//------------------------------// // Chapter two: A new face, the beginning of a journey and a storm // Story: Derpy Hooves: An unexpected journey // by atomicbrony45 //------------------------------// Wait four ponies. As Derpy got closer to the silhouettes she could make out who they were, on the farthest left was Twilight easily distinguished by her purple coat and the saddle bag with twilight star on it, to the farthest right was Rainbowdash who was by far the easiest to tell apart because of her mane being so colorful, next to Twilight stood Applejack who as usual wore her stetson hat but in between her and Rainbow was a pony she had never met or seen before. Walking closer Derpy could make out more of the feature's of the unknown pony, she noted that the new pony was definitely a mare had a brilliant crimson coat, a flame orange mane, deep piercing ruby red eyes and that the saddle bags she wore had what appeared to be a ball of flame on them, this made her more curious as to who this pony was and as she got closer. *pomf* The red of the embarrassment on Derpy's face could only be matched by the red of the unknown pony's coat, this was met by an awkward silence that was broken by a side splitting laugh from Applejack, who when she was done explained to Derpy who the unknown pony was. "This here is Blazingstreak my wife but you can just call her Firefly or Blaze, Blaze this here is Ditzy Do an she is the other member of this little group of our's" explained Applejack with a cheeky sort of grin on her face. A few second's later Derpy's wing's had settled back to their usual position, she realized that no mare had ever had that effect on her, the only pony to ever have that effect her was in a different time and a different part of the universe at this point, probably doing a lot of running. Derpy was about to start talking to firefly when Twilight's paranoia broke and she shouted almost bursting Applejack's eardrum. "WAIT DID EVERYPONY-" Applejack put her hoof over Twilight's mouth to stop her shouting further, she removed her hoof to allow her to continue. "Right sorry I just wanted to know if everypony got the specific item's I told them to bring, as well as the food we will need to keep us going, after all it's going to be roughly five week's before we reach the next and last town, so I'm just making sure that everypony got the item's I requested" Twilight explained hardly drawing a breath. They all nodded in unison as if this is what they were expecting Twilight to do. After Twilight's little paranoia attack they set off, walking at a brisk but comfortable pace, they were enveloped by silence so all they could hear was the twittering of the birds, the babbling of some brook in the distance and Applejack humming a little tune to herself, to break the silence Derpy asked Firefly "Where do you live Blazing? Because I've never seen you on my mail run or anywhere around Ponyville for that matter." To which Firefly responded kindly "I live with Applejack on her farm, as for not seeing me I would be surprised if you did, I hardly ever walk around Ponyville and when I do it tends to be later on in the day when there are less ponies around, I don't like big crowds and I get stared at a lot because of the incident two years ago." "I see your point Blaze I don't like big crowds either and I also get stared at a lot but that's mainly because the other ponies think I will break something when they aren't looking but what can you do when your reputation dictates that you are a klutz" Derpy replied. A week into the journey, they were all in high spirits but then it started to rain, gently it rained at first no more than a light shower but then the rain started to pound down on them with all the might of a hundred foot waterfall, thankfully during one of the breaks they had Rainbow dash had the idea to look and see what was on the path ahead, she spotted an old ruined structure that could provide them with at least a bit of shelter for the night and the duration of the storm. When they arrived at the ruined building they noticed that it looked like it had been a camp that was abandoned recently but they didn't care, they were to tired and wet to care about that now. "Dear Celestia, I'm soaked and frozen through to the bone, I don't think I'll be dry for a week, can't we start a fire to at least dry and heat up a bit" Derpy sniffled as they all huddled in the only dry spot in the ruined structure. She reached into her pack to find the flint and steel she had brought, she proceeded to strike it but it was to wet to even catch a spark. "Derpy put away the flint and steel we don't need it, besides it's to wet to use" Twilight told her. "But why don't we need it? We are soaked and cold, so why not start a fire?" Derpy replied confused. "That's were I come in" said Blaze holding her hoof up to show derpy the newly conjured ember, Depry was enchanted as she watched the ember as it grew to a small ball of flame, getting larger each second until blaze made it vanish in the blink of an eye. "How did you do that, because last time I checked you were not an Alicorn or a Unicorn, so how did you use magic?" Derpy asked more confused than she had ever been in her life. "This is what my cutie mark means, it gives me the ability to summon and control flame in anyway I want, it even allows me to heat my body up at will to act like a fire but not burn anypony, I can even do a fireboom which is basically a sonic rainboom but with fire" explained Blaze, still looking at Derpy's adorable but dumbfounded face. "Well let's not waste any time heating up or anything, its not like we aren't cold and wet or anything" moaned Rainbow dash. Blaze started to glow, faintly at first but then brighter until she was no brighter than a fair sized fire, they all huddled around Blaze eagerly trying to get warm, dry their cloaks, their manes and their coats. As time progressed they started to get really drowsy, eventually they started to drift of one by one until only Derpy and Applejack were awake both just listening to the rain patter heavily and seemingly endlessly against what was left of the roof on the broken structure. Derpy sat up and walked to the edge of the dry spot in the ruined room and then she sat down again looking back down the road she had traveled, she couldn't see Ponyville in the dark and rain but she knew it was there. "What's the matter sugarcube? Can't sleep, homesick or both?" asked Applejack who had got up so quietly that she startled Derpy. "Oh it's nothing AJ, I guess I'am just a little restless, even though we only left ponyville week days ago I feel like I've been away for a month already, I miss Maui the chameleon, I miss my house and I miss my breakfast muffin's" Derpy said solemly. "Don't worry sugarcube, Fluttershy will be taking the best care possible of Maui, he'll be fine i'm sure of it, as for the homesickness just think about what's in front of you not what's back in Ponyville, now come on sugarcube it's cold and your definitely tired from the walk today, so let's get some rest" Applejack said in a reassuring voice. Applejack got up and went back to the huddled group of ponies, lay down nest to them and quickly fell asleep, a couple of minutes later Derpy joined them and feel asleep just as quickly as Applejack. They were awakened sometime later by the sound of six simultaneous clicks and a stern but smooth voice "Sit up, turn around but try anything and I'll splatter you heads across the wall."