//------------------------------//
// A Priceless Thing, Indeed 
// Story: Of Purple Dragons, Great and Small 
// by Mannulus 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 2

A Priceless Thing, Indeed


As it is wont to do, tomorrow became today, and by and by, with the approval of her foreman, Boxxy Brown, Derpy Hooves hopped a train to Canterlot to make her special delivery to Princess Celestia.  It had required some creative manipulation of the schedule and Derpy's own completion of the necessary paperwork, but the big, brown stallion would have none of letting down even one princess, let alone two at once.
As she stepped off the train, Derpy paused for a moment to take in the splendor of Canterlot.  In the grand scheme of Equestria's history, the city was not particularly old, but Princess Celestia, the city's sole planner, had taken a great deal of care to give it a sense of timelessness and grandeur.
"Maybe Chill and I could move here," said Derpy. "Dinky could stay at home, then."
She let the thought dwell in her mind for a moment, but quickly realized that she would be missed in Ponyville by far, far too many.  Best that she stay where she was, she decided, and just be Derpy Hooves, the cross-eyed delivery mare in the background of the important ponies' lives.
"Oh, well," she said, and she turned her eyes towards Canterlot Castle in the distance. "Delivery to make."
She made her way to the castle, and was pleased to find that, unlike her previous visit, Princess Celestia was not buried deep in some secret meeting upon which she would have to intrude.  She was instead in her own chamber, entertaining someone who had only been described by her chief aid, Raven, as "an important dignitary."
Being known both to Raven and the guards, Derpy had been allowed to wait outside the Princess' chamber, so that she could deliver the package directly.  It was, after all, sent by none other than Princess Twilight Sparkle, and had been delivered into the pegasus' own hooves for that expressed purpose.
After a few minutes, the door to the Princess' Chamber opened, and out floated a being that gave Derpy a start:  Discord.
"I still say the best solution would be to turn them all into pumpkins," he said lackadaisically, floating on his back, and looking back at an obviously exhausted alicorn, "but if you insist," he continued, "I suppose I can simply alter the geography enough to satisfy both parties."
He rolled over, and looked down at Derpy, who gulped at having come under his scrutiny.  He chuckled at her obvious discomfort, and patted her on the head.
"Don't worry," he said. "Those big, ol' pretty eyes of yours are more than ridiculous enough to satisfy my... creative maladjustment.  I'll leave you be."
He glanced around.
"The guard that's patrolling this hallway could use a fu manchu, though," said the draconequus, and he glided off down the hallway.
Derpy sighed with relief at having been spared Discord's unique depredations.
"Somepony else out there?" came a calm but weary voice from within the chamber, and Derpy hopped to her hooves.
"Uh, yeah... Yes... Yes Ma'am... No... Yes, Your Highness!  Coming!" she said, trying to combine cheerfulness with respect and humility, an effort at which she was sure she had failed.
She glanced over her shoulder, and was unsurprised to hear the characteristic, shimmering FWOOSH! of a transmutation spell from down the hall.  Then came then a "What the!?" which was immediately followed by a deep belly laugh, another flash, and the crackling tones of a teleportation.
A stallion's voice echoed down the hall: "Aww, this isn't regulation at all!  Now, I gotta go shave!"
"What was that about?" asked Derpy, curiously.
Princess Celestia, who lay on her belly at low table rubbing her face with a hoof, groaned slightly before speaking.
"Border dispute between Mustangia and one of the neighboring provinces," she said, and then she looked up.
"And you are Derpy Hooves," she said, some cheer sneaking into her tone, and her eyes brightening.
She smiled, and it made Derpy feel all at once glad and uneasy.  She did not feel she had any right to be known to even one princess; much less two, and yet here she was in the presence of one who knew her by name, having been asked by yet another to deliver her a package.
"Princess Twilight sent you this," said Derpy, and she dug the box from her delivery bag.
It glowed faint gold, and pulled itself from her mouth.  It was a strange sensation to her.  She had given unicorns packages many times, but when Celestia took the box, it was the first time in all her memory that it had not left her feeling as if she had just been to a heavy-hoofed dentist who practiced without a license.  It slipped away from her teeth gently, without the faintest hint of pain or discomfort.
Celestia opened the box not by tearing off its wrapping telekinetically, but by levitating a letter opener from a nearby desk, and slitting open the tape that held shut its flaps.  What she lifted out of it caused her to give a single, mirthful "Ha," and she turned it around for Derpy to see.
"Well, would you look at that?" she said, happily.
It was a framed photograph of Twilight Sparkle and quite a few other ponies from Ponyville.  Spike was among them also, of course, and they all seemed quite happy.
"Why aren't you in this photo?" asked Celestia. "Aren't you one of Twilight's friends?"
"Heh," Derpy gave a chuckle. "Apparently, I'm a background pony, whatever that means."
"Have you been talking to Pinkie Pie?" asked Celestia.
"Every morning when I pick up my muffins," said Derpy.
"Ignore her," said Celestia, shaking her head. "She's insane; good-natured, but clearly insane."
"So I've heard," said Derpy.
"Besides, we're all in the background from time to time," said Celestia, "but we all have our days in the spotlight, as well."
"You can keep the spotlight," said Derpy, and it crossed her mind that she had just unintentionally made a bad pun. "I like my life when it's quiet, simple, and safe."
"Now, that's hardly a life, at all," said Celestia.
Derpy took a deep breath, and sighed.
"Oh, don't mind me," said Celestia. "I'm just teasing."
"I know," said Derpy, flicking her tail to sooth an itch on her flank.
"So odd that such a powerful little unicorn should have been born to a mare like yourself," said Celestia. "Your daughter nearly burned down the evocation lab last semester.  Did you know that?"
"No," said Derpy, feeling her spine tingle. "I'm sorry."
"Think nothing of it," said Celestia. "It was her pyromancy teacher's fault, really.  He assumed he'd get sparks on her first try with a new spell.  Her... attempt... was considerably more energetic than that."
"Did anypony get hurt?" asked Derpy, sheepishly.
"No," said Celestia. "Fire extinguishers are a wonderful invention."
She looked down at the photo.
"But not as nice as the photograph, in my own estimation."  Her eyes softened. "A moment of time captured forever.  Now, there is a priceless thing, indeed."  She studied the photo for a moment. "Spike is taller than he used to be, isn't he?  Twilight as well, of course, but Spike even more so."
"I bet he'll get a lot taller than that," laughed Derpy.
"Oh, certainly," said Celestia. "He'll be one of the few friends I have who actually stands taller than I do, I suppose."
She gave a gentle "Hmm," and stared a the photo for a few seconds before she spoke again.
"And one of the few who stays with me more than a scant few decades."
"You know, he's a good kid," said Derpy. "He gets frustrated, I think.  I guess it's hard for him, being a dragon surrounded by ponies, but I think he'll turn out alright."
"I hope so," said Celestia, and her eyes turned towards her window. "I really hope so."
"Why wouldn't he?" asked Derpy. "He's got Twilight looking out for him.  She worries a lot, I think, but she does better by him than I think she thinks she does."
"I'm sure she does," said Celestia.  "That girl always worries that she isn't doing well enough by everything that she considers her own.  That goes for her friends, her studies, her position, and her little, purple dragon."
"Well," said Derpy, "I'm sure you're busy.  I'll just be on my way, if there's nothing else."
"No papers to sign?" asked Celestia.
"I took care of it at the front desk," said Derpy.
"Thank you," said Celestia. "I'll have to thank Raven for taking care of the grunt work the way she always does."
"Well, I need to get home," said Derpy. "Dinky's home for the summer, after all.  Can't waste a moment."
"No," said Celestia.  "Whatever you do, don't waste a moment."
Celestia glanced back into the box, and gave another "Hmm."
"Twilight put a couple of spare photos in here, it seems."  She levitated two more photos -- both without frames -- out of the box.  A few foam packing peanuts, spilled away as she did so.  All of them glowed with Celestia's golden telekinesis before even reaching the floor, and found their way quickly back whence they had come.  "One must be for Luna," said the alicorn, "but I can't imagine who the other is for, unless it's her parents.  Could you take it to them?"
"Certainly," said Derpy.
"I'll just write their address on the back, here," said the Princess, and she stood, reinforcing for Derpy her immensity.  It reminded her of her encounter with Queen Chrysalis, but unlike that day, there was no fear in her heart.
After scribbling on it momentarily with a quill, Celestia levitated the photo back to the pegasus, who took it and carefully tucked it into a inside pocket of her delivery bag.
"Well, it was good to see you, Princess," said Derpy, turning to leave.
"It was good to see you, Derpy Hooves," replied the big, pearl-white horse, "and even better to see that you have an easier time looking others in the eye, these days."
Derpy turned back, gave a nod, and a cross-eyed smile that all but totally invalidated the Princess' compliment.  Then, turning back, she strode out the door.
As she left the castle, she took note of the time on an ornate clock that stood on a street corner.
"Oh, dear," she said.
The train back to Ponyville would be leaving in fifteen minutes.
"If I don't catch it, I won't make it home until Dinky's already in bed, even if I fly flat-out with no breaks," she said, raising a hoof and nibbling at it, slightly, "but I told Princess Celestia I'd drop this photo off."
She groaned in her throat.
"I promised Dinky I'd be home when she got there," she said.
Whatever you do, don't waste a moment, Derpy remembered Celestia saying, and she sighed.
"I guess she'll forgive me if I have to mail it to them, instead," she said, and she took off towards the train station at a quick trot.

That should have been the end of all matters concerning how the life of Derpy Hooves related to those of alicorns and dragons.  After all, Twilight and Celestia were royalty, and Spike was, in his own right, a unique, special individual, a baby dragon who lived among ponies and an assistant to a Princess, whereas Derpy hooves was just Ponyville's cross-eyed delivery mare, forever in the background, unnoticed and insignificant, except as a living, breathing sight gag.  However, as it had tended more and more in these past months, the life of Derpy Hooves would once more find a way to cut its course through a tale into which the mare would likely have never chosen to interpose herself.
It began, as Derpy's most difficult and hard-fought days always seemed to do, with what should have been a routine stop by Boxxy's office to receive her day's route list.  What first tipped her off that something might be amiss was when she saw Rarity exit the front door of the Equestrian Parcel Service's Ponyville hub as she approached it.  The unicorn gave her a pleasant smile and a "Good morning" as she passed, and while she returned both out of courtesy, Derpy knew that nothing good could come of what had just happened.  For her, involvement with shipments from Carousel Boutique was always an omen of terrible things to come, and as she stepped into Boxxy's office, her suspicion was quickly confirmed.
"Got a live one," was all he said, gesturing at a weathered, wooden box that sat on his desk, bound with dirty twine and with the words "return service requested" scrawled on it in black ink.
"Oh, no," said Derpy.
"Chin up, Derpy," the big, brown stallion half-growled, never lifting his face from the mountain of forms that always seemed to occupy his desk. "It's all you got on your dance card, today, and I'll see you get double overtime for it."
"But it's summer," whined Derpy. "Dinky's home."
"Don't you live with that weather guy, now?" asked Boxxy, looking up briefly. "She'll be fine with him."
Derpy sighed.  Dinky would, in fact, be fine with Chill Breeze.  He adored the little filly like she was his own, and that was no small part of why Derpy had fallen in love with him.
"Fine," said the mare. "I'll do it, but I want tomorrow off."
"Tomorrow's Saturday," said Boxxy.
"Then I want Monday off."
"Nope," said Boxxy, scribbling at some form or another that currently occupied his desk.
"Tuesday?"
"Maybe," was the stallion's only reply.
"Good enough," said Derpy, and she slid the box into her saddlebag with a wing.
"Where's it going?" she asked.
Boxxy chuckled.