Last year, we performed the experiment known as The Mailbox. This year, we bring you The Mailbox: Reloaded. Ignoring the previous Mailbox, Reloaded features a cast of old and new to bring you all-new stories.

Our Tale
The Mane Six have left Ponyville for the summer, each traveling to a different part of Equestria for different reasons. But a few months and a little distance can't stop their friendship!

This group will collect the letters they send back and forth, telling each other about the new places they go and new ponies they meet, comforting each other when they get lonely or homesick, and keeping the spirit of friendship alive.

Our Cast
Twilight Sparkle (by bats)
After an action-filled spring where Twilight found her purpose as a princess, she hoped to settle into her new role surrounded by her friends. Unfortunately, the Princess of Friendship is needed outside of Ponyville. Tensions between the pegasi and the griffons have always run high, and with a group of griffon dignitaries visiting Cloudsdale, Twilight is off to act as arbiter and liaison between the two groups. She's nervous to go it alone when her friends have been so important to her success in the past, but she's hopeful she can help bring the two groups together to forge strong and lasting ties and have enough time for other pursuits, like studying the city's unique architecture up close. Also, there's the little thing of maintaining her still-new relationship with Applejack as it temporarily becomes a long distance one. Good thing Twilight likes writing letters.

Applejack (by bookplayer)
Applejack wasn’t happy that her friends were leaving Ponyville for the summer, especially given her newly romantic relationship with Twilight, but she had hoped to spend her days distracted by work. Just her luck, a back injury put an end to that plan; no work or physical activity allowed all summer. After some long debates with Macintosh and Twilight over what technically counted as “work” and “activity” around the farm, Applejack was outvoted and shipped off to the castle in Canterlot, to be cared for by a staff of ponies who would ensure that she wouldn’t have to so much as lift a hoof all summer. She’s as far away from useful work as she can get, now all Applejack has to do is find some way to keep from losing her mind.

Rainbow Dash (by Jake R)
Dash found it odd to receive a letter from her father asking she come visit him in the sleepy lakeside town of Luna Pier. However, the realization soon hit Dash that she had not seen the old-timer in quite a few years, so a visit might not seem like such a bad idea. It seems simple: Dash goes to her dad’s lake house, spends a week performing typical daughterly obligations, rekindles a recently faded relationship, and then leaves to enjoy a rockin’ summer. However, unexpected circumstances force her to prolong her stay in this boring town with her aging father. How in Equestria is Dash gonna keep her sanity? Well, writing to her friends might help...

Rarity (by TheLastBrunnenG)
Traveling the world in impeccable style, hobnobbing with the elites of fashion and dazzling society's finest, wooing the hearts (and wallets) of ponies with too much money and absolutely nothing to wear - is this not the expected life of high fashion's rising star? Perhaps, though not apparently for Rarity, who finds herself stuck in quaintly boring little Ponyville as her friends head away and abroad for a summer of fun, adventure, and discovery. Finding all of those now sadly lacking in her backwater hometown, Rarity waits. She waits for some fashion house or desperate-to-impress noble to need, to require, no, to demand her expertise - and no letter comes. She waits for Manehattan and Canterlot to call to her, in soul if not in ink, and hears nothing but roosters and crickets and hawkers in the farmers' market. So what's a bored and increasingly anxious fashionista to do when waiting for a summons which may never come? Why, surely a Lady wouldn't do something positively rash - would she?

Fluttershy (by Peroth E)
With the fifth wannabe-conquerer of the world put in a corner, Fluttershy has decided to expand her horizons beyond Equestria. She's volunteered to join a safari that is going to take her and a group of experts beyond the borders of her home to new territories full of animals she's never seen before! While scared, Fluttershy has taken her lessons to heart and has bucked up to face new challenges head on, and learn everything she can about the exciting and possibly dangerous beasts not found in the safety of her home.

Anxiety is high, since this will be the furthest she's ever been from her friends or her home, but their agreement to trade letters over the summer has soothed some of her worries. Deep down, she hopes her safari guides will accept her as a friend, but what she finds the most terrifying is the possibility that they won't.

Pinkie Pie (by JaketheGinger)
She had been saving up for this for years and years and years, but now she’s finally ready. The Pinkie Pie party pilgrimage had officially begun! The spirit of cheer is alive throughout all of Equestria, and Pinkie intends to spend her summer soaking it all up. She’ll travel across the land, visiting many different towns and trying to fit in as many parties, festivals, and celebrations as she can. It promises to be an electrifying experience and with her friends by her side (albeit in paper form), it won’t be so lonely after all! But can Pinkie keep up with it all? Or she has bitten off more than she can chew? (Or as is usual in her case, straight up swallowed.)

All letters and resulting side stories will be compiled chronologically and be posted as chapters in a story posted on Monday, May 26th. Said story will then update every week until The Mailbox: Reloaded's conclusion.