//------------------------------// // A Historical Horror Package // Story: The EK // by Magi Tail Welkin //------------------------------// “So, Crusaders,” Apple Bloom said on her little plinth “found any ponies with cutie mark problems recently?” Scootaloo looked away slightly “Sorry Apple Bloom, I’ve be spending my time playing with my Dad so I haven’t noticed any.”, Apple Bloom gave her friend a sad smile “It’s okay,” she sighed “at least you have a parent.” Sweetie Belle came up and put her hoof on her shoulder “Let’s not get negative here. How about we find Cipher when he’s finished his rounds and see if we get him a cutie mark. Twilight’s still curious.” Apple Bloom smiled “Yeah, coming on Crusaders.” Cipher stared down the hill as the CMC and Riolu readied things, he turned to them “Barrel rolling? What makes you think my cutie mark, if can get one is in barrel rolling?” “We don’t know.” Apple Bloom said, tipping a barrel “That’s why we’re trying it.” “We? You’ve already got yours.”, Scootaloo spoke up “Yeah, but it’ll be fun.” Cipher looked back to the hill “You could fall out of an airship without it being as steep as that.” Sweetie Belle spoke up “It’s just the angle, from the bottom it would look half as steep.” “From the bottom, it isn’t half as steep.” Apple Bloom spoke “Don’t complain until you get used to it.” “Used to it? How many times are we tumbling down that?” “A few,” she replied, “not exactly sure how many times.” “You’re nuts you three, you know that?”, the CMC looked at each other, Scootaloo whispered “We’ve been called many things, but I don’t think we’ve even been called nuts.”, Sweetie spoke next “He’s scared that’s all. We’ve done things scarier than this.”, Apple Bloom shuddered “Don’t remind me.” She looked up at Cipher “What about this, we rolled a barrel down empty and see what we’re in for?” “I can tell what we’re in for.” He sighed “If it means we get through this sooner alright then.” Apple Bloom nodded and bucked the barrel beside her. They all gathered together and watched it tumbled and clutter down the hill. Riolu shielded his eyes, Cipher looked at him “You won’t need to look you’ll be inside.”, the Jakhowl looked again. Scootaloo grinned “Looks fine to me.” Cipher looked at her “What would your father think if he knew the stuff you’ve been getting up to? He’s going to find out sooner or later.”, she just shrugged. Cipher shook his head a crawled into one of the barrels “It’s a bit tight in here.”, the CMC and Riolu got into theirs, Apple Bloom spoke up “What do you mean, seems find to me.” “You’re smaller remember.”, Scootaloo called out “Okay, on my mark, ready steady GO!”, the put their weight on the downward facing side of the barrels and they started rolling. Tumbling, crashing and with some complaining Cipher reached the bottom first and bumped into a wall. Then the four other came along. Cipher crawled out and stood up and stumbled about walking. Riolu inched out, spun about and collapsed. The CMC got out laughing, although Sweetie did rub her horn, Scootaloo bounced “Can we do that again?” Cipher wings shot out in shook “You can,” he picked up Riolu on put him on his back “I can tell barrel rolling’s not for me.” He started flying back up the hill and back to his cart “Next time come up with something less dizzy.” The CMC watch him go. Apple Bloom turned to the other too and asked “Okay, what should we do next.”, Scootaloo jumped “Can we roll down the hill again?” Sweetie looked at the barrels and then up the hill “How do we get these back up the hill then?”, the two others blinked and pondered. Fluttershy stroked Riolu’s head as he lay on the sofa, she turned to Cipher “Barrel rolling?” “That’s what I said to them on the hill.” Twilight put her tea down and looked apologetically at the Changeling “I’m sorry Cipher, I didn’t think the CMC would revert back to their old ways with you. They seemed so mature when helping ponies with their cutie marks, like Tender Taps.” She then looked away “Although they did do similar when Gabby came wanting one.” Cipher sniffed “Well I don’t care if I don’t get one, delivering the post, speaking to friends and spending the rest of the day with Fluttershy before time to check for any evening post is fine by me.” Fluttershy blushed “Don’t you mean spending the rest of the day with your friends?” “Aren’t we friends?” Flash rolled his eyes grinning and muttered “Get a room already.”, Twilight nudged him in the side and glared at him. Cipher blushed himself and decided to change the subject “If the CMC want to help a pony who’s having trouble with their life propose in life, why not Parcel Post? I mean he quit the Postal Service after going into Discord’s Chaosville or whatever he calls it, I don’t blame it, I can’t imagine what eldritch nightmares are living there.” Twilight nodded shuddering “So what’s he doing now?” “Well, he’s got his bees, I remember the last time I had to help him with them. I was fine, but,” he glanced to Riolu now asleep “this little chap’s been very frightened of honey ever since.” Fluttershy lip quivered “The poor thing.”, Cipher continued “He’s been taking odd jobs about the town for the past few weeks, tried to be night porter at the station, but Perks go on his nerve, haven’t a clue why.” Fluttershy spoke up “Didn’t any-pony tell him I take Discord’s post?” Cipher shrugged “From what I could glean from Parcel the letter was directly addressed to wherever in Equestria Discord actually lives. He would tell how in Luna’s name he got there.” Twilight narrowed her eyes at this, usually Princess Celestia arranged the invites personally, ponies could apply to get tickets but the Princess could send other invitations out as well, why would she address it to Discord’s dimension, and for that matter, how did she know the location? Cipher continued “Anyway, as of late he’s been acting, well, odd. He’s been wearing his beekeeper’s suit all the time, even indoor and when the windows are shut. The Major’s been complaining that he’s not turning up to parade, especially with the special decree going up in a couple of weeks.” Twilight narrowed her eyes “Now why would he do that.”, Flash spoke “Maybe he’s hiding something?”, Twilight turned to him “But what could he hide?” Cipher tapped his hoof on his chin “I don’t think we’ll get it out of him, but I know of three who could.” Apple Bloom knocked on the door and stepped back. Sweetie looked to her “I wonder why Twilight asked us to see Mr Parcel Post?” Scootaloo spoke up “Isn’t it obvious? Post’s got a cutie mark problem.” The door inched opened “Is that you Cipher?” Apple Bloom cleared her throat “No Mr Post, it’s the CMC, Princess Twilight asked us to come and see you.” “Oh,” the door shut and the sound of several locks being opened and latches taken of came muffled through the door, the door opened and their stood Parcel in his beekeeper’s suit minus the hat with the screen “You’d better come in.” They sat on the sofa. Parcel shifted his hooves “So, what’s the matter?” “Actually,” Sweetie Belle said “that’s kind of what we wanted to ask you. Cipher’s gotten a bit concerned for your wellbeing, and now your locking yourself in your house. What could be causing this.” Parcel stood up and went to the door and pointed to it “I don’t want to discuss it; now could you please leave? Princess’s order or not I’ve got stuff to do?” Scootaloo raised an eyebrow “Like what?” “My bees, I’ve been talking to Filthy Rich about possibly selling honey.” Sweetie spoke next “You’re not going to be able to talk to them if you lock yourself in your house.” She then put on her cute face and gave him the big eyes “You can tell us. Please?” Parcel backed up a bit “This isn’t something kids should have about.” Apple Bloom went big eyes and her lip quivered as well “Please Mr, all we want to do his help.”, Parcel backed to the wall. Scootaloo glanced between her friends and the former Post-stallion and sighed then she joined her friend in the cute sadness attack. Parcel fell his flanked and shook then held his forehooves “Alright I’ll tell you, just stop making the big eyes.” The CMC smiled and Apple Bloom “Thanks Mr Post, the sooner we know the problem, the sooner we can help.” Parcel got up and with a sigh went to a chair, he sat down and looked up “I guess I should start about a week before the last Grand Galloping Gala.” Parcel in his uniform, narrowed his eyes at the address on the letter “Discord (or current resident). Number Banana, Ankh Street, Chaosville? What’s an Ankh?” Muffins shrugged “It must be important if it’s address him personally.” “But how do I get there, wherever there is?”, the letter suddenly gave a golden glow and in a flash Parcel disappeared. Muffins rubbed her eyes, she then went to the door leading to her house and called in “Dinky, Crackle? Look after Dipsy, Mommy’s got to deliver the mail.” Parcel blinked and shuddered. He stood on a floating rock and before him a swirling purple void with other flying islands, some of them upside-down each with bizarre plants and creatures. One of them in the distance we swore hosted a river of custard. He hesitantly took a step forward and onto a walkway. A plank underneath him gave way and suddenly he started flying upwards. His flight path turned zig-zagged and loopy before he landed back where he started. He gulped and turned around. A staircase formed, sideway and bended and twisted for what looked like miles until connecting to the very next island. Parcel shook his head and looked elsewhere. Two things suddenly flew in twirling and landed. First some odd machine, very old fashioned, an orange box thing with a robot arm extending out, on the end of the arm a yellow gardening glove. A lever on the side on the top an assortment of odd things, a red-lightbulb, currently off, a gramophone horn and a pair of semaphore signals, one green with ‘OFF’ currently up and the other down red with ‘ON’. Next to flying in must to Parcel’s amazement, an extra, extra-long lander, it seemed to extend for miles into the air, he couldn’t even see the top. As it landed the gloved hand of the machine arm gripped the bottom steading it. Parcel bit his lip, he could not sure where it would go, but compared to his other options it looked the most sensible, a stretch in this place but he would consider it so. He started climbing and he took what he felt like hours to climb it, he passed islands, one appeared to have a volcano, not unleashing lava but soup bubbles. Unbeknownst to him a creature resembling a small pink and yellow polka-dotted flying penguin, which flew backward, landed upside-down on the lever of the orange machine, it paused and said “Blobby?”, then lever fell. The horn wailed, the light flashed, the signals switched. The hand let got. The ladder started to disappear in a display not dissimilar to lit sparkler fireworks, it even sounded a firework. Parcel heard the sound and looked down, his eyes widened and he started panicking. The ladder went from under his hooves, he flailed about in the air for a few seconds before he started falling. ‘Celestia help!’ A bubble came out of the volcano and flew underneath him, then went through the membrane and landed inside it. He sighed in relief. But then a thought struck him. How would he get out? Where would the bubble take him? He flew for felt like days. Finally, he landed, the ground of the island cracked and the bubble, it didn’t burst, it turned into a lot of playing cards. Getting up he felt shift, his joints clicked he looked around and spotted a house, no other houses in the area. He gingerly walked up to it unsure as to what he would discover. He then started flying away. And he suffered more misadventures. Don’t ask him about trolls with sticks, all kinds of black dogs with orange eyebrows, rains of spaniels, sabretooth tigers, upside-down tar pits and flying badges. He wailed as he fell through the air again. A paw took hold on of him and he himself with his back to the elbow of the Spirit of Chaos, Discord spoke “Where you perhaps looking for me?”, Parcel reached into his uniform pocket to find the letter “Are you, Discord or current resident?” He turned back to the Dracon-Equus’s face “I can’t find any street numbers in this place.”, Discord took the letter, the enveloped ripped open by itself and a golden ticket floated out, he discarded the enveloped and his talons took the ticket. He smiled and gleefully proclaimed “My ticket to the Grand Galloping Gala!” He shoved it into Parcel’s face “I was invited after all!” then he frowned at him. Parcel started shaking as Discord inched closer to his face and ominously asked “Why is this so late?”, Parcel gulped and spoke as best he could “Well, I got a little lost after I escaped the flying badgers. Can you point me in the direction of the bottomless pit?”, a ladder, made from a tree branches, and still growing as evidenced by the leaves, stuck out from it “I think I can make my way back from there.” Even if he ended up in the Everfree Forest. Discord did nothing of the sort, instead he let go of Parcel and walked away saying “Oh over there somewhere.”, Parcel didn’t hear much of what Discord said after as a large mouthed monster grabbed him and took him further into the chaos realm. Parcel shuddered with his face in his hooves. The CMC blinked. Scootaloo spoke “So how did you get away?” “I didn't.” Parcel took a swig of some apple juice Apple Bloom got from the kitchen “Turned out it was a mom looking for a present for its foals. It brought me back to its nest and gave me to its young, a pack of female hatchlings who all started cooing over me and saying ‘Oh, look, a pony, look how cute she is’, and I kept trying to tell them I was a stallion, and not a pet, but they didn't care.” He shivered again “They dressed me up like a princess. And I told them I wasn't a princess, or even a prince, I was just a stallion who carries the mail, but they didn't care. They… they dyed me, and covered me with, with, permanent stickers…” His hoof went to his flank and rubbed it wincing “Painful to pull off I can tell you. And they put makeup all over me, and pierced my ears, and I can't even tell you how many times they washed and brushed my mane…” Scootaloo blinked “Must have been horrible for a stallion.” Parcel nodded he now talked looking at the floor with a thousand-yard stare “If it hadn't been for this big, horrible green thing with teeth showing up to play with the kids, I'd have been a goner. As it was, they didn't want to get my dress dirty, so I managed to escape. I got rid of the dress in a forest of Pick-up-Sticks, and I managed to get rid of the crown…” Sweetie Belle blinked “There was a crown?” “I know, who wears a tiara and a crown? So, I managed to get a giant bee to take the crown off me, I’m good with bees, I can understand them. He was saying that if he brought it to the princess she was sure to accept him as one of the drones allowed to go on her coronation flight with her, and then he'd be a Prince Consort to the Queen of a new hive. I tried to get him to take the tiara off too, but he said that the princess couldn't wear both a tiara and a crown, and I had to admit he had a point.” Apple Bloom frowned “Why couldn't you get any of these things off yourself, though?” Parcel Post pointed at some horseshoes, which were now on the floor near the wall, having been flung there with great force. “Those things. They had them strapped so tight I couldn't kick them off, I was lucky at that, they were talking about using nails to fasten them on, but then one of them hit her flipper with the hammer and started crying so they all decided not to play with their mom's hammer, and with them on I couldn't use my hooves to grab anything at all.” He shuddered again. “I almost ended up being married to this creature called the Queen of the Elves, beautiful creatures they were, I felt like nothing compared, the Queen wanted me as a plaything and a link into Equestria.” Sweetie Belle tilted her head “How did you escape her?” “A bipedal creature named Weatherwax appeared and fought her. So, I escaped but then ran into the Four Ponies of the Apocalypse.” “The what?” Scootaloo asked. “I didn’t know who they were either, but I asked the Reverend about it last week and he showed me this book, which some ancient group from the time of Equestria’s founded decided not to include the book in something or other I don’t know something about being written from a dream, utter nonsense, but, it said ‘I saw the lamb open one of the seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures call out, as with a voice of thunder “Come!”, I looked, and there was a white pony, it held a bow. A crown was given to it and it came out to conquer.’ The Vicar said something about him being Pestilence.” The girls looked at each other unsure Parcel continued “The next passage said, ‘When he opened the second seal I heard the second living creature call out “Come!” And out came another pony, bright red, it was permitted to take peace from the world, so that ponies would slaughter one another; and he was given a great sword.’ The Reverend called him War.”, the fillies blinked with fear in their eyes. “Next ‘When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature call out “Come!” I looked and there was a black pony, it held a pair of scales in it hoof, and I head what seemed to be a voice amid the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a day’s pay, and three quarts of barley for a day’s pay, but do not damage the olive oil and the wine!’ He’s identified as Famine. “Lastly, ‘When he opened the fourth seal. I heard the voice of the fourth living creature call out “Come!”, I looked and there was a pale green pony. Its name was Death, and Tartarus followed with him. They were given authority over a fourth of the world, to kill with sword, famine and pestilence, and by the wild animals of the world.’, they said they came to see their old friend Discord, he left them before they were famous because of artistic disagreements. “I ran for my life when I saw them, and then I ran into another quartet of Ponies, the Four Ponies of the Common Cold. Sniffles, Chesty, Nostril and Lack of Tissues.” He turned to his side and sneezed. “But then Discord caught up with me, he asked why I was still here. So, I started to tell him the story, and he said he didn't care and I was boring him, and teleported me to Cloudsdale.” Scootaloo gasped “But you're an Earth Pony.” “I know, so I had to get some-pony to give me a ride here. Fortunately, Muffins was visiting her mom, so she offered to give me a ride, but, well…” “She dropped you?” “Four times. Also, ran me into a tree. After that I was down on the ground so I said I'd just make my way in from there on my own.” “But you didn't ask her to help you get the horseshoes off?” “Would you ask Muffins “Ditzy” Doo-Hooves to help you pull anything off any part of your body?” The CMC blinked together “Good point.” Parcel sighed “After I got home and got myself in the cider-induced coma I couldn’t deliver the mail anymore, I just look at a letter and I’d get scare. Neither rain, nor sleet, nor gloom of night, shall stay these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” He scoffed “They said nothing about nightmare realms. That’s why Perkins fired me from night porter duty, I kept falling to pieces. So, I returned to my bees, I like bees.” Apple Bloom nodded “But why are you wearing your beekeepers outfit and not going on parade with the Home Guard.” Parcel sighed and slumped back into his chair “I knew some-pony would ask, might as well show it to you three, you could help me out.” He stood up and took his suit off. The fillies’ eyes widened. They all knew Parcel’s cutie mark, a stamp with a heart on it. But now his flank lay bare. Apple Bloom’s jaw dropped “You, you, you lost your cutie mark!” Parcel nodded “I don’t know how it happened but other day Cipher came with some letters for me and I just snapped I said I didn’t want anything more to do with letters, parcels or anything remotely linked with the mail and I ran back into the house. Cipher posted the letters in my box and left. I went to the bedroom and cried my eyes out, and fell asleep, when I came to, my cutie mark had gone.” Apple Bloom tapped her hoof before she sighed “Sorry Parcel, before we do anything we need to talk with Princess Twilight, she might know what to do, or at least have something which could help.” Parcel nodded and put his outfit back on “If you need me I’ll be out with my bees.” In her library, Twilight blinked with her jaw dropped “He, lost, his cutie mark?” Also in the room Starlight stared astounded, she’d previously hated cutie marks for causing her only friend Sunburst to move away from. She’d tried to remove cutie marks and create an equal society as she called it, but she realised now it was a miniature dictatorship with herself in charge, thankfully the inhabitants forgave her later, and as of now she sends letters to them and they reply. But to hear about a pony who somehow lost his cutie mark completely. Spike sat on the table taking notes, as Twilight instructed when they arrived to talk about what they found. Twilight mind worked on overdrive “Didn’t you friend Trouble Shoes hate his cutie mark for years?” Apple Bloom spoke “Yeah, he didn’t like it because he thought he was bad luck, but he accepted it, his lot in life he called it. Really grumpy about it too.” Sweetie nodded “Here it’s different Parcel just out right rejected his life calling.” Starlight spoke up “And this is different to Star Swirl’s unfinished spell because it’s not a swapped cutie mark and confusion over his life calling. He doesn’t want to deliver post anymore, but a Post-stallion becoming afraid of letter?” Spike finished his notes “I can’t blame him, after what he went through all because of one letter, but that golden glow, you don’t think?” Twilight turned to him and glared “Spike don’t you dare accuse Princess Celestia for causing all of this.” Then she paused “Well, actually she did invite Discord so. Spike take a letter.” Spike smirked and nodded he knew this would have happen eventually. While they waited for the reply Twilight search her books on cutie marks, Starlight made a good point about the spell she completed and turned her into the physical embodiment of the Magic of Friendship and an Alicorn. Try as she might she couldn’t find any record of this. She looked to the others “You know I can’t help but feel sorry for Parcel, he’s going to end up in the history books as the first pony to lose his cutie mark.” Apple Bloom scowled and stood up straight “Then we Crusaders are going to so our best and give him a new one. Right girls?” “Right.” The two others nodded. Just then the doors opened and in flew the baby Flurry Heart, followed quickly by Shining Armour, Flash and Cadance. Twilight groaned and teleported her books back into place. Shining jumped but missed and dumped into Flash, and both crashed to the floor. Cadance shook her head and spoke up “Flurry Heart!”, her daughter stopped and flapped in mid-air, Cadance narrowed her eyes “I’m very disappoint in you little lady.”, Flurry’s lip quivered and she started crying and floated down to the floor. Cadance walked up and took hold of her “It’s okay Mommy’s here.” She gave her a hug and spoke softly to her “Now you’re going to behave yourself at Aunt Twilight’s, aren’t you?”, Flurry nodded and Cadance smiled “Good girl.” She kissed her on the check. Scootaloo fumed “Some ponies get all the luck.” Spike stepped over “Tell me about it, every other dragon I’ve met have had wings.” He then coughed up a letter which flew to Twilight, she read it out “To Twilight, I am beyond shocked to learn of such a consequence for my selfish desire for a livelier Gala, my condolences and apologies are to Parcel Post for causing him such distress, Luna has said that the Cutie Mark Crusaders should be able to help him and I wish them good luck. Princess Celestia.” Shining, Cadance and Flash all glanced at each other and Cadance walked to her sister-in-law “Can you explain what’s happened to Parcel Post?”, both Twilight and the CMC explained, much to their surprise. The CMC returned to Parcel’s house and went around to the back where he kept his beehives. Apple Bloom looked to the others “Do you think he can get a new cutie mark in beekeeping?” Sweetie shook her head “I think he would have already gotten it by now.”, Scootaloo nodded “I think the beekeeping is just a hobby, like you and potions Apple Bloom and me and my scooter.”, Apple Bloom then nodded “That does make sense, well Crusader we may have our work cut out, but we give up until we do our best, right?” “Right!” “Don’t be so load.” Parcel called “You’ll scare them.” He walked up to them in his full gear “On the bench.” He pointed to the wooden bench behind them, the trio sat down and watched Parcel handle a honeycomb “My family’s always been beekeeping as a hobby, something to let the stress go.” Apple Bloom nodded, many of his bees pollinated the trees in Sweet Apple Arches “So Parcel, what caused you to get you cutie mark involving stamps?” “Well, I’ve always loved communication, written communication most of all. The free movement of ideas, and the ability to converse with any-pony anywhere. I just wanted to be a part of it, so I asked the Post-Mare at the time, a friend of the family, if I could help her, she said yes so I did.” He smiled and he put the lid of the hive back into place “Oh I remember that first round.” He then talked to the foals about the day and then unusual ponies he came across. The Post-Mare even gave him her hat to deliver the first package of the day. He rang the doorbell and the top half of the door swung open, stallion asked about the name, but not him, his son, the colt made the box bounced up and down on the ground until a big red ball burst through the wrapping. The next house made him cry, the Post-Mare gave a sad letter to the stallion of the house, to this day Parcel didn’t quite know what the letter said, but he knew from the stallion’s tears it must have been sad. The Post-Mare comforted Parcel and took her hat back. Next house he rang the doorbell a few times before impatiently shouting, then a window opened and the pony explained about the broken lock and took the parcel through the window. Then they came to an odd house two homes built on top of each other and stairs going up to the top. Parcel climbed up them and rang the doorbell, to get door in the face and a cheerful chap, who didn’t apologise at all. Final package to a very fruitful mare with triplet foals, lollypops for her “little dears” as she called them. When he got home in time for lunch he asked to appear at the door in the hat, the Post-Mare let him do it. When he opened the door, and saluted his mother she looked so proud, and the Post-Mare said he would make a fine Post-stallion in the future, as mother and son embraced his cutie mark appeared. Parcel sighed, and frowned “And now that’s memories bittersweet.” “So,” Sweetie said “you like written communication? What about printing? Ponyville hasn’t had a skilled printer for donkey’s years. Even the Ponyville Express must print its stories in Canterlot and send then here overnight by train.”, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo gave her funny looks, Sweetie Belle looked between the two “What? Rarity told me.” Parcel paused at the suggestion of printing “Printing? The smell of the ink, the sound of type pressing against the paper, the thrill of seeing a finely done print. Ideas ready to be shown the world.” He smiled “Granddad told me all about it, he printed the first edition of the Ponyville Express his shop was on the High Street and before I helped the Post-Mare I would often go to his shop and watch him work. I’d even help him assemble the letter keys, sometimes. If I did it in Granddad’s memory I wouldn’t mind. I couldn’t be any worse than little Featherweight.” The CMC giggled, Featherweight, thought editor of the Free Foal Press the School’s own newspaper, he didn’t quite know how to work the press right, one time he covered himself in ink. Parcel blinked “Do any of you feel a tingling?” “Tingling?” the three foals said excitedly. Parcel walked away from the hive and took his suit off. On his flank appeared the picture of six letter types, with the Equestrian alphabet letters D, I, P, S, W and X. Parcel blinked and looked at the three foals, then he smiled widely. After arranging things, with Princess Twilight and Mayor Mare, and with some financial help from Filthy Rich, he got his grandfather’s old shop reopened, everything left as they used to be, just as he remembered, the chair he used to sit on still there in the corner. He checked to make sure the printing press worked fine, or else he would need the help of Doctor Time Turner, and after some of the stuff he came up with in the first couple of weeks with the Platoon, well, he didn’t want to risk his granddad’s pride and joy, at work of course, he family always topped his work. He needed a notice to tell of his new profession. So, he set to work assembling the metal letters, printers call it a type, and a trick his granddad showed him, assemble the type upside-down, because as the type is a reverse of what appears on the page, well, the type is the opposite way around to the page. He put the type into the press and straightened the letters. Then came the moment he really longed for, getting the engine going. His granddad told him when he started, he worked the press by hoof, faster than writing but still slow in some respects. His original press looked like a converted wine press, he cranked the sheet over the type, then pulled the lever to bring the press down to stamp the page into the type. Then he brought a new mechanical press, this one, with gears and flywheels, lever and connecting rods. At first a little steam engine powered it, but then at the tail end on his life he acquired an electrical engine, he needed to change the battery crystals every occasionally, but it worked perfectly. Although thanks to recent event Parcel couldn’t easily get hold of battery crystal, something about one discharging and causing a massive fire. He’d been too busy with his bees and the Platoon to read the Equestria Daily. Parcel pressed the green button and the engine, slowly whirred into life, Parcel frowned, this would mean a new battery crystal, or if need be, a new engine. Suddenly a song came to him, his granddad’s work song and he smiled as he softly sung them “I line up all the letters, with spaces in between… And clamp them in the printing press, a wonderful machine… Posters are in capital, bold and fat and tall… But the printing in the daily news is often rather small…” He put the sticky printers ink onto the pad “Now the inky roller, comes down the type and back… And makes the letters ready to be printed clear and black…” He tested the roller, it went over the ink collecting some of it and rolled over the type putting the ink over the letters, he added some more ink to the pad. He then went to the table with the pieces of paper stacked up to be his notices, he moved it to his left, and put another empty table to the right, he them stood directly before the press. “I check the pile of paper, for every single sheet… Will be printed by the inky type with letters clear and neat.” He slipped one sheet onto the flat metal plate, called a platen. He pushed a lever down, a gear slipped into place and the started to rhythm of the press. Roller up and down. Platen into the type and out. Parcel quickly moved the printed sheet as the roller came down again. “When they have a flag day, I print the little flags… Notices and labels, and even paper bags… I make the letter stand up straight and keep the paper clean… Then the job will be as good as any-pony’s seen…” From the door, the CMC watched with amazement, and quickly other ponies came to the door, Muffins, Cipher, Riolu and Fluttershy, Twilight and Flash, and the occasional passing pony. Parcel counted out the sheets and stopped at fourteen and pulled the lever up. The press stopped. Parcel wen to the engine and switched it off. Then he inspected the top sheet “Let’s see what we’ve got here. ‘By Royal Appointment of Princess Twilight Sparkle, Parcel Post Printers of Ponyville. Number 43, High Street, Ponyville, Everfree Kingdom. Commissions open, see management.’ Lovely job.” Twilight nodded and looked down to the CMC and smiled at them approvingly. The group then quietly walked away. Apple Bloom looked up the sign above the door, the name as Parcel said and a logo of a bee carrying the letter P. She smiled and turned to the other two “Well Crusaders, I’d say we did a good job. Any other pony with Cutie Mark problems?” Sweetie Belle thought for a moment “We could wait for Cipher to finish his round and try another cutie mark attempt.” Scootaloo suggested “Or we could go barrel rolling instead. Or we could barrel roll while we what for Cipher.”, Apple Boom smiled “Sounds like a plan.” And the fillies ran off.