The Legacy of Derpy Hooves

Chapter Three:

This was an unusual sensation to her, it was not often that she felt a sense of genuine pride in her achievements. But as she returned home, with two empty mail bags, she flew with a wide smile on her face. When she returned to her cloud home, she landed delicately and opened the door. Her mother heard her and came to greet her, and could tell by the smile on her face that all had went brilliantly. She settled down for her dinner where the two of them talked about her adventures. That night, Derpy had no trouble at all getting to sleep, feeling for once that she was settling into a life where she may truly belong.

Trotting along a rope bridge, Derpy looked around confusedly. The rope bridge was suspended over a one hundred foot chasm with sharp stalagmites sticking out of an active lava flow. She didn't think she recognised this place at all and concluded that she was probably dreaming. Now in full awareness of her dream state she looked to her hooves, which were in fact more beige than grey and as she looked at them, a dark grey mane flopped in front of her face. Whoever this pony was, it wasn't Derpy. Regardless, Derpy played into the hands of her own psyche and proceeded along the rope bridge. With a mighty crack Derpy saw a rock falling from the roof of the cavern, totaling the middle of the bridge. Amazingly, it still stood, but about a dozen of the middle most planks had been completely destroyed. What's worse, the lava had splashed onto the back end of the bridge where Derpy had entered, and the bridge was beginning to burn.

“No, no...I want to wake up!” Derpy cried.

As the bridge began to burn, Derpy spotted her mum on the other side of the bridge who appeared to be calling to somepony.

“Daring Do! It's just a dream! Calm down!” She yelled.

Realising that she's right, Derpy ran as fast as she could towards the huge gap, kicking the very last plank with a solid clop of her hooves. She sailed through the air, landing right in her mothers arms.

“Derpy...? Come on Derpy...” She said.

With her hooves fully stretched out as if mid leap, Derpy's dazed little head turned to her mother who was sitting at her bedside, one of Derpy's hooves prodded into her tummy.

“Oh Derpy, are you alright? I thought you were having a nightmare. You were crying out for help in your sleep...” She said

Realising what she was having probably was a nightmare, she noticed how it didn't seem to feel like it at the time. She knew deep down that she was in the dream world, so she knew she'd always be okay. So it was more like an adventure for her.

“...Oh, no, no. It was cool! I was...I think I was Daring Do and I was in a big cave with lava and stuff... And I was in a lot of trouble, but it was okay because I knew it was a dream and... You were too and...I think I was looking for the mystical sapphire muffin and...” Derpy continued
“Okay, Derpy, I get it, it's all good as long as you are okay.”

Only then did Derpy realise that her mum was holding an envelope before her muzzle with her name on it. Derpy looked at it and took it into her hoof as her mother gave it to her.

“Oh, this? Cloudsdale's mail mare dropped this off for you a couple minutes ago. It has the seal of First Class on it, so it must be good!” She said.

Derpy slid the envelope seal to her teeth and nibbled along the top of it.She pulled it open carefully and the letter itself landed on her lap.

“Dear Derpy Hooves,

In recognition of your first successful mail run, I'd like to offer you more work. In other words, Derpy, you have been hired! Please come to our post office as quickly as you can because we have some higher priority mail to shift.

Signed, First Class, Executive of Cloudsdale Mail.”

Derpy jumped into the air, the letter curling and turning in the air towards the door as Derpy bounced on her bed. Derpy's mum caught it in her hoof and began to read it.

“Derpy, goodness me, I'm so pleased for you!” She said.

Bounding off of the bed next to her mum, Derpy thundered down the stairs. She pushed open the front door and was about to leave when her mother called her.

“Derpy! Come back here! You haven't a single thing in your stomach, come back.”

With a sigh Derpy turned and strolled back in, her excitement getting the better of her. She sat by the dining table and looked confusedly at what was placed upon it. It appeared that the bottle of milk and the box of dry wheat ponies were placed there instead of prepared cereal. Her mother appeared from the foot of the stairs. She knew that Derpy was capable of far far more than mixing milk and cereal on her own, but she knew it held some symbolic meaning to her.

“Well, what are you waiting for Derpy?” Her mother asked.
“But mummy, I'll just spill it all again...” Derpy said, sighing.
“Now you told me what Rainbow Dash taught you yesterday Derpy...”
“...Attitude...Right. Okay...” She replied.

With her mouth upon the corner of the box, Derpy let her mind visualise the bowl as a big hollowed out muffin. The cereal fell into it with a pleasing tinkle as Derpy sat the box back down safely. Then Derpy put her lips around the open bottle of milk from yesterday. Instead of using her hooves to pour it out, she drew her head back and all the milk went straight into her mouth. Using her hooves to put the bottle back down, Derpy proceeded to let all the milk dribble out of her mouth into the imaginary muffin. Her mother was less surprised at the display than anypony would expect. She was just glad Derpy did it and did it her way.

“Well I guess we can call that 'thinking outside the box'. You're so good at that because your box has been lost in the attic for years.” Her mum joked.

Derpy didn't really understand but she laughed anyway, proceeding to have her pony cereal. She found it to taste much sweeter having actually prepared it herself. And because she was still pretending she was eating out a giant muffin. As before, Derpy's mother began to work Derpy's hair with her comb to neaten it out from a busy nights dreaming.

“Now Derpy, I'm going to let you have this comb alright? The first reason is because all of that flying in high winds will give your hair a real workout. The second reason is... Well dear, I'm sure at your age your beginning to feel more conscious of your appearance. A little personal grooming, for you and you alone could go a long way to help you with that.”

Letting her mum talk so she could eat faster, Derpy downed her breakfast faster than she had before. Placing down the empty bowl, she got up and approached the door. Her mother produced the comb she had mentioned and placed it in Derpy's mailbag.

“Alright, you have a good day Derpy, I'll see you later.” She said.
Derpy left her home to travel to what she could now safely call her workplace. Something she could do that everypony counted on her for, and it felt great.

Arriving at the post office in record time, Derpy stepped onto a wooden palette as two ponies came to her side and began to fill each of her bags. First Class then appear from his office, placing his hooves on the counter as he turned to Derpy.

“Welcome to the family, Derpy. Looks like you did a good job, we even got some feedback yesterday about you. From one big red stallion over on Apple Acres.” First Class said.

“Big Mac mentioned me? But I messed up in front of him and I....I mean...” Derpy trailed off.
“We know Derpy, it was your first day! We do it all the time to new recruits, don't we boys?”

The ponies that were loading Derpy chuckled a little bit as they continued looking out the right mail for her.

“Packed you full of letters until your sides were burstin. We gave you the heavy parcels too. You dropped your bags and some of the mail, but the important thing is, you never gave up. Determination is the key in this business. Without determination you can be a good post pony, sure. With it, you can be a great post pony.”

Now realising that she was on a bigger test than she realised, Derpy was overjoyed that she managed to pass against the odds.

“Not many of our recruits manage the full bags test on their first delivery. The kind of drive you demonstrated is essential to becoming a the best kind of post pony, like Priority Mare.”

First Class pointed at a picture on the wall of a smart looking mare with the words “President, Equestrian Mail”.

“She, like all of the great mail mares flew through hail and lightning to deliver the mail. Though, I don't encourage you to be so reckless, you're a young mare, full of life and potential. If things get hairy, you will abandon your job, understand?” First class ordered.

Nodding in his direction, Derpy was given a pat by a loading pony to tell her she was all set. It felt probably only half as heavy as yesterdays mail, so Derpy was sure today would be a breeze. She waved goodbye and trotted out of the door, ready to deliver some mail. Just as Derpy left, another mail mare passed her with Celestias signature solar symbol on his mailbags. As Derpy looked back, the ponies that were loading her seemed to be looking around the post office frantically. With a shrug, Derpy leaped off of the cloud with her wings extended so she could glide easily, with the lighter bags.

Landing by her first stop, Derpy took the letter for Rarity and placed it in her mouth. Knocking on the door, she waited patiently for her customer to arrive, a proud look on her face. She opened the door with Opalesence in her mouth by the nape of her neck, placing her down as she saw there was a letter.

“Oh, Derpy, it's you... I hope these are my tickets to DJ-PON3's tour. I don't think I could stomach another letter from Blue Blood. That stallion is obsessed, darling.” She said.
“Yeah, Vinyl Scratch, you said about that before. Her name... I don't really know why you'd be interested in that.” Derpy pondered.

Rarity used her hoof file to open up the letter and sure enough there were two tickets with the eccentric blue haired pony slapped all over them. Rarity clopped her hooves to the ground excitedly as she waved them about.

“I'm going to meet Vinyl Scratch!....Ahem....My dear, I'm flattered you think I'm so immortally elegant that I could never bring myself to let my hair down for even a single moment... But Sweetie Belle loves her and well, I cant deny, I did borrow her record player a few weeks ago...Come now, you can't judge a book by it's cover.” Rarity said.
“No you're right, I hope you have fun.” Derpy replied.
“Wait dear, I feel really bad about the way I treated you the other day. I was in a fashion fever and I couldn't control myself. I'd be honoured if you joined me Derpy.”

Derpy peered at the tickets, trying to read them, but she couldn't understand a lot of the words and the pictures were all abstract with lasers and lights. She had no idea what to expect, but she knew it'd certainly be interesting. She nodded gratefully and let Rarity give her the ticket.

“Thanks Rarity! I look forward to it!” Derpy said
“Oh and there's a half price spa token on the back!” Rarity added.

Derpy didn't know what a spa was, but she waved to Rarity and made her way to Fluttershy's home with her parcel. Pinkie Pie was passing through, carrying a tray of muffins to give out as samples as she spotted Derpy.

“Hey Derpy, think fast!” Pinkie yelled, throwing a muffin into the air.

Derpy instinctively flew upwards and grabbed it in her mouth, before fluttering down and taking it into her hoof.

“Figured you could use some of those muffin super powers you were telling me about. You must have been crashing all day without them. But with Pinkie Pie as your buddy, you'll never run out, muffin mare!” Pinkie exclaimed, trotting away.

Derpy had just realised she had completely forgotten about muffins ever since she left home, and she hadn't crashed once. Muffins seemed to have little to do with it. It'd seem that the job was focusing her mind and the responsibility involved was keeping her on her hooves. Placing the muffin in her mailbag, Derpy then moved the wrong hoof the wrong way and she ended up tripping over herself, with a faceful of the ground. Perhaps she was just lucky before, she didn't know. She picked herself up and dusted herself down like any other good mail mare, trotting off to Fluttershy's. When she arrived, she knocked on the door thrice.

“....Hi...Derpy...” Fluttershy quietly mumbled.
“Uh... Fluttershy I just wanted-”

Fluttershy let out a little nervous squeal as Derpy was talking. Derpy looked around awkwardly as she tried to continue.

“A package....For you...” Derpy said quietly.

Derpy went to hand Fluttershy the package, but she backed off, causing Derpy to unbalance herself and fall at her hooves. This startled Fluttershy into squealing again and slamming the door shut. Derpy had never seen much of Fluttershy, but she knew enough about her to know that she takes a while to get to know new friends, so it was okay. Derpy sighed and turned to leave, the parcel left at Fluttershy's door. As she left Fluttershy's path she heard the door quickly opening and closing as Fluttershy took the parcel. It definitely seemed she'd need to work on her if she ever wanted to have a normal conversation with her.

Derpy then took off her mailbags and turned them out. One had a letter fall out and the other, a shining parcel fell out of. It had the symbol of the sun on it and “Princess Celestia” written on it. Derpy leapt backwards as she read it.

“The Princess? I cant believe it! I knew First Class liked me and he wanted to give me a more important delivery, but this?” Derpy said.

Derpy placed the precious cargo back in her bag, checking the last letters addressee. It was for Twilight Sparkle. It wasn't long before Derpy found her way there, knocking the door with her little grey hoof.

“Twilight, I'm the new mail mare and I-” Derpy began, talking quickly.
“I heard, Derpy and it's great news. How is the new job?” Twilight inquired.

To Twilight's surprise, her letter was thrust into her hoof quickly. She never knew Derpy to be so objective and stressy. She always seemed up for a chat most days.

“I'm really very sorry but I can't talk about it just now. I've gotten this really really important mail
to deliver. More important than you could ever think!” Derpy hurriedly said.

Twilight raised an eyebrow at the hyper pegasus as if she thought she was delivering muffins or something. It wasn't unusual for her to see Derpy acting weird like this so she simply nodded and let her on her way. Derpy quickly excused herself and flew straight into the sky with her last parcel.

Derpy wasn't terribly familiar with the route to Canterlot, but as she flew to a reasonable altitude, she spotted the unmistakably grand Castle in which the Princess did reside. For a moment Derpy brought her hoof to her mouth thoughtfully.

“It does look far away... Maybe I should go and ask mummy...” Derpy murmured.

Turning from Canterlot, to Cloudsdale and back again as she hovered in the air, her ears folded downwards, unsure of what she should do. Her mind then visualised First Class at his desk in his office trying to explain to the Princess where her parcel was and Derpy couldn't bear the thought of it. She had a job to do, and when she succeeded, everypony would be so impressed with her for doing such an important job. With a fluttering of her wings, Derpy set off for Canterlot on her first delivery to the Equestrian capital. Not only that, but to the Princess herself, which Derpy still couldn't believe. The royal mail mare she spotted entering the post office as she left must have been in the company for years before he got the honour of serving the monarchy. These thoughts whirled through the young mares head as she swung between dollops of cloud that punctuated the sky.

As she flew over the gates to Canterlot, she noticed the immediate change in the scenery. There was less green foliage around and her ears were picking up an ominous droning permeating the sky. As she flew lower she began to spot ponies walking to and fro, then there were more ponies. In fact she found herself being surrounded by more ponies on this one street than she'd seen in the whole of Ponyville. Everypony was very smartly dressed and many of them walked with a self-righteous strut with a sullen expression on their face. There were fillies smaller than Apple Bloom all the way up to Stallions older than Granny Smith. What they all had in common, was that they all seemed very busy and important, all with somewhere to go. Derpy stood by a huge statue of Princess Celestia that towered high above her. In it's shadow she wondered how she could take a mare like Derpy seriously as the Canterlot ponies swarmed around her.