Thirty Minute Express Train to Story Town

by Predhack

Promise

Everypony winced as the loose storm lashed lightning across the face of the building. The storm made upper sections of the roof to ignite while the lower section creaked and groaned ominously as the water from the cloud immediately put out any fires before they could spread. The angry storm continued to boil around the building as pegasi swooped in carving away sections of the dark cloud. Somewhere in the building something collapsed with a loud crash, and the mayor could be heard to let out a terrified squeak as she mentally tallied the cost of repairing the damage.

Away from the action a grey pegasus sat, carefully obscured from sight of the crowd gathered around town hall by the pair of ponies with her. The mare was soaked and hopelessly tried to fix her mane which looked like it had had a couple close calls with the lightning as well. She looked at the mares with half a piteous expression, before burrowing her head in her hooves.

“I just don’t know what went wrong,” the soot stained said quietly.

Applejack exchanged a look with Fluttershy and then with the town hall, which was now mostly clear of the cloud but was clearly the worse for wear as pegasus ponies directed cloud fragments to extinguish fires inside the hall where the rain hadn’t been able to put them out fast enough. They sat quietly for a moment, patting the shivering grey mare gently as they tried to think of something comforting to say. Among the list of Derpy’s screw ups this top the list for destructiveness.

It couldn’t be said to be entirely her fault either. Over the next few minutes they managed to coax the story from the upset mare. The storm was supposed to have been handled by a squad of weather ponies to help spread it evenly over Ponyville. Derpy’s squad had the other two pegasi that were supposed to be helping her call in sick, each expecting the other to be able to get someone to help with the storm. Derpy was new addition to the weather patrol, another job change that was necessitated by the combination of the mare’s clumsiness, being easily distracted, and general bad luck. Not knowing the proper procedure, the mare had tried to make moving the cloud around easier by packing it up tightly like she’d been told, an errant down draft later the cloud had collided with town hall and gone off on the building like an misty bomb.

“It’s alright Derpy. Maybe it’s not as bad as it looks,” Fluttershy offered cautiously. Her statement punctuated a moment later by a crash as something in the town hall gave way again.

“A-nope,” Applejack replied, “I reckon that most of the damage is probably inside the building where there was no weather proofin’ for it. There’s a reason you don’t take clouds inside of non-cloud houses.”

Derpy groaned miserably, “Oooh, what’m I gonna do, I can’t afford to fix this. The mayor’s gonna throw me in prison, or get me banished, or banish me and throw me in a prison where they banish me to.”

Applejack and Fluttershy exchanged another glance, and Applejack suggested Fluttershy go get a bucket to help clean Derpy up.

“Now listen, sugarcube,” Applejack said, helping the pegasus to her feet, “I know yer feelin’ low but I’m gonna help you set this straight. I’m not quite sure how but I’m not gonna let you deal with this. This ain’t jus’ yer fault.”

“Thanks, Applejack,” Derpy answered back with a lopsided smile, “I’m sorry I keep screwing up…”

“Now, none of that now,” Applejack admonished, “You just gotta learn to be more careful and remember to ask when you don’t know somethin’ next time. Alright?”

“Yeah,” Derpy nodded sadly, “How’re you gonna fix this. The mayor’s gonna be awfully mad.”

“Don’t you worry your pretty head about it, I’ll come up with somethin’. Have I ever let my best gal down?”

“No.”

“Thas’ right. Now, you get over to Fluttershy an’ get cleaned up. I’m gonna talk to the mayor.”

“Thanks Applejack,” Derpy said unconvincingly.

Applejack looked around before pulling the pegasus mare into a lingering kiss that left Derpy dazed.

“Apples…” she said numbly.

“I’ll keep this comin’ down on you, alright darlin’? I promise,” Applejack pressed earnestly, “Okay?”

“Okay,” Derpy replied, still a bit dazed.

“Thas’ good. Now you go get cleaned up. I just had an idea that the mayor may go for,” Applejack said, turning toward where the mayor was fretting in front of her ruined building, “There’s a rodeo coming up after all.”

Author's Note:

The prompt: Ship Derpy with one of the Mane Six.

More stories with this prompt from other authors.

My first ever submission to the TMPS crew. Direct copy pasta.