Twilight sat on her bed as the cycle's start whistle stopped. As she rubbed her eyes, she took a quick glance around her new room.
The room was exactly the same as her old one, the only difference being the hat sitting on the nightstand. It was gray instead of black, made of cloth instead of metal, and was a sign of her incompetence instead of her brilliance.
Twilight eyed the hat and smiled with determination. No matter what others might say, to her, the hat was a sign of her dedication, of her love for the colony. It was given as a sign of a demotion in her career, from being an astronomer to being a supplier, and she didn't mind. If it meant making her mentor proud, she'd do it, no matter the cost.
Twilight fell into a routine and suited up. Just as she finished donning her gofer's hat, a ping! came from her multitool belt, indicating that, just as usual, she missed bath time. Oh, well.
As she opened the door, she was immediately greeted with a familiar, unwelcome scent. Looking up, she found out that the janitor for floor 220 was "Stinky!?"
The Dupe guffawed. "'Fraid not, Miss. Name's Gutterson." He tipped his hat, which read 'Bristle Acres' and continued. "Though, Stinky and I did come from the same blueprint."
Twilight fell to the ground and hid her face beneath her hooves. "Why, Manager, Why!?"
The Manager gave her a playful mental nudge.
Gutterson stepped back and gave her a worried look. "Uh, you okay there, Miss? Can I help?"
Twilight peeked from between her hooves to shoot him—and, by extension, the Manager—a glare. "No, you can't." Standing up, Twilight sighed in defeat and stepped aside. "Well, here you go. Shoo. Go do your thing."
Gutterson let out a chuckle. "Well, you're that kind of pony, huh?" He leaned his broom to his shoulder and offered a hoof. "Well, nice to meet you, Miss . . ."
She ignored the hoof. "Sparkle. It's nice to meet you too, Stinky."
"Gutterson."
"Whatever. You stink the same."
Gutterson laughed as he entered her room and closed the door behind him.
Twilight let out an exasperated sigh and looked left. It was a familiar sight, yet at the same time not: an aisle with rows and rows of doors, the first half dozen of which led to bedrooms, while the others led to storages. As she trotted her way toward one of the storage rooms, she saw other ponies coming out from their rooms, stretching their limbs before immediately galloping away.
Correction: they weren't galloping. They were simply trotting with such speed that the anemics would perceive it as a mini rocket launch. Such was the life of couriers, always needed everywhere at once. But, as busy as they were, those who passed by Twilight took their time to slow down and greeted her with a smile and a nod, which she ignored.
After what felt like hours of passively telling ponies that she won't be returning their greetings, she finally reached a pneumatic door marked 'cultivatable soils'. Opening it, she was greeted with rows upon rows of storage compactors.
A speck of prismatic colors in the distance stuck out between the dull brown. Twilight quickly noticed it, mainly because said speck had grown into a full-grown pegasus mare in the split second she blinked. "Finally! What took you so long? I've been waiting for minutes!"
Twilight pushed the courier away from her personal space. "Hemoglobin deficiency."
The rainbow-maned cyan pegasus gave her a blank stare. "What?"
"Anemia. Also, a few minutes doesn't mean anything."
"It means everything!" she answered lividly, scowling and spreading her wings wide.
Twilight took a momentary step back.
Just as fast, her scowl disappeared and turned into a smile. She extended hoof, saying, "I'm Rainbow Dash, Head Courier of Bristle Acres. You've probably heard of me before."
"I did, actually. A few seconds ago."
"What was that last part? Didn't quite get that. Anyway, we're already behind schedule as it is, and since you're new, I'm going to guide you until the cycle ends."
"Yes, I know," Twilight said, nodding. "So, my first assignment is delivering . . ." Twilight checked her mental to-do list again. ". . . dirt to the mealwood farm."
Rainbow nodded, her gray-orange courier's cap bobbing along. "Right. C'mon, let's go!"
Twilight blinked once. When she opened it, a dissipating rainbow blur was the only indication the cyan pegasus was ever there in the first place.
Twilight sighed and counted, "Three . . . two . . . one . . ."
The rainbow blur came back to her vision. "I said, 'COME ON!'"
Twilight flinched at the ringing inside her ears. "Calm down. I haven't even taken the dirt."
After a few minutes of continuous impatient grumblings, Twilight finally finished packing the two hundred kilograms of dirt into her saddlebag, molecularized as to not hinder her movements. Rainbow herself had already carried one and a half tons of bleach stones.
And up the stairs they go, Twilight trotting in slow motion while Rainbow impatiently galloped back and forth and up and down the stairs they're climbing.
As they reached floor 223, Rainbow began galloping in circles around her.
"Will you stop that?"
"Stop what?"
"Galloping around me."
"Only if you're faster, slowpoke."
And so Rainbow continued galloping around her until they reached floor 240.
Which, to Twilight's delight, was their destination. She plopped into the ground and breathed heavily, and she took the moment to take a quick look around.
To the right of the stairs was a pneumatic door. Through the iron wire mesh, she could see rows upon rows of mealwood plants. A similar door stood in the opposite direction, and through it, she could see rows upon rows of bristle blossoms, lit by the ceiling lamps above them.
The left door opened, and an orange earth pony wearing a red jumpsuit came into view. Seeing Twilight sprawled on the ground, she took her front leg and lifted her up, tipping her hemp-sewn hat with the other hoof. "Howdy, miss," she said in a thick southern accent. "You must be the new courier?"
"Gofer," Twilight corrected and, sensing an incoming hoofshake, quickly pulled her hoof away. "For a while."
Rainbow, somehow already dropping her load at the waterweed marsh at the far end of the aisle, came back with a smile. "Hey, Applejack! Haven't seen you in a while."
Applejack chuckled and offered a hoof bump, which Rainbow delightedly took. "We met yesterday, Dash. But yeah, it's good to see you."
Twilight dropped her load to the floor, which quickly resized into its original two-hundred-kilograms of once-manure. "I'll leave the dirt here if you don't mind?"
"You can leave it here, Sugarcube," answered the farmer. "But don't leave just yet! You gotta try this here's fresh berry, straight from the Acres!"
Twilight, being unceremoniously yanked from her attempt to escape social interactions, grumbled in annoyance. "No, thank you. I have places to be, and 'in your grip' is certainly not on the list."
Applejack looked at Rainbow, which shook her head. She rummaged around her many pockets and, returning her sight toward the Dupe in her iron grip, produced a fresh, unprocessed bristle berry. "Just a single bite, Sugarcube. I insist."
"It's awesome," chirped Rainbow. "Trust me."
Twilight let out a huff. "If this means never needing to greet you again, then fine."
Twilight took the bristle berry from the laughing farmer and shoved it into her mouth.
The farmer looked at her with a smug grin. "So, you like it that much, huh?"
Twilight, definitely, absolutely, positively not grinning goofily and sighing in utter pleasantness of savoring the unmatched taste of a fresh bristle berry straight from its stem, shook her head. "As sweet as death's embrace."
Applejack let out a hearty chuckle, while Rainbow fell to the ground in a giggling fit.