search turning up empty.

It certainly felt real. She thought to herself as she shrugged her mail bag across her withers and took to the sky, eager for the distraction her job would provide.