One Message

by AuDragon

Rating: teen
Tags: Romance, Slice of Life
Length: 1529

She has delivered many messages in her life.

She has delivered many messages in her life. It’s her job. Her name is Mercury. These are the three most important ones she'll ever deliver.

I'm probably being over cautious with the rating. Please critique heavily but with purpose.

PM mistakes to me, don't clog the comments.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2016-01-31 00:00:02 UTC

Three Days

The first real message Mercury ever carried was a card envelope. It was important that she bring it home. That’s what her teacher said, roughly. At the time, she was a young filly.

“Mercury! There you are,” said Amethyst Shine, her best friend. “Running off without saying goodbye, again?”

She shook her head forcefully, trying to find a way to justify her mistake. She had forgotten all about Amethyst. “No way! I couldn’t find you. Besides, it’s not like we wouldn’t see each other at the Crystal Fair anyways.” Amethyst smirked.

“You were going to run off without saying goodbye, weren’t you,” she said, knowingly.

“Ames, you know I-yeah. I was.” In her haste to deliver her message she had forgotten all about Amethyst. Amethyst giggled.

“Luckily for you, I’m forgiving.” Mercury had to snicker at that.

“More like forgetful.” Amethyst sputtered.

“Yeah, well, at least I remember social, uh, skills!” Grinning, Mercury and Amethyst began walking down the streets. Cheerfully nagging each other, it came time to part ways. Both paused, equally sad to say goodbye.

Amethyst paused. “See you tomorrow?” She asked.

“Yeah. Unless I forget.” Mercury said, with a smirk. They both shared a laugh. Then, waving, they parted ways.

She walked two more blocks before stopping in front of a medium sized,navy blue house. Ever since she was young, she admired the way it had silver sparkles imbedded in it. It was the darkest house on the street, the other being various shades of teal, pink and pale blues.

Without pausing for a second, Mercury pushed open the door and hung her saddle bags on a conveniently placed hook designed for such a purpose.

“I’m home!” Something drew her eye back to the saddle bags and she stopped. In the heat of the moment with Amethyst, she had forgotten all about her message, but there it was, poking slightly out of the pocket.

She walked over and grabbed it with her mouth. Her mom, North Star, had enter the main foyer by this point.

“Welcome home. Oh! What’s that you have?” Her mom was curious as ever.

“Hi mu! Ith’s a card frum my teture for the famly.” She said, mouth full of card.

Her mom was confused. “What now?” She walked into the living room.

“One secound.” She carefully place the card on the coffee table.

“What is that card?” Her mom said, repeating her question.

“It’s a card from my teacher for our family.” Her mom picked it up with her foreleg.

“Alright, I’ll open it then.” Her mom began to open it.

“No!” Mercury called out, stopping her mom. “We’ve got to wait for everypony.”

“Fine. We’ll wait.”

That night at dinner, her mom opened the card and read it to the family. It was a simple thank you for the crystal candies her mom had gotten in appreciation of her teacher. Watching her family made her smile, when what felt like an lightning bolt zapped down her back and something flashed on her flank. Her older brother, Starry Knight, was the first to notice.

“Mercury, you got your cutie mark!” A golden rod sprouting two wings with two snakes entwined around it had appeared. A caduceus.

The message she delivered to royalty had the most interesting reaction. It had been thousands of years and several near disasters since her last message. Now a grown mare with a husband, she had been tasked with delivering a very important set of messages.

She burst through the door. This was important. All messages were, but this one more so.

“Princess,” she bowed, “if I may have a word...” she paused for a second. She never thought she would be addressing a princess, much less Princess Cadance. What if she messed up? “I-I have two pieces of news for you. First, your mane stylist has the flu and won’t be able to make it for fear of you catching it too.”  Mercury paused. Something was wrong. She forgot...she forgot to address the other problem first!

The princess looked flustered for a minute, then spoke. “Oh. Well...I hope she’s better soon. Do any of the other stylists here know how to do the traditional royal ceremonial headdress?”

The stylists answered with a variety of denials. This could be bad. The princess seemed to think so too, breathing in and out.

“Oh. Just a...small detail.”

The rainbow mare watching this play out decided to comment. “Whoa, whoa, whoa! You’re trying to land the Equestria Games here. There is no such thing as a small detail!” She wasn’t listening to the conversation. Oh, this could get her out of the messenger service for sure. When part of a message was labeled as more important, it always came first. No exceptions.

“Rainbow Dash!” So that was the name of the rainbow mare. Fitting.

One of the other mares, a white unicorn with a purple mane spoke up, with wavering confidence. “I suppose... I could give it a shot.” The princess brightened.

“Oh, Rarity, you would do that for me?” Rarity was the white unicorn. Got it.

Rainbow Dash spoke up encouragingly. “Way to step it up, Rares!”

Princess Cadence and Rarity moved to the side, discussing hair styling which she zoned out of. There just wasn’t a good way to give the other bit of news without it being a problem.

“Oh, Rarity, that’s wonderful. You said you had a second bit of news?” The Princess was addressing her!

“Yes, quite. The Games Inspector, Ms. Harshwhinny, will be arriving on the...next train.” Please don’t freak out, please don’t freak out.

Many ponies gasped, but Rainbow Dash took it further. “What‽ You couldn’t have told her that news first‽ That’s fifteen minutes from now!” Now everypony looked panicked. Great.

The band of ponies, Rarity and Rainbow Dash along with other ponies she didn’t know had quite the discussion. Soon after, five of them, not including Rarity, left.

It would make a funny story, she guessed. Bowing, she exited. That was a disaster. Absorbed in thought, she bumped into somepony.

“Sorry miss. I didn’t see you there.” He was- he was gorgeous with his broad wings, blue coat and white mane. Apparently her stare was off putting because he frowned. “Are you okay?”

She has delivered many messages in her life. Long ones, short ones, important, unimportant. All of them had come from her mouth. But this, this was her most important message.

“Cloudburst, I’m home.” No response. She scanned their house for his distinctive white mane and blue coat but couldn’t find him anywhere. She moved farther in. “Cloudburst?”

She heard a noise in the basement and ran down to see what was going on. There was the love of her life, complete with awkward, spine-twisting position and a box on his head. White paint.

“Hi honey.” He said weakly, waving his hoof. “Did you know that boxes hurt?”

She couldn’t help it, she laughed. “A year of marriage and that’s what you have to tell me? I’m not impressed.”

He pouted. “Here I thought you married me for my wisdom!” He removed the box from his head. It was one of the boxes from moving and was thankfully empty.

Mercury shook her head emphatically. “If I was going to marry you for anything, it would be your clumsiness.” Still, she helped him up.

He gently kissed her. “Welcome home, sweetheart.” She stuck her tongue out.

“Cloudy, you know I don’t like sugary nicknames.”

“Which is exactly why I use them.”

She looked around carefully. “What were you even doing down here?” He sheepishly grinned.

“I was getting some pasta but I wanted to look at that.” He pointed to a green scrapbook in a box that had been placed below the box now on the ground. “You never unpacked it.”

“That’s because it’s entirely empty.” He looked confused.

“Why?”

“Why what?” she asked.

“Why is it entirely empty?”

She paused for a second. “Let’s take it upstairs and I’ll explain it to you. Oh, and can you get both scrapbooks in the crate?” His eyes lit up.

“There’s two scrapbooks?” Chuckling slightly, the two made their way up the stairs, with he taking the significant lead, box in forelegs.

Upon arriving, Mercury took out both scrapbooks. One was the empty green one. The other was a navy blue scrapbook with sparkles. It had a title on that read ‘Mercury’s Scrapbook’.

“What untold treasure is in this that you’ve hidden away?” Cloudburst was holding to his name, practically bursting with curiosity.

“Just a family tradition. This scrapbook was started when I was three. It contains pictures and...other mementos. When the females of the family marry, they get their scrapbook as a gift, and one other empty one. The empty one is to...subtlety...put pressure on bearing children.” She grinned. Here was her moment. “Luckily, our empty one won’t remain so for long.”

“What? Why not?” For her husband, he could be so dense. She nuzzled him.

“It’s going to have pictures soon.” He still looked confused.

“We’re going to have a foal, Cloudy.” Out of all her messages, this one she carried, it was the most precious.