//------------------------------// // Peaceful mornings and bubbles // Story: Making Foals, with SCIENCE! and magic // by titankore //------------------------------//         Ditzy Doo got up at 5 am as she did every day, gave her little muffin a kiss on the cheek before having her second favorite kind of muffin for breakfast. She found these quite mornings very peaceful before the chaos that being a mailmare usually brought, even if she was the one that caused it. Giving her hoof a quick lick to get the last crumbs of her breakfast before making her way to the basement to check if any of her hobbies were disturbed overnight. It all seemed fine, some of the older devices seemed to be collecting dust since she didn't have as much time to work with them these days. When she climbed back up to the living room she found the scarf Dinky made for her last winter and a note taped to a thermos. She must have woken up earlier to make me coffee she thought, a smile bringing warmth and cheer to the grey pegasus. She reached down, grabbed the note with her teeth and set it on the table, carefully focusing her eyes to read the small and lovely writing of her daughter. "I love you Mommy, have a good day and don't get hurt, love Dinky," it said with little hearts surrounding a picture of the two. As she flew out she took a quick look back at the house she has been living in, made into a home with her daughter and her best friend Carrot top,she then continued to lazily fly to the center of Ponyville, taking in the brisk Autumn air.  She laughed as she thought, I wouldn't trade this life for the world, even if I don't always get to do what I want. She knew she could take one of her shortcuts to get to the post office quickly but she preferred to start slow in the mornings, plus the shortcuts are easier to spot in the light. Finally making her way to the office she began her day by sorting letters and setting aside priority packages. She took advantage of her eye problem by looking at two letters at once, quickly breezing through the enormous stack of letters to the citizens of Ponyville and organizing the letters from Ponyville to the proper cities. She always gave a little smile at the lone letter to Appleloosa that graced her desk. It was from one of her favorite customers, the country mare that always sets aside an apple muffin for her even when she had no mail to send. Normally she wouldn't deliver a single letter all that way personally, but it was worth it and extra long trips sometimes caused interesting side effects. Plus it was only once a month so it wasn't too much trouble. Before setting out she went to a small contraption in the corner of the office and turned it on, a small hum emanated from it as it came to life, a small motes of dust, burned bright orange in the morning sun as they slowly orbited the rounded end of the device. Taking all of the letters for the south-east side of town, she settled her saddle bags over her haunches and trotted out of the doorway, greeted by the now fully awakened sun. With the brilliant rays of light peaking over the sleepy village, she looked for the tell tale signs of her shortcuts. Okay, one over there, and another intersecting at that angle means that it should end over by the watering hole if I hit it right, she thought, doing a barrel roll that should have made her collide with the house in front of her. The south-east side of town had many of the early risers of Ponyville, which meant lots of happy greetings to the cross eyed pegasus. She kept her smile all through the early morning, occasionally waving, crossing her eyes further before seeming to collide with another building. Mrs. Cake going for her morning run always gave a start whenever she did this and trotted to where she once again expected to see the poor dear rubbing her head after the crash. Sometimes she was there, grumbling about bubbles, but most of the time Mrs. Cake found nopony around. Once again she found herself staring at an empty alley where the blonde pegasus should have been. She knew Ditzy could not have gone unscathed, so she promised herself that she would give the poor girl an extra treat when she came by Sugercube corner.         Back at the post office Ditzy was pouring herself some of the coffee from the thermos her daughter prepared, savoring the bittersweet taste of the cinnamon accented brew. Before setting out for the next corner she waited for the Priority Mail pony, since Ponyville wasn't a big town they never got their priority mail early enough to go before her early rounds. Thankfully most of them are to the business district like Carousel Boutique or Sugercube corner and they weren't until her afternoon routes so it didn't cause as much backtracking. She finally finished draining the last of her coffee by the time the baby blue, pegasus arrived and gave her a very small bundle of letters and a single package. "See ya tomorrow Derpy," the young colt said before flying off.         Ditzy blushed a little, a mix of embarrassment and nostalgia flooded over her. Derpy was a nickname she wasn't always so fond of which she got back in her University days. She made better than average grades but always managed to have the time to be a class clown, while most ponies worried about figuring out the gravitational pull of two equal masses in the presence of a third greater mass directly in the middle, she worried about how to throw a paper airplane from below her desk and hit the professor in the back of the head. The classes were not so easy that she didn't need to pay attention, she just found such distractions helped her mental process, sometimes she would shout out random words to clear her head enough to figure out a particularly hard problem, much to the chagrin of her fellow students and the proctors. Quickly downing a mid-morning muffin she sorted through the small stack of letters. There were the usual ones, special order from Hoity Toity, she rolled her eyes at his idea of priority mail even Rarity complained that they were "much ado about nothing," as she would say. At the bottom of the stack was a letter addressed to herself from the University she studied and worked at before moving to Ponyville. Stuffing it into her personal saddle bag she went on with her work and set out again. OK, that one is no good. Maybe this one... no, that will take me too far no matter what angle I use, she thought, constantly scanning the area looking very intense for a pony apparently staring at empty air. She skewed her eyes further until a big grin plastered her face, finding exactly what she was looking for. She then flew straight into the well at the center of town. This one is going to be close, she thought, before spitting out chicken feathers. The owners of said feathers freaked out and squawked at the intruder, forcing her out of the same narrow exit she was trying to get through anyway. She popped out of the small opening before turning around facing the coop. "Thanks for helping me get out of there," she smiled and gave a warm wave at the foul mooded fowls. Said poultry gave angry squawks and rude gestures with their wings at the friendly pegasus. Ditzy either failed to see or chose to ignore the distressed chickens and skipped along to the cottage of the bird's owner. "I brought you a letter," she cheerily sang as she knocked on the door. With no answer she placed the letter through the slot, wondering where the fellow pegasus went. She continued flying onward trying to see if a shortcut would appear which would take her to final long distance destination, Sweet Apple Acres. She soon spotted the familiar streaks of light seeming to reflect off of nothing led her eyes to a bubble she could only see out of the corner of her eyes. Within the surface of the bubble were a myriad design of shapes and colors, each pattern giving her an idea of how far and what direction they would lead. Finding a suitable pattern she figured out her trajectory to approach the bubble to hit it in the sweet spot so as not to burst the fragile anomaly.          Unfortunately this one was near a tree. She never had luck with ones near trees, but it looked like it was the only one suitable nearby, and she wanted to be done in time to wave to Dinky during her lunch at school. She performed a wide yaw and thanked Celestia that this one would only need a simple flight to hit it. In a few seconds she was flying high over an expanse of delicious looking apples hanging temptingly on the trees. The bubble took her to the other side of the orchard opposite of the farmhouse but it was still much faster then flying from the edge of the Everfree. checking the position of the sun she could tell that she was actually a good hour early. "One of the bubbles must have been a bit wibbley, wobbly on the time," she mused to herself. She swooped down with her usual level of grace and walked over to the apple themed mailbox, with a familiar orange pony next to it setting a fresh muffin on top of it. "Hi Applejack!" Ditzy beamed. Startled, the applefarmer nearly knocked over the treat off the mailbox. "Oh hey, Ditzy, din't see you there, yer usually not here for a while," Applejack’s southern twang make each word sound sweet and caring. "Uhh? you know me: speedy, friendly and," Ditzy started. "Ahn reliable, I know. That's why I give ya a treat specially since you get mah letters to Braeburn lickety split, I don't know how ya do it, whenever somepony else does yer job it takes a good month to hear back, but sumhow yew manage to get it through in two days," she said almost forming the compliment into a question. "Ohh, it's just like any other job you got your experienced ponies and your new guys who need to learn the ropes," she said trying to pass off the discrepancy as a simple thing. "What do ropes have to do with anything? Do ya have to round up the parcels?" she joked. Ditzy chuckled while Applejack gave her a good natured tussle of her corn yellow main. "If ya see Braeburn ask him how his trip to Canterlot was... On second thought: don't otherwise you'll be stuck there until the rooster crows," she shouted as Ditzy flew off. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, she gave Dinky her wave at school, got an extra treat at Sugercube corner, saw Rarity be a drama queen as she opened the letter from Hoity Toity and yell how it was the worst possible thing before pulling out a chase lounge chair. Finally she made it back home where Carrot top prepared some soup and told her about her day. Carrot Top was always a good listener, and was patient with her sudden outbursts. Remembering the letter, she reached into her saddlebag and opened it. After a few moments of trying to read the small writing, Carrot top popped her reading glasses on her head. Now able to read better, she skimmed through it occasional muttering as she went through. "Carrot Top, umm? Do you want to come with me to Canterlot for a few days, and maybe help watch Dinky while we're there?" Carrot top choked a little bit on her soup, giving a few coughs before catching her breath. "Why are you going to Canterlot?" she inquired. "One of my old friends needs some help and I promised Dinky that I would let her come with me the next time I visited the University," Ditzy said giving Carrot a puppy dog look, just like the one Dinky gave her when she made the request. Carrot had a hard time believing the simple mailmare graduated from the top University of Canterlot. But then again, some of the projects that Ditzy actually finished downstairs were impressive... at least the ones that didn't blow up. "Fine, the main harvest is already in and the only thing in the fields are the potatoes. They won't be ready till spring. Just give me a few hours to pack and to make sure you bring something other then Muffins," snorting out the last word due to the memory of their last trip together. "Whufft?" Ditzy replied with a suitcase handle in mouth, the suitcase having been halfway filled with said pastry. Carrot Top facehooved as she set out to get ready, deciding to pack Dinky’s bag with essentials but making sure to leave plenty of room for the tiny unicorn to fit whatever she wanted to bring along as well. "Something tells me this is going to be a long trip," the orange maned pony sighed as she moved the her own suitcase out of the closet. Back in Canterlot: "OK Kite, you watch Braeburn, Ballistae you watch Johnny, and Shooter you're pretty friendly with Dusk so you watch him, remember they can go anywhere they want in Canterlot as long as they stay in the city and get back here in the evening," said a different orange maned pony. Beaker figured it would be a lot easier to just let them get their energy out there then to be cooped up in a lab full of delicate instruments. This thought, on the other hoof, didn't sit well with the three royal guards. The big one with the siege engine cutie mark was the first to object. "Hey we aren't a bunch of foal sitters, why do we gotta do this?" Beaker pulled a set of papers out of his lab-coat pocket with his teeth and set them down where the guards could see. "Because I said so and according to these papers, the pecking order goes like this: The Princesses, My boss, Me, The Centrifuge, My Taco, The Dirt, the worms, the bacteria that live the previously stated dirt, and then you. If you have a problem with that, take it up with the Princesses, or Mr. Centrifuge, but he is busy making me some chocolate milk and actually being useful," Beaker ranted. Although the three guards really wanted to teach him a lesson, the papers checked out and none them wanted to be busted down a rank for going against direct orders. "Fine. At least we just have to play tour guide for a day or two" said Shooter, who actually wanted the opportunity to make it up tor the purple unicorn he freaked out. The poor guy really went through the ringer and it wasn't his fault his attacker just happened to be cozy with Celestia. "Besides, what's the worst that can happen?" he said before realizing he had just doomed them all.