Derpy awoke with the sun streaming through the window. It seemed like it would be a beautiful day, but then again the weather service had said it would be. The grey pegasus began her morning routine of a muffin followed by a quick sip of water, she absent-mindedly checked her appearance in the mirror and glanced at the clock.
The clock on the wall showed 8:15.
She was already 15 minutes late! The boss would not be happy, although he had seemed to be generally okay with the fact that she had dropped a piano on Ponyville's most magical unicorn, so he probably wouldn't make too much of a deal out of this. Derpy remembered the day so well; when she had first noticed Twilight Sparkle and started to watch just what she was doing, first out of curiosity, then out of an odd fascination. She had seemed like such a nice pony, having just moved here from Canterlot she obviously wasn't very familiar with all the earth ponies and how this small town functioned. She didn't seem to enjoy the time at the party much, even less so after Nightmare Moon had showed up, but that was completely understandable.
Derpy had wanted to go and introduce herself, and offer Twilight a tour of Ponyville, but she was very self-conscious about her eyes and wasn't exactly sure how much Twilight would like the idea of being hanging out with somepony like her.
As time wore on, Derpy's interest in Twilight grew as she saw all the really awesome things that she had accomplished. Defeating Nightmare Moon, getting rid of the Ursa Minor and the list went on.
The grey pegasus blushed as she remembered her first encounter with Twilight Sparkle, and thought that it really wasn't a good first impression to accidentally drop heavy objects on the purple unicorn's head. Derpy could see just fine, she had just gotten distracted while watching Twilight in her wheelchair/mobile-sickbed.
The eyes were usually the first thing most ponies noticed about Derpy, and that was a big factor in why she didn't have too many friends. This was also why Derpy was a mail carrier; there wasn't a whole lot of personal time with other ponies and it seemed to work well that way.
Derpy arrived at work and apologized to her boss and went about her job as she always did. However today was going to be different, she just had this feeling it would be.
And wouldn't you know it, on her third delivery for the day she notices that she has a package for Twilight Sparkle! Derpy chuckled as she realized that sounds like a line from a bad adult movie. "Get your brain out of the gutter, Derpy." She remarked to herself.
She arrived at the big library in a tree, and knocked on the door. The library didn't have a post box so she had to make sure Twilight got it personally.
The purple mare herself answered the door. "Morning, Twilight!" Derpy said, almost a bit too enthusiastically. "Oh hi…" Twilight replied, trying to think where she knew the mare from. "Derpy Hooves," the grey mare completed. Twilight tried not to stare at the mare's eyes, wondering which one she should look at when talking to her.
"Anyway I have some mail for you," Derpy said, "Strange that you don't usually get mail."
"Yeah, Spike has been sick and it has made corresponding with Princess Celestia quite difficult. So now we just use the post until he's better."
"Oh, well I guess this is from the Princess then." Derpy said, flipping the letter over to see the return address.
"Indeed, thanks for bringing this by, Derpy, I'll see you around."
"See you, Twilight."
Twilight closed the door, thinking about how strange it was that she had never spoken to Derpy before, "Perhaps she's self-conscious about her eyes?" Twilight wondered. "I sure would be." Still, she supposed the mare had a sort of charm to her, like somepony who was happy with life, and didn't care that she was different.
Twilight looked around the library, surveying the chaos that had been steadily building since Spike had gotten sick. The place was a disaster; it looked like Rainbow Dash had hit it while attempting to land. She sighed and went to check on Spike.
She hesitantly opened the door, not wanting to disturb his sleep. The little purple dragon was sleeping like a rock, and snoring like a landslide. She sighed and let him sleep, things were difficult without him, and Owlowicious wasn't of much help when it came to packing away hundreds of books.
Up the stairs she went, to her room. She levitated the letter in front of her and opened it in the air. She recognized the writing of her favourite teacher and started reading.
My faithful student
I am sorry to hear that Spike is still sick and I wish him a speedy recovery. While I am glad that things are otherwise well, I have been thinking about your stay in Ponyville and when you first decided to live there on your own. This brings me to my point.
You have told me about your experiences concerning the magic of friendship dutifully ever since you have moved to Ponyville. I feel you have learnt much about friendship, and I am completely content with only hearing from you every now and then, so please, Twilight, feel free to send me letters as frequently – or infrequently – as you see fit. It is no longer necessary for you to tell me about your adventures, but I will still welcome your reports as I always have.
This is not an easy letter for me to write, Twilight, but I feel you have grown up so much ever since you have left Canterlot and I want you to be free to experience everything the world has to offer. I specifically encourage you to find love and happiness with another pony, for there are few things as magical as love, and I wish for you to discover this for yourself.
Forever your loving teacher
HRH Princess Celestia
Twilight dropped the letter in disbelief, choked back her tears and read the letter again until she completely understood everything that her teacher had imparted upon her. This was more than just a shock to Twilight, this letter was life changing, she realized. She couldn't remember a time when Celestia hadn't been there to talk to her about… well anything!
Wait, Twilight thought, this might not be all that bad! She cringed inwardly as she remembered her mental breakdown involving the Want-it Need-it spell. That surely wouldn't happen again. In an academic sense, Twilight had graduated! So many emotions where whirling around in her head, sadness and joy and freedom and possibilities. She needed to do something to help her relax.
She immediately started to write down a plan she could carry out concerning the Princess's new suggestion of finding love.
Operation TwiLove:
1.Find somepony I am interested in.
2.See where it goes. If I find love, great, if not, well then we try again.
Twilight immediately saw a problem with her plan. "There is nopony I am interested in!" She thought aloud. With increased worry she realised she had never been interested in anypony, nor had anypony ever been interested in her. This did not bode well.
She needed a friend's advice, someone more experienced in this area.
"Rarity!" She exclaimed, while Spike thought the same thing, far off in his dreamland, only not nearly with the same intention that Twilight had.