//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 // Story: Angelswift // by Nevel //------------------------------// "-And she said that I can help her with feeding the animals, and looking after them, and-" Cherry had been talking non-stop since breakfast. They both had a slice of Pinkie's cake and while the cake was delicious, Lance hoped that he would be able to buy some proper food soon. All these sweets can't be too good for a pony’s diet. They had just crossed a bridge over a small stream and were now walking along a well-kept dirt path, up a hill, that led towards a cottage that was so dressed up, that it looked like it was just another part of the environment. The roof was covered in grass, there were at least a dozen bird houses all over the house and even more hanging from tall thin trees along the pathway. There were also holes in the hill itself where lots of underground animals were nesting. Lance adjusted the saddlebags that he had on his back before raising a hoof and knocking gently on the door. Fluttershy answered the door seconds later. "Oh, good morning." Fluttershy said as she stepped back. "Please come inside." Cherry jumped ahead of Lance in front of Fluttershy. "Hi Fluttershy!" Cherry was super excited to see the yellow pegasus again. Lance stepped in, walking around his little sister who was half blocking the way in. "Good morning, Fluttershy." Lance said politely. "Thank you for inviting Cherry over. It's all she's been talking about all morning." "That's alright. I've been looking forward to it." Fluttershy said with a smile. "Umm, would you like some tea or a cold drink?" It was a tempting offer, and all Lance had to drink that morning was some water from the tap. "Thank you, but I have to be going. I just wanted to make sure that Cherry got here okay." Cherry was looking at a small birdhouse that was hanging from the ceiling. Small blue birds were flying in and out of it gathering food from the bird feeder hanging just outside the open window. The entire house was full of small animals. There were mice, chipmunks, ferrets, and lots of other animals that Lance didn't recognise. The cottage was extremely well kept, considering all the animals walking along the furniture. Cherry jumped up to the window and looked out the back. "Wow! Big brother, look at this!" Cherry shouted a little too loudly and the animals had fled, hiding themselves back in their little homes. "Cherry." Lance cautioned. "I know you’re excited, but remember. You're a guest in Fluttershy's house and you’re scaring the animals." Cherry looked around and saw all the animals that were happily scurrying around had hidden away. Cherry slowly came down from the windowsill and then headed over to Fluttershy, with her head hung low. "I'm sorry, Miss Fluttershy." Cherry had, in a heartbeat, sunken back into her shell and was again shy and quiet. Not making any eye contact. Fluttershy walked over to Cherry and lifted her face up with her hoof. "That's okay, sweetie. Now don't you worry about it, okay?" Lance could tell that Fluttershy had had experience talking to children. Or maybe she just spent so much time talking to animals that she was a natural at being comforting. Cherry smiled at Fluttershy. “Well, I've gotta head off.” Said Lance. “Cherry. You behave yourself and do everything Fluttershy tells you. Okay?” Cherry nodded. “Good.” Lance walked over to Cherry and gave her a quick hug. “I'll be back later. Thank you again, Fluttershy.” Fluttershy nodded and smiled back to Lance. “That's okay, Mr. Angelswift. It's my pleasure.” “Please, call me Lance.” Lance smiled back to her. “Oh, umm... I'm sorry, Lance.” Fluttershy had gone quiet again. Is she like this around everypony, or do I seem intimidating to her? “Well, I'm gonna go now. Bye! Be good!” Lance said to his little sister before waving a hoof and then walking out the door. Cherry waved and said goodbye as she watched her brother leave. Lance shut the door behind him and took a deep breath of the cool spring air. Fluttershy sure did live in a much nicer area. He hoped maybe he could beautify his home like this soon after he'd finally gotten a job. * * * Lance had reached the market and it was very busy in the morning. Ponies from all over Ponyville were shopping for their weekly supplies. They all had their saddlebags full of fruits, vegetables, jams and other items, like pots and pans. Seems this was the place you could buy just about everything you ever needed. Lance walked over to the first stall he saw. A mare with a light yellow coat, green eye shadow and a brown curly mane was selling tomatoes. “Yeah, what can I get for you?” She said, sounding bored. “Hi, I just moved to Ponyville and I was wondering if you needed any workers? Maybe someone who can-” The mare cut him off. “Listen sonny, I don't need any more workers back at the greenhouses. My kids pick 'em. I sell 'em. I don't employ people. Now, unless you’re buying, I suggest you move along.” The mare gave a look to Lance that screamed 'Get Lost'. Lance moved away without another word. He then approached the next market stall. There was a grey stallion with an orange mane behind the stall, selling pears. “How do, friend! What can I get for ya?” The pony asked with a smile. “Hello,” Said Lance. “I'm new in town and I'm looking for work. I was wondering-” Lance was again interrupted. “Wait. Ain't you that new fella that Pinkie had that party for yesterday? T-That's living near the ol' forest?” said the salespony. “Err, well yes, I'm-” “Well, 'taint much I can help ya with.” Said the salespony, in a rush. " 'Fraid we got all the help we need back home. You best just move along. Good day!” Lance looked down at the ground then back up to meet the stallion’s eyes. “Okay. Well thank you for your time.” Lance walked away. What was that about? He seemed fine till he- Lance realised that the Pony only got flustered after recognizing him. Were the ponies really so paranoid that they won't even talk to a pony who lives NEAR it? This turned out to be mostly true. Many of the ponies were quick to make up excuses to get Lance away from their stalls and one pony even turned hostile. Shouting and telling him to leave 'Or else!'. Lance couldn't believe it. The ponies in this town thought he was cursed or something. The ivory coloured pony walked with his head low, avoiding a few stares he was getting. "Get your delicious and nutritious apples here!" Lance looked up and saw he was walking past a salespony he hadn't been to yet. An orange mare wearing a brown cowpony hat over her blonde mane, tied back in a ponytail. She was in front of an Apple cart full to the brim with delicious looking apples. Lance headed over to her and she greeted him with a smile. "Well howdy do there mister. Names Applejack! What can I do ya fer?" Applejack asked. "Hello," Lance spoke politely. "My name's Lance Angelswift. I'm new to Ponyville and I’m looking for a job." Applejack didn't lose her smile but her eyes said the same story everyone else's did. "Well, I'd like ta help ya out an' all. But I'm afraid that we don't really need any more help over at Sweet Apple Acres." Lance hung his head low. Applejack saw the rejected look on his face and couldn't help feeling guilty. "But err... look. We've got cider season coming up soon and I reckon we sure could use the help then." Lance looked back up to Applejack. "That's very kind, but that still doesn't help me and my little sister survive until then." Lance said, sounding depressed. "Ya'll have a little sister?" Applejack asked, concerned. "Yeah, she's being looked after by a friend at the moment." Lance said. "But, I've tried every market stall and everyponies rejected me. Most of the time, I could tell they were lying and just wanted to get rid of me. But... Well, thank you for your honesty." Lance turned to walk away. "Now hold on there." Applejack stopped him. "Now look, I really can't offer you a job, but if you keep looking, there's bound to be one somewhere. Don't give up! An 'ere. Take some of these with you." Applejack took a small bag of apples and placed them into Lance's saddle bags. Lance smiled up at Applejack. "Oh no, I couldn't possibly-" "Now don' you 'freat. These here are on da' house. "T-That's very kind of you. Thank you!" "And remember. You've always got friends up at Sweet Apple Acres. You should drop by sometime once you get settled in. And bring your sister! I'm sure she'll get on well with Applebloom, my little sis'." Applejack seemed like a really nice pony. Lance thanked her again and promised to take her up on her offer, one day. Lance walked away, waving a hoof. His spirits lifted higher now that he'd made a new friend, but if she knew about where he lived, would she have given him such a warm reception? The free apples that Applejack had given him, weighed heavy in his saddlebags. Then he remembered. The letters! Lance had the letters in his saddlebags and he wanted to take them to the local post office. He didn't know if it would do any good. Most of the letters were years old but some were recent. Though it did seem like that there hadn't been any post from the past few weeks. Lance assumed that maybe the mailpony had just simply stopped coming by the house seeing as how terrified everypony was of it. Lance headed though the town and eventually reached the Ponyville Post Office. He walked inside and was quite surprised. It was empty, the floor was dirty, the rope that you would have ponies stand behind while waiting in line was lying on the floor. It was like nopony cared. There was a pony behind a counter but she looked like she was asleep. Lance walked up to her. "Umm, excuse me." Lance said to the old blue mare behind the counter. Her grey mane was a mess and she wore thin half-moon spectacles. She awoke with a snort then looked up at Lance, blinking a few times trying to get her eyes to adjust. "Oh sorry. Err... yes dear. How can I help you?" "Hello. I've got some letters here that-" The old mare jumped up from her seat. "Oh! Really? Well, then hand them over and we'll get them all done for you." She held out her hooves expectantly. Lance felt like the Post Office never got customers anymore. "Well, the thing is..." Lance hesitated and then pulled out two stacks of letters. The first stack was made up of letters that were less the six months old. The second, much larger stack was held together by string. These letters were much older than six months. Many going back several years. "These letters were all delivered to my house mistakenly over the years. I wasn't sure what to do with them, so I've brought them back here." The old mare lowered her hooves, losing the smile from her face. "I see. Well, just leave them on the counter then." She looked so crest fallen as she sat back down. Just then the door from behind her slammed open, making Lance jump. But the old mare just seemed to ignore it. "PENNY!!" A brown pegasus stallion burst into the room. He looked a mess. His black mane looked like it hadn't been washed in weeks. In fact, HE looked like he hadn't washed in weeks. He had rough facial hair all around his mussel, he looked slightly overweight and he sounded very rough. "I told you that I wanted my coffee twenty minutes ago! Where is-" The stallion stopped mid-sentence when he saw another pony in the room. "Who the feather are you?" "I- I..." Lance stammered. "He's just come to return miss-delivered letters." The old mare said, sounding bored. "Oh really?" The pegasus sounded annoyed. "Well lemme tell you something young colt. We don't give a hoof about giving rewards or compensation for you taking your 'precious' time having to come all the way out here to return these damned letters!" The pegasus' temper was rising. "Wait, rewards? No, I just-" Lance started, but wasn't heard as the stallion kept shooting off at the mouth. "And you think this is at all easy? Delivering hundreds of letters when no other ponies will help?" Lance gave a look to the old mare. She was just sitting there, looking down. "And all you ponies wanna do is complain. None of YOU ever take the time to help! I'm constantly stuck with you small brained parasprites that cause me nothing but trouble!" Lance took a few steps back. What is this ponies problem? "And with the mailponies constantly quitting on us, we're stuck with the complaints from little foals like you complaining about 'Oh I never got my letter'. And I’m fed up with it!" The pegasus' impression of a little filly wasn't very flattering. Lance had to stop him. "Now look here! I've done nothing to provoke this. I just moved to Ponyville yesterday. My home was full of letters mailed to the wrong address, and I brought them back here. I'm not looking for any reward. I just did it because I thought it was the right thing to do!" Lance met the pegasus' cold stare, neither of them blinking. "Well, the little Colt-scout has done his good deed for the day. Well, you might as well forget it. These letters aren't ever getting delivered. The last mailpony quit weeks ago and no one else will take the damn job!" "I can't imagine why?" The old mare said quietly, rolling her eyes. "Maybe somepony would take the job if you didn't shout at everypony that came in here." Lance said, as the Pegasus turned his back to him. "Well I don't see YOU volunteering for the job?" "Well..." Lance didn't like this Stallion. He was rude, a bully, a jerk. But Lance was desperate. "Maybe I am!" The stallion spun around on the spot. "You serious?!" "Yeah!" Lance stepped up to the counter. "Look, I need a job and you clearly need a mailpony." The pegasus looked Lance up and down. "What's wrong with you?" The pegasus asked suspiciously. "Excuse me?" Lance replied, offended. "Every mailpony over the years has had something wrong with them. That derpy mare, and also that near sighted foal. What's your problem?" Lance really didn't like this stallion. "Nothing. I'm exactly what you see." The pegasus huffed, and then flew over to a small door, opening it. "Get in here. Let's talk." * * * Lance was wearing his new blue mailpony jacket along with a small blue hat. He had been given a not so simple task of delivering all the letters that he himself had brought in and there was also another task. - - - "I have to WHAT?!" Lance said stunned. He was in the office with his, soon to be, boss. "You have to go to each house, knock on their door, hand them their mail and then tell them that you're sorry for all the issues that Ponyville Post has had over the years and that changes are being made to its staff members. All mailponies are going under training to insure that they are competent enough to deliver the mail." The pegasus sat behind his desk, with a cigar in his mouth. He seemed pleased with the idea. "You going to make me, the mailpony, look the fool to try and get the post office off the hook?" Lance said. "Quick as a whip, kid." The brown stallion blew out a puff of smoke. The room stank of it. "This is-" Lance was quickly interrupted. "I hate this as much as you do." The pegasus clearly lied. "But the company is losing money fast and we need to get the money up. I hate this place, but I ain't letting it go under." "If you hate this place, why don't you quit?" Lance asked, not hiding his dislike for the pegasus very well. The stallion then jumped up. "Are you kidding me?" He turned and pointed at the cutie mark on his flank. It was an envelope with a pair of legs. "With a cutie mark like this and my parents calling me 'Post Pony Pete', how could I be ANYTHING ELSE?!" - - - Lance had an understanding now as to why Post Pony Pete was angry all the time. His entire life he'd been pushed into something that maybe he didn't want to be. Lance stared back at his own cutie mark. A Shield. Lance believed it was his destiny to be a Canterlot royal guard. Since getting his mark, that's all he's dreamed of. But was that his dream or what he thought he had to be? Lance had been to a few houses already. Delivered their mail and, although he hated it, apologised for the mailponies failures of the past and from this day forward they would undergo special training. Lance knew there would be no training, but if there was, it would be stuff like 'learning to read addresses'. It was humiliating to let the ponies of Ponyville think he was an idiot. Lance came to a small house with grey walls and a straw roof. Lance knocked on the door and stood back. The door was answered by a light brown stallion with a dark brown mane that was brushed backwards behind his head, yet it still remained a little spiky. "Hello there." The brown pony said. "Good afternoon," Said Lance. "I have a letter here for 'The Doctor'?" "Ah, Yes that's me." Lance pulled the letter from the mailbag and handed it over. Lance noticed it said on the front 'Open immediately!'. The letter was old from the look of it, so whatever was in there was most likely not going to be of any use. Just like most of the old letters. The doctor took it and then said, with the letter in his mouth. "Huh? Ain' 'ah s'range" The Doctor began opening the letter and Lance began his forced apology. "Sir, on behalf of the Ponyville Post Office, I'd like to apoli-" While Lance was making the same apology for what felt like the thousandth time that day, The Doctor had opened the letter and began reading it. His eyes shot open and then he grabbed Lance and pulled him to the floor. Lance was surprised and instantly lost his balance, falling face down to the floor. Lance noticed The Doctor was lying over him and before he could ask what he was doing, there was a loud explosion from inside the house and a large object flew over both their heads, landing in the garden with a loud metallic clang. Lance took a peek and saw the smoking front of an oven door. "Oops! My bad!" A mare called out from inside the kitchen. The Doctor got off of Lance then called back into the kitchen. "Derpy? Are you okay in there?" The Doctor sounded only half concerned, like this happens all the time. "Yeah! And the muffins are ready!" The voice called from the kitchen. "Ah, splendid. Would you care to join us Lance?" The Doctor offered a hoof and helped Lance back up. "No... No thank you I-" Lance then realised. "Wait, how'd you know my name?" He asked, curious. "Oh, it was in the letter you sent me." The Doctor showed Lance the letter. 'Dear Doctor, Grab Lance and duck. Love, The Doctor. P.S. Isn't that face priceless?' Lance looked up, and The Doctor started laughing. "Haha. Yes, it certainly is." Wait, what? Lance's mind was completely fried. Who wrote that letter? How did they know that was going to happen? That letter was written months ago! WHAT IN THE HAY IS GOING ON?! The Doctor patted Lance on the shoulder. "Relax my fine fellow. I'm sure you'll learn the truth someday. Or not. Now come have some of Derpy's delicious muffins." Lance couldn't think of any response. A near death experience. A letter from the future, or the past? Nothing made sense. * * * "-and she has squirrels, and cats, and a pink flamingo, and she let me feed her chickens and-" Much like the journey to Fluttershy's house this morning, Cherry was talking non-stop as they left it. Lance was exhausted. He'd walked all around Ponyville and met just about all its citizens. Including a few unfriendly faces he'd met at the market this morning, but at least he'd gotten to meet a few nice ponies. The Doctor and Derpy were two of the strangest ponies he's met since Pinkie Pie, but they were very friendly, even if Derpy was a bit ditzy. Lance found out that Derpy was a former mailpony herself before she quit, to become The Doctor's assistant. The Doctor never told Lance his name. Always insisted it was 'The Doctor'. Lance expected him to have a doctor's cutie mark, just like Post Pony Pete had a cutie mark of a running envelope. But instead he had an hour glass. What kinda special talent is that? Does he always know the time? Lance never asked. He'd finished delivering all the mail and returned to the post office. Pete had gone home early, but he left the old mare, Penny, with Lance's pay for the day. Lance had swapped his mailbag for his saddlebag before leaving and noticed that a few of the apples that Applejack had given him were missing, leaving only three. He'd ask Pete about this tomorrow morning. Lance and Cherry reached their house just as the sun was setting and the moon was ready to rise into the sky. Lance and Cherry had an apple each for dinner that night, then another slice of cake for dessert. Lance had some bits now and a job. Tomorrow he'd be able to buy some proper food and a lot more necessities. Cherry was also smiling a lot more and talking constantly about Fluttershy and her animals. Things were starting to look up for them both.