“Hello every pony and listener,” Starlight welcomed their fellow followers back for another day of R.U.G. fun and talks, “We are outside the studio to get our hooves doing something busy as we are in Ponyville’s post office centre to see how one letter gets from one place to another and hopefully get the chance to be delivery ponies ourselves.”
“Giving us a tour of the mail delivery service is the one Ponyville’s well known delivery ponies, Derpy Hooves!” Trixie introduced the grey, wonky-eyed pegasus, who waved with a big smile on her face.
“It’s great to be on the show and to give you a tour of Ponyville’s delivery service,” Derpy thanked the group, “And if you would follow me, let’s deliver this tour.”
“I see what you did there,” Tempest chuckled, “So how much mail does the post office get each day?”
“Oh, hundreds to the thousands,” Derpy answered as she led the group in, “And we get ponies and creatures far and wide, like Gabby who helps connects the School of Friendship to Griffonstone, which is good for Gallus if he wants to write anything or Grandpa Gruff, who wants to see how Gallus is doing.”
“What other visitors to the post office do you get?” Sunset asked with intrigue.
“We even had Princess Celestia and Princess Luna here,” Derpy explained, “It was mainly Luna’s idea, since working at night means she hasn’t been to a post office before. She wanted to see the process of delivering a letter to her sister, who happened to be standing right next to her.”
“She really needs to get out more,” Trixie giggled, “But I heard that they were on vacation, so that counts as something.”
Derpy led the R.U.G. behind the counter and opened the door to the filing department. She took a deep breath and let her nose take in the smell.
“I love the smell of parchment and freshly printed stamps every time I walk in here,” Derpy sighed in contentment, “I can see why Princess Twilight loves the smell of new books. Anyway, wince we get mail from the counter that needs delivering, they are separated based on the city it needs to go to and size. letters are stored in special compartments to the desired destination and parcels are stored alongside them in another shelf.”
“What happens when something needs to get to Cloudsdale?” Starlight asked, “It must be hard to get mail from the ground to somewhere as high only pegasi can reach?”
“Not unless you have a pegasi department for getting letters up there,” Derpy smiled, “In fact, since I was a pegasus, they thought it was best to get me started on the pegasus department. However it didn’t turn out so well.”
“What happened?” Sunset asked. Derpy splayed her eyes back and a blush formed on her face as she looked away from the group.
“First day I was ordered to handle a big delivery for a potted plant, an anvil, a hay cart and piano. However, I dropped it on some poor pony in a wheelchair. I never saw who though,” Derpy explained, rubbing the back of her head with a hoof. Trixie burst out laughing, only to be jabbed on the side by Starlight.
“After that, I was simply given the task of counter work or simple mail delivery,” Derpy smiled, “But I enjoy what I do and I think it’s important that you like your job. I love getting my uniform and visiting each house in Ponyville, the town ponies opening the door with smiles on their faces. Each parcel and letter are little packets of joy and love under each envelope and inside every box.”
“So, what is our task at the post office today,” Tempest asked.
“You will be helping out with filing the letters to their desired destinations,” Derpy explained, “We have a big order of letters and parcels to go through. The way you do it is simple. Just get a hoof full of letters and parcels, look at the address it should be sent and file it in the designated shelf. With your magic and Tempest’s quick hooves, it should be each for all of you.” The group nodded and got into their work uniforms.
Starlight was the magic organiser. Lifting the letters with her magic, she organised them into a row which started moving in mid-air, similar to what Twilight would do when organising her books. The group took out a couple of parcels and letters and started organising them onto the correct shelf. Whilst Trixie and Sunset worked through them with their magic with ease, Tempest was still able to keep up the pace with her hooves. She also managed to heavier parcels which needed to be moved into a special cart.
The group worked effectively, impressing Derpy who stood on standby. They quickly managed to get through fifteen bags of letters and eleven crates of parcels. By the end of the shift, the post office was ready to deliver them, Derpy managed to instruct the delivery team which destination they were in charge of. The group of delivery ponies took their bags and filled them with letters and trotted or flew off to their destinations.
“Thank you so very much for helping out. You might consider being delivery ponies yourself,” Derpy whistled as she looked at the now empty shelves.
“Thank you so very much for giving us a tour of the post office,” Starlight thanked, “Thank you all for listening and I hoped you leant something about what your letter has been through to get from A to B. That is all from the R.U.G. for now and we will be back for more talks and fun, so stay tuned.