Accident Prone (Open)

[derpyhooves]

Most people would think that going out grocery shopping is a simple ordeal. There’s usually no big ordeal that comes from it and it is seldom a memorable experience. It’s something that should be simple, methodical, and even a little boring. Of course, Derpy Hooves never adhered to any of these words, no matter what she did, and whether she intends to or not. Naturally, something out of the ordinary found her, or she found it. It’s not too hard to believe that Derpy found herself in this position today; standing in the middle of the market place, surrounded by over a dozen scattered apples, looking at a pile of ponies who had fallen over on each other like a row of dominoes. Would you believe me if I said that such an elaborate mess was caused by that single cross-eyed Pegasus? It goes without saying that she really was a pony with a talent for getting herself into trouble.

This entire situation started out in the most innocent of ways. Derpy Hooves was out and about the Ponyville Marketplace, out to buy some groceries for herself and her precious daughter. She was doing her normal, Derpy-thing, casually fluttering about and keeping in her own little world. Everything was going smoothly until she drifted up to a certain apple-vendor, selling fruit from their cart on the side of the street. Their conversation went normally. The exchange of money for apples went without event. No, it wasn’t until Derpy tried to go across the street once she was done at the vendor’s cart that she got herself into some new mess. As she tried to fly across the street, a fast moving pony in some sort of mad hurry with his cart full of Celestia-knows-what came barreling down the road towards her. Not wanting to make him stop or get in his way, Derpy immediately flew backwards with a powerful motion with her wings to clear the street for this traveler. It seemed to be the polite thing to do, not to mention the safest. Of course, being a Pegasus, she probably could’ve just flown over the street, let the pony and his cart go on through, and avoided this whole thing. However, that just wouldn’t have been Derpy’s style, now would it? What really matters is that while she was moving backwards, she wasn’t watching where she was going. She slammed back into the apple vendor’s cart, forcing the thing to rock back and forth with the impact. As it rocked forward, gravity took the apples out of their piles and sent them rolling across the marketplace. Now, Derpy Hooves was more than ready to apologize for the mess, but it wasn’t over yet. Just as the apples went rolling, a different pony came trotting down the road, whistling a tune and not watching where she was going. It was like a bad slapstick comedy. She stepped on one of the apples and went tumbling forward. It just so happened that she tumbled forward and landed into the last person standing in a particularly long line for something, which caused that pony to fall into the next, and so on, and so on… Just like a line of dominoes.

And that’s how we got here; with a pile of moaning ponies surrounded by a bunch of bruised apples, with Derpy Hooves standing in the middle of it all. She looked around for a second, dumbfounded and slightly amused by the sight, before feeling the piercing glare of the apple vendor bearing down on her. The Pegasus looked over to the pony and sheepishly turned her ears backward, lowered her head, but still managed to give a small, apologetic smile. ”Oops. Did I do all that?” she asked foolishly. The vendor gave her a firm, angry nod that caused Derpy’s wings to droop a bit with guilt. Then, she looked down at the apples on the ground and got an idea. A quick grin came to her features as she thought that she had found the way to make up for her mistake. ”I’m sorry! Lemme help you pick up all these apples! I can help you dust them off, and they’ll be good enough to sell again!” She offered with enthusiasm. She honestly thought that it seemed like a good idea. She never really stopped to consider how they might all be bruised beyond value though. Wanting to help, Derpy bent over and picked up an apple with her mouth, but the apple vendor put a hoof on her shoulder to stop her.

”Oh no… Thanks, but no thanks,” the vendor interrupted. ”I think you’ve done enough for today.” Not really realizing that the vendor was trying to send her away, Derpy put the one apple she retrieved carefully back into the cart before giving a big smile to the angry pony. ”Oh, okay!” she chirped cluelessly. ”I hope your day gets better!” She turned around, ready to fly off, only to see the group of ponies getting back to their feet after their collective fall. Knowing that it was pretty much her fault, the grey mare figured that she could at least help out one of these ponies, right? With that thought in mind, she trotted over to a random body that hadn’t yet regained their footing. She offered them a hoof and a smile.

”Sorry ‘bout that,” she said with a genuine, yet upbeat tone. ”Are you okay?”

[/size]

[Time Turner]

There was an expectation today that all he had to do was go down to the market and buy some groceries; bananas, apples, daffodils, but no pears. It was a simple expectation for what seemed to be an average, ordinary day. Of course for pony-explorer extraordinaire Time Turner, or at least that’s what he called himself, such a day was rather boring. Ah well, even boring days can bring about a new experience, such as figuring out that the price of bananas had doubled recently. That was a rather messy bargaining, and now his fruit salad minus pears was going to have to be half the normal size; a very disappointing ending.

What wasn’t disappointing, however, was the sudden arrival of something exciting in the form of a flood of apples rolling down the street. Time Turner, not expecting such a thing, failed to notice them and soon found himself stumbling as his hooves caught onto them. Lacking solid ground beneath his legs, Time Turner soon found himself amongst the other victims of most unfortunate of accidents. His whole body a little sore from the impact, he looked around to see just where in the world all these apples had come; it wasn’t the first time he had been involved in apple-based attacks on ponies after all. Although, the last time he had been was in Appleoosa and involved a very odd bunch of apple thieves…

Or the more likely candidate for this was the grey pegasus that was currently offering to help clean up the mess. Yes, that made for a far more sensible answer than apple thieves. Well then, time to get up and get going then; he had a fruit salad to…oh, that wasn’t good. As he struggled to get some footing on the juicy pulp of apples, he saw his bag of fruits had been flung somewhere off to the side and trampled on by other equally unstable ponies. So much for his dinner then. And he was so looking forward to…

All of a sudden a grey hoof invaded his sight alongside a pair of mismatched eyes and a voice offering help.

”Ah yes, perfectly fine. Nothing more than some bruised apples and a potential fruit salad destroyed.”

Taking advantage of the pegasus’s offer, he used her hoof to get himself stabilized. Once secure, he figured some introductions were in order.

”Thank you for that. Now I’m not sure if we’ve met yet, but just in case I’m Time Turner.” he said with a chipper attitude. While he may not get his salad, at least he’ll have met a new pony. That was worth something.

[/blockquote]

[derpyhooves]

Derpy Hooves scrunched up her nose shamefully and lowered her ears apologetically when she heard about the fate of the stallion's fruit salad. Normally, she'd try to be upbeat about the whole thing in an attempt to make everything better and show that she meant no harm, but this time she couldn't help but give a sad frown. A fruit salad sounded yummy. She suddenly felt really bad about ruining that treat for somepony else.

"Sorry 'bout your salad," she said sincerely. "My bad." She was about to lower her head to show how sorry she was, but a new development knocked her out of her state of mourning for the delicious-sounding meal. The fallen victim of her apple-accident accepted her helping hoof. This brushed away Derpy's frown, replacing it with a smile. While she helped him get his footing once more, her ears swivled back forward and her innocent, joyful nature came back. She liked it when ponies accepted her help. It usually meant that she was forgiven, no pony was angry at her, and all was well.

What made that moment even better was when the stallion introduced himself to her in such a chipper tone. This made her very happy. Not only was he not angry with her, but he seemed willing to make friends too! Derpy always figured that some good things did naturally come out of her clumisiness. Suddenly, she seemed to forget about her mess of apples, and just seemed delighted to meet this new face. Well, the face wasn't really new. No face around Ponyville was new to a mail-mare.

"Hiya Time Turner!" she responded with a note of excitement. "I'm pretty sure I've seen you before! As in, I mean, I've probably delivered your mail!" she pointed out proudly. "But it's nice to really 'meet you' meet you! My name's Derpy Hooves!" It seemed that she had just put her front hoof back down from helping Time Turner up before it was extended back out again to give a friendly shake. Derpy didn't want to forget any politeness when it came to making a new friend, after all!

[Time Turner]

His mentioning of the no longer possible fruit salad seemed to bring down the mood of this wall-eyed mare. It seemed she was of the overly sensitive sort. Well, that made sense. Probably just a little self-conscious of herself and any reminder of things that occurred due to her mistakes had a larger than normal impact. As long as he kept that in mind he’d be perfectly fine in dealing with her. After all, she seemed like a rather nice pony so there was no reason to get her upset or anything. Bit of a klutz perhaps, but he had his own fair share of accidental property damage so he couldn’t say anything without being a little bit hypocritical.

”Oh nothing to worry about my dear. Fruit is replaceable after all.”

His allowing her to help him up seemed to bring back a cheerful mood, and so it seemed all the trouble was over and done with. Well, except all the ponies in the background still cleaning up. But they weren’t important, and none looked angry enough to bother them. So as far as he was concerned, she was completely forgiven and they could get on with the introductions and what not.

”Mail mare? Ohhhh right, now I remember you. Hmm, wonder why I never bothered to greet you at the mailbox…,” he said, mumbling a little to himself on the last part as his eyes just kind of drifted into contemplation. About a split second later though he was back to paying full on attention to her, extending a hoof to meet hers in a friendly handshake.

”No matter, nice to officially meet you then Derpy.”

Well, that was fun. That still left a question of what exactly he was going to do for dinner. His original plans were currently being swept up with the other damaged goods from the stalls, so that was out. And he currently didn’t have much in the way of bits on him from the shopping. Not enough at least to go out and get a whole new list of ingredients. That left maybe just somewhere small, maybe a sandwich or something, though that was a little bit lighter than what he normally ate. But his companions did always tease him for being a little pudgy. Right, that would work; just a light little sandwich at a restaurant somewhere would do. And since he was now going out to eat…

”So then, since it doesn’t look like the vendors here would like help, why don’t you join me for something to eat instead? Always nice to have a companion or two to eat with after all.”

[/blockquote]

[derpyhooves]

Derpy's smile grew and her eyes sparkled in delight when her hoofshake was received. As far as she was concerned, she had just made a new friend. She was truly a friendly pony at heart and loved moments like these. It was just that her clumsiness often got her and other ponies started off on the wrong hoof, that's all. Luckily though, that didn't seem to be the case with Time Turner here. Even if she had destroyed his yummy-sounding fruit salad, he was still being downright delightful. Since he was being so nice and friendly about this whole thing, Derpy Hooves immediately forgot about the whole apple-disaster and left the whole situation behind her.

"Well, now that we've been all 'met up', I betcha we'll start greeting each other there now, won't we?" she cheerfully pointed out. She honestly hoped so. One of her favorite parts of her job was greeting people at the mailbox. Mail was always so well-received, and she liked to be a part of that. It seemed like a simple-minded thing, but it was the honest truth.

Derpy put her hoof back down after they shook. She was about to start up rambling about something (Which was her way of carrying on conversation), but Time Turner beat her to the punch. Not that she minded, of course. She listened happily, and was instantly pleased by his offer.

"Yeah!" she chirped with new excitement. This pegasus was indeed easily excitable. It didn't take much to win her over or make her happy. It might be one of her best traits, in fact. While it seemed that she was quick to accept, Derpy had given it a split second of thought. After all, she did have a daughter to think about and didn't think it'd be right to just go out to dinner without her. However, Dinky was eating dinner at a friend's house tonight after working on a project for school, leaving Derpy to her own plans. At first, she was a bit bummed by the idea of eating alone. Now it seemed like everything was falling nicely into place, especially since it included a new friend.

"Food is always better with someone to share it with!" she agreed, some of her thoughts spilling into her dialogue. Between her now-carefree bliss and the knowledge that she'd now be heading off somewhere, Derpy extended her wings and fluttered up a couple feet in the air.

"Where do ya have in mind, Time Turner?"

[Time Turner]

”Well, I guess we will. Although I will warn you; I tend to be out of town quite a bit. I really like travelling and all that….that’s probably why I didn’t run into you before now that I think about it,”

That was a good enough guess as any as far as he was concerned, so he just put it behind him alongside all the overturned apples and the remains of his salad. He had found himself a lovely new companion to hang out with for the evening, if she accepted the offer. That was always worth some bruised apples and ruined dinner plans. And it seemed she was in agreement about the idea as, after a moment’s thought, the grey pegasus had accepted his offer. Absolutely fantastic!

”Couldn’t agree more Derpy.” Time Turner said as he stared walking again. While he wasn’t as excited as his companion, who was now apparently airborne, he was still rather excited about the prospect of a new friend. Actually, it was working out perfectly. He had thought about heading off on another trip soon, and he needed someone to go along with him. Depending on how this dinner went, he might have to invite Derpy with him.

Lost in his thoughts, he almost missed Derpy asking him where it was that they were going. As he had just started walking with no real intention, he found himself stopping in his tracks. That thought hadn’t actually crossed his mind. He tended to forget about the details of a plan sometimes like that.

”Uhm….I actually didn’t have anything in mind. Always Sugarcube Corner I guess, but not really up for a bunch of sweets. You wouldn’t happen to have any suggestions would you?”

[derpyhooves]

Once Time Turner seemed to be on the move, Derpy Hooves remained a couple of feet off the ground and flew alongside him. Her wings beat at a steady pace to meet with his walking speed, not wanting to fly too far ahead on accident. Walking herself probably would've been just as easy, but like most pegasi, Derpy found that she often prefered to fly. While some liked to go fast or liked to be above everything else, this mare simply just enjoyed that feeling of being in the air more than anything.

When Time Turner answered her question, she was about to get excited at the mention of Sugarcube Corner. That was quickly stopped though when he dismissed sweets. She frowned for a moment in disapointment. Sugarcube Corner had the best muffins after all. They were always baked to perfection. Derpy could easily see herself living off of those muffins that they served at Sugarcube Corner. However, it was apparently bad for your health to eat only one thing, and that was something that she had to think more about with her daughter in her life. Still, she dropped in altitude for a split second at the thought of not getting muffins. She quickly shot back up about a foot though as a new thought came to mind and a smile came across her face. Derpy was prone to quick shifts of emotion, in case it wasn't obvious already.

"Oh! There's this cafe not too far from here!" she exclaimed. "You can sit outside and they have any sandwich you can think of! They don't have any muffins though..." she added with a quick note of sadness. That last part probably seemed random, since she wasn't exactly about to give any backround as to why her mind was on muffins specifically.

"It's- It's-..." she began, searching for the name of the place. She flapped her wings a little harder as she thought desperately to remember the name. Her expression became a thoughtful pout while she kept thinking. When she finally realized the name had escaped her, she gave a sheepish smile and rubbed the back of her head.

"Well, I don't remember the name, actually," she admitted, sounding slightly embarassed, but still upbeat. She usually did have a great memory for ponies and places, since she was a mail mare and all. The only excuse that she could think of was that it must've been new, and she only delivered mail there once so far. What she did remember for sure though was the address. "But I remember where it is!" she stated with a normal smile now. "I can get us there! Just follow me!" As long as she had an address in her head, she could get them there. Her sense of direction was pretty keen when she had something specific to go by, if she said so herself. This is why she can deliver almost any mail, and yet still made the huge mistake of flying north instead of south to retrieve the birds during the Winter Wrap Up. "South" wasn't an address! How could she have known where "South" was? Apparently, she had made the wrong guess that day. But now her thoughts were just rambling on and getting away with her, so it was time to refocus.

She flew up a short distance ahead to lead the way. However, a sudden thought stopped her in her tracks. For a second, she fluttered in place before turning around to face Time Turner. "As long as that sounds good to you too, that is," she added politely. She had almost forgotten to make sure that her idea worked out for her new friend! At least she had avoided that mistake.

[Time Turner]

Time Turner paid no attention to Derpy flying right alongside him; he had travelled with plenty of pegasi before to be used to it. He remembered when he first travelled with one. It was always so embarrassing to find himself talking to their chest instead of their head until he got used to the height difference. There was also the speed difference, especially with some of the more excitable companions of his. They could be halfway across the world before he even registered that they had left. Caused quite a lot of trouble too when they did that…but now wasn’t the time to dwell on that. It was time for a new friend and some food.

But what it did give him was a pretty good sense of being able to tell the mood of a pegasi by their flight patterns. Even the tiniest difference in their flying could reveal a lot of information. And in this case, he found out that she was very disappointed by his choosing to not go to Sugarcube Corner. Hmm, maybe they could go there for dessert later. At least it didn’t seem to hurt her that much as she was soon back in a chipper mood. Although he didn’t quite get what the thing about muffins was about…

He simply kept glancing over to her from the side as he awaited instructions on where to go. While he didn’t mind just wandering around till he found somewhere, she probably had places to go and things to do. It was a bad habit of his to randomly drag others into his wanderings, but it was such a hard habit to break. His eyes drooped a little in concern, however, as her flying got a little more frantic, before she finally spat out that she didn’t remember the name of the place. Well, now he couldn’t go and fault her for that now could he? He knew a lot of places, and sometimes the names could get all mixed up in his head. At least she knew the general direction.

”Well, that works good enough for me. It’s how I tend to travel actually; just kind of wander off towards somewhere and see what happens along the way.”

He followed her along for a while, but was surprised when she just asked all of a sudden if her idea was alright with him. Well, he was still following he so he had taken that as consent, but whatever.

”Oh of course it is. Splendid idea it is.”

[/blockquote]

[derpyhooves]

Derpy Hooves gave a pleased grin when Time Turner accepted her idea. It would've been all too like her to jump the gun and decide to just fly off somewhere with asking her company's opinions first. She had done it plenty of times before to other ponies. She was proud that she had caught herself this time, especially since she wanted to make a good first impression... Well, second impression. Perhaps a better phrasing would be that she was trying now to compensate for her very first impression (Although she was long since over it and Time Turner seemed to be as well, but a little extra effort never hurt).

"Alrighty then!" she chirped. "This way!" She gestured enthusiastically before flying off in said direction. While she kept her speed up to match her light hearted mood and to lead the way, she couldn't help but keep looking back to make sure that she wasn't leaving her new buddy too far behind. Unlike some pegasi, she had some consideration for how her Earth pony friends might have a hard time keeping up. The last thing she wanted to do was loose him or something. That, and she wanted to still be close enough to carry on a conversation while they traveled.

It was all too likely that Derpy could loose her focus on the task at hand if she started chatting with the stallion, but she didn't think too much about it. She never really did think too much about her less than favorable tendancies before going about things, which probably caused half of the incidents she's been involved in. Why should she though? It wasn't like she could change certain things about herself, so why worry about them? Besides, both Derpy's now-growling stomach and her desire to impress somepony new would be enough motivation to keep herself on track, even if she did distract herself just a little bit.

"You said that you did a lot of travelling, right Time Turner?" Derpy looked behind her to glance at him in curiousity, not watching where she was going for a minute. Luckily, nothing crossed her path while in this position, so she was perfectly safe doing it. "Does that mean you've been all over Equestria? I bet you've seen all sorts of neat and special stuff! You must live an exciting life, right?" She went on with a note of excitement. Ever since he mentioned that he traveled, the pegasus's curiousity had been eating away at her. Her imagination was already forming ideas of places he might've been, even if he hadn't even really given any details at all yet. Something about the concept of wandering about and seeing new things fascinated her. Being a mail mare was a clear reflection of her love for going places and meeting people, but she has been bound to her route for a while. That didn't mean that she loved it any less, but she still valued a good story about different ponies in different places.

[Time Turner]

”Lead on then,” Time Turner replied as the excitable grey pegasus sped forth towards their destination. Used to all of his running and adventures, he didn’t find himself having too much trouble keeping up with his companion. Normally he had some trouble keeping up with pegasi though, so he figured that she might have been holding back a little for his sake. Well, that was nice of her, and so he kept up right alongside her, small little smile on his face.

Eventually the topic turned onto him and his travels, which wasn’t surprising at all. Many ponies tended to ask him about his trips whenever he mentioned them. That’s why they were such lovely conversation starters as well.

”Yep, I travel all the time whenever I’m off of work down at City Hall,” he replied, making sure to note his job. A lot of ponies were surprised to hear he actually worked when they really shouldn’t. After all, he had to pay off his vacations somehow.

”As for excitement, well, that’s up to how you see it I guess. But yeah, I guess I would say I’ve seen a lot of interesting things. More important though is that I’ve met a lot of interesting ponies. Like this one time I was on the way to Canterlot when I met this blue unicorn mare on the road. Normally wouldn’t pay it much mind, but it was nighttime….I wanted to see the night sky after Princess Luna’s return so I went by night,” he added in, wanting to explain why he had been out lurking at night since otherwise he would have sounded so creepy.

”So anyway, I met this unicorn and she was all depressed and what not. Well I certainly couldn’t stand for that, so I dragged her along for my trip. Oh it was quite wonderful really; cheered her right up. I wonder what she’s been up to now…” he said, eyes drifting off to the side in muse as he thought about the blue unicorn. It had been awhile since he met her. He hoped she was doing well. He would have sent a letter but, well, she was a travelling pony and didn’t have an address.

”But any who, no need to linger on that. I’m sure as a mailmare you’ve met quite a lot of interesting ponies as well.”

[derpyhooves]

Derpy's ears were perked up in interest as she listened to what Time Turner had to say. Her head kept switching from looking at where she was going and looking back at the stallion as he spoke, just to make sure she didn't go bumping into anything else today (Although it might be worth pointing out that her head was turned towards him more often than the other position). Even though her eyes were off in different directions, it was obvious that he had her attention.

Her smile grew a little when he pointed out that he worked at City Hall. She couldn't help but be amused by the fact that they were both civil servants. Even something as little as that tickled her. Now that she thought about it, she did remember seeing him at some events, such as that cider making competition that happened at Sweet Apple Acres not too long ago, doing his job and keeping time. That must be his exact job then; taking care of the timey wimey stuff for City Hall. Derpy Hooves considered making a comment on that, perhaps sharing that little similiarity that she noticed, but for once, she decided to hold her tongue. Time Turner was going on and answering her question about his travels now. She didn't dare interrupt that.

As he went into his story, Derpy couldn't help but find herself fascinated by it. There was the obvious reason why of course; that she was interested in his travels. However, she was now even more fascinated because he was talking specifically about the ponies he would meet. She hadn't really stopped to think about how travelling Equestria would lead to meeting new and exciting faces. How fun would that be?! Derpy did love the social aspect of her work after all, and she was always ready to make new friends. She got along with everyone after all (Even though some ponies didn't seem to want to get along with her for whatever reason). The pegasus found herself drifting a little higher as she continued listening, trying to imagine what it must be like.

"Wow!" she exclaimed once she knew that he was finished. "That really is somethin'! It sure was nice of you to cheer her up like that." Derpy couldn't help but feel glad that Time Turner had been there for that mare. Nopony deserved to be sad, and having somepony show up to show them a little adventure was always a good thing. She felt just a little happier that she was befriending Time Turner. He really did seem to be a genuinely nice pony.

"Nothing like an adventure to boost the spirits, right?" she giggled. Then, his last comment dawned on him, and Derpy couldn't help but take a moment to remember her own adventures as a mailmare. Sure, her experiences with ponies were limited to Ponyville and Cloudsdale, nowhere near as wide as his, but she couldn't help but agree with him anyway.

"Yeah!" she nodded her head happily. "Meeting ponies is my favorite part of the job actually! I like to see them get all happy when they get a package or a letter they've been waiting for!" she pointed out fondly. Then, she thought of an example of an interesting pony that she had meant once, since that was what he had done before her. However, only one pony really came to mind at that moment.

"I met an interesting unicorn once too! He was really nice, and a lot of fun. He didn't even get mad when I dumped all my day's deliveries on his yard by accident!" Despite the fact that she was recalling Dinky's father, Derpy's tone didn't drop from its light hearted state. All she was doing was recalling a fond memory about him, not a sad one, so why sound sad?

"We got really close too. We even starting spending time together when I was off my mail route, but then he went away... I haven't heard from him in a long time..." She looked to the ground for a minute and frowned. It was a shame that she had to end her good memory on a low note. But that was how it happened. After barely a second though, she shook her head and was back to her normal, excitable self, smiling at Time Turner.

"But yeah! I get to meet a whole bunch of neat ponies too! Isn't it funny that we have that in common?"

[Time Turner]

Lost in his own stories, Time Turner really didn’t notice Derpy’s eye situation. Such things tended to happen when he got talking; he was a very easily distracted pony. It did seem odd to him, however, that Derpy didn’t really say much and waited for him to finish speaking. He was so used to being interrupted since that was about the only way anypony could get a word in edgewise with him. At least it was an interesting change of pace, one he hoped she wouldn’t soon regret.

As for his story regarding that blue unicorn, Trixie he believe the name was, he was also glad that he was able to be there for her. He just hoped that she was doing well now that she was back on her own. Since there was no time to worry about that, however, he focused instead on Derpy having just the right kind of attitude he liked.

”Exactly, nothing to better lift one’s spirits then seeing the beauty of the whole, wide world. So many wonders out there to see that it’s hard to stay sad for too long,” he replied.

As far as he was concerned that was the absolute truth; there was just so many interesting and wonderful things in the world that all the sad things simply couldn’t outweigh it. That didn’t mean of course that there weren’t bad and sad things in the world. One simply couldn’t deny that without being delusional, and it was okay to feel upset or angry. All you had to do though was remember that the good simply outnumbered the bad, however, and everything would turn out alright in the end. So far it seemed that this mailmare friend of his held a very similar philosophy. At the very least, she was just as excited about seeing the world as he was.

He listened politely, returning the politeness she had given him, as she went on with her own story. His smile weakened as she went on, mostly from the low note that her story had ended. He would have said something, but two things stopped him. The first was he didn’t want to be nosy about another pony’s private business. The second was that she quickly recovered and went straight back to a cheerful tone. Whatever may have happened, it seemed that she was willing to remember this unicorn fondly and so he would keep his spirits up as well.

”Oh I don’t think it’s that funny. In just about any job you can meet lots of interesting ponies if you do it right, although some are probably more conducive to the task than others…nope, can’t think of any jobs that don’t offer some kind of chance of meeting ponies,” he replied, probably putting more thought than needed into his response.

”So then, any other interesting ponies you’ve met? Roommates, coworkers, family, etc. etc.?” he asked, figuring he’d keep the topic rolling by moving into talking about ponies a little bit closer than random strangers they’d met.

[/blockquote]

[derpyhooves]

When Time Turner agreed with her first statement, Derpy Hooves nodded with a smile in approval of his response. She was glad that he seemed to see the simple yet good things in life in a similiar way that she did. Derpy herself was a very easy pony to please. After all, she had even recieved her cutie mark after finding a reason to be happy in something as simple as a cluster of bubbles. Most ponies considered her simple minded for her carefree nature. Perhaps it was a simple minded, but it wasn't like it was hurting her any. In fact, she was quite content being this way, since she seldom found herself kept down for long.

Derpy blinked in surprise at his second response before uttering out a giggle. He was right, wasn't he? She supposed she hadn't really thought about it too much to notice what he had pointed out. Maybe it was just because not every pony out there was as willing to give an open mind and conversation to anypony they meet as these two are.

"You know, you're really right!" Derpy agreed after her previous giggle. "I don't think I could think of one either..." As she spoke that outloud, her thoughts suddenly shifted to that idea. Could she think of one? She scrunched up her nose as she suddenly began to think really deeply about it. Luckily, Time Turner began moving the conversation right along again before she could get too deep into her thoughts. Otherwise, she might've fixated on that one thing for some time and forgotten about the world around her, and surely nothing good would've come of that. Anyway, when her company began speaking again, the thoughtful look was wiped off of her face and she began to listen again.

The topic was turning to ponies they had gotten closer to than just randomly meeting in their travels. Well, Derpy had already been speaking about someone closer to her than just a random stranger, but Time Turner didn't know that. She frowned for a moment. First of all, she didn't want to repeat herself by talking about the same pony all over again. Secondly, she didn't want to drag her new friend down by talking about such a heavy subject. It wasn't so much that she was still hung up over it; yes, it did make her sad, but she had a good, happy life even after her special-somepony left it. It was just that other ponies started giving her sad looks when she told them about it, and she just hated making other ponies sad... However, Time Turner had asked the right question for it, and he did seem like a upbeat pony, so maybe his reaction wouldn't bother her so much.

"Well..." she began, looking upwards as if recalling a memory as she flapped her wings at an even pace. "Funny you should say it that way. That unicorn I was telling you about... Well, I guess you could say he was more than just an interesting pony I met. I was more like a special somepony I met." She ended that by turning her head back to Time Turner and giving a sheepish smile, as if feeling slightly silly for leaving out a detail like that before.

"And even though he's gone now, we... uh, I got a cute little daughter because of all that, so I guess that really does make him the most interesting pony I've met!" She ended with a small giggle, trying to keep the mood upbeat. Immediately after doing so, Derpy Hooves suddenly landed, walked a step or two, and stopped in front of a cute little cafe. Just as she had said, there was plenty of outdoor seating, which would surely go well with the pleasant weather of this day. She turned to face Time Turner with a pleased smile now, her wings not yet folded back down, mainly due to her excitement of getting them there safe and sound. The new development of their arrival caused her to get off track from their conversation topic, but she figured that they could surely carry on over their meals.

"We're here!" she proclaimed. "I knew I could remember how to get here!" She felt a bit proud of herself for that. It wasn't that she had any doubts of it, but she did have a nasty habit of making mistakes now and then.

[Time Turner]

It seemed that him and this new companion were getting along rather smashing. By now he didn’t even really care about that fruit salad (okay, maybe he still silently mourned it). He rarely ever met a pony that had such a similar view on life as he did. Oh sure there were always some ponies who were close, and his outsider view of Celestia made him guess that she had a similar view, but a lot of ponies tended to get caught up in the big things and miss the small yet still wonderful things. Derpy’s bright-eyed idealism was much more his style, which was perfectly fine. Still, he did find a slight joy in opening up a pony’s eyes to the world around them, but sharing the wonder with someone at an equal level was still a pretty good feeling. At the very least, they were getting a rather fun conversation out of it.

Sadly, they were defeated in their endeavors to think of a job that didn’t let you meet new ponies. That was no big loss, however, and soon the conversation shifted again to something else, something more personal. After he had asked about meeting anyone really important or interesting, he noticed Derpy’s mood shift. While he hadn’t wanted to meddle in her personal affairs the last time she had such a shift, it seemed his natural curiosity had made him ask indirectly. He was afraid that he might have said something wrong, and he waited nervously for a response. It was an immense relief for him that she ended up being more cheerful and sheepish.

What he hadn’t expected though was to be informed that she had a daughter, not that he thought that she wasn’t capable of being a mother or anything. She seemed perfect for the job with her attitude and all. It was just now he wasn’t sure about asking her on a trip sometime. Foals did tend to make arranging such things much harder with school and all that. Still, he would try and find a way to arrange something. He suspected that Derpy and her daughter would be rather interesting companions to be around…dear Celestia that train of thought was selfish wasn’t it?

Great, now he wasn’t sure how to respond. His face was still having his normal, daft old smile on it, but in his head he tried to think of a response. As he didn’t have a foal or a specialpony in his life it was kind of hard to relate to. In many ways his companions on trip were like foals though, right? No, that really wasn’t the same at all. Since he had been quiet for a few seconds, he figured he should probably say something. He might as well just tell the truth…

”That beats just about any story I can tell,” he replied, his large goofy grin more subdued now,”All the adventures in the world and I still haven’t found anything that beats something as simple as a mother and her foal…”

Great, now he was probably sounding more sentimental than usual. Still, he wanted to reassure her that he didn’t think any less of her for her situation; he could imagine how it would be hard for somepony like her to be raising a foal alone. And while ponies were generally reasonable and understanding, they had their moments of weaknesses.

The mood quickly changed, however, as they finally arrived at the small café, Derpy being very proud of her navigational skills in the process.

”Excellent! Now then, mares first I believe,” Time Turner said as he opened the door for her. Overly-sentimental scatterbrain or not, he was still polite.

[derpyhooves]

Derpy Hooves didn’t know what she had been expecting when she had revealed to Time Turner that she had a daughter. In fact, she probably wasn’t thinking anything at all about that particular idea. She didn’t tend to think too deeply about these things. Sure, having a daughter was pretty important, and her relationship with Dinky was one of the most valuable things in her life, but she really didn’t go around thinking that she would shock anypony with that information. It was just a part of her, nothing major. Therefore, that was probably why she was suddenly caught off guard by Time Turner’s unexpected, yet genuinely sweet response.

”That beats just about any story I can tell. All the adventures in the world and I still haven’t found anything that beats something as simple as a mother and her foal…”

For a rare moment, Derpy didn’t really know what to say in return to that. She just looked at him with a surprised, yet clearly moved expression. Yes, she did know that what she had with her daughter was precious. And while she did tend to only see the good in everything, she would be lying if she said that being a single mother didn’t come with its difficulties. In fact, from the very moment that she had declared that she would raise a foal on her own, she had dealt with ponies who had doubted her ability to do so. She loved every moment of motherhood, but she did have her fair share of hardships. Naturally, it was little comments like this from ponies like Time Turner that reminded her that she wasn’t the only one who saw the beauty in her situation. The fact that he had even gone as far to place her relationship with her foal above his grand stories of adventure had only made the remark even more touching. She suddenly felt a bit bashful as she thought about it. A warm smile and a certain twinkle in her eye replaced the surprise on her face, but she found herself shyly sending both down towards the ground.

She was still struggling over trying to find any worthwhile words to follow her friend’s sentimental statement, but luckily their arrival at the café relieved her from her search. That funny yet awkward feeling went away and was quickly replaced by her pride in the fact that she had gotten them both there without something crazy happening. It seemed that she had fortunately reached her “screwing up” quota for the day with that whole apple incident. She was more than ready to further her conversation with her new friend over a meal. Before she could go to open the door though, Time Turner was ahead of her and opened it for her in an act of chivalry. Again, it was the little things that Derpy took notice and put value to. This little act seemed to be just another small thing that told her that he really was a great pony to be around. Her smile got a little bigger at the act, but there was that small bit of shyness suddenly slipping back in. Her wings folded against her side and she glanced down at the ground for a moment. This time though, she recovered quickly and gave the stallion an appreciative grin as she went into the building.

”Haha, well, thank you Sir!” she giggled as she walked on in. She paused a moment to let Time Turner enter behind her before wandering off to find the ideal table (Since the café seemed to be self-seating). Derpy quickly navigated to a table near a window with plenty of sunlight spilling through. She had a liking for the natural warmth and lighting that a sunny window had to offer, so the decision was made quickly for her. The entire atmosphere of the small café had something warm and welcoming to it. Suddenly, her memory of how she knew the place was coming back to her, and she remembered that she had been here once before during one of her rare breaks on the job. Although she had only been here once before, seeing it again made her realize why this place had sprung to mind when she was trying to figure out where to eat earlier. She was happy to be revisiting it, and this time with a friend.

”I really think you’ll like this place,” Derpy said happily as she waited for Time Turner to take his own seat. ”The food’s really good and everypony who works here is super nice. I mean, I’ve only been here once, but it really made a good first impression!” It had made a good first impression, even if she did somehow forget the name of the place… However, that could easily be attributed to her own forgetfulness, not the quality of the café itself.

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