Sandstallion

Misjudgement

- Only trust your radar, and never your guts -

From Sandstallion -manual

"Hmm hmm hmm..."

Whooves continued with his humming as his hooves continued to hit the wide dirt road beneath him. Other ponies, mostly earth ponies like him, did the same on this perfect spring afternoon, trotting past the many shop windows that presented their goods out. Many moved in pairs or small cliques, chatting about their daily lives and casually window shopping. Some worked, of course, like the one orange coated mare who sold apples at her stand.

"Howdy! Care for some apples, pardner?" chirped the mare to the trotting Whooves, who turned to look at her. He gave a warming smile from hearing the silly sounding accent of hers. He knew his answer to this question immediately.

"Sorry, but I'm in a hurry."

Before the cowpony could respond, the chestnut stallion turned and calmly went off. Whooves heard a tiny huff, soon followed by louder shouts of an argument with somepony else over the price rate. But in all honesty, Whooves didn’t hear much, as his mind fixed onto the one thing that needed to be done during today's limited time.

After all, it's Friday and the start of the weekend.

And By Celestia's glittering flank, I hate it!

His eyes looked over his shoulder to check on the old grey saddlebag, making sure the couple of books sticking out from the top were still there. He turned back to see the street open up to a small park-looking area.

Oh my, you silly head! We're here and I didn't even need the map at all.

On the other side, from where he stood, was a peculiar tree-like building that rose up high above any nearby house - and from its appearance, probably much older than them, too. It had a real charm on its side, but sadly almost nopony besides Whooves visited it as often they ought to.

Whooves stopped at the main door with the large candle painted on it, only to see it was already slightly ajar. Keeping quiet, he gently pushed it fully open and inched inside the the main hall of the town’s library.

"...and then the wolf snapped its mouth shut with a loud snap!"

Now the chestnut stallion's attention focused onto the stairs, whence loud gasps erupted.

"W-w-what h-happened then?" asked one of the frightened fillies in the large group that dominated the steps from top to bottom. But the old mare in middle of them smirked and calmly shook her head.

"That you shall hear next time," she answered softly. She then closed the book on her lap and put it back onto the shelf next to her.

"Aawww!" was the reaction from her young crowd, yet everypony smiled as they got up and descended down the steps, passing by Whooves who stood at the bottom of the stairs. Even the old mare giggled, though she stopped immediately when she noticed the stallion at the door.

"Oh, back for some more, I see?"

"Yes, ma'am," Whooves responded as he took the books from his saddlebag.

The old mare unfurled her light pink wings and gliding down next to him. "Please dear,” she said, still keeping her reading glasses over her forehead and on top of the short, fuzzy white mane. “Just call me Love Page like everypony else. There's no need for formalities." Her teal eyes looked down at the books Whooves gave to her. Her wings began to flap once more and she turned around, revealing her Cutie Mark of an open book with a red heart over it. Without hesitation, she placed the books back to their places and looked over her shoulder. "Now what do you want to read next?"

Hmm, now that's a hard one.

Whooves nervously rubbed the back of his head before answering, "Well, can you recommend anything else in the same category?"

Love Page turned back to the shelf, her hoof running along the long lines until picking out one book. After throwing it down to the waiting stallion, who fumbled to catch it, she flew along the shelf to her left, passing by the two certain sections Whooves himself despised so much.

Romance novels and cooking books.

However, the old librarian knew better and stopped above a shelf marked ‘Thrillers’.

"Well,” Love Page said, pulling out a book. “Pot Lance’s “The Cultivation for Blue April” just came back from loan," She flew down beside the stallion and dropped the paperback book into his saddlebag, next to the book from earlier.

"Excellent! I've always enjoyed a good thriller every once in a while," Whooves said as he took out the small card, which the old mare eagerly took and quickly wrote the dates.

"Now that Lance book I need back by next Friday, but that other one you can bring back whenever you want."

Odd... How com- Oh, why of course!

"Heh, my taste is kind of a peculiar one," he nervously added and flung shut his saddlebag.

Love Page could only look in amazement as the chestnut pony calmly walked out of the front door and waved goodbye to her - like every other Friday afternoon the past month. "Indeed, a very peculiar one... Oh my, time for the medicine!"

~~~~~~~~

Now what I should do for the rest of the day? Maybe a new tour over the rather unknown parts. Then again, I basically have wandered through every possible block there is.

"Hmm hmm hmm..."

Oh, then there's the park I haven't had a chance to explore; wonder how comfy the benches are and if the outdoor bands are rehearsing just yet.

"Oh."

His sapphire eyes narrowed down to thin lines, only leaving the tiny black dots on view.

A minute passed.

Then another.

But on the third, the chestnut stallion turned his look down upon his hooves. "And where do you think you're leading me?"

Of course, no answer came and so the pony sighed and returned back onto the street opening. It lead back into the largest concentration of houses in all of Ponyville - and surprisingly enough, onto the exact same street where he lived.

Had I been anypony else, I'd be running around screaming about demonic possesion. However, I know the only demons running around are only in our-

*Crash*

His world came to a screeching halt as he dropped down stomach first, his current train of thought rudely coming to a screeching halt in the middle of its journey. His eyes rolled couple of full circles in their sockets until the dizziness left him.

What the hay happ- Hey, I can’t move!

As he tried to get back up, he found it to be currently out of the question. He tried to squirm around as much as possible, hooves digging into the dirt beneath him, yet it was in vain.

Calm down Whooves! Now think logically, what is holding you still?

He turned to look behind onto his back where he felt something on top of him, uncomfortably rubbing against his saddlebag.

Okay, now that's unexpected.

On top of him lay a pegasus, a mare or a filly from the look of her smallish frame, and the sounds of quiet squeaky mumbling. Her wings curled down, revealing a grey body relatively small - even by his knowledge on anatomy - and her Cutie Mark.

Kinda odd looking one indeed. Pegasi are usually more . . . colorful.

"Uuhhh... My head..." the unknown grey pegasus groaned, her voice sounding chirpier than most voices Whooves had heard before.

Almost childlike.

"Umm, pardon me?"

Her eyes slowly cracked open, revealing the yellow irises and-

Gah! What peculiar pair of eyes!

Suddenly, the mare inhaled deeply and quickly jumped off of the earth ponies’s back. As he got up on all fours, Whooves saw the grey pegasus nervously rubbing her forehoof against the dirt under her while her eyes attempted to concentrate on him.

"I... umm..." the mare stammered, red painted across her face.

Whooves just brushed his mane clean from the dust and made sure his pack was okay.

"I'm sor- *yawn* -ry "His eyes darted open and the sapphire ovals turned to stare at the open mouth of the drowsy pegasus.

W-w-wait what! She's sleepy!?

The odd pony shut her mouth and laughed timidly in response to Whooves's reaction. Yet she was soon suffering from an expression very similar to his. "Look, I'm really sorry!” the mare begged, obviously frightened. “I must have dozed off in mid-air and... Please, don't tell my boss, please!" The mare was starting to sob as she frantically kept turning around where she stood.

Luckily for her, the Sandstallion had more important matters on his complex mind than a mere lawsuit, though his expression stayed the same.

But that can only mean one thing!

The stallion gently smiled.

"Look, it's alright, really! Accidents happen all the time," he explained in timid tone, soothing the anxious mare as she had now begun openly crying. Her tears trickled down her face, and she meagerly lifted her gaze onto him. Whooves simply smiled. “It’s OK.”

Tears no longer falling, and mood somewhat brightened, the grey pegasus returned a faint smile before trotting up beside Whooves.  His eyes followed hers. She quickly lifted up her brown saddlebag, which had a symbol of a letter that had two wings and a tiara on top of it.

The pack read “R.E.M” in golden letters.

"Oh thank you, thank you, thank you so much!" the mare exclaimed while jumping around in joy and relief.

But she was, however, interrupted by a loud grumble. Both of the ponies turned to look at the earth pony’s stomach

Oh blast it! I totally forgot dinner...

And on that note, also breakfast! Silly me!

"Heh, sorry," he said.

The grey pegasus giggled and pointed her hoof down at his stomach. "Tell you what,” she said, a smirk on her face. “How about I repay you with a lunch?"

"Don't you have work to do?"

"No, I'm actually off-duty now and I was just heading home. In fact, it's right there."

        Whooves’s eyes followed the grey hoof and his face immediately gleamed, making the pegasus look at him with confusion. "Is something wrong?" she asked.

"Oh nothing!" the stallion responded and looked back at her. "Ah, onto the formalities, my name is Whooves," he said as he presented his hoof to the mare, who eagerly took it for a shake.

"Nice to meet you Whooves. I'm Derpy."

~~~~~~~~

How is she able to do that?

Whooves could only watch in curiosity, and with a little disgust, as his dinner partner quickly bit a large portion out of her hay sandwich and began to chew it, occasionally giving a glimpse inside her wide mouth.

"Mmhh, tasty!" she exclaimed and small bits of the bread flew into the air.

The waitress snorted in contempt and placed the other tray in front of Whooves before leaving for another table, leaving him to wonder that he wasn't the only one that depicted table manners as a standard.

Well, at least in public that is.

His attention soon turned onto the actual matter of why he had agreed upon this, besides of course the free food and possibly time killing activity.

"So, Derpy, what's your work like? You deliver letters, am I right?" he politely inquired while breaking the fragile shell on his egg with his spoon. Derpy on the other side finished with the chewing and gulped down the brown mess in her mouth.

"Pretty basic really; I just drop the letters into the boxes attached to the houses, but sometimes I need to also personally deliver small packages to ponies."

"Now, don't be offended, but that sounds really boring," Whooves stated as he ate the innards of the egg.

Derpy, on the other hoof, giggled in response.

"Yeah, it can get pretty boring when you repeat that six days a week. But I get to meet ponies all day long, so it isn't that bad in the end."

She then took another huge bite along with a healthy gulp from the glass of apple juice, while he himself had finished with his egg and now had taken hold of the steaming cup of tea.

"But I must say that it has to be bad for your health, seeing that you fell a sleep in middle of flight. Don't you have unions to fight against bad work hours?"

Derpy looked at him with one eye whilst the other was turned up. Soon, she burst into laughter and she fell down onto her back from the stool, her front hooves banging down onto the tile floor and making many heads inside the cafe turn towards their direction.

Not... the sought after expression, to say the least.

 Soon though, the grey mare inhaled deep couple of times and returned back to the seat with a smirk on her otherwise friendly face.

"Heh, you're a funny pony, but a wrong pony. What happened wasn't caused by my work."

Bingo!

"Oh, you mean that something else has caused your crash?" the stallion continued on along with a surprised expression to back up his statement.

Derpy yawned out loud like many times since the two bumped to each other, making his patience grow thinner and thinner.

Come on; just spill the beans!

Thinking of food, this tea's amazing! Have to ask from the waitress what sorta leaves they've used.

"It's... kinda weird actually."

Whooves sighed, not even needing to act it, and leaned over the table towards her. He looked to the sides, making sure nopony else was close enough to listen in, and coughed a bit, knowing what was likely going to happen after these next faithful words.

Just remember the basic rules of persuasion. This mare should be a piece of cake, judging by her characteristics and personality.

"Look, I know what happened to you so you can tell me."

After those words, Derpy kept staring back onto him, now with both of her yellow eyes firmly locked on the sapphire counterparts. Her mouth had dropped the smirk, which he knew was going to happen.

Taking her silence as a cue, he continued on, "I've once been in the same position as you."

Now the mare gasped. "Really?" she whispered, and oddly both her wall eyes had focused onto him, as he nodded and smirked.

"Yes dear. Exactly the same, so I know what you feel like."

Then Whooves placed his hoof onto Derpy's own. "I want to help you, Lerpy."

"Derpy."

"Whatever," Whooves mumbled, and inside cursed heavily enough that it had to be against some old law, before quickly returning to soothing her.

"But in order for me to help, I need to hear exactly what has caused it."

But as he finished, the grey pegasus began to giggle. "Oh, sorry," Derpy started and tilted her head towards rest of the cafe. As Whooves gave a look, he saw that all activity inside had halted and everypony had their eyes locked on them. Some even held their food inches away from their mouth and by the counter the waitress had let her coffee pot overfill one customer’s cup.

"What?" the frustrated earth pony asked loudly to nopony in particular, and now everypony returned back to themselves, too ashamed to look at the shouting stallion.

Derpy shrugged. "Guess they didn't think I'd ever have a stallion with me; especially a stallion that would put his hoof over mine.”

"How come?" he inquired after having turned his eyes back onto her.

"Heh, well you see-"

*Cling, cling*

Whooves turned his attention almost reflexively at the source of the voice that seemed to have been the cafe door bell. But then, he saw how the waitress pony suddenly seemed to have struck into something, nearly dropping the round tray of hers.

"Hey watch it!" the mare exclaimed and shook her hoof.

Huh?

And then he saw what had caused the near accident and his seriousness faded off a bit.

Near the centre of the oval room, narrowly dodging between passing pony’s hooves and tables, Whooves saw a little filly unicorn galloping in a haste, her pale purple coat covered in sweat. As she came closer, he could hear her heavy panting along with seeing her gleaming yellow eyes.

Aww! what a cute filly!

...Hey hang on a second, she's-

And just then, the little unicorn leaped into the air and crash landed onto the grey mare’s neck.

"Mom!" the little filly cried and wrapped her tiny hooves around her mother.

...What?

Derpy gently stroked her short blond mane and smiled to her, while Whooves’s right eye twitched  frantically.

"Heh, how come you're already out?" the grey pegasus asked and the little filly backed off, although still staying on the grey lap as she reached out to her lemon green saddlebag

"Ms. Cheerilee let us out early  to do some 'Grown-Up' stuff," the filly explained, her voice muffled by her pack before pulling a piece of paper out and placing it to the table. "Look Mom, I made this for you!"

Derpy smiled and patted the filly while taking a look at it.

Could it....

She be the one...

It was a simple crayon picture that you could expect from a young pony; the sky was blue, the earth was green and sun was a yellow half ball over at the left corner. On the centre of it was two stick ponies, one purple with a horn and one grey with wings, who both were smiling under a tree.

"Aww, it's great!" Derpy exclaimed and hugged the filly who grinned.

"Uh, Mom. You're embarrassing me in front of everypony..."

Derpy chuckled "Heh, it didn't seem to bother you the first time, my little muffin!"

"Mom!"

The grey pegasus laughed and turned around, but then she was met with a surprise.

"Huh, where did he go?"

The little unicorn looked confused. "What is it Mom?"

However, the little filly went unheard as Derpy's attention focused onto another scrap of paper, but this one had been left under the tea cup on the opposite side of the table.

Dear Ms. Derpy,

I cannot express how rueful I am for having left you and your wonderful filly so suddenly.

However, I'm not going to leave you utterly alone to deal with this trouble; here's a list of certain tea varieties which have known aspects of helping one to sleep.

I had a lovely time.

From your grateful dinner companion, Whooves

"Mom?" asked the worried filly, yet her mother hastily folded the paper and put it away.

"Umm... Nothing Dinky. Nothing at all. Come on, I know two ponies that need to *yawn* go shopping."

But unbeknownst to her, a pair of blue eyes followed the two of them leaving the cafe from a distance. They were especially interested in the purple unicorn who hung on the back of the pegasus, seemingly trying to catch a nap while her mother fought hard against drooping eyelids.

Looks like I found my patient. And of course it has to be a child...

~~~~~~~~

"Come on, come on..." Whooves mumbled while tapping his hoof down to the metal panel and staring at the the bright monitor, eyes narrowed down to thin lines and an odd flame burning behind his sapphire irises..

/---------/

He audibly groaned and flung over in his chair to reach over to the side where his saddlebag lay. From there he took out the two borrowed books and placed them over next to a half-empty soda bottle, bubbles still making their way to the surface.

/---------Done*/

"Well come on, spill the beans," he said while turning back at the screen.

/INFO LOAD.exe*/

/Complete*/

A second passed until more text began to appear in a rhythm and soon filled the screen.

/Profile*/

/Name--- Dinky Hooves*/

/Race--- Unicorn*/

/Age--- 3 years*/

/Cutie Mark--- Not Yet Acquired*/

/Dream History--- Clean*/

The stallion sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Now display her current status."

/Current Status--- Dreaming*/

"And no... infringement whatsoever?

/100% Positive*/

"Then tell me this," he started and slammed his hooves down to the panel. "How by Celestia’s royal plot has this then slipped by your sensors? It's supposed to be impossible for a Nightmare to hide from you!"

/?/

/Error*/

/Not Possible*/

/Sensors Are Clear*/

Whooves continued to stare at the words for a minute before dropping back onto his chair, retrieving deep into his thoughts.

"Indicator, what's the current stand-in?"

/Approximately 97,68% dreaming*/

/No Other Notices*/

No other voice but the faint humming that the machine made filled the room, as his eyes traced along the ceiling lines while his front hooves were wrapped around himself.

Is the risk worth taking? I would be abandoning my post...

He couldn't help but to smile when these thoughts ran through him.

I tend to think too much, don't I?

Whooves's attention turned to the two books, which he swiped down onto the floor. The Pot Lance book was the first and the other fell over it and revealing the cover.

'Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime' the title read out.

But he couldn't care less of the books, not when he was about to go directly against the Code he had sworn to follow until the final end. His right hoof reached under the panel and began to fiddle around. Soon enough, he heard a faint 'click' ring out and then the metal panel ahead opened up.

But then again, what's a life without risks?

And especially without tea, I mean for Celestia's sake!