The alarm clock blared loudly in the ear of the stallion sleeping in the rumpled bed. The room was obscured in the darkness of the blinds drawn over the windows, and slivers of sunlight struggled to break through the cracks in the bottom. A steel gray hoof quested from the warm nest of blankets, groping around the night table in search of the offending object, which rang persistently. Finally, the hoof found the clock, fumbled with it, and knocked it to the floor, where it continued to ring petulantly.

"Buuuuck," a groggy voice groaned. The stallion threw the blanket off of himself, shivering in the cool of his room, his fur standing on end as he found the alarm clock and shut it off.

With that, Quicksilver started his day. He stumbled out of bed, wishing for just another half hour, but duty called. His job was so important that nothing could hinder his work. Not rain, nor snow, nor sleet.

He stumbled to the bathroom and turned on the light, looking at his own reflection in the mirror. His clear, blue eyes looked tired and puffy, about a night's worth of pale white-silver stubble covered his jaw and chin. "You look terrible," he informed his reflection, which just stared back at him tiredly.

He rinsed the night out of his mouth and spat in the sink, then went the few steps to the shower, turned the water as hot as it went, even as the ancient pipes in his apartment groaned in protest, and climbed in, closing the shower curtain adorned with images of happy, yellow rubber duckies.

He washed his mane and coat, gradually feeling more awake, more pony. Once he was done washing, he turned the water as cold as it would go. He closed his eyes and let the cold water wash over him. His fur stood on end from the shock of the temperature change, but the cold water woke him up and invigorated him. He stood under the cold water for five minutes before getting out and drying himself.

When he looked at himself in the mirror to groom, he saw a much more alert steel gray pegasus looking back at him. "That's better," he told his reflection. He combed his silver white mane back in a sleek style with two longer pieces on either side of his head that swept back behind his ears, and got rid of the stubble. He saved brushing his teeth for after breakfast, but put a bit of aftershave on before winking at himself in the mirror and heading down the hall to his small kitchen.

He hummed tunelessly to himself as he prepared some hay bacon, eggs, and toast and brewed himself some strong coffee. It wasn't necessarily that he was looking forward to the day ahead. He had a hard, thankless job, but somepony had to do it, and while he enjoyed his job enough that he had been doing it for seven years, it just paid the bills, and barely at that, since he lived in Canterlot.

Done with breakfast, he went back to the bathroom and finished up his morning routine. He put on his uniform, that of the Equestrian Parcel Service, made sure his shirt and hat were straight, hung his messenger bag about his barrel, and set off.

The streets of Canterlot were bustling with ponies headed off to work. As he always did in the morning, as he headed for the office, he looked up toward the castle, which was visible through the whole city, and definitely the best part of living in Canterlot. He liked walking to work, as he only lived a few blocks away, and he spent his whole day flying, so it was nice to have a few minutes to walk and prepare himself mentally for the day ahead.

For the most part, Quicksilver was easygoing enough to not care that in Canterlot, earth ponies and pegasi were pretty much subservient to the upperclass unicorns that pretty much ran the place. In fact, he lived in the "lower-class" part of town, where unicorns were rarely seen. They were all snooty snobs for the most part, anyway.

He stopped at the office to get his manifest and deliveries for the day, greeting his co-workers. Somepony called, "Hey, Quicksilver! How's it going?"

"Ah, you know, same stuff, different day," he called back.

His best friend, Lightning Strike, a whitish-blue pegasus with green eyes and a short, spiky, blue mane, threw a hoof around his neck. "Hey there, buddy. Wanna hang out at the Trough tonight? They're showin' that race you were talking about. We could bet on who's gonna win."

Quicksilver didn't really want to watch the Wonderbolts derby at the bar, but he wasn't doing anything after work, aside from having a cider and going to bed. He could drink cider just as easily at the bar. He thought all of this as Lightning watched him expectantly. By now, the other stallion knew he didn't have to say anything, Quicksilver would talk himself into going to the bar after work, whether he wanted to or not.

"Okay, but just until the derby's over," Quicksilver conceded reluctantly.

"See ya there, buddy," a triumphant-looking Lightning said, giving Quicksilver a rough pat on the shoulder.

Quicksilver went to get his deliveries. He was one of the faster, stronger fliers, so he was often entrusted with time-sensitive and next-day deliveries. He had from 8:00 a.m., when he got to the office, until sunset to make all of his deliveries.

He wasn't a very big stallion, but he carried about six parcels at a time, returning to the office to pick up more once he was finished with each batch. He always challenged himself to finish up a little early, or to make each group of deliveries in a set amount of time. His bosses liked it because it made him more productive, and he liked it, because it made his otherwise mundane job more interesting. Today, he challenged himself to finish up an hour early. He knew he'd have to bust his rump to make it, but he was confident in his speed and ability.

He arranged his packages in his bag to construct a route. He liked to make a circular route that would begin and end at the office with as little backtracking as possible. Since he was so familiar with Canterlot, and knew his own limitations, he was able to shuffle some higher-priority packages further down, so long as he knew he could make the delivery in time.

He headed out to the launch pad in the back of the building, where he could see many of his co-workers limbering up and taking off into the cloudless morning sky. He waved at Lightning as his friend took off, the pale blue pegasus waving back at him with a huge grin.

He stretched and limbered up as he waited for his turn to take off. Flying all day was very physically demanding, but Silver had been doing it for seven years, so he had a great balance of speed and stamina. Besides, around noon, he would take a lunch break and give his wings a rest.

When Silver got to the front of the queue, he put his goggles on, made sure he had everything, and waited for clearance to take off. Once he got it, he galloped to the end of the launch pad and flapped his wings once, powerfully to get himself going.

He spent the morning speeding all over Canterlot. He'd had a close call with a taxi when he was flying low for a landing, but he'd managed to avoid it, the earth pony driver shouting at him to watch where he was flying. He loved the speed his job demanded, and the adrenaline rush from close-calls like that one.

The hardest part of his job was dealing with guards chewing him out for flying unsafely, and dealing with angry clients, some of whom thought he hadn't made the delivery fast enough, and others that were just having a bad day. He always did his best to not take it personally.

He had one delivery where the unicorn mare he'd been making the delivery to hadn't even paid attention to him. He had knocked on the door and a lavender unicorn mare with an indigo mane with a pink and a purple stripe answered.

"Delivery for," he looked at the label affixed to the package. "Twilight Sparkle," he said, holding out a book wrapped in brown paper.

"Ooh! It came!" she exclaimed excitedly.

"I need you to sign for it," protested Quicksilver as she went to close the door.

She put her hoof in the ink as he indicated and stamped his face distractedly, too focused on the book grasped in the field of her magenta magic, before closing the door on him. With a sigh of exasperation, Silver took his manifest and pressed it against his face to transfer the still-wet ink to the paper, grumbling as he put it back in his bag and took off for his next delivery.

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At the end of the day, he missed his goal by a scant seven minutes. He'd gotten back before pretty much anyone else, though, so he headed to the locker room to take a shower and wait for Lightning, who usually finished up a little early too.

"Don't beat yourself up, man," he told his reflection in his locker mirror, once he had showered and combed out his mane. "Tomorrow's a new day."

"Are you talking to yourself in the mirror?" A feminine voice asked.

With a start, Silver peered behind the locker door to see Penny Lane, a copper-colored earth pony mare he had a crush on. They had worked together pretty much the whole seven years Silver had been a courier, and he had thought of asking her out many times, but never seemed to be able to work up the courage.

"Oh, Penny!" he exclaimed. "Not talking to myself so much as...giving myself a bit of encouragement," he said, his cheeks flushing all the same because she had caught him.

"Oh. I hear public speakers do that," Penny said brightly, making Silver's heart melt and puddle somewhere around his knees.

"Uh..." he said. Say something, stupid! Invite her out! "Me and Lightning Strike were going to hang out at the Trough tonight to watch the Wonderbolts derby...want to join us? I could...buy you a drink?"

Smooth, he scolded himself.

"I'd love to..."

Silver's heart soared and did Figure 8s among the clouds. He could hardly believe it!

"But I really can't."

Silver's heart plummeted from the clouds and crashed on the pavement in a bloody mess.

"It's just that I promised Daisy that I would cover her tomorrow so she can take her anniversary off, so I have to be in early," Penny hurriedly explained. "Maybe some other time?"

"Sure," Silver said, trying to sound nonchalant, but his face looked crestfallen and he suddenly felt his long day. "No problem," he added. Penny hung around for a few awkward moments.

"Well, have a good night," she said, and trotted off.

Once she was gone, Quicksilver groaned. "Arrghh! You could've suggested another time this week! No wonder you never get any dates!"

Just then, Lightning Strike showed up. "What's up with you?" He asked.

"Nothing, I just lost probably my only opportunity to ask the mare of my dreams out. It's just the end of my world as I know it."

"Stop being so melodramatic. There'll be other opportunities, and other mares," Lightning said easily.

"No, you don't get it. I've had a crush on Penny Lane for seven years! I just worked up the bits to ask her out, and she couldn't, and she suggested maybe another time and waited there! I should have realized she was inviting me to find another time!"

Lightning just shook his head. "For being named Quicksilver, sometimes you are a little slow."

"Hey! You're supposed to be on my side!"

"I am on your side," Lightning assured him. "That's why the first round's on me."

The two of them finished putting their things away, and headed out, just as the sun was setting, bathing Canterlot in a warm, pink and orange glow.

"This is my favorite time of day," said Quicksilver, looking at the castle towering in the distance, awash in the pink glow of sunset as he and Lightning Strike made their way out to the boulevard.

"I'm with you there," Lightning agreed as they joined the throng of ponies that were headed home for the day. "Man, the street's really crowded. How 'bout we fly there instead?"

Quicksilver grinned. "Okay. Last one there buys the second round!"

"Oh, you're on!" declared Lightning. He knew he didn't have a chance of beating Quicksilver, but he was glad to see his friend's spirits lift, so he figured losing a few bits was worth it.

The two pegasi took to the sky, and were off like a shot.

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Quicksilver left the Trough later, and slightly more inebriated, than he had intended. He had of course, won the race with Lightning, so his buddy had bought the first two rounds of cider as promised, then they got into a heated debate about who would win the derby.

Lightning was putting his money on Fleetfoot, but Quicksilver kept insisting Spitfire was going to win, so they settled by saying if Fleetfoot won, Quicksilver would buy the next round of cider, and if Spitfire won, it was on Lightning. Well, Spitfire won by a huge margin, so Quicksilver insisted that for being an insufferable ass, his friend should buy the next two rounds, and well, he did.

Though Quicksilver stumbled out of the bar, he insisted he could get home just fine, thank you very much. He'd only had four drinks, but he hadn't had much to eat with it, and was a lightweight to boot. He meandered home, letting the cool evening air help clear his head, which felt like it was floating a few feet above his neck. He would drink plenty of water when he got home and take it easy the rest of the night.

The streets of Canterlot were always well-lit at night, so Quicksilver had no trouble finding his way, but he was diverted when he heard the sound of somepony crying. He knew he should just keep on walking. He was drunk, really had to pee, and he had to be up for work in the morning, but something compelled him to find whoever was crying, so he followed the sound.

He soon came upon a pretty white pegasus mare with a pink mane, sobbing quietly into her hooves. Silver thought she looked familiar somehow, and approached her slowly. "Hey, are you okay?" he asked, his voice full of concern. It wasn't just every day you stumbled on a pretty mare crying at the side of the road.

She looked up at him, her eyes red and puffy. "No, not really," she replied, wiping at them. "My coltfriend just dumped me."

Quicksilver sighed in relief. At the glare she gave him, he said, "No, I sympathize, it's just, well, I don't mean to sound mean, but I was thinking something worse might have happened."

The mare shook her head. "Nothing like that," she agreed, "but my coltfriend...we had been seeing each other for a while, and we just moved in together a few weeks ago. I thought it would be great, but just recently, he started to...change. He started getting suspicious whenever I went out on my own, and really broody. Tonight, I went out for some drinks with my coworkers, down at the Trough."

Quicksilver started. He knew she had looked familiar! He remembered seeing a white mare with a pink mane with some other ponies at one of the tables.

"Anyway, I got back a little later than I thought I would, and he just...exploded."

By now, most ponies might have told her to buck up and move on, but Quicksilver listened patiently to her story. He felt horrible for her. He never had a marefriend, but he could imagine how it would feel to have someone you loved just suddenly change like that.

"He accused me of sleeping around," the mare continued. We had an argument, and...and...he...he threw me out!" She broke into fresh sobs.

"Whoa!" exclaimed Quicksilver. He moved to her side quickly and pulled her gently into his forelegs. "Is there anywhere you can go? Anypony we can call?"

She shook her head, crying into his chest. "He has all of my things. I don't have a single bit on me, and my parents live in Fillydelphia!" she wailed.

"Hang on, there has to be something we can do," Quicksilver said rationally. He thought for a moment, then an idea came to him. "You could crash at my place for the night," he suggested. "In the morning, it will be more clear, what you should do," he said.

The mare looked at him with huge, pink, watery eyes. "Really?" she hiccuped. "Would you really do that? For somepony you just met?"

"You bet I would," Quicksilver said, gently wiping away her tears with a fore-hoof. "I'll even lend you a few bits for a cab, if you need them," he said. Part of him cursed himself for being such a nice guy, but she needed somepony, dammit, and that somepony happened to be him! "Come on, my place isn't far. We're just a couple blocks away."

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Quicksilver led the mare to his apartment building. If she noticed how run-down the place looked, she didn't say anything. "You can take a shower, if you want, and you can sleep in my bed. I'll take the couch," he said as he unlocked the door and flipped the lights on. His apartment looked even smaller to him than usual, and he thought distractedly, that it had been a while since he'd cleaned. There was a small pile of dishes stacked in the sink.

"Thank you," the mare said gratefully. "I'm Sun Chaser, by the way."

"Quicksilver."

"I can't tell you how much this all means to me, Quicksilver. You're the only pony who cared enough to listen to me, to help me."

Silver blushed. "It's nothing. Really. My father always taught me to treat others the way I want to be treated."

Sun Chaser said, "It's not nothing to me," and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

His face warmed, the heat radiating from where she had kissed him. He cleared his throat in embarassment and gave her the "grand" tour.

"Bathroom's through there, my bedroom's across the hall. You can sleep in my bed."

Sun Chaser shook her head. "After all you've done for me already, I don't want to kick you out of your own bed. I can sleep on the couch. It's no big deal, really," she said.

"No, take the bed. I insist. The couch is really lumpy. After the night you've had, you deserve a peaceful nights' rest."

This went on for a while, until Quicksilver finally gave in and let Sun Chaser have the couch, which brought back a lesson his father had taught him when he was a young colt. He had said, "Don't bother arguing with a mare, Son, it doesn't get you anything but a headache." He could now see the wisdom in his father's words.

He headed back to his room to get some bedding and pillows for Sun Chaser, after making a quick detour to the bathroom.

As he gathered bedding, he could hear Sun Chaser, who had taken up his offer to use his shower, in the bathroom, fiddling with the faucet.

"You have to turn it kind of hard," he called through the bathroom door, and winced when he heard a yelp once the water did start.

"Got it!" she called.

Silver chuckled to himself as he went back to the living room and made Chaser's bed. He took much more care with it than he did with his own bed. His blankets were piled in the middle, and he just arranged it accordingly when he went to bed. With her bed, he made sure things were neat and straight.

She emerged from the bathroom with a towel over her mane, and smiled when she saw Silver fussing over her bed. "Thank you, Quicksilver, it's perfect."

"You--you're welcome," he stammered, blushing. "If you need anything, an extra blanket or whatever, just holler. I'm kind of a heavy sleeper though, so you might have to come shake me."

Chaser giggled. "Don't worry. I think you've got everything er--covered."

The two of them laughed together and Silver turned off the lights, making sure Chaser was comfortable before he headed back to his room. He thought he'd have a hard time getting to sleep, but he passed out as soon as his head hit the pillow.

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"Sun Chaser" waited until she heard Quicksilver snoring before she got out of bed. She was truly touched that he went to all that trouble for her, and that she had to argue with him over the couch. He really went above and beyond her expectations for him.

Once she was sure Silver was asleep, she got up off the couch, which, he hadn't lied, was lumpy, found a piece of paper, and scribbled a quick note for him, which she left on the counter next to his coffee machine. "Thank you, Quicksilver," she said with a secret smile, as she left his apartment.

It had taken a little longer than she expected, and by the time she was standing on the cobbled road outside of Quicksilver's apartment building, the moon was high in the sky, washing its pale silver light over Canterlot. Sun Chaser looked up at the blemishes covering the surface of the moon in the form of a unicorn mare's head.

Slowly, her form began to change. She grew taller, and her horn, no longer concealed by her spell, was visible on her forehead. Her simple, pink mane began to billow in the unfelt solar wind, and green, blue, and purple hues wove themselves in.

Princess Celestia stood in the middle of the quiet street, unafraid that she would be seen. This was a quiet neighborhood of working ponies, who would, for the most part, be abed by now.

She was certain Quicksilver was the stallion she was looking for. Her gaze locked on the moon, she said, "I am sorry, Sister. I have ruled this past one thousand years alone, but...there are some things that I am not strong enough to bear on my own. I hope you will forgive me."

Celestia spread her great, white wings and took to the sky with a single powerful flap. She flew a short distance, and blinked away in a flash of gold.

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The alarm clock blared loudly in the ear of the stallion sleeping in the rumpled bed. The room was obscured in the darkness of the blinds drawn over the windows, and slivers of sunlight struggled to break through the cracks in the bottom. A steel gray hoof quested from the nest of warm blankets, groping around the night table in search of the offending object, which rang persistently. Finally, the hoof found the clock, fumbled with it, and shut it off.

A clear, blue eye blearily glanced out of the covers, and widened as he remembered Sun Chaser out in the living room. He made haste to get out of bed, and fell to the floor with a loud "Oof!" as his hooves got tangled in his blankets and sheets. He managed to extricate himself, and went down the hall, thinking Chaser must have been a heavy sleeper if she had slept through all that.

When he emerged into the living room, however, he found the couch empty, the blankets arranged neatly. "Sun Chaser?" he called, but the white mare was nowhere to be seen.

He wandered into the kitchen, finding Sun Chaser's note next to the coffee machine.

Quicksilver,

Thank you so much for everything you did for me last night. I had to get up early so I could get to work, but I cannot express how much I appreciate everything you did for me. There are far too few kind ponies like you left in the world.

-Sun Chaser

Silver read the letter a couple of times, and smiled. He was glad he could help her, even if only for a night, and he thought it was a shame that what she said about him being one of the few kind ponies left in the world was probably true.

"Everypony needs a friend," he said to the letter. "Even if only for a night."

Since he was already in the kitchen, he set his coffee to brewing as he went through his normal morning routine, but just as he was about to make his breakfast, there was a knock on the door.

Quicksilver hoped it was Sun Chaser, but he knew it wasn't, and as he gazed out the peep hole to see who his visitor might be, he found that he had two visitors, and neither of them were Sun Chaser. In fact, they weren't mares at all. It was a pair of Royal Guards!

Author's Note

I'm aware that in most fandoms, it's a cardinal sin to pair OCs with canon characters. I think this is a little unfair. Anyhow, anyone who's seen my favorite fics on this site will know that I ship Twilestia, but I've been kicking this idea around in my head for a while now, and I got inspired to try it out after reading a fic that kind of touches on that idea. (The fic is here. Read it.)

Just so everypony is on the same page, the Equestrian Parcel Service (or EPS) is the Equestrian equivalent of UPS or Fed-Ex.