//------------------------------// // 3 Days Untill Evaluation // Story: I Am Derpy Hooves // by defender of the herd //------------------------------// 3 days till evaluation. Overnight hurried down the morning streets of Ponyville in a most unusual way. It was not at all like his slow deliberate pace. He was not even headed in the direction of work. Somewhere near her apple cart Applejack breathed a sigh of relief. Today, Overnight was rushing to a shop that he had never been to, but need to find. He stopped at a door and read the sign, 'Berry Punch's Best Mixes' Overnight walk in and headed up to the counter. Other ponies in the store were in a bit of a shock to see him there, this was not his kind of place. Berry Punch was stunned at this moment for many reasons. Overnight never drank, or spoke to her before and now all of a sudden he was in her shop. He never even looked at her shop before now and it wasn’t even on his way to work. Was this some kind of set up? “Hello Ms. Punch, I would like a very special batch of your Hard Night Cider.” “You sure?” the mare eyed Overnight up and down with the scrutiny of a gem cutter searching for cracks in an emerald. Something about this overgrown slag of a stallion made her shiver. Still business was business, and bits were bits. Berry Punch sighed. “Fine, it’ll be ready by tomorrow. Now pay up and git, your scaring my other customers.” Overnight just placed his bits on the counter and left. Overnight grinned to himself his plan had proceeded very well up to this point. He knew that today would would be a very good day . He trotted up to the post office and opened the lock and let himself in. Today he was going to give Ditzy a surprise: the day off to train for her evaluation. He had spent most of the previous night setting up an area outside of Ponyville to the exact specifications of the evaluation course. He had taken Ditzy out to look at it and to let her know he was fully behind her. He was being a really great boss to her. Of course her mail from today would be forgotten about and piled up for her to deliver tomorrow, but that wasn’t his fault. Overnight chuckled at his plan. He began to sort the morning mail into the delivery satchels and thought about the next part of his plan. The door to the post office opened and in flew Raindrop. A very worried and concerned Raindrop. Her blue mane and tail were disheveled like she had been up all night talking to somepony. He golden brown coat had coffee stains on it from where she had spilled her drink. Even her raindrop cutie mark looked dirty from lack of sleep and a shower. Overnight eyed her messy state with disdain. Raindrop snatched up her satchel onto her back and shot outside. Where was she? She needed to talk to Ditzy, to help her friend. Raindrop replayed last night in her head over and over again. A loud knock came to Raindrop's door and woke her from the nicest dream she was having. There was a stallion, and a cloud, and wait was that chicken with a mug of cider? Ok so maybe it wasn't the nicest dream ever, maybe only parts of it were nice. The knocking came again this time louder and with more urgency. Raindrop grumbled and started towards her door. She was mid way through regretting not living in a cloud house when a voice came through the door, "Please Raindrop hurry! Ditzy needs our help!" The voice was concerned and slightly on edge and had a very nasal element to it. Raindrop hurried and opened her door to see her friend Golden Harvest. She was panting like she has been at a full gallop on her way here. Raindrop could just feel that something was off. "Ditzy is feeling bad, really bad. I don't know what went wrong with her, but she came home and asked me to watch Dinky for the rest of the week." Golden Harvest stopped to suck in some much needed air before continuing. "Her eyes we so sad. I could hear somepony crying when i left to find you. Raindrop what happened today?" Raindrop was stunned. What was going on? Ditzy was fine this morning when she saw her. Got her muffin in the morning, and she flew her route, although she was a lot quieter and with fewer accidents. Come to think of it that whole afternoon Ditzy seemed to be lost in her own thoughts. Raindrop's eyes grew wide when the thought hit her like hammer on the head. "She spoke to Overnight yesterday about her evaluation for work. She must be super stressed and freaking out about it. Come on lets go talk to her about it and let her know we'll help her out." Raindrop spoke with a confident tone and motioned the melancholy Golden Harvest to follow her. When the pony's arrived at the Doo home it was quiet and somber. Raindrop shivered, she had never felt so out of place before. The duo trotted up and knocked on the front door. Seconds ticked by that felt a lot longer to Golden Harvest as she nervously watched the door knob and waited for it to turn. After what felt like a lifetime the knob began to turn. A little unicorn answered to door and looked up at the two adult ponies and spoke, " Hello Golden Harvest, mommy says i need to stay with you for a few days while she gets read for her ee-val-you-ation. I think it has her really worried. I saw her crying earlier and saying that she was sorry about something. When I asked her why she was crying she said I shouldn't worry and that Golden Harvest would help. Can you please help now?" The next sound that all three ponies heard was the choking rasp of all the air in Golden Harvest's lungs fighting to both form words and exit as fast as possible. The forces of exit won in the end and she began to choke. Raindrop patted her on her back a few times to help her out. The grown-ups looked at the filly and searched for words to say. Finally Raindrop spoke, " It's going to be ok Dinky. We are your mom's friends and we care about her a whole lot, we will find a way to help her." Hearing this the little filly perked up a bit and gave a weak smile. Golden Harvest felt much better at that, and it seemed her lungs could hold air again because of it. Then it happened. The greatest idea Golden Harvest ever had to sheer up a pony down in the dumps. Her eyes opened and a shining spark filled them as the idea in her heart raced into her mind and all over her body. "I Know what we need to do! Raindrop I need pictures, Dinky I need a scrap book! We have a lot of work to. I am gonna make a list of ponies that we are gonna need to help us out! Oh this is gonna be great, Ditzy is gonna be so happy!" The poniess around her were taken aback and were not quite sure what was going on. Something inside Golden Harvest had come to life and it started to affect the others. Dinky gave a real smile, a toothy innocent smile and nodded in agreement. Raindrop puffed up her chest and winked at Golden Harvest. With that the trio was off. “Are you alright my lovely?” a soft melodious voice snapped Raindrop back into the present. Shipping was standing there ready to leave for her delivers. She carried a worried face, and a slight bit of panic in her eyes as she looked over Raindrop. “Ditzy, where is she? I have something for her that she needs to see, a lot of ponies worked on this last night and this morning. She has to see this.” the words came choppy and raspy out of Raindrop's mouth. “She’s got the day off to practice for her evaluation. Overnight set it up.” hummed Shipping. “Oh.” Raindrop was crestfallen and her spirit sunk down into her hooves. “Don’t worry your pretty little head, Overnight is in his office, we can talk to him” Shipping said as she put her foreleg around Raindrops neck. With a that friendly gesture the two pony's walked back into the post office to find their boss. Outside of Ponyville in a large open area Ditzy zoomed around trying to complete time trials. She had to beat 20 letters in 50 seconds. She was currently doing about half that in twice as much time. The stress was starting to strain her lungs and burn her wing muscles. She had to do this, she had to pass, and if she failed…she shook her head and didn’t think about it. As she rested after another attempt she viewed the course in full for the first time; time trials on the end closest to her, an obstacle course for the accuracy challenge, and a mock sorting room for her to learn attention to detail. Overnight had out done himself; she would really have to thank him for his help. He had gone above and beyond to help her out, he really was a great boss. Ditzy stood up and set off for the time trial again. After a few hours a large steel pony walked onto the course. “Hello Ms. Doo, making progress?” Ditzy panted and gasped for air. She had been going so hard for so long she didn’t see Overnight come up, and he startled her. She thought about the question. She had gotten faster in the time trial. Her accuracy was also getting better. “Yeah I’m a making some progress. Thanks again for setting this all up and giving me the day off! This is really nice and I really appreciate it.” “Of course, how would I look if one of my mail ponies were to fail?” Ditzy hadn’t thought about that. This was just another example of how her actions where effecting other ponies. What if she did so bad that Overnight lost his job too? That would be awful! “I brought you some lunch so you didn’t have to interrupt your practice. I also brought you this.” Overnight held out a small book. It had a simple black cover and no more than 30 pages in it, in fact it could hardly be called a book. “This is a scrap book that some ponies around town decided to make for you. When I asked why they did this they told me they wanted you to know what they all thought of you. They seemed to think it would be good for you to know this before your evaluation. I wish you well with the rest of the day Ms. Doo.” Overnight made his way back to Ponyville leaving Ditzy alone. She looked down at the book. A nervous feeling overtook her. Other ponies of Ponyville made a special book just for her? She felt a little embarrassed truth be told. Of course her friends were trying to help her! She may have been a little sad, and they may not understand the stakes for her and Ditzy, but by Celestia they would help her! With a shaking hoof she opened the book. Inside were the words “Derpy Hooves” written along the top of the first page. Underneath was a picture of a very upset Rainbow Dash and a sheepish Ditzy Doo. It was a picture from winter wrap up, when Ditzy went the wrong way to find the southern birds. She turned through some more pages. The broken town hall was on the next page and had the caption of 'Derpy at it again'. The next photo was of the Best Young Fliers competition. It showed the grey pegasus mare face planted into the stands with a group of ponies fleeing the scene. So this is what Ponyville thought of her. She didn’t even have the dignity of being given her own name; she was Derpy Hooves, greatest failure of Ponyville. She tried to stop them but the water flowed from her eyes and down onto the pages of the book. She turned through more pages and it only made her feel worse. She tossed the book aside and it fell to the ground with its back cover facing up. Overnight made it back into Ponyville and headed into Sugar Cube Corner. A rambunctious pink earth pony leaped from nowhere and shouted a greeting to him as he entered. “Welcome, welcome, welcome, a big welcome to you!” Overnight did not flinch and shot daggers from his eyes into the big bright blue orbs that were Pinkie Pie’s eyes. The song cut out and Pinkie drooped. “Ok let me try something else. How about this!” With that Pinkie Pie bounced off into the back of the bakery. Overnight was starting to get upset, and started to regret coming into the bakery. Pinkie Pie was a calculated risk but would be worth it in the end if he could change Ditzy Doo. Overnight had made it to the counter by the time Pinkie Pie had come back. She opened her mouth to speak and it was met with a hoof raised to her lips. “Ms. Pie I need you to make me some special muffins. Rainbow spiced muffins to be exact. Not rainbow flavored, or colored, or sprinkled, but made with real rainbow. The spicier the muffins can be the better.” Pinkie’s eyes shinned with a glow that would snuff out the darkest corner of a room. She gasped and grabbed Overnight by the face and pulled him close to her. “You mean it? You really super-duper mean it? The rainbow spice muffin is the spiciest thing in all of Equestria. It could burn through an amateur pony like fruit bats through an apple orchard . Like that one time Twilight drank all that hot sauce, man that was a bad night for her. If you want a batch I can make one up a dozen faster than you can say, 'I can clear the sky in 10 seconds flat!' Huh, I feel like I’ve heard that line from somewhere before. Oh yeah, it was Rainbow Dash! Maybe she can help me make some muffins! Oh I’m so excited we can have epic muffin time! This is going to be the best order ever! When do you need them? I hope it’s not soon it’ll take me about two days to get all the ingredients. So I guess I can’t make a batch in 10 seconds flat then. Oh well! Me and Dashie can go and a trip to Cloudsdale to pick up some fresh rainbow! Wow that will be so fun! We can borrow Twilight’s balloon...oh I wonder if she wants to go too! Adventure time here we come!” “I will be back in two days Ms. Pie.” Overnight left the bakery as Pinkie Pie kept planning, as she put it” the best order ever”. Pinkie didn’t even see Overnight leave. The rigid stallion walked onto the streets of Ponyville and marched over to a trash bin. He took out a large stack of paper from his satchel and tossed them into the bin. The top sheet read, ‘From Carrot Top, your Muffin, and Raindrop to our beloved Ditzy Doo, you are not a… ‘the rest was torn away. The page next to it was written out in a different mare's mouth writing. It read, 'Derpy my friend I know every winter wrap-up I tell you to go get the southern birds, and every year you mess it up. I know it and you know it. The reason I make you do it is well...because I have faith in you. I know you try so hard, and deep down you really care. One day I know you will get it right and you deserve to have that feeling of accomplishment. So I guess your stuck getting the birds cause one day I know you'll get it right. You know I'm right. Your loyal friend and best flier in Equestria, Rainbow Dash." The papers sunk down into the trash bin without a struggle. A few moments later a stallion came by lifted the bin and emptied it into a cart with all the other trash of Ponyville.