I just stood there for a moment, looking at the reflection in the mirror. It was hard, very very hard, to connect the image in the mirror to what I thought of as “me,” but as I twitched ears and flexed my jaw, the reflection in the glass moved to match me. A brown furred, blond maned pony looked back at me, a blue cap perched on his head. The pony completed his outfit with a black tie under a coat made of tough denim, a cap the same blue as the coat, with both cap and coat enhanced with a golden badge pinned to them.

“Equestrian Postal Service, The Pony Express,” I read out loud of the badge, before squinting to read out the motto beneath. “The mail must go through.”

“James,” called a child’s voice through the door. “Mom says you better hurry up if you want some breakfast before your first day of work.”

“Be there in a minute,” I called back to little Dinky, smiling at the memory of being tackled by the pint-sized unicorn when she had seen me walk in through the front door of her house. When Discord had brought me here the other night, I’d been worried about being an imposition, but Dinky’s tackle followed by Derpy’s smile of welcome had been all I needed to know that all was well between me and my favorite pegasus.

The day after that though, had been another day of suffering under the horrible lash of Long Strides as she pushed me right up to what she felt was my safe limits. She’d only had her hooves on me for six hours in total, but what a six hours. The first two had been spent learning the canter. Instead of the diagonal one-two, one-two, beat of the trot, a canter was sort of an oddball gait where I launched myself forward with one rear leg and then sort of caught myself with the other three.

The gallop was like a canter only more so. Instead of leading off with the same leg all the time making a one, one-two-three rhythm, a gallop was pure one-two-three-four as each leg took its turn launching me forward in rapid succession. I have to say, galloping was straight out fun, and I really enjoyed hauling ass.

There were just two problems that presented themselves over the course of the shortened day. One was an actual problem that I was going to have to work on, while the other was a mental one that I was going to have beat to death in my head. The mental problem was being okay with the fact that, at least for an Equestrian earth pony, there was nothing at all wrong about being able to go at full gallop for hours at a time.

Long Strides kept having to keep encourage, beg, cajole and outright threaten me to keep running, because every few minutes I’d start slowing down thinking I was going to blow something out. It got so bad, that at one point she got out an actual whip and cracked it over my back, triggering an instinctive reaction in me to start running like hell again. Where the hell my physiotherapist had gotten a whip from was a question I wasn’t sure I wanted answered. A close second was the question of where she had gained the skill to use one that well.

“James!” called Derpy’s voice, shaking me out of my reverie. “You having breakfast or not?”

“Coming,” I yelled back, darting out of the spare room I was set up in and zipping into the kitchen. Laid out on the table was a bowl of hot oatmeal with some brown sugar on top, an apple and a glass of milk.

“Nervous?” Derpy asked, bringing over some toast for the table.

“It’s okay to be a little scared on your first day,” Dinky piped up, grabbing a slice of toast and slapping some jam on it. “That’s what Momma said to me on my first day of school.”

“Not nervous so much, as not completely certain of myself,” I replied to Dinky, ruffling her mane a bit. “I just hope my problem doesn’t muck things up?”

“What problem?” Derpy asked, some surprise in her voice. “I thought Long Strides had signed off on you being able to work.”

“She did,” I assured her, shoveling in some oatmeal and chewing quickly, “but apparently I’m doing something called ‘cross-firing’ when I’m moving in a canter.”

“Oh, that’s not good,” Derpy said, pausing in devouring her own food. “Did Long Strides say what she was going to do about it?”

“Well, she had her hooves over every inch of my legs, looking for physical problems,” I said between bites as I shoveled fuel into my body. “She couldn’t find anything physically wrong, so she suspects it’s a lingering nerve issue. She told me to avoid cantering until she can work up a regimine so I can self-train out of it.”

“What’s ‘cross-firing’ Mom?” Dinky asked, her face nearly disappearing behind her glass of milk.

“It’s when a pony doesn’t have a balanced gait,” Derpy said, explaining for me. “It makes their stride unbalanced and they tend to bounce around.”

“Not a good thing for a delivery pony,” I said, finishing off the discussion, and my breakfast at the same time. “We had better get going.”

Both the other ponies in the room nodded in agreement and finished off the last bites of their food. A quick rinse of dishes and a gathering of supplies saw us out the door. It was a fine sunny morning in town, which apparently was called ‘Ponyville,’ and various ponies waved to us as we walked Dinky to school on our way to work.

Dropping off Dinky at school, Derpy and I made our way to work at a light trot. I could tell Derpy was having to hold herself back from just taking to the air and zooming ahead on her wings. As I looked past Derpy’s back I noticed a trio of mares who ran a flower stall giving us lingering looks and I decided it couldn’t hurt to make others think that Derpy had landed an apparently cute stallion.

“In case I haven’t said it before, thanks for all your help,” I said softly to Derpy, giving her a quick nuzzle under the ear. “I couldn’t have done any of this without you.” Derpy’s blush was adorable and I could see the watching mares smiling at the apparent public display of affection. It made me resolve to check out the social scene around town in the next few days, particularly on Derpy’s wing.

“I only did what any good friend would do,” Derpy said, ducking her head then extending said wing across my back in a pegasus hug. I turned us toward the building that Discord had set up for us to work out of, making sure the gossips got a good look at us as we left them behind. Five minutes later Derpy and I were stepping into the large square building on the outskirts of town underneath a sign that proclaimed “The Pony Express” and were immediately greeted by our boss.

“Jimmy, my boy!” Discord exclaimed, all smiles and giddiness. “Ready to actually get down to work?”

“Sure thing, boss,” I said, deciding that now was the best time to get answers to two questions that had been bugging the hell out of me while I’d lain in my hospital bed. “You decided to go with the ‘Pony Express’ name?”

“I never could resist a good play on words, Jim,” Discord said, smirking. “I’ve even given you a nice finder fee for the name on top of your regular pay.” I nodded, one down, one to go.

“Another question for you,” I said, pausing for effect. “Why?”

“Why? Because it’s there, Jimbo,” Discord said, wheeling around in a circle, suddenly wearing mountain climbing gear. “Because. It. Is. There.”

“Bull,” I said, as calmly as I could. This was a being who I had personally seen bend reality to his will, a being who owned me in a very real way, but that just meant I needed to be polite as well as firm. “Be honest with me, or I’m not going anywhere.”

“You’re serious about this, aren’t you?” Discord asked, and when I nodded he snapped his fingers and the three of us were teleported to his office. “Before I answer, James, tell me why you need to know?”

“No one goes through the amount of trouble you have just for something that’s a challenge or because you were asked to,” I said, still making sure my voice was polite and without an ounce of accusation. “For someone...um, for a being to do all this, there has to be a greater purpose behind it, and before I become a party to it I need to know what it is.”

“First off James, haven’t you wondered why I look the way I do?” Discord asked, cocking an eyebrow at me. “You seemed to take it in stride, but have you ever asked yourself why?”

“Discord,” I replied, with a slight chuckle. “I’ve seen more body swapping, changing and alterations that I would have ever dreamed possible. Your form was just one more different shape.”

“Fair enough, James,” Discord said, leaning forward. “The simple explanation is that I am, among other things, ‘The Spirit of Chaos’.” Then he just sat there, looking at me intently while I did my best not to show any fear at all, while my mind flashed me images of the pages of several source books with the heading “Chaos” on the pages. I’d played Warhammer 40K as a teenager, I knew what a Chaos God was and what one could do. He probably knew exactly what I was thinking at that moment too, and was just waiting for the right moment to rip my soul out.

“Well, that’s certainly interesting,” I said, trying not to run away screaming, which is what he probably wanted. “Come along, Derpy. Let’s go get ready.” I turned to go, but was stopped when my hooves refused to leave the ground, and I spent a few seconds tugging futilely at them but it was like they were part of the floor.

“James, I admit to not knowing everything about people and ponies,” Discord said, a paw open. “So, I’m not letting you go anywhere until you tell me why you are absolutely terrified right now.”

“Run, Derpy!” I yelled, not bothering to try to hide my fear anymore. “Get out of here, I’ll hold him as long as I can!” I saw Derpy turn, beginning to run, and as she did I used a trick my Dad had taught me.

“There will be times in your life, kiddo, when you need to be more than what you are,” Dad had said. “Faster, stronger, more nimble, whatever. There are going to be times when you need what the bible calls ‘power beyond what is normal.’ Luckily, there’s a quick way to get it.”

“Prayer?” I’d asked, to which my Dad had made a scoffing noise.

“Not even close,” Dad said, sipping at his ever present mug of coffee. “When those times come, you will almost always be either angry or scared. What you do is you take that fear or anger, and you redirect it from your mind and you put it in your body. You use that energy as fuel and power to do the things that need getting done. Got it?”

Which is what I did right then. I took the fear and terror that I was feeling for myself and Derpy and instead of letting it fill my brain and freeze it cold, I drove it down into my legs and felt them sing with the icy power of my terror. Discord would have to go through me to get to Derpy.

I felt my face lock into a grin as my hooves tore free from the floor with faint crunching sounds, and I flung myself at Discord’s misshapen face, forcing him to focus on me. Discord’s face went from mildly amused to shock as I rushed him, and he got up a shield of some sort only just in time to keep my hoof from landing on his jaw.

“James!” Discord said, eyes wide as one steel shod hoof after another was stopped a bare inch from his face. “Um, you seem a little peeved, miffed even.”

“Which one are you?” I yelled, riding the tidal wave of fear inside of me as it powered the blows that were beginning to crack his shield. “Khorne? Tzeentch? Slaanesh? Oh god, the collar. You ARE Slaanesh!” I stopped pounding at the shield to reach around behind my neck, and get at the buckle keeping the instrument of my doom around my throat, as my mind filled with horrible possibilities of what was likely about to happen.

“Stop him!” Discord yelled, but it was too late. Derpy had left under the cover of my assault, so it was just me and him now. My questing hooves made their way through my mane to the buckle and I started to work at it just as a butter yellow pegasus with a pink mane flew in through the window.

“What’s going on?” the newcomer asked in a fearful voice.

“Get out of here, Ma’am!” I shouted, falling to my side as I overbalanced on two hooves while trying to work the stubborn bit of leather back through the buckle.

“Don’t let him take off his collar!” Discord shouted, almost at the same time, and I could have sworn there was a note of fear in his voice. I finally managed to thread the tongue of the collar’s strap back out through the buckle when the mare landed beside me.

“STOP!” she said forcefully as she locked gazes with me, and I felt my limbs freeze up as her light blue eyes stared their way through my eyes and into my soul. I think I managed to make a small whimper, my fore hooves frozen in the act of undoing the collar buckle.

“I know you’re very scared,” the mare continued, keeping me speared on her gaze, “but I promise you, Discord won’t do anything intentionally to hurt you.” She blinked, and suddenly I could think a bit again.

“But,” I said, eloquently. “But he’s going to eat my soul with a nice chianti.”

“Discord!” the mare said, rounding on the draconequus. “Did you say that you were going to eat his soul?” Discord dropped his shield and actually shrank back a bit from the pegasus, not that I could blame him.

“Of course not, Fluttershy,” Discord said. “I just told him that I was the Spirit of Chaos and he attacked me calling me Slaan...oh, oh dear.”

“Did you say something to make him think you were going to hurt him?” Fluttershy asked, raising an eyebrow at him eloquently.

“Well...maybe a bit, accidentally,” Discord said, standing up a bit. “James, I said I was the ‘Spirit of Chaos,’ not a ‘God of Chaos.’ You have nothing to fear from me, besides, if I wanted to eat your soul I’ve already had plenty of chances.”

“That’s not being very reassuring, Discord,” Fluttershy said, and the fact that Discord actually seemed chastened by that comment slowed my pulse rate down from the racing scream it had been at for the past few minutes.

“Everything okay?” Derpy said, coming back in. My grey friend took one look at my face and wrapped me up in a full body hug. “It’s okay. I brought Fluttershy because she’s Discord’s friend, and mine too.”

I gulped a bit, trying to get my mental house back in order. I didn’t even bother to protest when I felt Derpy tighten my collar again and secure it. The juggernaut called Fluttershy walked over a moment later and looked me right in the eye again, but this time without whatever power it was that she possessed over others.

“Hello, I’m Fluttershy,” the mare said to me, all soft words and shy glances now. “I don’t think we’ve met before. How about we all sit down over some nice calming tea.”

A few minutes later the four of us were sitting around the desk in Discord’s office sipping tea. It had been explained to me that Discord was a reformed Spirit of Chaos and that the now shy, but lovely mare pouring the tea was the pony responsible for reforming him. I’d heard of Fluttershy before and had wondered why Discord had been worried about her opinion. Having met Fluttershy and her force of will now, I understood perfectly.

“Okay, first off, sorry for that freak out earlier, Sir,” I said to Discord, huffing out a breath. “But I really thought for a minute there that I was doomed.”

“You were overdue for a ‘freak out,’ James,” Discord said, waving off my worries, “and besides, a little as a few years ago you would have had cause. After all, I was known as the Purveyor of Pandemonium, the Lord of Lawlessness, the Earl of Turmoil, the Bringer of Bedlam, the Master of Madness and the Avatar of Insanity, among other things.” I just sat there and gaped as my employer rattled off his former titles.

“Jimmy, my boy,” Discord said, chuckling. “You’re going to catch flies if you leave you mouth hanging open like that.” I closed my mouth with an almost audible snap.

“He used to be very scary,” Fluttershy said, putting a hoof on my foreleg to reassure me, “but he’s really a very good friend now.”

“Um,” I said, absorbing that for a moment, before deciding to make all this craziness worth it. “Okay, fair enough. Anyway, as for the question that started this bit of mayhem. Why are you doing all this?”

“I’m reformed, James,” Discord said, pulling Fluttershy to him and giving her a big hug. “I’ve promised to be on my best behavior here in Equestria for my dear Fluttershy, but it means that I’ve neglected certain balances I’m responsible for in the universe. Balances that can only be restored by dropping little bits of order and chaos at the right times, in the right places, in the universe.”

“I made Discord promise that he would find a way to take care of his job without hurting anyone,” Fluttershy said, bestowing a radiant smile on my boss, who literally started to glow a bit.

“Which is where you come in, Jimmy,” Discord said. “Your job as a courier is to deliver those little bits of order and chaos to places that need them. For which I’m already paying you a substantial amount, so that I can stay here in Equestria and keep my promise to Fluttershy.”

“Well, I guess that makes sense, in a weird sort of way,” i said, taking in a last sip of tea. “Sooo, we still good for today’s run?”

“Indeed we are, Jimmy my boy,” Discord said, clasping his hands together happily. “Why don’t you and Derpy head down to the departure area while I get your first package ready.”

“Okay,” I said, getting up from the table, Derpy following in my wake. We walked down to the departure/arrival area, which was a long rectangular space with a high ceiling and floored with wood chips. The area was about fifteen or twenty feet wide and there were doors along the side opening into the area. One was labelled “Infirmary,” another “Deliveries,” and a third was oddly titled “Diplomacy.” Derpy caught me staring at that one.

“It’s for one of the princesses to use in case any non-Equestrian happens to come through,” Derpy said, smiling. “That way we can work out something with them right away.”

“Ah, there you are,” Discord said, a pair of saddlebags held in one paw. “I have your delivery right here.”

“Sure thing, boss,” I said, getting my game face on. “What’s the plan?”

“Seeing as this is your first run, Derpy is going to fly cover for you to the destination dimension,” Discord said, and he made a twirling motion with a claw indicating I should turn around so he could put the saddlebags onto me. “She’ll make sure you get there okay, and will pick you up on the way back. Got it?”

“Got it,” I said, feeling confident as Discord put the saddlebags onto me and buckled them in place. “So, where are me and Derpy going?”

“Someplace you might recognize,” Discord said, snapping his talons and a door appeared in the wall at the far end of the room. It was a decent sized door, tan in colour and split down the middle with an oval shaped horizontal bar painted on it. I walked up to the door and read, “Captain’s Quarters” out loud off of it.

“You can’t be serious,” I said, blinking as I realized who and what was on the other side of that door. “I’m going there?”

“Can you think of a safer place to go for a first run?” Discord asked, grinning at my reaction. “Think of this as your own personal final frontier."

“Ha!,” I exclaimed, my face pulling into a grin. “C’mon Derpy, let’s make it so!”

Author's Note

Little bit of a short chapter, but a necessary one has James finally gets the exact low-down on who he's working for. Next chapter, which will be out later this month, will have James making his first delivery. Honest.

ACK! Quick Edit: Here is the badge James is wearing. Designed by the talented Mix-up!

And a shoulder patch image as well...

Support me on Patreon. Patreon is probably one of the best things ever for word Sherpas like me. So, I'd like to again acknowledge the ongoing support through Patreon of:

Canary in the Coal Mine,
Damaged,
Shaushka,
Airar,
and
Pseudosapien

Thank you. I probably couldn't do this without you and your support.