(Please look before proceeding: I was unable to do any more work on chapters due to school, so i've just improved punctuation and hopefully it flows a bit better, thanks for reading.)
The sun started to rise over in the distance, the sky over Ponyville turned to a light violet colour, and as the light streamed into her window Derpy Hooves opened her eyes and started to get out of bed, she mumbled to herself as she put her mail satchels on her back and started to walk down the stairs. As she mumbled to herself she stopped to look at the calendar to see if anything important was happening, Derpy skimmed up and down to see then started to walk away, she walked into the kitchen and went towards the fridge to get her breakfast, a bowl, spoon, cereal box and carton of milk were clumsily tossed onto the table and she began to make her meal, but just as she finished, a wave of realisation hit her and she ran back to the calendar to double check, as Derpy looked along the dates she noticed that today was the first day of winter and that meant that the other Pegasus’ would soon be up to move the snow clouds into position.
“Oh no! I’ve got to hurry!” She cried, Derpy knew that if the mail was not delivered soon it would take hours due to the snowfall,
“This is going to be a long day” she sighed.
Derpy ran towards the door and frantically tried to open it, as she opened it there was a big mail bag waiting on the step, but it was even bigger than ever due to the upcoming pony holiday, Derpy grumbled as she grunted frustratingly pulling the heavy bag through the door way and into the house, tired and distracted by the thoughts of today’s busy schedule, she carelessly launched the bag of mail onto the other end of the table making it collapse and, along with the mail, sent her breakfast into the air and crashing towards the floor, her stomach began to rumble as she sighed deeply, then noticed that one of the letters landed in the puddle of milk and became soggy and ruined,
“Oh dear, I’ll leave this one out to dry” she thought and put the envelope next to the calendar, she then packet her satchels full of letters from the bag,
“Oh Horseshoes, this is going to take all day!” she cried as some of the letters fell out of the satchels, she then went to the front door to start her first round of mail, as she started to walk along the pathway to the gate she saw that the clouds were in position and it would snow soon so she rushed towards the gate and started her work.
As Derpy walked along the road she looked to see who the first letter was to be delivered to, the envelope read ‘Pinkie Pie, Sugarcube corner,’ She walked through the empty town and eventually approached the bakery and knocked on the door, not more than a few seconds and the sound of crashing down stairs and frantic running grew louder and the door flung wide open with a very happy Pinkie at the door, with a sparkle in her eye and a huge smile on her face
“Oh my gosh it came, thanks Derpy, cathcha later!” but then her face dropped as she stopped to look at Derpy closer: bags hanging under her eyes, her mane was a mess and stomach still growling,
“Are you okay Derpy? You don’t look to good,” she said studying her with a fine eye,
“I’m fine, just a little tired from the thought of all the letters I’ve got to deliver by the end of today,”
her stomach growled again, but more angrily this time
“Do you wanna come inside? I can make you something to eat” Pinkie said as her smile returned to her face, she pulled Derpy into the bakery and began to get some ingredients out from the cupboards and began to bake, putting on her apron and humming a delightful melody
“Sorry Pinkie I’ve got a lot of work today, no time for snacking,” Derpy replied,
“Are you sure?” Pinkie began to lean towards her as Derpy began to retreat back to the doorway,
“Sorry Pinkie Pie I’ve got to go, maybe later?”
“Are you 100% defiantly sure?” Pinkie asked urgently, Derpy nodded her head
“I’m sorry but like i said I’m really busy today”
“Okay then” Pinkie replied unsurely. Derpy began to walk towards the door when Pinkie Pie stood in front of her holding some icing, “Not even a little taste?” she urged,
“Oh, okay then but after that I’ve got to go.” Derpy lay down her satchel and began to take a cupcake.
After giving in to her hunger and eating a whole batch of cupcakes Derpy looked at the clock to see that she had been at Sugarcube Corner for nearly 20 minutes,
“Sorry Pinkie pie but this time I’ve really got to get back to work” she said as she began to walk towards the doorway,
“Okey Dokey Lokey it was a pleasure having you over” but as Derpy began to exit she noticed she was missing her satchel,
“Pinkie do you know where my satchel is?” she said looking round urgently,
“Well sure i do silly, i put it upstairs while you were chowing down!” Derpy sighed, walked upstairs and put the heavy satchel over her back then proceeded to leave the house
“Wait a minute this seems light, Pinkie did you take anything else?” She asked looking at the bag,
“Nope, it’s just because you’ve eaten you’ve got more energy to carry it!”
“Okay” Derpy said, checking the satchel, it looked the same as before,
“see you around Pinkie Pie” she smiled as she walked out of the doorway and began to fly to the next house.
Around an hour later and the sun was completely blocked by the view of snow clouds, it was dark, the others would start to wake up soon and go about their daily lives, and Derpy still had plenty more letters to deliver. After this batch of mail she would have to go back home and refill her satchel and set off once more, but she just had one left before she returned, this one was addressed to Rarity, as Derpy approached the door there was a sound of crying and whining from inside, as she knocked on the door there was a scream
“Who is it!?” it was defiantly Rarity, Derpy thought
“Its Derpy, I brought you a letter,” and hesitatingly took it out of her satchel,
“Oh, hang on I’ll be there in a minute” as the door slowly opened Derpy held the letter out, a hoof came around the doorway,
“Okay give it to me and leave me alone please,” but as she held the letter in one hoof and the door in the other, she lost balance and the door swung open and launched her to the floor, Derpy screamed at the sight of Rarity with a mud mask and dressing gown lying on the floor, she tried to run away on impulse but knocked her head on a hanging flower pot, and suddenly everything went black.
Derpy arose lying on an unfamiliar bed, she looked around to see Pony shaped models with robes on them and fabrics hanging from the ceiling, as it was darker everything looked gloomy, she suddenly felt a hoof touch her and looked up to see a silhouette standing over her, as she stared the silhouette began to speak,
“Wakey wakey,” Derpy screamed again and jumped of the bed, and flapped her wings at the silhouette, but allowing her eyes to adjust she saw that the silhouette was in fact Rarity,
“What was that for?” she cried, lying on the floor.
“Oh, I’m sorry; i didn’t mean to hurt you!” Derpy replied standing over her,
“Oh No!” Rarity yelled and ran towards the mirror
“MY MANE!”
“What’s wrong Rarity?” Derpy asked, looking worried
“My beautiful mane is ruined, confound this!” Rarity shrieked and grabbed her brush, she began to brush her hair frantically,
“Oh, I’m so sorry Rarity! Is there anything i can do to help you?” but Rarity was too busy brushing her hair and weeping to listen, Derpy then grabbed her empty satchel and crept out of the house while Rarity was distracted,
“Well I’d better get on with it, sorry Rarity” Derpy sighed, and escaped, making her way back home.
Many trips and many strange encounters later Derpy decided to fly back home and have a look over the snow clouds to see the other Pegasus’ at work, the clouds were now glistening with snowflakes ready for deployment and looked almost edible, the site make Derpy’s tummy grumble more, she sighed, then looked over into the distance where she noticed the other pegasi hard at work, like every winter they had their work cut out for them, they had the roughest job of the year, making sure that every cloud stayed in the right place so that the whole of Ponyville could get an equal amount of snowfall. Starting to get shivers all over her body, she descended to the ground, there was no-one in sight
“Where is everypony?” she thought as she wondered across the street, then with no warning, Pinkie and the Cutie mark crusaders came crashing into view, throwing snowballs at each other and pushing each other around in the snow. Giggling at the site, Derpy turned to face home and began to walk, but suddenly she felt a sharp, cold sense in the back of her neck, she turned round to notice a snowball broken up on her back, she turned towards the young fillies and their ring leader, chuckling with delight,
“Come on join in!” yelled Scootaloo in the distance. Derpy smiled and jumped in with the crowd, they laughed and played for hours, after all the hard days work was finally over for Derpy and the sun was just getting ready to go down into the horizon.
The sun started to go pink in the distance as Derpy skipped back home from the snowball fight, although cold and wet she was so happy that winter had come once again, but one sight caught her eye, other ponies were walking by, avoiding her with boxes and cards, it looked like there was going to be a party and they all had invitations... but why were they ditching her, and why did she not get an invitation she didn’t know. A tear formed in the ponies eye as she kicked the snow back home, each pony that passed by with an invite broke her hart just a little more each time until eventually she got home. Hoping she had mislaid it, Derpy searched the house for recent mail, but there was no invite, however the letters looked like those that she was delivering, so she checked the kitchen where she had scattered the letters before, nothing.
As Derpy gave up on hope, she walked towards the stairway to go to bed when she noticed a ruined letter next to her calendar, it was the one from the morning, however it was unreadable and all the design had worn off, with a glimpse of hope she opened the envelope and slowly took out the letter, pulling out, in the first few lines she could just make out ‘Dear... you are invited to... in honour of... 7pm... At Sugarcube corner.' Her eyes filled with tears,
“Why wasn’t i invited?” she thought, but whilst she was saddened a gasp of hope occurred as a letter came through the box with the same design, but unlike the others, when she opened it simply read ‘Come to Sugarcube corner, its important’ and at that moment she filled with joy and ran towards Sugarcube corner, when she got there the lights were off,
“Hello?” she wondered in cautiously. And in an instant the room lit up with balloons and ponies,
“SUPRISE!”
Derpy had never felt so much joy, there were tables with drinks and food, a banner hanging above which read ‘Congratulations Derpy.’ As the party started and Vinyl Scratch started to jam, Derpy approached Applejack,
“What’s all this for?” she turned round and replied
“Well we noticed the hard work your putting in an’ thought we’d throw you a lil celebration! So whad’ya think?”
“What do i think? It’s... it’s... Fantastic!” Derpy yelled with a shriek of delight,
“But why were you all keeping it a secret from me?”
“Cause we didn’t want you to ruin the surprise silly! Now go along, the parties just gettin’ started,” Applejack pushed Derpy along, she passed Rarity,
“Oh Rarity I’m so sorry for before” she apologised,
“Oh no hard feelings my dear, the important thing is that we’re both here to celebrate you,” they merged into the group of dancing ponies, and as the sun went down and the party grew louder, Derpy realised that even though your life can be tough and stressful and you can have your ups and downs, amongst the hardship, there is always a bright side which will make you feel a lot better, and that bright side, is often your closest possession...
Friendship.
