//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1: The Discovery 
// Story: My Little Pony: Duct Tape is Magic 
// by FireFlash13231 
//------------------------------//

	It seemed like another normal day. The sun was shining, though the pegasi had started gathering clouds for the scheduled shower later that afternoon. Derpy was delivering the mail, when something hit her on the head.
"Ouch! That hurt!" she exclaimed. She looked up, but couldn’t see anypony who might have dropped something. She looked around, trying to determine where the unknown projectile had come from. "Hello? Who threw this at me?" she asked. Nopony answered.
She looked at the shiny, silvery roll on the ground. "I've never seen anything like it." she thought. "Well, since I'm near the library, I might as well see if Twilight knows anything about it. She knows everything."
She started trotting towards the library, when suddenly, Rainbow Dash shot past her before turning around, gliding back, and landing on the ground next to her.
"Hey Derpy! Do you have any new packages for me?" she asked expectantly.
"No, I don't. Sorry Dash."
"Ugh! That ad said to wait four to eight weeks for delivery and it's been seven weeks, one day, twenty-two hours, forty-eight minutes, and eleven seconds- but really, who's counting?" She sighed, with an annoyed edge to her tone. "I hope that they don't deliver it late. They've never sent anything late to me before!" A few moments passed before Dash broke the silence. "Well, I'd better be going. I'll see you later, Derpy!"
She lifted off, but before she flew away, she noticed something and paused. "Hey Derpy, what's that around your hoof?"
"Well, uh, I'm not exactly sure. See I was going to ask Twilight if she knew what it was. It fell out of the sky and hit me on the head. Do you want to come with me?"
"Sure!" Dash replied. "I've never seen anything like it before, but Twilight will probably know everything about it!"
Derpy and Rainbow Dash took off and flew towards the library, Dash flying slowly to allow Derpy to keep up without crashing and dropping the silvery roll.
On their way to the library, Rainbow Dash flipped through her mail. "Water bill, ugh. It’s always so expensive. You’d think that living in a cloud would make water cheaper."
"Sorry Dash!" Derpy replied. "I don't make the mail, I just deliver it!" She giggled happily.
"Hay, wait a minute!" Dash exclaimed. "What's this?" Dash held up a pristine white envelope with no return address.
"I don't know, Dash! Open it!"
Dash rolled her eyes. "Why do you care about my mail? It's my mail, isn't it?"
"I know Dash, but it's the only nice envelope I've seen today!"
"Okay, then I'll open it." Rainbow Dash opened the envelope and pulled out a neatly folded piece of paper marked with the Wonderbolts' insignia.
"Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh!" Dash squeed excitedly, landing so that she could read it more easily. "I've been waiting so long for this!"
"Read it!" Derpy urged, gliding down after her before landing erratically and stumbling into a tree, sticking out her tongue while her eyes lost focus momentarily.
Rainbow Dash sighed. "Derpy, is it your lifetime goal to crash into every tree in Ponyville?"
"Sorry, Dash, I just don't know what went wrong!" she replied, trotting back over to where Dash was.
"Yeah, me neither." Dash muttered under her breath, rolling her eyes before she excitedly opened the letter and began reading.
“Dear Miss Rainbow Dash, I am sorry to inform you that you were not selected to participate in this year's Wonderbolts tryouts. I wish you better luck for next year. Sincerely, the captain of the Wonderbolts, and your biggest fan, Spitfire.
PS: Sorry for making this letter so formal, I had to, my agent said it was some sort of 'legal issue'.
“Yeah right.”
PSS: Fireflash, Soarin and I all say hello from Fillydelphia! Fireflash says he misses you.”
"I'm so sorry, Dash!” said Derpy. "I hope you make it next year!"
"Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmy-"
"Dashie? Are you okay?" Derpy said.
"mygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygo-"
"Dashie?!" Derpy repeated.
"ohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh-"
"DASHIE!" Derpy screamed, jumping up and down.
"Oh. My Gosh!"
"Dashie, why are you so happy? I thought you didn't make it!"
"I don't care! Spitfire said that SHE was MY biggest fan. AND Soarin and Fireflash say hi." She sighed happily. "I miss FireFlash too, it's been almost a month since I've seen him."
"Can we get back to what I was doing, Dash? We still don't know what this thingy is." Derpy said, holding up the roll.
"Er...right. Sorry about that, Derpy."
"It's okay Dashie!" Derpy said, smiling. "Let's go!"
Derpy and Rainbow flew off towards the library, not noticing a second shiny roll falling into the bushes behind them.