As he had on almost every day for the last two decades Silver Script arrived at work before dawn to find that his boss, Par Avion, had gotten there first.
The two ponies, although unrelated, looked broadly similar, both were pegasus, both had white manes although their coats were different Silver Script’s was purple whereas Par Avion’s was a light blue. Of course their cutie marks also differed, Silver’s was an open scroll whereas Par’s was a letter with wings. However, the major difference between them was their age, Silver could be considered in his prime although middle age was rapidly approaching were as Par could probably be, somewhat unkindly, considered elderly. In some ways Par might a vision of what Silver would be in twenty or thirty years and Silver a sign of what Par once was.
“How is it that no matter how early I turn up, you’re always here? Don’t you have a home to go to?” Silver asked his superior.
"The day you get here before me, is the day I hang up my cap and hoof this place over to you,” replied his boss. “Humm, maybe I should turn my alarm clock off just to get an excuse to lay this whole mess on to you.”
“Pull the other one, you’ve got years left in you,” said the younger stallion
“Maybe. The missus is pushing me to retire, she wants us to have more time to spend with the grandfoals while we can still keep up with them. Speaking of foals you remember we got some new starts today? I’m gonna leave them in your capable hooves for their first run.”
“Is it really my turn again? Isn’t Post Haste up for it this time?”
“Sorry, Post must have seen them coming, he’s off all week. Besides you're the best we got.”
By now more of the staff at Ponyville’s small post office had begun to trickle in and prepare for the days work. Silver and Par took their conversation to the latters small office.
“Coffee?” offered Par.
“Thanks,” replied Silver taking the mug in his hooves. “So who am I foal sitting today?”
“There's two of them, one to finally replace old Zippy, and the other’s getting paid from the extra the mayor managed to get us in this years budget”
“I’m glad I voted for her now.”
“I still say she’s in the Trust’s pocket, but it seems to have done us some good. Anyway,” he flipped through some paperwork in his desk, “The new starts are Ball Lightning and Ditzy Doo.”
“Ball? Isn’t that Sheet and Fragile’s kid? There’s no way he’s old enough to work yet.”
“I’ve checked, he’s a year older than I was when I started here.”
“Yeah, but that was back before Corona was banished, they have foal labour laws now.”
“Makes, you feel old doesn’t it? Anyway this Ditzy is from out of town, Fillydelphia I think.”
Silver opened the office door and stuck his head out, A young unicorn stallion with a brown coat and long black mane which covered his eyes was hanging around nervously by the door. His cutie mark appeared to be a ball of energy or possibly the sun. “Well whatever she’s from, she’s late. I see Ball over there but no one I don’t recognise.” He looked up at the clock. “Not a good start for her first day.”
“Give the kid a chance, if I remember correctly you were late for your first day as well.”
“That doesn’t count, Rising had been born the night before, I’d been up all night.”
“How if your sister?”
“I got a letter last week, she’s doing fine at university. Got herself a coltfriend, I’ve never met him but I have a strong instinct to beat him to death if I do, so It’ll probably work out. I miss her.”
Suddenly, there was a loud thud and and the whole building shook. Without thinking Silver Script was out of the office and pushing past the frozen postal workers. He yanked open the door to find that outside lay a tangled mess of grey feathers and fur topped with a blond mane. A few moments inspection revealed this shape to be a pegasus mare who was struggling to get to her hooves.
“Are you Ok, miss?” asked Silver Script helping the fallen pony.
“I’m fine, just missed the door, I was in a rush.”
“Are you such you’re good? Your eyes look a little... off” he said staring into her swirling yellow orbs.
The mare seemed to concentrate and at least one of her eye’s centered on him “No that’s ‘normal’ for me. Err, Trainee Post mare Ditzy Doo reporting for duty, sir,” she saluted.
“So how are we going to run this?” asked Silver Script. After making sure their newest employee was not seriously injured he had left her to stew in the main room and retreated to the office again.
“We’ll I’m planning to give ‘em my scare ‘em straight speech,” said Par, “and then come back here, drink coffee and take a nap for the rest of the day. Its good to be the boss. I suggest you act like the good cop, show them how to sort, pick out a route and take them out to actually deliver some post.”
“Why is your job so much easier than mine?”
“Because I’m management. I said it earlier, I’m not going to be around for ever, you should consider joining the dark side to.” He smiled and cracked his neck, “Anyway it’s show time.”
The elderly stallion stomped out into the office. Most of the workers having seen this before ignored their boss, however, the two new ponies instantly noticed and turned towards him.
“You two,” he commanded, “Over here now.”
The two new start’s formed up nervously in front of him. Ditzy stood up straight, almost quivering in nervousness, her eye’s trying to focus on her new boss. While Ball Lightning slouched slightly, giving Par a somewhat rebellious look.
“Greetings, I am Par Avion, postmaster of this little outpost of the Equestrian postal service, and before anyone asks no I’m not from Prance, my mother was.” He cleared his throat, “So you want to join the Equestrian Postal service then?”
“Yes, sir,” mumbled the trainees.
“I said ‘So you want to join the Equestrian Postal service then?'” bellowed their new boss.
This time the affirmation was louder, and even Ball stood up straighter for a moment.
“Good! Many are called but few are chosen, over fifty percent of trainees wash out in the first week.” The manager began to march backwards and forwards in front of his audience, “What have you got to look forward to? Early mornings, hard work, long hours trudging through the rain, snow, fog and even noon day sun. Little pay and little recognition. I have nothing to offer you but blood, sweat and tears. However, if you do stick to this job the rewards, although few, can be great.” His voice softened, “We deliver letter and parcels, but we bring with us hope, love and kindness, a message from a lover, news of a newborn foal, word from those long missed. There is no better reward than the look on the face of a satisfied customer, we bring together the whole of Equestria. Our role is so vital that we are a division of the Equestrian Air Force."
Ball blinked. "I'm in the armed forces?" he asked in surprise.
Par a little thrown off his stride could only nod.
"Damn, Dad got his way after all," he mumbled.
"Anyway," said Par trying to get back on track, "Consider my words, and if you do not think this job is for you, step forward, and you can leave without shame.”
A moment passed, neither of trainee’s moved.
“Good, I will now pass you over to my assistant Silver Script who will be running your induction today. If you need me I’ll be in my office.” With that he strolled away.
“After than uplifting introduction, its now up to me to show you what we actually do here.” said Silver.
“The day starts early, even in summer the first load of post arrives before sun up, most of it comes by train but we get some via land or air chariot as well. When it arrives here it gets sorted, mostly by the sorting staff,“ he gestured at the staff around the room, “Say Hi to the new starts guys.” A few ponies gave half hearted waves back. “But as delivery staff you’ll often have to help with the sorting as well. Each letter, hopefully, has a postcode on it, as you should be aware we're in the Province of North Everfree so the first part is NE6. The next part is for Ponyville itself and starts with PV, central ponyville runs from PV one to twenty four, the outskirts twenty five to forty and the outlying farms go from forty one to fifty. Every so often the head office decide everything should be shaken up just to make our lives harder but that’s something to look forward to later. Once letters have been sorted into postcode they’re then ordered by street and location and loaded into the bags that you will have the pleasure of lugging around town. Of course not all letters have the correct postcode and some don’t have one at all, some even have addresses like ‘that place by the other place’ but you’d be surprised how well you can deal with things like that once you’ve had some practice.” Silver looked up at his audience, Ditzy was making notes on a pad she’d produced from somewhere while Ball looked like he was about to lapse into a coma.
“Now this,” he continued loudly shocking Ball out of his stupor, “Is the main map.” He gestured at a large map which covered the whole of one of the walls. “This shows the whole of ponyville and the surrounding areas, and splits it into postcodes. These,” he indicated lines drawn in crayon crisscrossing the town, “are the routes. Technically each postpony has their own, however, in reality they change most days due to holidays and the volume of letters to be delivered in each area, so check what routes you’ve been assigned each day. Later you’ll be given your own but for today your be following mine,” he indicated a particular route on the map laid out in blue. It starts here at this office, heads out of town through PV8 and then around some of the out skirts, PV27 and 29, and finally all the way out towards the Everfree and PV50.” His crowd continued to look lost. “Hopefully, you both still have the maps we gave you, copy the route on to those, you’ll need it later.”
“Don’t worry you’ll pick it up eventually. Now to throw you in at the deep end,” with a flick of his wing he shoved a pile of letters from a nearby table onto an empty space before separating them into two equal piles. “Most of these will be PV8 letters, try to sort them into the order we’ll be delivering them. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
“So what do you think of them so far?” asked Par watching the trainees try to sort the letters through his office window. Ball was using his unicorn powers to make the envelopes dance in front of him arranging them into several untidy piles before shuffling them together. Ditzy was carrying out her task more methodically using both wings and mouth to select letters before checking them against her map and arranging them into a single tidy stack in the centre of the desk.
“Well the girl seems eager, but I checked and she left a dent the size of her head in the wall outside, and I keep expecting Ball to fall asleep any moment. Was I ever that bad?” asked Silver.
“You were worse, you fell asleep during my introduction speech, while I was shouting.”
“I told you my sister had just been born, I didn’t get any sleep that night.”
“Anyway, keep your eye on them, don’t be too harsh, it is their first day but if you don’t think they can’t hack it tell me, we can’t afford any dead weight around here.”
With a sigh Silver Script walked back into the sorting room. “That’s ten minutes,” he announced, “How have you done?”
“Finished,” noted Ball with a grin, he indicated a few piles of letters on his side of the table. Ditzy looked panicked, only about half of her letters had been stacked in a single precarious pile while the rest lay strewn around the table. “Can I have more time please?” she asked.
“I’m afraid not, on a normal day I’d expect those letters to be sorted in less than five minutes. Now lets see how well you’ve done.” Silver Script carefully raised one of Ball’s piles with a wing and flipped through it, “Good, Good, Wrong, Wrong, Good, Wrong, Wrong, this ones not even for Ponyville.” He frowned, “Too much haste not enough speed, you need to improve your accuracy, now go through them again.” He tossed the letters back to Ball, who scowled and started to shuffle through that at a reduced rate.
“Lets look at your pile then.” Silver reached across the table for Ditzy’s work, she staggered back a bit and attempted to steady herself on the table using one of her wings, she missed and instead knocked into her pile of letters. For a moment the room seemed to freeze as the pile was pushed to the edge of the table where it balanced precariously for a second before toppling off. Silver lept for the errant letters and caught them just in time to prevent the majority from scattering, the few that escaped were caught in Ball’s aura and lifted back onto the table.
Ditzy let out a sigh of relief, “I’m sorry,” she pleaded, “I won't do that again.”
Silver Script glared at her for a second before his gaze softened, “No harm done. Now lets see how well you sorted them,” he flicked through the pile, “Not bad, only one out of place, only one problem, they’re backwards. Were traveling from North to South on this route not South to North, but that’s easily fixed. Ok, go grab a hat and bag each we’re going out on the road.”
The trio wound their way through the town slowly making their way out from the post office and into the residential and commercial areas of the town. By now the the early rising members of the town were up and about and Silver Script greeted them with a nod and a wave. Ball, having lived here all of his life was also greeted by some of the townsfolk, although he rarely replied with more than a grunt. Ditzy was an unknown factor to the population, although that didn’t stop her from giving a cheery greeting to anyone who passed.
For the first hour or so Silver took the lead and showed his pupils how to deliver the post. Teaching them what parcels needed to be signed for, how long to wait if there was no reply at the door and their other duties. Eventually, Ditzy started to flag, although Ball seemed to be full of energy, so Silver decided they should take a break. The group grabbed a table at Sugar Cube Corner, which had just opened for the morning.
“So what’ll it be, my eager young workers?” asked Silver, “My treat.”
“I don’t know, what’s good?” asked Ditzy meekly.
“The muffin’s are great, or maybe a donut?”
“A muffin sounds good.”
“How about you Ball?”
“Whatever, could you call me Lightning rather than Ball.”
“Not happy with your first name?” Silver Script chuckled.
“It makes me sound like a dork, Lightning’s far cooler.” He glanced up at the counter, “I’ll go get our order.”
“Are you sure?” asked Silver, passing the younger stallion some bits.
“Yeh, I’ll be back soon”
There was a moment of awkward silence as Silver and Ditzy sat staring at each other. Eventually Silver decided to break the ice. “So why did you decide to join the postal service? Our ‘generous’ benefits package? The early mornings? The uniform drives the stallions wild?”
She thought for a moment before replying, “I like to meet ponies, and this seemed a good way to do that. I’ve lived all my life in Fillydelphia and wanted to see somewhere else. Dinky’s almost old enough for school, so I thought now’s the time to strike out on my own, I can’t rely on my parents for ever.”
“Who’s Dinky?”
“My daughter,” she replied nervously.
Silver Script was taken aback, “You don’t look old enough for that.”
Ditzy’s mismatched eyed lowered, “I’m not really, it wasn’t something that was planned, I ruined several ponies lives.” Suddenly she was staring into Silver’s eye’s again, “Not that I regret Dinky, she’s everything to me, It’s just hard sometimes.”
Silver reached a hoof across the table and covered Ditzy’s own, “I know. My sister’s almost twenty years younger than me, she’s about your age, and our parents died a while back, I had to raise her myself. She’s off at University in Canterlot now, studying something about stars that I don’t understand. It’s never easy to raise a foal, but the rewards make it worth it.” He felt his eye’s misting up a bit and quickly changed the topic, “Where is that colt? He’s quick at most things, why’s our order taking so long?”
“I think he’s more interested in the staff,” giggled Dinky pointing at the counter where Lightning was deep in discussion with the young pink pony working there. Behind them a line of annoyed customers was starting to build up. The conversation was eventually broken up by the disapproving glare of the shops rotund owner, Mrs Cake, resulting in Lightning scurrying back to their table with a tray of muffins.
“So, how’s it going Romeo?” questioned Silver with a grin.
“It’s not like that” muttered the younger stallion blushing, “I asked her if she’d like to sing?”
“Sing? Is that what they’re calling it these days?” asked Silver.
“Me and some of my friends are putting together a band and I heard Pinky, she says hi you Ditzy and wants to throw you a party, by the way, was a good singer. It’s why I got this job, I need to get out from under my parents hooves and I’m looking into getting a pad we can jam at. Once we’re famous, I’ll be gone, no more delivering post for this superstar.”
“Oh, Luna!”, interrupted Ditzy, “These muffins are amazing!”, she moaned, “I may never need a stallion again!”. The rest of the table stared at her, “What? They’re really good.”
Silver Script pushed his half eaten treat towards Ditzy, “Well eat up we’ve got a lot of stuff still to deliver.”
After returning to the post office for new bags Silver Script decided that it was time for his trainees to fly solo. Passing each a few dozen letters he told them to go and deliver them while he leant against a wall ‘resting his eyes’ for a few minutes.
He was brought back to his senses a short time later by Lightning’s return, “All done,” the trainee announced.
“That was quick,” commented the older stallion, “Did you ha..”
“Hey, you!” shouted an elderly earth pony stallion hobbling out of a house that Lightning had just left, “This isn’t addressed to me.”
Silver glared at his trainee before putting on a dignified look, “Can I help you sir?” he asked.
“You can give me the right post for a start, this is for across the street. I’ve been yelling at this one,” he gestured at Ball who looked away embarrassed, “and he’s been ignoring me.”
“I thought you were talking to someone else, Sorry.” mumbled Ball.
“I apologize for my colleague,” said Silver, “Its his first day, and possibly his last” he said under his breath. “I assure you this won’t happen again.”
“Well just see that it doesn’t or I will be writing to your manager,” fumed the customer turning back to his house.
“Ball,” said Silver in a pained voice, “You have to slow down, we can’t make mistakes like this.”
“Sorry,” the younger stallion apologised, eye’s down cast.
Silver ran his hooves over his face and tried to calm down.
“Ok, we all make mistakes. Now lets go back over your route and see if there were any more errors.”
Unfortunately, there had been. Over the next half hour Silver found that several of Lightning’s letters had been delivered to the wrong houses often next door to each other but sometimes a street or more away. Sorting out the mess did nothing for Silver’s blood pressure, and by the time they returned to their start point he was fuming.
“Where’s Ditzy gotten to anyway?” grumbled the purple stallion, “She should have been back by now?”
“I dunno,” said Lightning keeping well away from his boss, “Maybe, she got lost?”
The two stallions headed to the area that Ditzy had been assigned and quickly found her coming out of a house. “I do hope your leg’s feeling better soon Mrs Table.” she said to the houses owner.
“Thank you deery, are you sure you can’t stay for some tea?”
“I’m afraid I have to be off now, I’ve got a lot more work to do today, in fact here’s my boss now.”
Silver nodded to the house owner and gently maneuvered Ditzy back into the street. “I’m almost finished,” she said brightly, “Only a few more to go,” she waved a small pile of letters at him, one was caught by a breeze and made a break for it. Ditzy desperately lept for the errant piece of post but missed and her jaw closed around thin air. Silver was quicker and caught it in his feathers before it landed in the mud. “Thanks” said Ditzy.
“Almost finished!” snarled Silver Script, Ditzy’s face fell. “You should have been finished more than half an hour ago, at this rate it’ll take all day. What kept you?”
“Well my first delivery was to this nice mare called Bon Bon she had a letter from her marefrend who’s at Canterlot University, maybe she know’s your sister? She was so happy and we got to talking,” Silver script tuned out the nattering, he was starting to get a headache, “So Mrs Table said how her arthritis was acting up and asked if I’d like some tea and then you turned up.” Finally Ditzy came to a stop.
Silver sighed, “Look, I understand that its nice to talk to the customers but we don’t have time to listen to all of their life stories. Mrs Table’s been lonely since her husband died and I’ve stopped to chat with her a few times myself, but only when I’m ahead of schedule. We’re here to provide a service and that service is to deliver the post not to chat to the customers, so service and move on, service and move on... what are you giggling about?” he turned to Ball.
“Nothing boss,” said the yellow unicorn blushing.
“Ok, Ditzy, what have you got left to do?”
“Well there’s this parcel for number 42 but Mr Shine mentioned that the owner’s on holiday this week, so I guess we take that back to the office for the moment. Some letters for number 27, apparently he’s waiting for a letter from his mother about her operation so we should probably deliver them as quickly as possible and this one to, ‘The party house’, according to Bon Bon that would be number 76, apparently some of the owners daughters friends call it that.”
“Yeh, that’s Vinyl’s place, she’s in my band,” noted Ball Lightning.
“Ok, lets just deliver these and then we can move on to the outskirts,” said Silver in an exasperated tone.
The trio once again returned to the post office to collect further bags for the more outlying parts of the town. These bags were heavier and soon both of Silver Script’s youthful colleagues were panting under the strain.
“You better get used to lugging these things around,” said Silver Script, noting the state of his assistants, “These are actually lighter than most of the ones we use.”
“I don’t think I could fly with these on, let alone heavier ones,” gasped Ditzy.
“Most can’t, the outbound journeys normally have to be by hoof, you can usually fly back though which makes the trip much quicker.”
“Makes me wish I could fly, or teleport.” muttered Lightning.
“There’s precious few that can do that and none here in ponyville. I’ve heard some of the court up in Canterlot use ‘porting messengers but they're few and far between.”
“Why don’t we just take lighter bags and make more trips?”
“We could, but it can be a four or five mile round trip you don’t want to do that many times in a day, so it’s easier to bring it all out here at once despite the weight. Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it. Anyway we’re almost at our first stop, the Apple Trust, it takes up most of PV27 these days, we just deliver to the gate and they sort it all out themselves between the workers and such.”
Just ahead of the party the main gate of the Apple Trust property could be seen coming into view, behind it was a hive of activity with several dozen ponies carrying crates of apples and various other supplies backwards and forwards. Standing guard at the gate was a tiny yellow filly with a red mane tied up in a pink bow that was almost as big as herself.
“Morning Applebloom, are you on post duty today?” asked Silver kneeling down to put his face level with the foal.
“Unhu Mr Script,” announced the child, “I’m res-pon-sible,” she sounded out for unfamiliar word, “for all the letters, is there anything for me?”
Silver flicked through the pile of letters in his bag, “Nothing for you today, kid. I’ve got something that needs signing for, is Big Mac or your sister around?”
Applebloom nodded and turned towards the farm “MAC!” she yelled in a voice louder that it seemed something her size could produce.
A huge red stallion separated himself from a knot of ponies and started to lazily walk towards the gate. “What is it Bloom?” he drawed chewing on a stick of corn. He gazed at the postal pony, “Morning Script, you got something for me?”
“A few things need signing for Mac.” He pulled out the pad of ink used to record hoofprints.
“Got some greenhoofs with you today?” said Big Mac, nodding at Ditzy and Ball while dipping his hoof into the ink.
“Yep, they're causing me all sorts of trouble.”
“We got a few new workers on the farm today too, couldn’t find their plots with both hooves. Well good luck with yours.”
“Same to you Mac, maybe see you at the bar on Thursday?”
“Not sure, me and Caramel might be heading out to do some hunting later this week, we’ll see.”
Meanwhile Applebloom had noticed Ditzy and wandered over. “I haven't seen you before are you a new post pony?”
“Yes, this is my first day. My names Ditzy.”
“Why are your eye’s so funny?” said the child without guile.
Ditzy blushed, “They’ve always been this way. You see, I’ve got a daughter about your age at home and my eyes are like this so I can see that she’s all right and see where I’m going, most of the time. I’m sure your momma keeps an eye on you to make sure you’re all right to.”
Applebloom looked downcast for a moment. “Applejack tell’s me that Ma and Pa look down on us all the time to make sure we’re safe, I look up sometimes but I never see 'em,” then she brightened up, “If you got a foal will she be going to school in Ponyville?”
“I suppose so, if I end up working here. Why?”
“Well Applejack says I got to go to school soon and it’d be nice to have someone else who’s new. Not that I’m scared or anything.” she said defensively.
“I’m sure Dinky would love to be your friend when you go to school.”
“Sorry, Applebloom but me, Ditzy and Ball have to go now” said Silver interrupting the conversation. “We’ve got lots more letter’s to deliver.”
“Ok, bye Ms Ditzy.” said the filly waving as the trio of postponies walked away.
“Bye, Applebloom.” called Ditzy, smiling. She turned to Silver Script “Are Applebloom’s parents pegasus then?”
“No,” replied Silver awkwardly, “They both passed not long after the kid was born.”
Ditzy suddenly came to a stop, face downcast.
“Are you alright?” asked Silver, looking shocked.
“I, I just really need to give Dinky a hug right now.” said Ditzy, starting to tear up. “She’s staying with my parents for the week, I’ve never been apart from her for so long before. I miss her.” To everypony’s surprise Ball walked over and hugged her.
“What?” he said, somewhat defensively, as Silver stared at him, “I can feel bad for people too you know. I’m not a machine.” He detached himself from Ditzy, “It’s almost noon” he said looking up, “Shouldn’t we be getting under cover.”
“I’m afraid not,” said Silver Script, “We’re too far behind schedule.”
“But, but Corona,” spluttered Lightning.
“Is an old mare’s tale. I’ve had to stay out at noon before now and I’ve not been struck down, or cursed, or anything. It’s just one of those things you have to do sometimes. Now keep up we’ve still got a long way to go”.
The next few hours were spent travelling around the outlying farmsteads and other buildings that circled Ponyville. The ponies that lived out there were somewhat isolated from the rest of the population and were keen to discuss recent events in the town. It was to both Silver Script’s and Ditzy Doo’s dis-satisfaction that they had to pass through quickly and not stop to chat. The only event of note that occurred was near the end of the run where their route took them back towards the suburbs of the town itself.
A group of older colts and fillies had gathered in the shade of some houses and were chatting amongst themselves. When the three postponies approached their conversation stopped and they stared at the public servants with dark intent in their eyes.
Silver stepped forward and tapped his bag with a hoof, “Love and Tolerance, guys,” he announced loudly. Suddenly it seemed like the whole group had decided they wanted to be elsewhere else and scattered.
“What was that about?” inquired Ditzy.
“A few months ago a group of the local kids decided to pick on one of the older post ponies, Mr Zippy, he retired last week, they ran off with a few of the letters, threw his hat in the mud, Childish,” he spat the word, “things like that.”
“What did you do? Tell their parents?”
“What could I do, I showed them Love and Tolerance and they decided to leave him, and the rest of the staff, alone.”
“I remember when you were swinging that thing around I was terrified,” said Ball, “I mean I heard from a friend that he was terrified.” The stallion looked shifty as Silver Script stared at him.
“Swung what thing around?” asked Ditzy confused.
“Nothing but Love and Tolerance. Post ponies should get the same respect as everypony else, and I do what I can to ensure that,” said Silver pushing a letter into a post box, “And that’s the last of my letters, either of you got anything left?”
“I’ve got this one,” said Ditzy, pulling a large envelope from her bag, she studied it, “but I think it’s got the wrong address on it.”
“Why’s that?”
“It says PV51 but you said the the Ponyville postcodes only go up to PV50.”
“Well remembered. Let me see that, oh its the haunted shack, that’s got its own postcode.”
“The what?” asked Ball.
“It’s an odd place out by the Everfree, built less than a year ago now. All the contractors were from out of town. We get a lot of post and parcels for it, but there never seems to be anyone living there but the letters we leave disappear. Some have got to saying its haunted and thats not the strangest thing. Technically its outside of Ponyville limits but just after it was finished the post codes were all shifted and it got it’s own, someone important pulled a lot of strings for that one. I guess we better head on out there, its probably another hour there and back so we should be finished by mid afternoon.”
“Err, I’ve got all these left.” stuttered Ball looking at a pile of letters and parcels he pulled from his bag.
“What!” exclaimed Silver staring at the letters, “These are PV27, that’s the Apple Trust again, that’s an hour in the opposite direction, this will take all day. Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”
“I guess I didn’t notice, Sorry”
“Silver,” spoke up Ditzy, “Why don’t I go and deliver this letter to the shack while Ball takes his letters to the Trust, and you go back to the office. There’s no reason for all three of us have to work so late.”
“That’s very kind of you Ditzy,” said Silver glaring at Ball, “but I’m going to have to explain this all to Mac, so I’ve got to go with forgetful here to sort it out. Are you sure you’re ok going off to the shack by yourself?”
“It’s only a single letter and my bags are empty so I can fly there and back, it shouldn’t take too long.”
“Ok, if you're sure, the shacks here,” he said indicating an empty spot on her map. “I’ll meet you back at the office.”
Ditzy saluted her boss before taking to the air.
The flight turned out to be quite short, and it was not hard for Ditzy to locate the ‘Haunted Shack’, it was the only building anywhere near the spot she had been shown on the map. The cottage was of unique construction, built near a small stream, which presumably provided the occupant with water, the building was designed to blend into the scenery, the roof was covered in grass, although this was only half grown, and the area around it was littered with bird boxes and animal dens.
From on high Ditzy spotted the figure of a lone pony standing near the cottage, apparently tending to a small tree in the garden. The mysterious figure was a pegasus of about Ditzy’s age, maybe even a little younger, with a yellow coat and a long pink mane. Ditzy attempted to land near the pony to deliver the letter, however a sudden strong crosswind, in addition to her poor eyesight, made her misjudge the distance. At the last moment she realised that she was plummeting straight towards the stranger, she called out a warning and the figure turned just in time for Ditzy to see huge blue eyes open wide in panic before the two of them collided with bone jarring force.
Ditzy shook herself, she was lying sprawled on top of the strange mare. The apprentice postmare quickly checked all six of her limbs and found that, apart from a bump on her head, she appeared to be uninjured.
“I’m sorry,” she said with concern, “Are you OK?”
Her victim looked up with at her with big terrified eyes again and opened her mouth as if to scream, but no noise escaped. She started to tremble and squirm against the weight pinning her to the ground. Ditzy quickly and gently stood up to allow the other pony to get free. The yellow pony struggled to her feet only to let out a squeak of pain and fall to the ground again clutching one of her forelegs.
“Your hurt! I’m sorry, let me have a look at that.”
Ditzy tried to approach the wounded pegasus only for her to try to scramble away shaking in fear and hyperventilating. The scene reminded Ditzy of when Dinky had caught her horn in a door at her house, the foal had cried for hours. She wondered if the same treatment might work on the panicked pony.
“Don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt you, please let me look at your leg, it's going to be alright,” she said gently. Then she cleared her throat and started to sing.
Hush now, quiet now
It's time to lay your sleepy head
Hush now, quiet now
It's time to go to bed
Just as with Dinky, the pink haired mare could be seen to start to relax, Ditzy approached the injured pony, still singing.
Drifting off to sleep
The exciting day behind you
Drifting off to sleep
Let the joy of dreamland find you
Ditzy reached to the fallen ponies injured leg, the yellow pony flinched for a second then let Ditzy examine her while her eye’s slowly inched closed.
Hush now Quiet now
Lay your sleepy head
Hush now Quiet now
It’s time to go to bed
“Thank you,” whispered the younger mare, “My mother used to sing me that when I got scared and couldn’t sleep.”
“I’m sorry I crashed into you, but there doesn’t seem to have been any major damage,” said Ditzy apologetically. “Is this your house?”
“Yes, I’m Fluttershy,” she squeaked.
“Nice to meet you Fluttershy, I’m Ditzy Doo, let me help you up.” With surprisingly little effort Ditzy lifted Fluttershy to her feet, she seemed as light as a feather, and helped the limping pony to her house.
The inside of the building was a riot of animals of various kinds all of which could be seen moving around or watching the ponies from dens built into the structure of the house itself.
“Are these all yours?” asked Ditzy, wide eyed.
“Oh, they belong to themselves really, but I look after them.” said Fluttershy at a volume approaching normal.
“Do you live out here by yourself?”
“I have all my animal friends, but I can’t deal with other ponies, so I try to keep to myself, if thats alright?”
“Oh, I just remembered, here’s your post” said Ditzy handing over the now rather crumpled letter.
“You’re a postmare?” asked Fluttershy, eyes wide.
“I just started today. I’ve not had the best of days so far, I hope they keep me on. I’ll probably be delivering your post every so often, I can stop to chat when I do, we can be friends.”
“I think I’d like that,” said Fluttershy sounding surprised, “You’re very kind.”
“We’ll I’m sure the other post staff would talk to you when they come round as well.”
Fluttershy recoiled at this, “Oh, no. I couldn’t, not other ponies. Please say they won’t. That you’ll deliver all my post from now on? Please!”
“Well, if you want I’ll try. I’m only new so I can’t guarantee anything.”
“Thank you.” said Fluttershy looking relieved.
Ditzy spent a further hour with Fluttershy making sure that her host was ok, and talking about Fluttershy’s animals and her own life. The trip back was uneventful and she landed safely just outside the post office, just as the sun was starting to lower in the sky.
She carefully opened the door to find the building almost empty, only Silver Script and Ball Lightning sat in the sorting room leafing through the few remaining letters. As she entered Silver stood up, “Ditzy, I was just about to send out a search party for you, did you find it?”
“Yep, I even met the owner, she’s called Fluttershy.” She explained to Silver Script what had happened and the request Fluttershy had made.
“Well I don’t think that’s a reasonable request, that place is miles away you can’t be expected to go all the way out there several times a week.”
“I want to. I hurt her and see seems to trust me, its the least I can do.”
“Well I’ll talk to Par about it, but it highly irregular. Anyway you better sit down, you haven't eaten since that muffin this morning, I’ve gotten a sandwich for you.”
Ditzy suddenly realised how hungry she was, “Thanks,” she mumbled, reaching for the food.
“I’ve been meaning to ask you, where are you staying at the moment? I guess you haven't got a place in Ponyville yet.”
Ditzy stopped eating for a minute, “I’m in a guest house in Hoofington until I can find a place for me and Dinky here, do you know any cheap housing locally?”
“Hoofington! thats got to be a two hour flight from here.”
“Closer to three for me, that’s why I was late, it took longer than I though to get here, but now that I know I’ll leave earlier tomorrow.” she apologised.
“You’ve got a six hour commute on top of working here for almost twelve hours, when are you planning to sleep?”
“I’ll survive, hopefully it’ll only be a few weeks before I can find somewhere,” she said doodling on the table with her hoof.
Silver seemed to think for a minute. “I’ve got to talk to Par now, I’ll be back in a few minutes,” he announced before heading for the office.
“So, Lightning,” said Ditzy between bites, “You’re in a band? what do you play?”
“So how’d it go?” asked Par.
Silver sighed and slumped onto a seat, “Those two are the absolute, worse, postponies, I have ever seen,” he sighed.
“Since you?” added Par.
“I was never that bad. Ball Lightning tried to do everything as quickly as he can and messed it all up, he doesn’t even really want the job, he thinks he’s going to be a rock star in month or two.”
“I remember you mentioning a few things about your baseball career getting you out of this two bit town when you were starting here.”
“That was different.” He quickly changed the subject, “As for Ditzy Doo, she’s a sweet filly and her attention to detail isn’t bad but she’s slow and clumsy, and spends forever chatting to the customers.”
“It’s only their first day. So we mostly put Ball on sorting for a while, have someone check his work until he can get the hang of it. We have Ditzy out in the field more, but have someone keep tabs on her to make sure she keeps moving. We see how they're both doing at the end of the month, and see if we need to do anything further then. Anything more you need to tell me?”
“Well, I’ve got an idea about Ditzy actually.”
Silver walked back into the sorting room his face grim. “Ok, Lightning, you can clear out, I’ll see you tomorrow. Ditzy I need to speak to you about something.”
Ball gave a quick nod to Silver and Ditzy and rushed out the door. The grey mare gulped nervously “Look, I really need this job, I’ll try to work faster, maybe come in earlier or something,” she babbled.
Silver laid a comforting hoof on her shoulder, “Calm down. You’re not getting fired, yet. You’ve got some problems, but nothing we can’t work on. I know how little you’re getting paid at the moment, you’re going to find it hard to get a decent place for you and your kid to live in Ponyville on that. But there is another option.”
Ditzy looked up hopefully.
“There’s a house built on top of the post office, technically its for the post master but Par’s got his own place and it’s not been used for years. Now it’s going to need a good clean out, and it’s not the biggest, warmest or most private of places but it’s a roof over your head for you and Dinky, and it should stop you being late again.”
“Oh, thank you, thank you!”, cried Ditzy leaping up and nuzzling Silver.
“Hold on,” he said gently pushing the ecstatic mare away, “There are downsides, we’ve not worked it out exactly but it’s going to mean a pay cut, probably about a third to a half of your salary, but I doubt you’ll find much local for the same price.”
Ditzy quickly reviewed her finances in her head, the result was not pretty but she agreed that this seemed to be the best option for her. “Can I have a look at it before I decide?” she asked.
“I thought you might say that.” Silver pulled a key out of his wing, “Lets go.” He lead her up a small stairway at the back of the office and unlocked the door, it stuck and he had to use his shoulder to force it open.
The room beyond it was covered in a thick layer of dust and cobwebs, the few items of furniture visable were covered in sheets. The room seemed to serve as living room, dining room and kitchen in one with an almost antique stove sitting at one end.
The two ponies explored the rest of the house entering the small primary bedroom and the even smaller secondary bedroom, which boasted a cracked window, and finally the frankly disgusting bathroom.
“I didn’t think it would be this bad,” muttered Silver, “But Par did say he thought he could unlock some funding to tidy it up before you move in, and I’ll help you clean it out as much as I can.”
Ditzy looked around with shining eyes. “It’s perfect!”, she announced, “It’s just right for me and Dinky. She can even have her own room and I won’t have to rely on my parents all the time. It’ll be a new start for me. I’ll take it! Thank you, oh thank you!”.
“If you’re sure?” Ditzy nodded enthusiastically. “In that case welcome to the Equestrian Postal Service, Ponyville branch, Ditzy Doo.”
Author's Note
I wrote this story as a challenge to myself to see how quickly I cold put a story together, it was written over about 3 days which probably isn't very impressive.
If you liked this I'd suggest reading Hope Fox's The worst mother in Equestria its much better