Chapter 7
The next morning-time after breakfast, Dusk stood by the door and said, “Thank you, Derpy, for letting me stay. You showed me a lot, and it made me realize I have to go.”
Derpy stopped her preparations for the work day to ask, “Already? Where do you want to go?”
“I need to go west,” she answered, still looking out that way. “I need to do something.”
“When do you need to go?” Derpy asked, paying attention but still brushing her mane.
Dusk looked back to her host intensely and insisted, “Right now.”
“Oh,” she let out, and put the brush down. She trotted over and gave Dusk a hug. The pegasus was truly warmed by the sentiment but was still too awkward to return it properly.
“Sorry I made you dirty again,” Dusk murmured, embarrassed.
Derpy Hooves looked down to see her chest and legs streaked and smeared with grays and whites from her contact with the weird guest. “It’s okay,” she shrugged, “I’ll just wash it off before I go to work. Will I see you again?” she finished with imploring eyes.
“I don’t know,” Dusk answered truthfully, although privately she doubted it.
“Good bye Duskie,” Miss Hooves offered.
“Duskie” looked out and then back at Derpy. There was a moment of silence.
The cross-eyed pony turned more cross-eyed than usual before finally asking, “What?”
“I can’t fly,” Dusk confessed, flapping her deficient wings lamely. “I need to travel quickly, but I can’t fly.”
“What’s so important that you have to be so fast?” the blond pegasus questioned again.
“The world is ending,” the odd one began, but paused to calculate. “And I need to see my family.”
Derpy gave a doleful frown. “You really think the world is ending?”
Dusk considered the eponymous horizon where the sun still refused to rise or fall. “Probably,” she sighed.
Derpy flew out the door and hovered in front of the edge of the cloud. She dug something like a snowball out of her home cloud and brought it to her friend. “You should just use cloud booties!” she suggested cheerfully.
“Booties?” Dusk repeated dubiously.
“Of course,” Derpy chirped, “All the little pegasus fillies wear these when they’re just learning to fly.” She chided playfully, “Don’t you know anything?” and stuck the puffy blob onto Dusk’s hoof.
After she received the complete set, Dusk felt sillier and lighter. Flapping her small wings, she pulled herself off of the cloud and moved out into empty space. At first she flailed around clumsily, but gaining control, she returned to land where she started.
“Good!” bubbled Derpy. “How far do you need to go?”
“At least as far as Ponyville,” Dusk replied, again glancing doubtfully at her hoofwear. “I seriously doubt I can make it to Ponyville,” she thought. “The world is sooooo ending.”
Derpy disappeared into the house and reappeared with a rope tied around her neck. Before Dusk could say, “You don’t need to hang yourself,” Derpy was giving her the other end of the rope.
She explained, “We can get to Ponyville fast if we go together!”
“What about your job?” Dusk could only ask.
“It’s not going anywhere, and there are really more important things,” Ditzy Doo admitted. “You need to see your family.”
The salt-and-pepper pegasus, still shocked at her friend’s good will, stammered, “Wow, thanks…but what—“
“Bite it,” Derpy interjected, holding out the end of the rope. Dusk complied. “Now you just hold yourself up and hold on!” Derpy instructed before immediately rolling over in the air and flying west. Dusk’s eyes widened as the slack in the rope disappeared, and with an “Ungh!” she was yanked off the cloud into the sky.
Ditzy Doo, breaking free of the constraints of daily life, surged forward exuberantly. With Dusk in tow, she cleared the next cloud house and set her sights on the horizon. Her passenger, however, was still on trajectory for the house. Dusk scrambled uselessly on her cloud shoes as if to run the other way on the air but obviously found no traction. She tasted cloud as she left a deep impression on the wall before scraping along after Derpy, who pushed determinedly ahead. The agile flyer gave polite space to a milk-pony completing his “morning” rounds. Dusk careened into the unsuspecting pony. In the resulting crash, she lost hold of the rope and milk bottles went flying. She started to apologize, but the pegasus colt dove towards the cityscape to save his falling cargo. She found herself leaning forwards awkwardly and having a hard time keeping altitude. A quick glance revealed her empty hoof. “I lost my bootie!” she cried. “Derpy!”
Derpy was flitting away happily, not only unaware but also quite pleased with her abilities. “It was a little rough to get going, but now I’ve got the hang of it!” she cheered, “At this rate we’ll get to Ponyville in no time, right Duskie?” She turned to look for congratulations behind her but only found a dangling rope. “Aww derp.”
Dusk struggled to balance on three hooves until her helper appeared to retrieve her. She urged, “This time, let’s fly under the neighborhood.”
Trying to be helpfully quick, Derpy had the cord back in her mouth before she could mention the cloud shoe. The two swooped down into the space between the factories and lower layer of cloud apartments. They suffered no more collisions, but passing commuters laughed at Dusk as she limped and wobbled at the end of her string. As they left the city, she figured out that she could wrap the rope around her unshod hoof and assume a stance almost like water skiing. “Great, now that nopony’s looking I can have some dignity,” she grumbled.
They traveled miles of dim sky, slowly but surely pulling the faint features of the earth under them from one horizon to the other. Comparatively few incidents interrupted their airborne road trip.
Night fell suddenly as they flew, but Ditzy still knew the way. Someone had dropped the sun; did they really have something better to do?
In one broad vista, bright orange on the north horizon replaced the dusk light. The burning ground illuminated pillars of smoke that blotted out the stars. “Wow, look at that wildfire,” Derpy marveled. “It’s pretty! I hope no pony gets hurt though.” Dusk knew instinctively that it was no wildfire. The eerie lights that moved through the smoke betrayed the conquering armada. She didn’t disillusion her companion.
Dusklight returned as they finally landed at the edge of Ponyville. They sat down in the grass and caught their breath. After a reluctant moment, Derpy turned to Dusk and said, “I guess it’s really good-bye this time, Duskie. Enjoy your time with your family.”
Dusk had thought along the way what to say to her new friend. How could she thank her? She suggested, “I’m not the only one with something more important to do than deliver mail. You should go back to Dinky. With everything that’s going on, she needs you right now.”
“You’re right,” Derpy agreed, “My poor little filly!” She hazarded another sooty hug. “Thank you Duskie. I want my Dinky, she’s all I wanted this whole time. Good bye.” Dusk waved as Derpy Hooves rose up, gave a last look, and flew out of sight. The pegasus mother started her second trip heading southeast. She was tired after the first flying journey, but nothing could hold her back now.