//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: To Whom It May Concern // by Wheller //------------------------------// Chronology notes: Stop! You are reading the sixth story in the Bonds of Eternity Series. The first story in the series is Family found here: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/1307/ The second story in the series is Nihil Novi Sub Sole found here: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/1444/ The third story in the series is Friends in High Places found here: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/1716/ The fourth story in the series is Trust found here: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/1973/ The fifth story in the series is Domino Effect found here: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/2151/ To Whom It May Concern Chapter 1 Derpy Hooves adjusted her flight goggles as she decreased altitude, nearly there, she told herself. The flight had been a long one, an entire day, as the Pegasus flies from the Pony Express outpost on the border between the open countryside and the southern Everfree forest. Pony Express was a package courier service run by an older earth pony by the name of Earl. Earl had been long time friends with Derpy’s boss at the Post Office, Pete. Earl had apparently come to Pete looking for a long distance flier, and Pete, being the good boss that he was, highly recommended Derpy for the position. Derpy was happy to take the job; she jumped on every chance that she could to take on more complex jobs to prove her worth to the rest of the town. Pete had given her leave to take the job, and had gotten Raindrops to cover her mail route for her. Derpy was rapidly approaching the southern end of the Mohoofie Desert; soon enough, she’d be hitting the Divide, her destination. The Divide was aptly named, for it was the southern border of Equestria and the wild lands, an uninhabited stretch of land that went on for many hundreds of kilometres south. Derpy made her descent, and thought back to the first time she met Earl and had taken the Pony Express job. ... “I just want to thank you again for taking this job on such short notice, Miss Hooves. Pete and I are old buddies and you came highly recommended.” Earl said. Derpy couldn’t help but notice that Earl looked a lot like Pete, except for the fact that he was wingless. Hell, they could have been twins were it not that fact. The only real difference being that Earl looked like he was ten years older than Pete, and had a saddlebag for a Cutie Mark, rather than Pete’s shipping crate. Derpy sat quietly while Earl continued to speak. “Honestly? You’re doing me a big favour, first deadbeat we hired to do the job cancelled. Hope a thunder storm strikes him something fierce.” “He cancelled?” Derpy asked. “Yeah, Pete had already given me a name for all his long distance certified flyers; he looked at it and saw your name on the list, perked right up, asked if your name was for real. I said ‘Well yeah sure, she’s one of my buddy Pete’s flyers...’ then he turned down the job just like that, I asked him if he was sure, its good money. ‘No, let Derpy Hooves carry the package.’ Like he knew you or something... then he just upped and walked out. Tell you what; this job has been nothing but strange since that older earth pony in those dark sunglasses put down the deposit on this job... My gut’s been telling me to pass this one up, but I can’t afford to turn down the money that feller was offering,” Earl said with a shrug. Derpy looked at him oddly. “This other guy? Did he tell you his name? What did he look like?” “Uh...” Earl said, wracking his brain for information. “Heck, I’m old, I don’t remember! It was something weird though... like it was from some other language I’d never heard before... maybe... oh I don’t remember his name. As for what he looked like... Pegasus...” Derpy waited for Earl to offer up more, but when he didn’t Derpy continued to question him. “And...?” “Uh... I don’t rightly remember... grey coat? Or maybe it was crème? Heck... had his mane in a real funky way too. Don’t know exactly how to describe it,” Earl said. That was completely unhelpful, grey or crème, mane in a funky way. With a description like that, that had to have described at least a third of the population of Cloudsdale. Derpy dropped the issue and went on with the business. “Well. Here’s the package,” Earl said, sliding it over to her, along with a Pony Express mailbag to carry it in. “Remember, you’re not only representing yourself, but all of Pony Express! And go easy on the package, I’ve been told it’s fragile.” ... Derpy followed instructions to the letter, she had just touched down on the ground and was about ready to enter the narrow passage way. The client’s instructions were clear, take the package to the edge of the Divide, set down on the ground outside the narrow path, and walk the rest of the way. They had talked about the Divide in Flight School. It was well known for its rogue weather patterns. Blizzards, cyclones, monsoons, hail, sandstorms, all of them sprung up out of nowhere and disappeared just as quickly. There was a reason that nopony went this far south, it was a death trap. So one could very easily imagine Derpy’s shock when she learned that ponies not only lived here, but actually had been living here for quite some time! Long enough for two settlements to have popped up, the package that Derpy was carrying was bound for a place called Ashville in the extreme south of the canyon. It turned out that while the weather patterns above the canyon were insane, the canyon itself shielded Ashville from nearly all of it. Rain water would roll into the canyon itself, on occasion, and Ashville would apparently have a waterfall running in front of it for days, dumping water into a river that carried it away, quite oddly towards the north. Derpy figured that Ashville had to have been an interesting place to live, not only was the town situated behind a waterfall sometimes, but it had the only river in Equestria... maybe on the planet, that flowed from south to north, rather than north to south. Needless to say, Derpy Hooves was very interested in speaking to the inhabitants of Ashville. Derpy jumped as she heard a rock bounce along the passageway wall, she looked up and then all around her. Hoping that rogue weather had not decided to spring up while she was in here. She stopped for a moment, and gave the area a quick glance, and then looking upwards. The sky was clear; Derpy sighed in relief and went about her way. As Derpy continued to follow the passageway, she couldn’t help but feel as if eyes were upon her. Somepony... or maybe someone... or something, was watching her. No! That was silly! Derpy told herself as she continued on her way, nopony was watching her, and likely neither a someone nor a something was watching her either. She was just nervous because she’d never been here before... and Flight School had talked about the Divide’s weather patterns a lot. Derpy eventually decided that she was making herself nervous because of thoughts of Flight School. Flight School had been a terrible time for Derpy, because she’d been picked on repeatedly by the “dumb jocks,” Hoops, Quarterback, and Dumb-Bell. Thanks to her eye condition, as a result, Derpy had had rather poor attendance during Flight School and had not really gotten the best education that she could have. She had eventually failed out of school completely due to a lack of attendance, poor depth perception, and an overall “below average” flying ability. The only reason that she had been able to get a job was because Pete was a good colt and had decided to give her a chance. He’d even been able to get her Long Distance Certified. Derpy smiled, if anything, that had proved to her that not all ponies were heartless bastards, and while Derpy would never be able to get a job in Cloudsdale, because of her failure at Flight School, it didn’t matter, because Ponyville was where she wanted to live and work anyway. It was a place where she could raise Dinky to be a good mare, and while it wasn’t always easy, it was right. Derpy heard another rock fall and jumped again. She glanced around. Now she was sure that something was watching her. Derpy continued onward, keeping her mind focused on the task ahead. Another rock fell, Derpy was scared now. She was regretting taking this job at all, she shouldn’t have left Ponyville, and she shouldn’t have left Dinky! She shouldn’t... Derpy had found her way through the narrow passageway; she was now in the Divide proper. She was high up, and she could see Ashville on the far side of the canyon. However, she did take notice that there was another settlement here. Earl had not spoken of it much; maybe he didn’t think it was important. Derpy looked at the sign on the edge of the settlement. “Hopeton,” it said. Before Derpy had even registered all her surroundings, maybe a dozen ponies leapt from their hiding spots around her, a combination of earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns, all of them wearing crude metal plates around their bodies, fashioned into a patchwork of barding. Each of them had some kind of weapon on them. Some of them had knives, some of them had spears, and Derpy noticed that the unicorns were levitating firearms. Of which Derpy had only seen before in a magazine from South Island that Vinyl Scratch had given her. Derpy swallowed hard nervously, and noticed that another pony was walking towards her. This one was different, rather than wearing metal barding, this one was wearing a green greatcoat which covered his entire body. As for his race, all Derpy could tell was that he was not a unicorn. (The coat covered everything else that would identify his race, as such.) Derpy noticed that his coat was a beige colour, and his mane was a dark chestnut, but what stuck out to Derpy Hooves the most were the eyes. They were blood red. The great coat covered pony smiled at her eerily. “Welcome to Hopeton, package courier,” he said noting the Pony Express bag on her flank. “The name’s Métis Trotter Retslaf, though it’s just Retslaf to you. We really hope you enjoy your stay with us! Because it’s going to be for quite some time.” Derpy gulped loudly with fear. What had she gotten herself into?