Second Post Gets A Story - Anthology

by Duplex Fields

A Day At The Races

As Derpy extracted herself from the ruins of the cart, she could feel the "F" forming on her lips. It wanted out, it needed out, and by golly, it was coming out. "Fffffudgemuffins!" she swore, kicking a loose tyre, which bounded away.

She could see the gaze of her left eye twitching, and despite not caring much at the moment, she knew she had to get herself reined in, before Dinky's classmates started paying attention to her. Deep breaths. Deep breaths.

Calmed slightly, she watched the young colt hover himself from the wrecks to beside her, body undamaged but spirit bruised. "Crackle Pop, are you okay?" she asked him.

He buried his face in her wing-shoulder, and muffled his sobs.

She walked him quietly to the shade of a nearby tree, and sat down. He sniffled, one big booger string connecting his nose to her wing. "You were great out there," she warbled in her nasal voice, "If those wings hadn't blocked us, we woulda been second place."

Crackle Pop smiled, "You really mean that, miss Derpy?" he asked, wiping his nose with a hoof.

She nodded. "Uh huh. Your mom and dad woulda been real proud."

His face fell again. Oopsie. She put a hoof over her mouth in shock. She hadn't meant to remind the young orphan that they were on a day trip, that he was going back to the group home after the race, and that his parents had died.

She smiled her widest grin, and lifted his chin with a hoof. "They'da been real proud of you, Crackle Pop, because you're a smart colt. Painting the wood to make it look like wood made it really smooth, and made it go really fast 'cause it pushed all the air out of the way. I just wish we could have finished the race."

Just then, Miss Cheerilee announced that the race would be run again.

---

Despite the Cutie Mark Crashers' redesigns, Derpy advised Crackle Pop to use the same set of plans as before. While he worked on the cart itself, she constructed the new undercarriage.

"Hum de dum, ta te tum," she hummed to herself as she worked. Music always made work go easier for ponies, and while the montage music was sung by Rainbow Dash and her friends, she felt it wasn't cheating to leech a bit of their good luck.

Luck, she mused as she hummed. She always got lucky, or unlucky, never normal. It was like her eyes; one saw what she wanted to see, and the other sometimes saw what she needed to see.

She got unlucky when she'd made her first cart when she was a filly, because it wasn't the fastest, but she was lucky it was so bad it was the most creative, and it earned her Cutie Mark because the nails held it together. Holding things together that shouldn't work was her specialty, she supposed, along with her lifelong battle with luck.

She was unlucky when she got fatter and fatter, and lucky when she had Dinky. She was lucky when she got to try for the Best Young Flyer, but unlucky when Rainboom Dash won it. She was unlucky when the super athletic Rainbow and Applejack nearly won the Running of the Leaves, but lucky when they fought near the finish and she ended up winning first place.

She was unlucky when the system thought she was a super-dumb pony and took Dinky away, but she got really lucky when they realized she wasn't and gave her back, and that's how they both met Amethyst Star, who was an orphan who'd never been adopted and just sorta fell into a job at the group home after she got her mark in organizing. That was how Derpy ended up with a new daughter only a year younger than herself, and a new older sister for Dinky. That was how she got involved with day trips from the group home system, and how she had ended up here with Crackle Pop at the derby.

Upon reflection, she'd been really, really lucky to find so much love.

---

As the second race drew nearer, Crackle Pop attached the undercarriage while she watched. It was probably better than the first, truth be told. "You did a really good job, Crackle Pop," she said, "And you did it by being yourself."

He smiled. "Thanks, miss Derpy!" Then, together they pushed the cart to the staging area. With a quick flap, he leaped into the driver's seat and buckled himself into the harness.

Derpy smiled, and took to the air herself, aiming to land in the crowd of parents and uncles and aunts and friends who were ready to watch the race. Unfortunately, she'd forgotten about the snot on her wing. The aerodynamics were off, and she overcompensated, and she landed upside down in the tree behind the other spectators! She tried to untangle herself, from the tree limbs, but got entangled further and ended up dangling over a bare low limb of the tree, face-to-face with an angry momma robin, perfectly visible to the now-staring crowd.

Crackle Pop's jaw dropped.

Cheerilee's voice called out, "Derby racers to the starting line!"

Upside down and eyes askew, Derpy pointed at where he needed to be. "Go! Go! You can do it!"

And as the racers pulled up to the line, as the other grown-ups turned from her spectacle to watch the race begin, she carefully pulled herself down from the tree, avoiding the nest and the angry bird. With a fluffy thump, she arrived on the ground just in time to see the racers take off. "Woohoo, go Crackle Pop!" she cried out, pumping a hoof in the air.

Today had been a good day.

Author's Note:

Prompt from MLPG: "Go f$%# yourself"

Written an hour after watching "Cart Before the Ponies", matching my updated Derpy headcanon, post-Slice of Life.