Limits

The Ponyville post office was a small ramshackle building on the outskirts of town. It was an unassuming building, only recognized for what it was by the crooked sign hung above the door. Not many ponies visited, which Derpy found surprising considering the amount of mail she was tasked to deliver each day.

“You’re late Derpy.” A tall earth pony colt observed as she entered, looking flustered and out of breath. She fussed her hair straighter with her hooves and a generous helping of spit, but it didn’t seem to do any good at taming her unruly mane. “Is everything alright?”

“Perfect.” The mare answered, hoping it sounded cheerful.

“Did you go see the dentist?” The colt asked giving her a skeptical look. The pony nodded her head, the lie easier to gesture than to speak aloud. It was awkward watching her distract herself with sorting that morning’s mail when one eye refused to settle on the task. She rubbed at it furiously, attempting to get it aligned properly.

The colt opened and closed his mouth as he struggled with whether or not to press the issue. He wouldn’t call the grey mare a friend exactly, but he couldn’t stand by while a co-worker suffered. Even if she refused the least he could do was offer right? “Listen Derpy, if you need help…”

“I’m fine!” The mare snapped. Her fellow mail pony stepped back afraid he’d done something wrong in speaking up. She quickly realized her annoyed expression was distressing the colt and worked to fix it with what she hoped was a reassuring smile.

The grey pony shoved that morning’s mail haphazardly into the pouch of her mail bag, not bothering to sort or organize it as she usually did.

“Derpy…” The colt tried again, more forcefully this time.

“I said I’m fine…” The mare repeated, the quiver in her voice betraying the smile on her lips. Derpy felt the salty hot tears slide down her cheeks as a sob tore from her throat. With a flutter of wings and discarded feathers Derpy left the post office, the worried colt’s voice trailing after. He couldn’t catch her, not in the sky and she took pride in that fact. She wasn’t a very good flier, but she had wings and escaping her problems was as easy as settling on a cloud.

The first one she chose snapped and sizzled, tiny electric shocks scorching the bottoms of her hooves. She bounced along between them, each protesting in a similar fashion as the residual electricity reverberated within their fluffy confines. After a time she found one that was somewhat comfortable and she settled down into it to sort her mail bag properly.

The morning quickly faded into a brightly lit afternoon; Celestia’s sun warming her fur, relaxing her to the point of sleepiness. The mare gathered her neatly sorted letters, replacing them in her mail bag before the wind could scatter them across the quaint little town waiting just below. A large yawn followed her actions, her eyes dropping, as the weight of sleep settled on her back; her rain soaked nearly sleepless night finally catching up with her.

It’s only a few minutes… The pony thought to herself. They can wait…for a few…minutes…

--

Soarin’s near constant instinctual need to fly was difficult to quell, but with even the smallest attempt to spread his wings the pain reemerged. The lingering haze over his memories prevented him from discerning the reasoning for it but the many bruises he’d woken with gave him an idea.

He stared quizzically a moment at the odd looking structure, unsure if it was a hallucination or an actual building. It looked like those gingerbread houses he’d see in shop windows during Hearths Warming, only on a considerably larger scale. Curiously he stepped nearer flinching as the bell above the door rang upon his entrance.

“Somepony will be with you in a moment dear.” A homely looking mare, her pink mane rather like the gobs of frosting on top of her delicious looking cupcakes, greeted him warmly from behind the counter, as she struggled to corral a pair of adorable foals who seemed pent on causing mischief among the baked goods cooling on the counter.

Soarin muttered an incoherent reply as he surveyed the various pastries available. He wiped at a slip of saliva hung at the corner of his mouth, not realizing until then just how hungry he actually was. He couldn’t remember how long it had been since he’d eaten last. Truth told, he couldn’t remember anything at all before that morning, his varied attempts to do so interrupted by a lingering haze and dull ache.

He thought a moment about the grey pegasus he’d woken up next to. Was she his friend? His lover? The slight prickle at the back of his neck, the same he’d noticed as he stepped in the door, grew in intensity with each agonizingly long second that passed.

“Hi!” A vibrant pink pony quipped, her head popping over the counter. Soarin flinched visibly startled more by her sudden appearance than he was by her annoyingly high pitched voice.

She stared at him, her gaze burning holes right through him. For several minutes, or so it seemed, the pony did nothing but stare. She opened her mouth inhaling deeply before a burst of words left her lips, bathing Soarin in a torrent of questions and statements he couldn’t discern from one another.

“I’m Pinkie Pie! I’ll be your waiter, what’ll it be? We have everything a hungry pony could ever need and boy do you look like a hungry pony. Muffins and cupcakes are our specialty, but we also make regular cake! I bet you like blueberry right, because it matches your mane, or maybe vanilla, ooh blueberry vanilla! We could add that to the menu!”

“Uh…” Soarin started a puzzled expression on his face as he worked to dissect the pony’s statements, which had surged out of her mouth in a matter of seconds.

“Good morning Derpy!” The pink pony said as the small bell above the door chimed again. The earth pony ignored Soarin in favor of the frazzled mail mare that stood frozen in the doorway, her suddenly aligned eyes locked on the stallions back. “Oh your eyes are straight! That must mean something!”

It’s not him! Derpy pleaded silently as the stallion turned toward the doorway. The seconds passed agonizingly slow, as the letters in her mouth dropped to the floor, fluttering like feathers in their descent.

Without explanation the gray pony turned to flee, but rather than shoot out the door as had been her intent she slammed headlong into the wall just beside it. The impact was severe enough to knock her backwards, as well as jar her already loose tooth. A dribble of blood trailed down her chin, dripping to the floor, as she stood unsteadily on trembling hooves.

She shook her head doggedly before trying again, this time managing to stumble out the door properly and lift herself on unsteady wings into the air. Something in Soarin’s mind clicked just then as he quickly followed after. “Hey, wait!”

The colt galloped down the street dodging around startled ponies as he kept his eyes trained to the grey pegasus flying in the sky above. She was quickly pulling away and he realized he was never going to catch her if he stayed earthbound. His mind made up the colt snapped his wings open grimacing with the pain. His eyes blurred by tears he managed to push himself off the ground, using a series of vendor booths as jump off points, much to the delight of a small group of fillies watching. Catching a low hung thermal lifted him skyward saving him the pain of flapping to gain altitude.

“Please wait!” He pleaded unsure if the pony could hear him or if she simply choose not to listen. What he did know was that every beat of his wings, as few as he could manage, sent a fresh wave of agonizing pain. “I just want to talk to you!”

She was gaining ground while he was falling, swiftly losing altitude as his wings began to fold, his body subconsciously fighting to quell the pain he insisted on enduring. He swore under his breath before surrendering to gravity.