Prologue
A lot of ponies wondered where Derpy, the mailpony for Ponyville went. Someponies thought that she had been sent away, and others thought she had left; however, I know better. She was with me. I didn’t know Derpy before this story began. In fact, I didn’t know a lot of ponies. I was a shut in. I never liked to go outside. Except at night, because I loved the cool night winds and the darkness of night. It also fits my name. What’s my name? My name is Midnight Skies, and this is the story of how I met Derpy and the big adventure we went on to deliver a special package.
Chapter 1: Hello My Name is Midnight Skies
As a young Pegasus living in Cloudsdale, I had a lot to live up to as the younger brother of Soarin’. Yea, Soarin’, the WonderBolt, maybe you’ve heard of him. My parents always used to tell me, “You should be more like your brother,” but it wasn’t as easy as that. At my age, Soarin’ had blown past flight school, and was already set to become a WonderBolt. I was nowhere close to becoming a WonderBolt. Soarin’ was brave and charismatic; I on the other hand, was shy.
For most of our colt days, Soarin’ and I were the best of friends. Being a WonderBolt was our dream as we grew up together. Soarin’, only a year or two older than me, was already a WonderBolt, and I looked up to him. I on the other hand, struggled through flight school. Don’t get me wrong, I am a great flyer (possibly even better than Soarin’). I’m just was not as brave as he was.
By the time I had graduated flight school, Soarin’ had become a Wonderbolt, and was put on the same squad as Spitfire, one of his rivals at the Wonderbolt Academy, and another Pegasus named Echo Fleetfoot, who surprisingly was blind. I graduated as one of the lowest in the class, but not the lowest. The lowest belonged to a yellow Pegasus with a pink mane. She didn’t finish flight school. In fact, nopony knows what happened to her. Hey, at least I didn’t drop out. For my graduation, Soarin’ stopped by and gave me his Squad Leader pin from the Academy and a book about a famous Wonderbolt named NoseDive. After receiving the book, I read it almost a hundred times, taking in every detail of the book. NoseDive was a lot like me. He was shy and didn’t like a lot of attention. In order to get over his shyness, he started talking to everypony and tried out for a Cloudsdale Sports team. Sounds easy right? Not if you’re the younger brother of the youngest Pegasus to become a Wonderbolt.
Everywhere I went, all everypony wanted to hear about was Soarin’. Soarin’ this, Soarin’ that. Nopony wanted to talk about anything else. After a while, I got tired of it all. I started going out less and less until the only time I left was to get a book from the library, or at nighttime to fly around unsolicited. Books and the night sky were my solace, and I didn’t like to leave them. Eventually, I began to write short stories about my dreams. My favorite story was one where I joined my brother as a Wonderbolt. Pleased with my story, I sent it to Soarin’, who wrote back and told me that that was the best story he’s read in a while, and suggested I had a knack for writing. Reading over my stories again, I realized that he was right. Soon, my cutie mark appeared, a book with a moon on it. I was pleased to have finally gotten my cutie mark, and when I showed my parents, they sounded happy, but they looked almost disappointed. Unbeknownst to them, I caught that disappointment, and it only further pushed me into my solitude.
It was a long time before I went outside after that. Instead of flying, I began to sit on the steps of the SnowFlake memorial, wondering what it was I was supposed to do. I felt almost useless. Soarin’ began to feel bad for me, and tried to cheer me up by inviting me to the Grand Galloping Gala, then the Wonderbolt’s Derby, and even the royal wedding, but each time I declined. I didn’t want to show my face at any of those events. I just wanted to carry on with my life being a shut in. I continued to write my stories, but I soon ran out of material to write about. Then one night I decided I was going to fly again.
Leaving the house with my notebook in my pack and Soarin’s pin on my coat, I walked to the SnowFlake memorial. I looked up at the statue and hoped that something great and amazing would happen to me. I pulled a bit from my pack and threw into the well. Now it was time to take into the skies. I spread my wings and I began to flap them. It took some time to stretch out my wings as I hadn’t flown for a long period of time in a while, but I got used to them pretty fast. I flew through the air going as fast as I could. If only Soarin’ could see how fast I was going. Then I decided to go into a nosedive like the Wonderbolt in my book. The speed and the wind running through my mane only propelled me to go faster. I loved every second of it. At the last second I pulled up, narrowly missing the ground. It would’ve been awesome, had I dodged out of the way of a lone gray Pegasus. I hit the Pegasus hard and I spun out of control, crashing into the trees and hitting the ground hard. The gray Pegasus landed somewhere near me. As I lost consciousness, I saw her stand up and stumble over to me…