//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1: A dream about new beginnings 
// Story: Storm Chasing 
// by urthdigger 
//------------------------------//

My name is Derpy Hooves, and I am in love with a thunder cloud. Well, not A thunder cloud, they are all simply part of the Storm... just as I am now. Indeed, love is probably not the best word to describe how I feel about the Storm. How does one describe a relationship with a primal force of nature, something they've become a part of, and without which one's life feels incomplete? Those fleeting moments I spend with the storm, letting its lightning flow through me, are the only times I feel truly alive. Which is why on that fateful day when my journey began, when it had been 2 months, 3 weeks, 1 day, and 4 hours since Ponyville’s last thunderstorm, I rolled out of bed feeling absolutely miserable, even while ponies across town had been rejoicing the "good weather".

As with most mornings, I was up before dawn so I could get started on my mail route nice and early. It was usually so I could daydream about the Storm as I went about my duties, without worrying about if it slowed down my route, but this day it was out of habit. Recalling the Storm simply made me realize how long it’d been. I tried to take my mind off the fact by forcing part of my cloud house to rain on me for a cold shower. It worked, up until I brushed my mane in front of the mirror and was reminded of the Storm by my lightning-yellow mane and cloud-grey hide. Grumbling to myself, I stormed out the front door and flew down to the postal office.

Two saddlebags almost bursting with mail. This promised to be a long day, and for once I tried to keep a clear head as I went about my route, instead of daydreaming about the Storm like I usually did. It would be nice not to worry about crashing into anything, missing the mail slot, or any of the other things that usually happened when I let my mind wander. At each stop I touched down, closed my blind left eye, grabbed the customer's mail out of their partition in my bag, and carefully fed it into the slot. I made a game of seeing how perfect I could do it, being careful not to bend a single letter upon delivery, and flying as fast as I could between houses. It was fun to take extra pride in my work, and I made a note to try doing this every day.

Dawn was breaking as I neared the end of my route at the Books and Branches Library. Despite the owner being the famous Twilight Sparkle, she got surprisingly little mail, which is why she was at the end of the route. Some days I got to skip it completely. Apparently most of her correspondence was done in-person or with her dragon, so all I usually delivered were notices from the mayor or the school board. Not that I ever looked at what my customers are receiving, perish the thought! That would be unprofessional! The element of magic herself was stepping out of the library as I came over with a few letters.
“Good morning Derpy. Pleasant weather we’re having,” she beamed. Of course as Celestia's prize student, she'd appreciate the sun.
“Only if you like the sun” I replied as I got her mail out of my bag. I did my best to remain my usual jovial self, but I'm certain a little cynicism slipped through. I’d apparently built up some static in my coat, as when I gave the mail to Twilight a spark of lightning arced between us.
I was shocked, but Twilight didn’t appear to notice. She just continued to look through her mail as the spark ignited her coat, the flames licking up along her leg “You know, I hear it's not so sunny up north,” was all she said. Her voice was different somehow, the ground rumbling as she spoke.
I panicked, and looked around for something to put out the fire eating away at Twilight. A well, a cloud, a lemonade stand, anything! “Go north,” she said, as the fire utterly consumed her, leaving behind only a fine pile of ash.





I bolted awake from my bed. It was just a nightmare, a vivid one, but nothing more. I looked out the window and noticed that it was already light out. For the first day ever in my career at the post office, I would be late. Well, on time instead of early, but it worried me all the same.
I wasted no time getting ready and instead raced to the post office. It wasn't as if my job needed me to look my best, I went unnoticed as just somepony in the background to most of my customers. Besides, unlike most ponies I had little trouble getting folks to look me in the eye. It was getting them to stop staring that was the problem. Once at the post office, I shoved a hoof into my cubby hole and noticed my bag was missing. I began to search through the returned bags, on the off-chance that my usually busy route had absolutely no customers for once, or that the mail sorter hadn't gotten around to it, but the large muffin clasp (It's usually your cutie mark, but bubbles make a poor clasp so I got that instead) that marked the bag as mine was not on any of the bags. I could hear somepony approaching behind me as I finished my search.
“First Class decided to cover your route today. You didn’t come in at your usual time, so we figured you were sick,” said my boss, Herald “In either case, I’ve been meaning to speak with you. Please, come into my office.”
I followed him, my breath coming in rapid pants as I began to panic. This was it. I was being fired, just like I was fired from the weather team. I sat down in front of his desk as he began to look through some papers.
“Derpy, I’ve been a little concerned. You haven’t been acting yourself lately.” I looked down at the floor, trying not to cry as the inevitable came “I also noticed you’ve shown up for work every day without stop since you started.” This was not what I expected “In fact, you have three weeks of paid vacation saved up. Something's obviously bothering you, so I'd like you to take some time off and make whatever it is your top priority.”
I was elated. Sure, I was being asked not to come back in for a while either way, but there was a monumental difference between a vacation and termination. I hugged Herald right there on the spot, and after making sure he didn’t catch on fire, told him “Thank you so much.”
He returned the hug, replying "If you need anything at all, feel free to let me know."
"I will," I replied, before taking my leave.

On my way home, I pondered what exactly I could do. I was happy that my boss cared for me, but I couldn’t think of a way to mend my broken heart. Nothing I knew of could bring the Storm back to Ponyville, last few times I asked the weather team to bring a thunder storm to town, they thought I was nuts. But… as I recalled the dream from the previous night, I realized there was another solution: If the Storm would not come to me, then I would go to the Storm. Three weeks was plenty of time to take a trip, even if the best clue I had to go on were the words of a dream. I grabbed my bags and left to the market for supplies, stopping briefly to pin a note to the door “Gone North. Will come back when I find the Storm.”