“Derpy Hooves!” A buff brown pegasus shouted, shuffling papers at his desk. He had a black cap on, and his cutie mark was of a wooden crate. He appeared to be very stressed out; what with the random papers, envelopes, and packages strewn out around his entire room.
The gray pegasus flew into the office with her mailmare bag strapped on securely. “Yes, sir?” He glanced up from his work and set it down with a sigh.
“Would it be possible for you to work overtime for the next couple of days? We’re getting tons of packages recently… The other mail ponies are sick, and you’re the only one not doubled over in bed.” He coughed, “But I would understand if you said no. I don’t have enough bits to pay for overtime…”
Derpy puffed out her chest with a smile. “I can do it, boss! I can’t ask you for any bits, all due respect, sir. I can get this done alone in just a day or two.”
The stallion’s mouth dropped and his eyes widened. “Really? Are you sure you can handle this by yourself? Even though she’s not a mail pony, I could ask Cloud Kicker if she could help you…”
The mailmare’s grin didn’t falter as she started to stuff her bag with envelopes. “Of course! Leave it to Derpy!”
Derpy Hooves hummed to herself as she flew around Ponyville. She wasn’t the greatest flyer in all of Equestria, but she definitely had the spirit! She was sure she’d be able to take care of all the mail by herself easily, but there certainly was a lot…
The pegasus touched down next to her friend Lyra Heartstrings’ mailbox. She had a get well card from…Bon Bon. Apparently Lyra was sick, too. Why Bon Bon was sending a letter to a pony that lived in the same town was a mystery.
Derpy shoved the envelope into the mailbox before pulling out another one from her bag. This one was addressed to Carrot Top.
…It was going to be a long day.
Derpy Hooves was trying to find where Spitfire was living in Ponyville, (she’d never heard of the street) as she had about two hundred fan mail cards. While that was all fine and dandy for the Wonderbolt, it was difficult carrying so many envelopes in one run.
The pegasus trotted around town, her eyes scanning each street sign closely. There was no ‘Blaze Road,’ nor was there a building with a number one painted on it. It was nonexistent. Derpy frowned—she was known for being able to deliver mail no matter the distance; she always got the letter, or package, to its destination (mostly) in one piece.
The ground started shaking beneath Derpy’s hooves. Her eyes lolled in confusion at this, and she turned to check on everypony else’s reaction. Some ponies were looking around in bewilderment, while others were still going about their day normally. However, the vibrations continued to intensify until the gray pony could identify them as hoofbeats.
Just as Derpy was finally about to connect the dots, a mare cantered past everypony, shouting as loudly as she could.
“STAMPEDE!!! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES, EVERYPONY!”
That was Bon Bon. She looked really anxious, and it was obvious she wasn’t lying. Derpy turned herself towards the source of all the commotion, and a herd of cows was headed straight for Ponyville.
The bubbly mare started panicking. She was about to fly to the clouds for cover, but when she saw her fellow ponies utterly defenseless… Something ignited within her—a certain need to protect them. Derpy wasn’t sure where the bravery came from, but she wasn’t about to complain.
The pegasus flew as fast as she could (dodging most ponies) straight towards the stampede. She was able to get there before they reached the town, but she wasn’t sure what to do next.
“Hey, cows! Don’t run over Ponyville, okay? Go that a-way!” None of the animals paid her any mind. If anything, they only ran faster. Derpy tried to physically push the lead cow to the side, but it wasn’t working. Darn, she thought, Should have kept those muffins.
Just when things were starting to seem hopeless, an idea popped into Derpy’s head. She pumped her wings a little harder to get ahead of the herd and planted her back legs firmly onto the soil. She thrust her two forelegs out in front of her, wings opened in a display of superiority.
“Stop!” The cows up front neared closer to the pegasus with a spooked expression. They were definitely scared. At the last possible second, (Derpy was a little frightened as well) the cows steered off to the side.
The gray pony took a deep breath and shakily got back onto her hooves. She heard cheering erupt from the town, and turned back to look at who was doing so. Some of her friends, Twilight, Bon Bon, and Octavia were clapping their hooves happily. Derpy didn’t see Spitfire or Lyra, but she did see something she’d rather not have.
While trying to save the town from impending doom, her mail bag had gotten loose. Hundreds of envelopes, (mostly Spitfire’s) were floating around in the chaos, and, to make things worse, her old, worn and beloved mailmare bag was lost.
Derpy managed a small smile towards her friends and a short wave. She’d be able to get a new bag, and she’d just have to collect the mail before somepony else got to it. Easy.
Twilight was a mare of organization. Everypony in town was thankful for Derpy being there to steer the herd away from Ponyville, and they all pitched in to throw a party. The best part was that she’d be getting an honorary award from Mayor Mare herself!
Twilight had prepared a special speech, too. It was long and extravagant—as it should be. Derpy deserved the very best after she singlehoofedly saved Ponyville. However, she wasn’t expecting everypony to interrupt throughout the entire thing.
“Hello, everypony! We are gathered here today to honor a very reliable pegasus, with whom we owe our lives to. I’d like to personally thank Derpy Hooves for her contribution to our lovely town. And, more specifically, for saving Ponyville from being trampled. Furthermore—“Bon Bon jumped up from beneath the stand with a giddy smile.
“Did you see how she steered the cows away? It was so brave! And she’s going to help me make the legendary Burning Baby Blue Bonbon, whose spiciness is well-known even within the constructed limits of candy fame.” Twilight glared at the mare until she shrunk away.
“Anyway…” The unicorn was about to begin her speech anew, when another pony was atop her.
“Derpy’s so awesome!” Lyra sniffled and spoke nasally. She was obviously still sick, “She’s going to help me with my jokes and give me pointers. I’ll definitely become a comedian with a hero like her helping me.” Twilight shot her a look that told her to get off. The blue/green pony grinned before she too got off the stage, sneezing the whole way.
Twilight sighed, annoyed with having so many interruptions. “Does anypony else have something they’d like to add?”
She saw a hesitant hoof rise up from the crowd. The unicorn’s head dropped in annoyance, but she stepped away from her stand. Octavia smiled thankfully before taking her place.
“Derpy Hooves is a wonderful and friendly mare who will be assisting me in my next musical piece, titled ‘Love and Loneliness.’ I’m looking forward to this, as she will surely bring a different quality of music out of me.” Octavia smiled widely.
Twilight shooed her offstage shortly afterwards, gathering her speech papers once again. She cleared her throat, only to notice something in her peripheral vision. The unicorn glanced to the side to see Mayor Mare with a cheeky smile on her face—Twilight knew what was about to happen.
She groaned loudly, throwing her speech papers into the air and stomping off the stage. Mayor Mare only took this in stride with a simple grin plastered on her face, taking Twilight’s place.
“And so, with no further ado, it is my privilege to award the Prized Pony of Ponyville award to our very own… Derpy Hooves!” The curtains to the side opened, but nopony was inside.
Everypony gasped collectively, and it grew silent.
“I-I’m here, everypony…” Derpy walked through the crowd uneasily, carrying tons of envelopes in her forehooves. When she saw the papers on the floor, she hurried to them and began picking them up despite the heavy load she’d already collected. Twilight found it strange that she wasn’t using her usual bag to hold the mail.
“These don’t look like letters…” The gray pegasus squinted at one of Twilight’s speech papers. “Why is it getting so blurry?” Twilight wondered if she could actually read with her strange eyes.
The lavender mare cleared her throat and approached Derpy. She whispered into the pegasus’ ear so she wouldn’t embarrass her in front of everypony else.
“Derpy… Those aren’t letters, and Mayor Mare is about to present you your award.”
“A-Award?”
“Don’t you remember? It’s the ‘Prized Pony of Ponyville’ award. You’ve earned it after saving us from that stampede.”
Derpy Hooves blinked blearily. She looked really tired. Twilight pushed her on stage and watched from the crowd. Mayor Mare didn’t seem bothered by the interruption.
“Derpy Hooves, we would all like to thank you for saving our town, Ponyville. This is yours.” The mayor hoofed the trophy over to Derpy. The gray pegasus glanced between her hoof-full of letters and the trophy. She leaned over towards the award and took it gently in her mouth. It was easy to see she was trying to smile and say ‘thank you.’
Some ponies gave her strange looks, while others cheered. “Go, Derpy! Speech, speech, speech!”
The pegasus’ ear flicked, and she spoke. Tried to speak. “Mmf ar nngh,” She tried, “Erp oof oves hist own.”
Twilight could sense the awkwardness like a thick veil. Derpy seemed too tired to even care. Mayor Mare, however, knew when to take charge of a bad situation.
“Let’s all give one last applause for our Derpy Hooves!” Everypony stomped the ground in approval. The gray mare smiled wider, almost dropping her trophy in the process. Balanced on her two back legs, she walked down the steps as carefully as she could. Twilight moved to help her, but Derpy was already gone. The unicorn’s brow furrowed; now she was worried.
Derpy yawned as she flew back to the post office to get more mail. She was sure she was getting somewhere with all these letters…
Upon entering the building, she found even more letters than she’d seen at the beginning. Her mouth dropped, and her boss Crafty Crate gave her an understanding look.
“Just got another shipment of letters.”
Derpy gave him a small smile, though she’d barely heard what he said. Her vision was a little blurry, but she managed to gather a hoof-full of letters.
She prepped her wings for flight.
“What happened to your bag?” Crafty Crate questioned, noticing the fact she was still holding all those envelopes.
“What happened to my flag? I don’t have a flag, sir.” Derpy’s nose wrinkled in excitement, “But a flag would be nice to have.”
“No, no… Are you okay?”
“Am I going air-way? Sure am, be back for more later, Crafty Crate.” Derpy spoke louder than necessary, and after another yawn she took off. The older stallion didn’t get a chance to stop her.
Derpy bumped into the door, dropping a few letters. But she didn’t stop to collect them; she kept going out. The pegasus looked at the one on top of her stack and tried to read the curly hoofwriting.
“T…Twilight…Spark? Oh! From the Princess!” She blinked a few times. “Sending it through the mail? That’s kinda really weird.”
Derpy slowly made her way to the library, dropping letters here and there. She didn’t notice, though. As soon as she made it there, she pushed the letter inside the mailbox.
“Derpy! I was just about to go looking for you!” The gray pony jumped and more envelopes fluttered to the ground. The pegasus was quick to gather them up, squinting towards the pony who had addressed her.
“Twilight Spark? What did you say?”
“Are you okay? You don’t look very good…” The blurry Twilight Sparkle leaned down towards Derpy. “I think you’re overworked.”
“Yes, I’m going air-way soon. I don’t think that makes sense, but why does everypony ask me? And I’m not shirking work! …What does ‘shirk’ mean?”
The unicorn only stared. “That further backs my hypothesis. I’m worried about you, Derpy.”
“I want to stay Twilight Spark, but I have to keep working, I’ve got a lotta letters I gotta deliv…deliv…” The pegasus’ eyes closed and she slumped over.
“Derpy…? Derpy!” Twilight shook her friend awake. The snoozing pony jerked and blinked rapidly.
“Why are there so many letters?”
“Everypony’s getting sick, and Mr. Crafty Crate wanted me to…to work a little harder while they’re gone. I should get back to work now.”
“Do you want some help? I could—“”That’s okay. I got it.”
“I really don’t think that’s a good idea…”
Derpy shrugged her off and walked away to deliver her next letter. This one was addressed to Spitfire, too. The mailmare groaned audibly and opened up her wings. The pegasus had barely found where she lived last time, and wasn’t looking forward to flying up so high again. The Wonderbolt had her home custom-made in Cloudsdale out of the very best clouds, and kept it way above Ponyville so no fans would be able to find her. She even got to name the ‘road’ what she wanted to. Obviously, she’d made the address public, but nopony knew where it was.
Bon Bon waited patiently in her shop. Derpy was supposed to arrive twenty minutes ago, but it was worth it. If she could recreate her very own patented Burning Baby Blue Bonbon that’d only been successfully made once, she’d die a very happy pony.
In the distance, she saw Derpy trotting towards her place. The pony bumped into several other strangers, and tripped over her own hooves. Bon Bon didn’t really notice—she was too excited to make her famous candy.
The pegasus stopped in front of the earth pony. Bon Bon giddily pulled her inside where all the materials were already strewn out over her counter top. She spoke with seriousness.
“Derpy Hooves—this recipe is not to leave this shop, okay? If anypony learns of how it’s made…” The gray pony nodded gruffly, and that was enough. Bon Bon’s expression lightened into a smile.
“Okay. Well, we’re going to have to do our very best to make sure this goes according to plan. I have yet to have it come out just right. It’s a very delicate procedure—are you ready?”
“Y-Yeah.” Derpy was trying her best to listen, despite the fact she kept drifting off. She should’ve been working, but her friends came first. Crafty Crate didn’t know that she wasn’t delivering letters at that moment.
“First off—I’d like you to temper the chocolate molding. No, I repeat, no water on it, okay? None! You just have to mix it completely, put it into this pan with bonbon shapes on it, and let it dry, okay? Okay?!” Derpy nodded briskly. “Good. I’ll work on the filling and try to get it to its full spicy potential.”
Bon Bon moved over to her station and looked over her shoulder. “If you need any help, just ask, got it?”
The pegasus stared at the big bowl in front of her. What went in chocolate, again? The only sweets she knew about were muffins—yum. She took a moment to fantasize about them. What was she doing again…? Right—making chocolate. Just how…?
Derpy found a bunch of chocolate looking cookies in the corner of the kitchen. She glanced back at her friend before tasting one. Definitely tasted like it. She threw all of them into a blender and turned it on. Bon Bon seemed too concentrated on her own work to notice the loud noise.
Derpy turned the blender off and stared at the new concoction. It was dust—wait, didn’t Bon Bon say to add lots of water?
The pegasus grabbed a huge glass of water and poured it in, stirring it up. Now that looked like milk chocolate!
The gray mare noticed the pan Bon Bon had pointed out earlier and pulled it towards her. It was silver with twelve circular indents in it. Derpy shrugged and tilted the blender for all of the mixture to pour out onto it. She found a butcher knife and smoothed it all out. It still looks wet. Derpy thought, Should I put it in the microwave?
The pegasus lifted the pan that was entirely covered with chocolate and shoved it into the small microwave. At first it didn’t fit, so she had to slam the door shut. She set the microwave on five minutes and ate a couple muffins while she was waiting. (She’d brought a couple just in case for situations just like this!) Meanwhile, Bon Bon was sweating as she added a trace amount of hot sauce.
Just before the microwave dinged, Derpy pulled it out and hurriedly set it on the counter. It was really hot, and her tongue was burnt. It looked okay, though. The pegasus glanced at her friend, who happened to look over at the same exact time.
Bon Bon looked at the strange chocolate, and nodded approvingly.
“That looks different, but good. Record time, too. Next you want to hollow it out for the filling.” She turned back to her work.
Derpy took the butcher knife in her mouth again. She frowned and turned her head sideways. The chocolate mixture was really hard, but she managed to cut small holes in each piece.
“I think I’ve got it…” Bon Bon whispered, eyeing her own liquidy substance. She spoke more towards her friend this time, “Are you done, Derpy?”
“Derpy’s done.” The gray pony said in third-person. Bon Bon had a smile as she walked over with the filling between her hooves.
“Looks pretty good, Derpy! Have you done this before?”
“What was that?”
“Have you done this before?” The candy mare repeated slower.
Derpy shook her head, and Bon Bon shrugged. She pulled out a measuring cup and poured the filling into it slowly. She did that for each candy, and was able to get it inside of each one.
“Finished!” The two ponies looked at the creations.
“Time to see what these bad boys taste like.” Bon Bon popped one into her mouth, and she chewed leisurely. The beige pony swallowed and her face turned red. She raced over to the sink and drank water from the faucet. Derpy watched with concern.
Bon Bon looked back with a small smile. “I don’t know what you put in that… but it certainly didn’t taste like a Burning Baby Blue Bonbon! It was something else entirely…spicy, yeah, and…cookie-like?” She shrugged, “Thanks for trying, though.”
“Why’s Bon Bon and…everypony else breathing fire?” Twilight questioned, staring out her library window. “Isn’t that what you do, Spike?”
The dragon jumped up, trying to catch a view of his love. “I don’t know… Here’s hoping she wanted to find something in common with me!”
The unicorn shook her head, but said nothing on the subject. “Speaking of oddities,” she began, “I don’t think Derpy has slept at all for the past three days. Wait, wasn’t she going to help Bon Bon with her spicy candy, or something? Maybe she had something to do with this… What do you think, Spike…Spike?”
Twilight looked around. The library door closed shut the next second, and she realized he was on his way to go see Bon Bon. She let out a sigh, glancing out the window. She saw her assistant racing towards the beige mare.
“I think I’ll go check on Derpy.”
Derpy Hooves shoved a letter into a mailbox, took it out, and put it back in. She did the process several more times before realizing what she’d been doing. She tripped over one of her hooves and fell over, dropping the last piece of mail she had with her. She gathered the package back up and made her way to the next pony’s house.
Twilight followed her. “Derpy! Take a nap! Celestia knows you need it.”
“I dun’t…dun’t need help.” She slouched when putting the package on the house’s doorstep. “I can do it…all muhself.”
Twilight shook her head, “No, you can’t!”
Derpy became adamant when she glared at her friend. “Of course I can! I…I have to go. To do something or… something for…uh, Lyra. Yeah, Lyra.” The pegasus’ eyes rolled around. “She wanted me to…to help her with jokes or…somethin’.”
Derpy didn’t give the unicorn a chance to speak before she took off flying. That was the last package she had in that round, so she figured she’d have a couple minutes to help Lyra out.
Her house was pretty close to town hall. It was a small home, but it suited a mare living alone. Derpy knew that Lyra had Bon Bon help decorate the inside, and it did look inviting. Lyra was obviously waiting for her, because the minute the pegasus knocked she was already inside.
“Thanks for coming,” Lyra sniffled, “I hope I don’t get you sick, though.”
“No, dun’t worry about it.” Derpy swayed from side to side from fatigue. The unicorn got her to sit on the loveseat, and sat next to her.
“This is important to me—I’d like you to help perfect my jokes. They need to be…be…” Lyra sneezed. She wiped her nose off before continuing, “Sorry…Ugh, I hate getting sick! A-Anyway, they need to be funny. Alright?”
Derpy tried to listen; she honestly did, but didn’t really hear properly. She stared blankly at the unicorn, who took it as understanding.
“Here’s the first one—when do vamponies like racing?” Derpy didn’t show any sort of acknowledgement of the joke, so Lyra continued.
“When it’s neck and neck!” She began to laugh, but ended up in a coughing fit. The pegasus’ eyes wouldn’t stay open, and she ended up falling asleep. When Lyra opened her eyes again, she tapped a hoof onto her muzzle understandingly.
“Too boring? I get it—I put you to sleep with that one. Alright, good. You get how this is going to work, so you can wake up now.” She shook Derpy awake. The pegasus lifted her head back up and blinked blearily.
“I’ll try to liven the jokes up a little. What’s a pony’s favorite game?” Lyra could barely contain her excitement. Derpy shook her head.
“Don’t know? It’s stable tennis! Eh? Eh?”
“S…Stable?”
“You know, that’s the term for where we sleep. And it’s a pun for…never mind. Didn’t understand the joke, so it’s not funny. Thanks.” Lyra sniffled as she thought.
“Okay, here’s my icebreaker! Why can’t ponies dance?” The pegasus looked around.
“We…We can dance.”
“Just answer the question!”
“Um…I dunno…”
“Because we have two left feet! Ahaha!” Lyra giggled, but Derpy remained stoic.
“I think your jokes would be funniest if you didn’t laugh too.”
“Hm…I see. Thanks for the pointer. I got this.” Lyra took a deep breath, trying not to smile. “You’re great at this! I’m sure I’ll be a first-rate comedian with your help.”
Derpy was doubtful anything could help her.
Derpy snored. She was laying on the floor right beside a mailbox. She hadn’t been asleep very long before Twilight shook her awake.
“Derpy, you shouldn’t sleep outside… I’m really worried now. You’re still delivering these letters?”
The pegasus barely registered what she said and nodded.
“I think I should help you… Lyra came to my house a couple minutes ago with her ‘killer’ jokes that you taught her, telling me that I was sure to laugh at them. She thinks she’s hilarious right now.” Twilight shuddered. “Corny. Anyway, you’re getting worse. It’s been what—four days? You need help.”
“No, I… I’m fine. Perfectly. And… Perfectly. B-Besides, October—“”Octavia,” Twilight corrected with a sigh.
“Yeah, Octavia needs my help with her music. It’s none of your business. I dun want to be mean, but I don’t need nopony’s help. This…is nothing…”
Twilight groaned when Derpy flew away. The pegasus fell to Equestria a few times, but she managed to make it out unscathed.
“Why does she have to be so stubborn?”
“My, my, are you alright, Derpy Hooves?” Octavia questioned. The musical pony decided the park would be the best place to write a piece, and the pegasus had literally dropped out of the sky right in front of her.
It took the earth pony a minute to realize that she was asleep. Gently, she patted Derpy’s back. The wall-eyed pony didn’t wake up, so Octavia let up. She stood on her back hooves with practiced balance and pulled out her cello. She would play until Derpy woke up by herself.
Which, it turned out, only took two minutes. The bubbly mare jerked awake, as if from a bad dream, and jumped up.
“O-Oh, Octavia. I…I…sorry for falling, and falling asleep.” Octavia raised an eyebrow at this, but didn’t question her.
“It’s quite alright, Derpy Hooves. Are you ready to write music?” The pegasus stared at the earth pony for a long minute.
“How do you…do you stand like that for so long?”
“Can’t you? I recall you doing the same to save Ponyville not too long ago.”
“B…But that was for a second. I lost my balance a second later. You do it…long time.” She skipped a few words, but in her exhaustion she didn’t care.
“It takes a little practice, I admit. But being an earth pony and musician, I must be able to use my forehooves.” Derpy didn’t say anything, so Octavia changed the subject.
“Anyway, Derpy Hooves—“”Just Derpy…Derpy’s fine.”
The musician didn’t object. “Derpy, how would you like to help me perfect this piece? I have the music written out, and the title of the song is ‘Love and Loneliness.’ It’s meant to be a meaningful song with a more depressing look on love. That’s how I feel when I play it, anyway.” Her eyes turned downcast. “Regardless, I’d like to have your opinion on it.”
Derpy nodded mutely, and Octavia held the bow gently. She closed her eyes and began to play. Despite being super duper tired, the pegasus kept herself awake. The notes of the song were drawn out and low, giving it the feel of a sad love. Even though she’d only experienced love once in her life, Derpy felt as if she was a part of the piece. Just like everything else she’d heard Octavia play, it was beautiful. There was a reason her cutie mark was of a treble cleft.
The earth pony finished the melody with a bittersweet end. It left more to be desired, but was still satisfying. Derpy felt a little bit more awake. A little.
“What did you think?” Even her voice sounded more musical after the tune. However, Derpy wasn’t very good with words, especially when she was so sleep-depraved.
“It was great, sad, and made me think of somepony else. Maybe you could make it…longer…” Her eyes started to droop again.
Octavia brandished her cello. “Perhaps. What would the next part be about—love or loneliness?”
“I think…” Derpy yawned again. “It should be about…love. If it ended on a happy note, it would be happy and sad at the same time, making ponies want to hear it again. Or something… Like bubbles and muffins.”
“L…Let me show you.” Derpy got up on two legs. Octavia gave her an incredulous look.
“I don’t think that’d be a good idea, Miss Derpy.”
“Jus’ Derpy, and... is okay.” She took the cello from the musician and began playing. With her hoof.
“N-No,” Octavia was quick to correct her, “You must play with this.” She held the bow in her hoof, trying to give it to the amateur.
“I dun’t need it.”
“I insist.”
“I’m fine.”
“Miss Hooves, the cello is a very delicate instrument. It requires the utmost care, and hoof-playing is unheard of. It could damage the strings…”
“It’ll be al…right…” Derpy was nodding off. Octavia was able to get her instrument safely away from harm and in its case before the pegasus was aware of her surroundings.
“Thank you for the help, Derpy. I’ll see you again sometime.”
“Derpy! You haven’t just been causing yourself problems with this, but now you’ve affected everypony!” Twilight shouted to be heard by the exhausted pony. “Everypony is still under the weather from those candies you made, you almost ruined Octavia’s instrument, and you’ve got Lyra running around town getting everypony sick, not just with a cold, but with her jokes! You need help, and I’m not taking no for an answer.”
The pegasus put an envelope into Cloud Kicker’s mailbox before walking back to the post office, which was right next door. Twilight followed her, still lecturing her. Derpy had zoned out a while ago.
She went inside and saw absolutely no mail, and no Crafty Crate. Derpy blinked a few times before looking back at the unicorn with a victorious smile.
“I TOLD YOU! I needed no help, I said so and I got all the letters delivered—I told you, I told you! All by myself!” Derpy jumped up and down, accidentally slipping and falling on the ground at some point.
Twilight had an apologetic look on her face. “Erm, Derpy…”
“I knew it wouldn’t take too very long! I did it!”
“Derpy…”
“Told you, Twilight Spark!”
“…Your boss is at the door.”
The pegasus opened her eyes and looked back at the entrance. She saw Crafty Crate and… a huge shipment of envelopes. Derpy fainted.
When Derpy awoke again, she saw Twilight staring down at her with concern written on her features. She was still in the mail room.
“Derpy? Are you awake?”
The pegasus only blinked up at her, and she continued.
“I understand that you wanted to get all of this done by yourself, but we’re your friends, and we can tell that you need help. If you could just step aside and not be stubborn, we could get somewhere, and you wouldn’t have to be so stressed out.”
Derpy’s expression showed remorse. “O-Okay…I understand, Twilight Spark…I do need help.”
“As I was saying, don’t be st—you said yes?” Twilight blinked at the pegasus. Obviously, she expected Derpy to remain adamant.
“Yeah… I…I do need help with this—it’s a lot and too much for somepony like me to do alone. Please won’t you help me? I don’t want to be selfish and ask, and I’m sorry…”
Twilight chuckled before smiling at Crafty Crate, clearly thinking ‘Job well done.’ He grinned back.
All of Twilight’s friends were helping Derpy deliver the mail. She was part of the organizing team, with Crafty Crate, while everypony else got the letters and packages where they needed to go. While she got the addresses down and their areas, she also got Spike to write a letter to Princess Celestia.
“Dear Princess Celestia. My friend, Derpy Hooves, is one of the best friends anypony could have. She’s always there to help, but is hesitant to ask for it herself. While friendship is about the giving of ourselves to our friends, it’s also about accepting what our friends have to offer. Derpy's learned that the hard way this past week while trying to deliver all of Ponyville's mail by herself. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.”
Derpy had gotten some sleep since the other day, and she was refreshed. The pegasus held out a tray of muffins with a smile.
“Muffins, anypony?”
Spitfire was there in no time, already eating one. “Thanks, Derps.”
The rest of her friends followed suite, thanking her their one way. Spike whined.
“Can’t we eat the Burning Baby Blue Bonbons? They’re really good!” The dragon munched on one, immediately belching flames for no reason. Bon Bon stuck her tongue out at the thought.
“No way, those aren’t even Burning Baby Blue Bonbons! They’re…hm…Fiery Flying Fuchsia Derps.”
“That…makes no sense.”
“I couldn’t think of something that started with ‘f’ for the last part!”
“What’s with you and alliteration, anyway?”
“I-I don’t know!”
Derpy giggled and hugged all of her friends. “You guys are the best friends anypony like me could ask for.”
Spitfire blinked, just remembering something.
“I heard you had a foal?”