What You Deserve

Lightning Dust was at the edge of her seat, leaned against the row in front of her, much to the chagrin of the colt in the seat. She chewed nervously on her fetlock, ears pinning as she watched the race unfold. Grandfather was in fifth, jockeying for the next position while making himself five lanes wide to stymie the advance of the mare behind him.

    She shouldn't be worried, Grandfather always won. He was too fast, too aggressive, to ever lose. Knew exactly his limits, how sturdy he was, often nudging or openly slamming against his competitors in passing. His tactics had earned him the title of "The Terrorizer" among his fellow racers and the media. It was even stitched onto his flight suit, just underneath the race number he always wore; a large number 3 positioned over his flanks.

    Partway through the last lap he saluted the crowd, climbed a few dozen feet, and started to describe a slowly tightening barrel roll down the straight, taking the curve on his side. Everyone's hearts leapt to their throats, and little Lightning's ears twitched as she stared with awe. The legendary Thunder Roll had begun.

    The roll tightened further, until he was spinning in place as he rocketed down the second straight towards the finish. The softly falling rain couldn't dampen Lightning's spirits, a dull itch rising in her wings. Her favorite relative was going to perform her favorite trick, and win the race. She just knew it.

    Unnoticed to everyone but her mother, sparks danced between her ears, legs, and wings.

    There was a flash, and a crash of thunder. Cheers turned to screams as a lance of lightning forked the Wonderbolt through, the filly calling out over the crowd noise...

    "Dědeček!"

    Lightning sat up straight in her bed, panting. Her throat hurt, her eyes burned, and her face was drenched. She shook her head and rested her muzzle in her hooves, choking back a sob. She didn't cry. She couldn't cry. She took a deep breath and trotted out of her darkened bedroom for a quick shower, before back to her bedroom to wriggle into her new uniform.

    Taking care not to wake the house's other inhabitants, she grabbed her mailbags and slipped out the front door as quietly as she could, locking it behind her. Finding the sky of the breaking dawn to match her mood, gray and cloudy, she gingerly kicked off the cobblestones of the little walk and took to the air. She winced at the wind flowing over damaged wings, and wobbled slightly from patches of torn-out feathers, but she managed a reasonable altitude and pace.

    As she flew through the town proper, dropping off a bundle of letters at almost every house she passed and more than a few businesses, she found her mind dulling. The exercise was good for her, she felt. She didn't have to think, just concentrate on her pacing and pathing, like Grandfather had taught her. She even found herself grinning slightly.

    Her slowly brightening mood was matched by the wild sky above her, as the weather team worked to clear the clouds away ahead of the rising sun. So it was that she whistled under her breath as she altered her flight path to follow her nose down the scent of baked goods that had her mouth water. She pulled up and landed before the building that smell emanated from, which was shaped like a giant gingerbread house. She snorted at the design and pushed her way through the swinging doors.

    This early, the establishment housed only a few construction workers, a few ponies in jumpsuits marked "Ponyville Sanitation", and a tired-looking constable. Other early risers, or ponies who hadn't yet gone to bed. She smiled as an earth pony tipped his mug in her direction and returned his nod, stepping past the tables towards the counter.

    Her hungry tummy grumbled as she looked at the assortments of cupcakes, donuts, danishes, petit-fours, trifles, tarts, and other assorted sweets and baked goods in their glass case. She was brought back to reality at a feminine voice clearing its throat. Her attention snapped up to a blue Earth pony with a pink mane styled like soft serve ice cream for some reason. Or maybe Dusty was just that hungry and seeing things. She smiled weakly and rummaged for her pouch of bits.

    "Eheh... Sorry. I'm easily distracted on the ground. I'd like uhm... two crullers and a black coffee, please." She smiled a little bit more strongly as she found her pouch, drawing it out between her teeth.

    She was rewarded with the sight of the mare digging through the display case and wrapping two of the delicious cinnamony treats in wax paper, before dropping them into a white paper bag that got folded at the top. A disposable cup filled with the thick dark lifeblood of morning workers joined it.

    "Four bits. Say, you're the pony Ditzy was talking about, aren't you dearie? She said her niece would be coming to town soon."

    Lightning almost dropped her bits, but managed to stack them neatly on the counter before folding a wing around the cup and settling the bag into her saddlebag for safe keeping. She took a sip of her coffee as the mare dropped her bits into a cashbox below the counter with a quiet clink. If she was quick enough she could fly to the door and avoid this conversation... But that would involve dropping her coffee, which wasn't an option.

    "Y-Yeah, good old Aunt Ditzy heard I was in a bit of a bind, invited me down to Ponyville and got me a job with the postal company. She's really the only family I have left, so I'm really grateful." Lightning chose her words carefully, taking another sip of her coffee as she took a step back towards the door. "Hey, not to be rude or anything, but I really only stopped in for a bite to eat. Got about half of my run left, gotta be done and back by nine."

    The blue mare nodded and waved her off, getting back to work and serving the next customer. She was brought up short by a lanky yellow stallion in a white apron, who leaned towards her and whispered. "Pinkie'll be mad that I spoiled the surprise, but... since you're new here to town you'll most likely have a "Welcome to Ponyville" party thrown for you before the end of the day. Beware of Pink and save yourself a heart attack."

    Dusty was entirely nonplussed, so much so that she was nearly minused. She shook her head a little bit as she trotted past him back onto the street, taking sips of her coffee every now and again and trying to figure out what the colt had meant as well as figure out where she was right now. She never noticed the pink earth pony mare watching her from a distance, muzzle screwed up in an expression of utter concentration as she watched her quarry through a pair of binoculars.

    The rest of the run was uneventful, even if Lightning Dust swore she could feel eyes on the back of her head the entire time. But, she reasoned, she was a postal worker. They were supposed to be invisible. She'd certainly never noticed them. The most interesting part of the morning was a delivery made at the edge of town, to a mailbox situated directly below an expertly crafted cloud-house. Whomever lived there had to have at least a passing interest in Pegasus history and an eye to detail, as it wouldn't have looked out of place in Hurricane's Pegasopolis. She felt herself wanting to meet that pony, even if they had gone a little overboard with the rainbow juice falls.

    She stumbled into her new home at half past eight, to find the rest of the household awake. She smiled as she paused in the doorway, watching Dinky argue good-naturedly with her mother on the subject of getting ready for school. She shook her head a little bit as she trotted upstairs to the mail room, beginning the painstaking task of sorting mail for the afternoon run, feeling happy and centered for the first time in months.

    Halfway across town, a runaway-rock-farmer-turned-baker by name of Pinkamina Dianne Pie was excitedly chattering to a gormless purple-eyed alligator as she bounced around her confetti-strewn bedroom.

    "Let's see... We'll need to go over to Berry's, we'll need a hard punch and plenty of drinks. Sugarcube Corner won't be able to hold everypony anymore, we'll have to talk to Mayor Mare about hosting it in the park. I really hope she's happy with all the new friends she'll have after tonight, there's so much we still have to do! I can't help but feel like I know her from somewhere though. What do you think, Gummy?"

    The alligator blinked exactly once, each eye in succession, before returning to vacantly staring at... something far beyond its empty expression.

    "You're right. It's probably nothing." The Priestess of Party suddenly jolted and glanced around quickly, snatching a headband supporting a multicolored umbrella from under her bed, settling it on her head. "Twitchy tail... ear flop... Not a combo, something going to fall, someone’s going to need a bath... It was a doozy too, Gummy, I wonder what it's going to be?"

    At another blink, this time accompanied by a brief flick of tail, she shrugged a little. "You're right, we'll just have to wait and see."