//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: In the Center of Ponyville // by Amandy //------------------------------// In the center of a quaint little town, one named such as Ponyville, its inhabitants moved about their lives without much interaction. A smile here, a laugh there, a casual conversation to a neighbor in which neither knows the other’s family. None of them consider one another much more than strangers with the title of ‘friend’. And it’s these so called friends and neighbors that just mechanically go about their day. This particular day was just like every other in this little town of Ponyville. The sun was shining, the sky was cloudless, and nothing was amiss. Everything was wonderfully fine and normal. Well, almost. Nothing was wrong per se, but in the center of Ponyville where the town square spread out and a fountain was placed, a single mailbox sat near a lonely tree on the fringes. Rusty red in color and square in shape, it stood alone near no building or home. And instead of lying on its side, this lonely mailbox was upright on its post with a small slot in the top part. There was no name printed or painted onto the side, no sad-faced Pinkie Pie sitting in front of it, but only a small wooden sign tacked onto its wooden post. A small, worn-looking sign that wasn’t painted with anything except for a word or two in red. “Letters for Here” Was all it said. Though, the first two words were followed by a blank space, and then underneath the blank space was the last word. So it seemed as if there should have been a name in the blank space, but nothing filled it. Dusk fell over Ponyville as the day turned into night. A small figure skirted across the square and went over to the mailbox without hesitation. A flash of silver and then the mailbox popped open. The figure removed a few small pieces of paper from the mailbox and then another flash of silver and the mailbox was closed. Within moments, the figure was gone. And then the square was empty again. Dear mailbox owner, I hope you end up receiving this letter! I just wanted to ask of you if you could let me know perhaps who you are? Or if you have any letters to send yourself. I mean, it’s just my job as the mailmare to make sure everything gets delivered on time and to the right pony and I didn’t know what to make of your mailbox. Hopefully it’s not too much trouble for me to ask? Sincerely, Ditzy (Derpy) Doo. In the middle of a basement, where a little candlelight flickered across a wooden table, a small figure smiled and let out a little laugh, shaking its head. “How did she even see…Okay Ditzy. You must be an exception.” It softly said before it rolled out a crinkled bit of aged paper and moved a well of ink closer to itself and used a bit of silver to pick up a quill. A dip of the quill and then the figure began writing. A few minutes and the figure was done, already folding the new letter before it labeled it with an elegant ‘Ditzy’. The figure smiled and then set the new letter aside and used some silver to pull up another piece of paper and began reading. Dear Princess Celestia Mailbox, Today I learned Today I You know, I never realized just how hard it is to write your own letters, I really had my assistant always write them so I never really had to and well just- Nevermind. That’s not the point. But what is, is that I just had to write. I had to. Ever since I became a princess and returned back to Ponyville, everything hasn’t changed. Of course, not that I had expected or wanted it to change but well it’s just that I expected something to change. Or at least for ponies to maybe look at me in a new light or respect me more… But (and this worries me) everyone has been acting as if nothing ever happened. I am a princess now. Granted, I’m still learning how to fly correctly, but no one treats me like such. I don’t wish to be fawned over, but no one even congratulated me. It’s like no one can see my new wings. I learned the true magic of friendship, learned how to cherish its magic, and nothing changed. Everypony just ignores me like they do everypony else. Except my friends of course. But even they pay little attention to me now. Maybe it’s because they don’t even think twice about the change. I’m just Twilight like always to them. Even so, it’s strange that even Pinkie rarely visits me for random reasons anymore. It doesn't help that I don’t need to write letters to Celestia anymore. She said that I could if I wanted to, but she made it clear that I should try and be the teacher and not the student now. But…how can I teach when nopony even talks to me? Outside of my group of friends, the only ponies that talk to me are the ones that I engage first. I don’t know what I need to do anymore! I don’t even know how I never noticed this unnerving fact before I became a princess. I've mentioned my suspicions to my friends and they all gave me the blankest look imaginable before Pinkie giggled and changed the subject entirely by asking who wanted some cupcakes. Since then I’ve not brought it up again but I fear that something is terribly wrong in Ponyville. Maybe it’s just me being paranoid. I truly hope that it is because I don’t want to think that something dark is lurking around my beloved home. Please. If anypony ends up reading this and agrees with me, come to my home and library and we can talk over tea about all this. I really just need somepony to talk to. Please, I don’t want to be in the dark about what’s going on. Your faithful student (Excuse me, just an old habit) Sincerely, Princess Twilight Sparkle A small frown crossed the figure’s face this time and it sighed, dropping its head a touch and letting its hair fall in front of its face before it used some silver to pick up its quill and unroll another piece of paper. The letter took longer to write this time, but it was finished after a bit and then sealed neatly and addressed to ‘Twilight’. The figure placed it on top of the other letter and then turned to the last letter that it’d pulled from the mailbox. It blinked in surprise when it saw this last letter and it frowned and let out a small, surprised gasp. The last letter was written on crinkled, lined paper that had random spelling words on the one side while the actual letter was on the other. The figure gritted its teeth and then began to read. Dear Maily-box, Lately my mommy has been acting like daddy doesn’t exist. Me and mommy don’t live with daddy and they aren’t married, but I know she really likes him. Or she used to. I don’t know anymore really… He used to come over every day to spend time with mommy after her work was over. But now he never comes. And she never talks about him either. She doesn’t even seem sad about it. She acts like he is not more than a stranger. I am very worried about her. I asked her about daddy once. Why he didn’t come around anymore. They had not ever even been fighting. So I knew it couldn’t be that. But when I asked mommy just tilted her head and looked confused. She said that “why should he come over? he’s nothing more than a neighbor. I don’t know why you suddenly asked about him dear. I barely know him. Wait. How do you know him? Is he bothering you when you walk to school?” She had asked with a scary look that frightened me. I said that he hadn’t and that I just missed seeing him. This made her give me a really confused look before she sent me out to play and told me to stop expecting her to just invite strangers over. I ran outside and went looking for daddy then, worried about what he’d think and say if I asked him the same question. It took me awhile, but I found him in his store. He smiled and I was so happy until he called me an adorable filly and asked why I wasn’t with my mother. I said that I wanted to know why he didn’t come over anymore and he looked confused like mommy had. He said that he didn’t know who my mother was and then he shooed me out of his store and told me that I should go on my way. I ran away and cried then. Nopony even looked my way as I ran through the streets. I don’t know what’s going on anymore. I just want my mommy to smile again and I want my daddy to come over and smile as well. I want to be hugged and to laugh with them both. Do you know what’s going on Maily-box? Please tell me. I want my family back. -Dinky The figure flinched at the end of the letter and slightly crinkled it up as it shuddered.”I’m sorry little Dinky that you ended up being one of them.” The figure softly said. A small tear slipped from its face and landed on the page before it pulled itself together and picked up its quill one last time with some silver before it wrote one last letter. Neatly folded and signed with a ‘Dinky’ in that elegant handwriting, the letter was finished. The figure stood up from the table and gently collected the three letters before leaving the room after blowing out the candle. The small figure donned a black-grey cloak and flicked a hood above its ears before it hid the letters under its cloak. In a few moments it was out of its home and back into Ponyville at night, though the sun surely would be rising soon. It snuck along until it was in Ponyville’s square. It glanced around to make sure that nopony was watching and then it dashed across the clearing and over to the lonely mailbox. It pulled out the letters and then fastened them to the little sign under the mailbox under the words “Letters for”. And with her job for the night now done, the small mare sighed and then dashed off towards home, lest that anypony see her when the sun rose. As the sun rose the next day, a certain Princess Twilight was walking dejectedly towards the center of town. She wasn’t dressed in anything fancy, and in fact, she wasn’t even wearing her crown. She had said that she’d be going out to Spike, and then had left for a walk. She couldn’t quite keep her mind off the letter that she’d written the day before. Why had she been compelled to write it? It had been such a sudden, fervent urge when she’d laid eyes upon that strange mailbox. Everypony else had just been walking by it like it didn’t exist. But it had called to her. She’d gone home and handwritten a letter herself about her worries for a reason she didn’t understand. And then she’d put it in that mailbox. Even now, she didn’t understand why she was being drawn back to Ponyville’s square where the mailbox was. But nevertheless, she ended up walking there and glancing over at that rusty red box. Much to her surprise though, something now hung underneath the mailbox on the sign without a name. She glanced around at everypony, wondering if they noticed the sign or what was hanging there. But nopony even stopped to glance at it. Twilight frowned and then trotted over to the sign, her eyes slowly widening in shock as she read what the hanging letter said. ‘Twilight.’ She threw a wondering look around to make sure that nopony was paying attention, and then Twilight used her magic to gently pluck the letter from the sign before she stowed it away under her mane and then quickly trotted home, eager to read what was inside.