He ambled at a casual stroll through the lanes of Canterlot. "This city is so..." What was the right word? He wasn't sure. It was so everything... He watched the fancifully dressed ponies wander past. He watched the fancifully dressed pegasi soar overhead. He watched the procession of a jillion unicorn horns, all turned up away from him.
"Excuse me?"
He turned to see a pegasus. She was dressed as a postal mare and her eyes were misaligned. She was smiling hopefully and didn't even seem to mind his existence. "Yes, hello. I'm looking for somepony."
"Woah, me too!" He offered a hoof towards the mare. "It's like we're brothers."
She smiled at that. "Wow! I didn't even know I could be a brother!" She sounded just as happy as he did, meeting his hoof with her own in a loud clop. "My name's Derpy. Derpy Hooves, and I'm looking for Day Dreamer. Do you know them?"
"Woahhh freaky!" He rocked back with the power of the coincidence. "I'm called Day Dreamer. What are the odds of two ponies with the same name?"
Derpy tilted her head thoughtfully, then blinked. "Wait. Maybe you're the pony." She coiled on herself, pulling out a letter and presenting it balanced on two hooves. "I've brought you a letter!"
Day accepted the letter, gazing at it curiously and placidly somehow at once.
Derpy tilted her head at her newfound brother. "Aren't you going to open it?"
"Oh yeah..." He ran a hoof along the top, popping it open. Inside was a folded letter that he flipped open. "Color noticed I was gone," he laughed at, scanning his eyes back and forth over the paper. "Aw, I didn't mean to worry him. Uh, can I write a letter back to him?"
Derpy landed on the ground lightly and dug out an empty envelope, a sheet of paper, and a quill. "Here you go. Anything for my brother!"
"You are a righteous mare." He took the quill in his mouth and started scribbling at the paper, making quick words.
Hey Bro,
I'm doing alright, so stop worrying about me. I'm in Canterlot. They are so stuck up around here! So many noses in the sky all around me. I'll find her though, don't worry! As soon as I do, I'll head back, maybe with her. Won't that be awesome? You keep working on that sweet art of yours. Oh, I left this month's rent under my mattress if I'm too long, so don't worry about that.
Peace and Love,
Day Dream
He clumsily stuffed the letter in the provided envelope and handed it to Derpy, not entirely contained. "Here you go. Get this back to Color Splash, please."
Derpy got to getting the letter to fit in the envelope better and sealed it shut. "You got it. So are you coming over for Hearth's Warming? It's not right, my brother staying away during the holidays." She waved a hoof at him in a firm reprimand. "You better be there!"
Day stood up on all fours. "I'll be there, uh, where is that?"
Derpy rolled her eyes, a dramatic display with neither going in precisely the same direction. "Silly Brother." She gave him an address and lifted into the skies a little. "I have to keep delivering things. A mailmare's work is never done! Good luck finding the pony you're looking for. Say... who is it?"
Day tilted his head a little. "Her name's Libelous."
Derpy blinked softly. "Her name is a bad thing?"
"Nah, bro." He waved a hoof lazily at Derpy. "Libelous Word, that's her name."
"Oh! I have to give her a letter too. Wanna write her too?"
Day considered that. That would be convenient, but... "I really need to talk to her, you know?" An idea came to him though. "Hey, why don't you let me deliver her letter?"
"Well, I shouldn't..." She slowly landed again. "But, for my brother, I guess I could make an exception."
"You are a completely righteous bro, bro." He held out a hoof, but instead of getting a hoof in return, a letter was placed on it.
She pointed with a wing. "She lives up there. Since you aren't a pegasus, you'll have to knock. Tell them you have mail, 'cause you do, and they'll let you in. Be sure she gets it! I'll get in trouble if you don't, and you wouldn't do that to me, right brother?"
"Right." He nodded firmly and tucked the letter away. "I'll get right on it."
She flew away, confident that the matter was in good hooves.
"Just after lunch." He wandered towards an eatery that was emitting scents he approved of. "Questing is hungry work."
Libel peered in the mirror. "I'm not ugly..." She was, so far she knew, a perfectly pretty mare. She turned left and right, taking in her reflection from different angles. "Everything's in the right place. Nice mirroring..." She spread her wings and brought one before her eyes. "Properly preened..." She gnawed against the feathers a moment, working them into perfect position between her teeth.
She was a lovely mare, or so she worked to convince herself.
She just had one little problem. Her eyes half-lidded, peering at her back end in the reflection. "This isn't even the first time..." She sagged a bit. Her latest attempt to pursue romance was far from her first clumsy attempt. Though that had been the first time the other person had spotted her.
"It was the longest," she noted to her reflection. Maybe that was why they noticed... Give them long enough, and anyone'd notice eventually. She couldn't hide it forever...
"I can't hide." She turned to the door, frowning. "Maybe she's right..." She just had to grow up. "It's time I stopped holding myself back." She thumped the floor and marched to the door, throwing it open with a wing. "Tell anyone that calls for me that I went out on business."
"Yes, ma'am," replied her secretary. It made her smile to think she was successful enough to have one of those.
She just had to stay that way. Libel popped open a window and took off, flying away towards the closest hospital. It was time she got things looked at properly, and a solution was found.
Day Dreamer arrived at the gates to the building he had been pointed to. "Canter Publishing," he read from the sign with a tilted head. "Sounds important." He reached for the gate and tried to push it open, but it was quite immobile.
"Can I help you?" asked a voice without an obvious source, seeming to come from somewhere in the iron bars itself.
Day Dreamer smiled softly. "Woah, wish my door talked to me. That would be cool."
"Can I help you?" repeated the voice. "Do you have business here?" The voice sounded female, and bored.
"Sorry to harsh on your buzz." He coiled on himself and pulled out the envelope. "I have a letter I need to deliver."
"Oh, a courier." With a soft click, the gates fell open a precious inch. "Come in. The gate will close itself after you're past it."
Day Dreamer slipped through the narrow gap, just for the gate to snap shut the moment he was past, clicking loudly with the lock it presumably had. "Freaky." He ambled towards the front entrance, only to stop half way. A flower caught his attention and he had to stare at it a moment. It was a riot of colors, red and purple in wild patterns that made his eyes dart around it, trying to capture it all at once. "Nice..."
He leaned in and took a soft scent, savoring the sweet aroma as it drifted almost as lazily as he moved. "Oh man, I'd love to have a few of these." His voice was empty of jealousy, simply happy to have found such a wonderful flower. "You keep on growing, little buddy." He raised a hoof and patted the flower carefully before resuming his trek.
He had a different kind of flower to find. Ascending the steps towards the building, he was almost knocked aside by another pony hurrying into the building. "Hey?" He got no response from the unicorn that dashed into the building and let the door close on its own slowly behind them. "Wonder what has their tail in a knot..." Still, it was Canterlot. All the unicorns had different things tickling at their back ends.
He reached the top of the steps and turned around to look at all the steps he had defeated, quietly savoring the moment of success. Maybe that'd be a good place for a nap? Nah... He had a thing to do, and ponies got upset when he took a nap on their door for some reason. He pushed on with all the lazy determination he could muster. "Libel? Miss Word? I'm here..."
He had to rear up and get the door handle in his mouth to pull it open then slip inside. It was immediately colder inside in defiance of the warmth outside. Ponies were seated at desks, typing busily on either side. There seemed to be a large desk in front of him with a mare also typing, clacking away at a two-buttoned typewriter quite busily. She looked up when he entered. "The courier? Who's the letter or..." She trailed off, seeing he held a letter. "Nevermind. Who's it for?"
"Libelous Word," he proudly declared. "I have a letter and a message for her."
The mare's brows both went up. "Oh, the mystery deepens. I won't pry." Being an office of journalists, prodding too much into the sources of others was a good way to cause no end of trouble. "Her office is on the second floor, 204. Knock before entering."
Day Dreamer nodded at her. "Righteous. You've been great." He moved to walk past her and her big desk. "Where's the stairs?" She pointed the way. "Thanks." And off he went, walking in no particular hurry.
The secretary watched him go a moment, shaking her head. "Slowest courier around... I wonder why they keep him around." Her eyes fell back to her own work and her typing resumed in a furious click-clack, the matter dropping out of her mind in favor of more pressing issues.
Libel sat on a cushioned table. She wore nothing. Not even that. "Is this... alright?"
"If you make a mess," insisted the doctor, who was a stallion. "It won't be the first or the last I've had to deal with." His horn glowed, bringing a stethoscope over to press against her chest, working it into her fur. "Now take a deep breath."
She inhaled powerfully, filling her lungs.
"Let it out."
She leaked like a balloon with a small hole. "What's this have to do with... that? I mean it's not a lung problem... is it?"
He let the tool drop, dangling over his neck. "Since I have you, no reason not to do a complete checkup. Things can be connected indirectly, and if you were sick in some other way, you'd want to know about it, wouldn't you?"
Libel hiked a brow. "Well, sure, but I have a more pressing problem..." She gestured back at her hindlegs. "I just want to be able to go to the bathroom, like any other pony in the world. I don't feel like I have to go until it's already too late, sometimes not at all. Just... like that, I'm making a big wet mess."
The doctor moved over to the sink. With a glowing horn, he turned on the faucet. "Does that feel any different?"
She blinked dumbly at the faucet. "What..." He turned it off, paused, then turned it back on. "What are you doing?"
He turned it back off. "Some ponies sympathetically feel like they have to go when they watch water flow like that. Is this a recent thing, or...?"
"Since I was a foal." Her cheeks lit up, painfully hot. "Forever... I... never had control."
"I see..." He made a note with a floating pen. "We'll need more tests."