//------------------------------// // Derpy's POV(2/2): Trains of Thought // Story: Hoodwinked: The Pony Edition // by Lighttone GryphonStar //------------------------------// So there I was, traveling through the skies of Manehatten, completing my daily deliveries. This would have gone by pretty fast but outside of the usual mail, muffin, and piano delivery services I was also transporting a large supply of cattle prongs and cat litter. Apparently, some pony in the mountains between Manehatten and the mainland needed a large supply of both for no reason. Yes, nothing is more unsuspicious than no reason. This made me very happy as the suspicion of mystery deliveries always annoyed me. I was glad to transport something that was no mystery at all to the point of having no reason to deliver it other than just because. I'm a simple mare and simple tasks make my life so much easier. What I never liked was the several ponies below screaming at me as I flew by. Words like, "Watch where you are dropping those things," and "Agh!! Electrical burns!" I never understood why they would make such claims. I never once dropped a single package and wasn't about to start now... though I was always missing some supply by the end of a trip. Might be thieves, after all, Manehatten is a den of scum and villainy, or whatever that movie quote was. After making my delivery I got aboard the nearest airship. I didn't have a ticket, but that never stopped me. I simply found one floating in the air and sat on top of it. It looked like a royal airship, a rare thing for me to find so far south. Maybe I could expect some fancy room service. Hopefully, this one didn't boo me off as some others did. It was getting close to dinnertime, so I called out for some help. Looking across the top of the airship I found it strange to be completely empty. This was very mysterious. Shouldn't there be window washers up here? There was certainly somepony up here as I kept hearing bell music. Usually, I would eat a muffin, but there was a strange smell around me. It was making me crave cheese, and I hate cheese. I got up and looked to find the source. Yet again I found nopony up there but me and no source of the music either. Actually, I found a large grouping of party balloons near the doorway inside. I didn't want to get booted off the airship so I didn't open the door and left the grouping of balloons alone. Soon my hunger turned into tiredness. I lay down and went to sleep. This nap was very short-lived as a loud bang threw me into the air. My eyes opened to find the airship falling apart. Though I have wings, the sudden rush made me forget I had them. I fell toward the ground. Luckily, my wings were shocked into action as my face crashed into a black pegasus stallion. He was falling through the air as well. He was so limp, and his limbs were flying everywhere. I fought him off through the air for what seemed like several hours. I was so scared by his violent attack. Yet, no matter how much I struggled to get him off, his body pressed against me with more vigor. When I realized his eyes were closed, I concluded the explosion must have knocked him out. Thus, his attack on me was completely out of his control. I sighed in relief. However, a new problem came when I realized letting go of him only made my flight even worse. Looking up to see that the struggle had tangled our wings. This was not great at all as both of us were swaying slowly to the ground. I did what I could and steered us to the mountainside, hoping we would land in the trees. When with no warning, another explosion happened, throwing us to the ground instead. I shrieked in horror at the sight of a massive landslide below us. I tried to escape it. But then a gust of wind knocked us further away from the mountain. I turned to the source and saw a strange crater just appear from nowhere. The winds carried us several miles from the mountains and over farmland. This is where the smell of cheese was quickly replaced by the smell of cat litter. This smell was way worse but was enough to bring the black stallion out of his sleep. His eyes slowly opened, and he looked at me with confusion. His loss turned to shock and then horror. He screamed and struggled away from me, causing our wings to finally untangle. However, his own wings wouldn't move, instead, he fell even faster now. I rushed down to him and screamed for him to open his wings. He tried and tried but that wouldn't matter as soon we crashed through the window, and he was knocked out once more. I kept a tight grip on him as we flew by, rolling across the bed and around everypony inside. I was safe but surrounded by screaming ponies in all directions. All I could do was scream in return, protecting my new friend and myself. It was the most terrifying moment of my life. ****** "Wait a minute, wait a minute!!" The captain stepped in front of Derpy, stopping her story and demanded. "There's no way none of that last part happened. You are making stuff up!!" "Why would you think I was lying?!" Derpy shivered away in her chair. "Because your version of the story would imply that Thunderlane is alive." He pointed at the corpse on the table. "He is dead!!" He screamed the last bit to emphasize the gravity of his words. "Actually, he's not," Blueblood answered. All of them stopped in their tracks and turned back to Blueblood with a mix of confusion, annoyance, and bewilderment. Except for Derpy, though it was unclear what she was looking at or whether she was confused or not. She simply pulled out a muffin from under the table and went to munching. "What do you mean by, not dead?!" Luster Dawn finally questioned. "I mean that literally, check his pulse." Blueblood walked over by the stallion's head and pointed it out for her. Luster Dawn didn't want to question his motives so followed suit. She placed her hoof on the neck. Slowly her eyes widened with each beat of the stallion's heart. "He's right..." "How would you know this before us?!" The captain jumped up from his chair. "Simple, I checked." "How? You never touched the body. That would destroy the evidence!" Captain Braeburn declared out loud and so boldly as it was the best thing, he remembered from the hoofbook on crime scene investigations. "That's why you wear gloves!" Luster Dawn facepalmed. "I didn't need to touch the body." Blueblood pointed to the eyes. "He's been in rem sleep this whole time. Noted by the rolling of the eyelids." The rest were dumbfounded by this realization. This left the final problem being, if he had been asleep this whole time, then how and why? ******