//------------------------------// // New Job, New Life // Story: Dragon Mail Service // by RubberEyes //------------------------------// Today is the day for Daizy Hooves! The little unicorn could barely hold her giggles to herself as she looked at the train’s window. A mere week ago she was barely surviving on her own in a minuscule rented apartment in Manehattan, but now she not only had a new job, technically, but a new temporary place as well! And to top things of, it was in the great city of Ponyville! Oh, Ponyville, the ever-growing metropoly, the only city other than Canterlot to hold a Princess. The capital of science, magic and knowledge, the paradigm of harmony and friendship. It would be the most perfect of cities, where it not for its treacherous neighbour, the Everfree Forest. But the happy mare couldn’t care less to the proximity with the forest, the simple idea of living in the same city that a Princess more than exhilarating. So many sights to see! The Grand Animal Sanctuary, The First Carousel Boutique, the only Sugar Cube Corner in all of Equestria with all its unique cupcakes, and most important of all, the great palace of crystal, the home of Princess Twilight Sparkle, the only, the magnificent, The Friendship Castle! Even in the middle of the train travel Daizy could see the silhouette of the castle in the horizon, shining brightly with its crystal walls. It wouldn’t take very long now to reach her destination, the edge of the city could already be seen in the distance. But even with her happy anxiety, she couldn’t help but to feel a little scared as well. Her whole life she had lived in Manehattan, the city that never sleeps. With all of its tall buildings and gray style. Where everypony that was out had something to do, someplace to be. The city that buzzed with activities under Celestia’s Sun and Luna’s Moon, both. But Ponyville, even with it being a little bigger than Manehattan, seemed so much more alive, so much more colorful. Daizy couldn’t help but feel like she wouldn’t fit in. Around her, in the train, there were so many ponies with so many colors while she had a plain gray coat, and not a light and shiny gray like her mom’s and grand-grandmother, but a dull and boring one. And her mane was a pale brown that could most likely blend with the soil of a farm and— No! She would not start her first day like this! She wouldn’t even be there for long, just enough to complete her training before assuming her new profession. And besides, she was on her way to a new life, and her new life would not start so depressing. She had enough of that in her old life. Her dull, and boring old life. Daizy Hooves had woke up with her alarm clock, and started her day as usual. A mug of cheap bitter coffee held in her magic to quick-start the day, and a cold shower to wash the sleepiness away. She walked to the door, her saddle bags already on her back with her resume, ready to find a new job. She had gotten to the lobby of her apartment and checked her mailbox, not really expecting to find anything, when she found the best thing she could have hoped for in that week. The post office had received her resume and wanted to make an job interview with her! That very same day! That very same hour— oh no. She was almost late! And so, she started running. If she had the time she would have wondered why that interview was scheduled with such short notice, and she would’ve realized that the letter had actually been delivered three days ago, and for three days she had forgotten to check her mailbox. But she didn’t have the time to think, she only had the time to run as if her life depended on it. Her apartment surely depended. When she finally reached the post office she was 14 minutes late. Running through the doors and inside the building she talked in between breaths of exhaustion with the first employee she found about her interview. “Through that door, then turn right. It is the second door on the left” She said pointing in the direction with a hoof. “Good luck with the interview!”If the exhausted unicorn had heard her incentive the mare would never know, since Daizy started running away as soon as she got the directions. Following the instructions was easy enough and soon she found herself in front of a white door with no clear indications on it to show her if she was or not in the right place. After taking a second to breath and clean a little of the sweat that coated her, she tried knocking in the door, but was interrupted by loud voices. “But why don’t you just do it? You are the boss! You are supposed to do this kind of thing!” Shouted a old masculine voice in the other side of the door.“Ink Spot, you know as well as me that it is your obligation to find your own substitute, as is established in the Comprehensible Colle—” The feminine voice was cut off by a the one apparently called Ink Spot. “Comprehensible Collection of Standards and Protocols and blah blah blah. You know as well as me that that book is just a exaggerated guideline. Heck, even the author think it goes overboard sometimes, and I know this because I was there when this was being written!” “Yes, it is a guideline written by our own princess and I will follow it until the end! Now if you want your retirement you better find yourself a substitute. After they are trained and working here you are free to do whatever you want.” The mare said and opened the door, making Daizy, who was totally not prying the conversation, jump away from the door. The mare eyed her for a second before speaking. “And who are you? This area is for employees only, lady.” “I-I’m Daizy Hooves.” She said while trying to compose herself. “I’m here to—” “Daizy, huh? Ah, right. The job interview. Sorry but I already gave it to a—” The mare stopped herself before finishing the sentence. Daizy could see a glint in the mare’s eyes that made Daizy start sweating again. “Actually, you came right in time!” She said with a grin. “I-I did?” “Why, yes! Here, come in.” The mare stepped aside indicating Daizy to go in. “Daizy, meet Ink Spot, he will be interviewing you today. “Wait, I will?” Said the unicorn in the other side of the room.“Yes, you will.” She said as she silenced him with a glare and sat Daizy down on a chair. After searching through some drawers on the cabinet in the room she found some papers that she gave to Ink before leaving the room. “Good Luck~” She sang as she closed the door. The stallion sighed, grabbing Daizy’s attention. “Right… You’re Daizy, right? Just give me a second and we will start.” He started reading the papers that were given to him and Daizy couldn’t help but notice that they were actually her resume. After some seconds reading he just started flipping through the pages barely trying to read it. After finishing it he just threw the stack of papers onto the floor before igniting his horn again and burning the papers with green flames, much to Daizy’s dismay. “This is his problem now.” He said to nopony in particular. “Wh-What?” Daizy’s mouth moved as she tried to form words but her brain was too preoccupied with trying to understand what was happening. She just stared at where her resume, that she had spend a whole week working on, was burnt into nothingness, leaving not even ashes or burnt marks on the floor. She was so focused that didn’t even noticed that she was being asked a question. “Do you have family in the city?” The stallion asked again impatiently. “Wh-what?” “Family? City?” He repeated. “Uh. Eh. No. No, I don’t.” She finally answered. “My parents moved to a smaller city some years ago.” “And close friends? Do you have many?” “Uh. No, I don’t think so…” She answered, feeling a little down by her own response. “Huhm. Harsh life, ain’t it?” Ink Spot said somewhat sympathetically before talking again. “Float that stack of letters over the desk to here.” “What?” She asked, startled by the sudden command. “Letters. Magic. Horn. Float. You can do that, right?” He asked in a neutral, almost bored voice. “I-I think so.” Her horn lit up and soon the stack of paper started floating in the air. She almost dropped the pile as she lifted it up, the weight of paper being surprisingly heavy. As she focused on her task, she didn’t even noticed her eyes misaligning themselves, one going a little up while the other went down. When she finally dropped the pile in front of them and her eyes aligned themselves, she let out a breath that she didn’t know she was holding. “Huhm… Well, good enough for me. Congratulations, the job is yours.” He said with forced fake cheer obvious in his voice. “I what?!” She asked, eyes wide as she tried to figure out if what she heard was right. “The job is yours. Well, technically not but”— he sighed —”I guess I will also have to explain this…” As it turned out, Ink Spot was the unicorn responsible to receive and send letters through a thing called ‘Dragon Fire’. He had explained to Daizy that it was a spell created some 30 years ago that allowed to send letters through grand distances in instants. She had already heard of it before, and knew that the prices to send letters through it was way to high for someone like her. It turned out that the spell that he had used on her resume previously was the Dragon Fire spell, the green flames probably being the reason to why it had that name. But much more exciting than that, was the fact that she, Daizy Hooves, was selected to become Ink Spot successor! When he told her that, she couldn’t help but to jump around in happiness. The only problem was that he could not teach her the spell for some reason, and she would have to travel in order to learn from his master. The good side was that she would have to travel to Ponyville and live there until she learned the spell. And best of all, everything was paid by the crown! Since post offices are administered by the government, her training also was. So she could enjoy her staying without worrying about the bits! She still didn’t know how much time it would take, nor where she’d be staying, probably some cheap hotel, but she didn’t care. Just the fact that she didn’t have to pay for the ride there was more than enough to make her happy. Just as she finished remembering how lucky she was, the train brakes started to screech and they came to a stop. Taking her gaze away from her window, she looked at the other side, and got just a glimpse of the city. She rushed the door but was stopped by the flood of ponies that tried to do the same as her. After tripping on herself and others ponies sometimes and some rushed apologies, she finally reached managed to get out of the train and into the train station. The sight before her was     .    .   .    surprisingly underwhelming. The station was as bare as a train station could be, the only noticeable thing being a large flag depicting a purple alicorn surrounded by 5 gems that stood proudly at a medium sized pole. As the flood of ponies started to disperse away she looked around and found the scenario to be quite lacksome. The station was in front of a common road that led to a bunch of houses with nothing particularly espetacular about them, except maybe the amount of vegetation, a clear contrast with Manehattan concrete streets and walkways. Everything seemed so… Peaceful. Daizy just stood there, enjoying this new feeling when she noticed two fillies, one golden and the other yellow, by the station’s platform holding a sign with “Hello Daisy” written in it with large letters. They were probably send to show her to her new place, and so Daizy walked to them. The yellow fillie seemed to notice her and looked at Daizy and spoke with a smile. “Howdy, are you Daisy?” “Yes.” She answered with smile of her own before eyeing the sign. “Although it is spelled with an ‘Z’” “What?” The fillie gave a look at the sign before face-hoofing. “Aw, shoot. Sorry ‘bout that. Anyway, the name is Aurora.” She held a hoof out. “A pleasure to meet y’all. And this here is mah’ sister, Golden.” She said giving a side hug to the other mare who just waved. Daizy took her hoof and shook it. “My pleasure. Uhm, are you here to show me to my place?” “Eeyup.” Said Golden. “You bet! But first, they told me to present y’all to good ol’ Uncle Spike while Golden here is going to take your bags to y’ah place.” She said as she took the bag from Daizy’s magic grasp and put it on Golden’s back. “Oh, thank you very much.” “It is nothing. See y’all at the farm, Golden?” She asked her sister. “Eeyup.” Golden said as she started going on her way with Daizy’s bags. After that they just started walking, Aurora just showing the way while Daizy looked around, taking in the 'small city'. The city was actually pretty big, from what she could see, and the enormous castle seemed to dot its center. Only after some streets around the castle itself, it seemed, the city started to take its modern style and shape with crystal like constructions right beside common old brick and hay houses that made the district that she was currently in. “Enjoying the view?” Aurora spoke suddenly. “Ah… Y-yes. It is pretty… interesting?" That comment just got a chuckle out of Aurora. “Pretty weird, uhn? Granny told us that before the castle the city was small like a apple blossom. But then the castle appeared and ponies started coming from all Equestria to live here. And they build those weird houses of crystal to look like the castle.” She said as they reached the top of a street that ascended, giving Daisy a good view of the rest of the city. Although there weren’t as many tall buildings as in Manehattan, there were houses for miles on miles for all to see. Many of them shining brightly under the sun, reflecting its rays in all directions with walls of crystal. As Aurora continued walking, Daizy couldn’t help but notice that they were walking away from the city an into open fields. “Where are we going?” She asked. “We are going tah’ see Uncle Spike, ‘course!” She said happily. “Wait, y'all mean where he lives, right? He lives just east of the north orchards.” She said pointing to a bunch of apple trees. They continued walking into the orchards, making a quick stop to pick some fresh apples to eat on the way. After several minutes of walking Daizy started to get worried that they might be lost, since there were no buildings to be seen, only a big hill in front of them. Maybe the house was after the hill? “We are here!” Aurora spoke, coming to a abrupt stop before the hill. “We are?” Daizy looked around confused, searching for a house or something and failing. “Eeyup!” The filly said as she started digging at the ground. After some seconds and a lot of flying dust she stopped and pulled a large emerald from the dirt. “Here, if he’s still sleeping just put this in front of him and he’ll be up in a flash. He is in the cavern right there.” She said as she pointed at a dark spot at the side of the hill and started running away. “Good luck. I’ve gotta go. Bye.” She said, disappearing inside the orchards with audible giggles, leaving a very confused Daizy behind. Shrugging the weirdness aside she took the emerald in her magic and walked in the direction of the cave. She couldn’t help but to be impressed with its size, almost as tall and fat as two hooves. She wondered why Spike, like the filly had called him, was inside the cave. Maybe he collected rare gems? Reaching the entrance of the dark cave she took a deep breath to steel her nerves and stepped inside. Her horn provided some light, but not much since she was also trying to carry the gem in her magic. With careful steps that echoed through the cave she slowly crept inside, but the further she got, the more she noticed something strange. The walls were flat. And so was the ceiling. She started looking around, trying to understand how could a cave have this format, eventually starting to walk backwards while reaching further deep in the cave, trying to analyse some pillars that seemed to be sculpted into the walls. Eventually her rear bumped into a wall. She turned around to inspect it and was fascinated to see a purple wall instead of the regular dark gray of the rest of the cave. More peculiar yet were the two holes on the sides of the wall. More surprising was the sudden gust of hot air that blowed into her face from the holes, making her take a step back. More terrorizing than the darkness in the cave, was the realization that she did not face a wall. In fact, she faced something that she had only seen in her nightmares. In front of her was a enormous purple dragon. For a second her magic flickered before going out entirely. Too paralyzed by shock she didn’t notice as the emerald fell to the floor with a loud *clank*. The dragon opened his eyes, before blinking sometimes. His eyes adapting to being awake. The dragon opened his mouth as far as it would go. Daizy also opened her mouth as far it would go. Daizy let out the loudest scream she had ever heard.