Ditzy Doo stood in her bathroom before a mirror looking at herself, her head turning left and right.
She had a brush strapped to her hoof which she ran through her mane one last time to make sure
that there were no tangles. Finding none, she smiled at herself.
“OK Ditzellia, you will have a good day today,” she said to herself in a commanding and sure
manner. Forcing confidence into every syllable as she stood on the tiled floor, her reflection
reassuring her with a knowing look. “You WILL have a good day.”
Quickly unstrapping the brush from her hoof before placing it gently on the porcelain sink, Ditzy
then briskly walked to the living room, a smile still on her face as she looked at the simple
furnishings of her cottage. It was a one room cottage, with a living room and kitchen only
separated by a kitchen bar. The only other room in the cottage was the bathroom she had just left.
Ditzy looked at the couch settled in a corner of the room, blankets thrown haphazardly on the floor
beside it. For a few moments she stood there, wishing to simply crawl back onto the couch that
was used as a bed, and sleep the rest of her day away. Giving her head a sudden shake, she
forced the idea out and went towards the door, grabbing a set of keys on a necklace, placing them
around her neck. The pegasus then grabbed her delivery bag from a peg on the door, strapping it
to her back securely before heading outside.
“Right on schedule,” Ditzy said to herself as she turned to lock the door. Taking a key she
carefully locked the door using her hoof. When she felt the lock click into place, she gave a nod
before pulling the key out.
The mare walked out into the front yard, and took observance of the moon glowing softly as it
hung low in the sky, bathing all of Equestria in a pearly light. Enchanting her garden with a strange
and subtle kind of magic all its own. “Its so pretty, but its only going to last for an hour more.”
Ditzy mused out loud to herself.
Looking back up to the sky she took a slow deep breath. Her wings shaking with anticipation,
knowing what was about to happen. Her heart began hammer faster as the wind picked up around
her. The blood pulsed in her ears as Ditzy spread open her wings.
“Here we go.” Her eyes shut as she gave a strong thrust of her wings to take off into the early
morning air.
With the freedom of flight over her now, a smile crept upon Ditzy’s face. Her eyes open wide
with a gleam shining in them as she soared above the world. The wind beneath her wings and cool
early spring air filling her lungs and running through her mane. It was an indescribable feeling of
peace and excitement that felt wonderful.
The mare’s eyes scanned over the open fields surrounding her home as she flew in the direction
of Ponyville. The sight of trees doting the landscape here and there, nothing seemed amiss until
she noticed that two half moons flooded her vision. “Oh no not now!” she whined.
She felt dizziness begin take her over as she slowed to a stop. Ditzy struggled with her left eye in
desperation, hoping that she could force it to straighten out and see straight. But soon enough gave
up, closed the eye and did the only thing she could, wait.
Up above the few scattered houses outside of Ponyville Ditzy hovered, but only looked ahead to
the town proper. Cautiously she opened her left eye and looked around. “One moon, one town,
one river, one clock tower.” She sighed in relief then flew with more determination to the town
square.
Looking down, she saw very few ponies heading off to work as well. Almost every one of them
had there eyes to the ground and Ditzy was forcibly reminded of a bad zombie pony story.
Laughing quietly to herself, she looked over at the town clock tower.
“Four forty five... He should be open by now.”
Landing softly on the dirt road she looked around at all the closed shops, no other ponies were on
the road with her. As she observed the darkness of the shops an idea of a dystopian future came
to her mind. “At night everypony hides away to huddle in the safety of home from the dreaded
zombie ponies... dousing all lights in hopes of tricking them into going away.” She thought to
herself absentmindedly.
She took a deep breath and smelled the heavenly sent of coffee, driving all thoughts of something
as silly as zombie ponies in a dystopia out of her mind. She turned to her left and saw the one
building with lights on, and walked towards towards it with a small smile on her face, feeling
almost like the shop was welcoming her with open arms. Ditzy closed her eyes as she took
another deep breath walking into “Java Bean’s Coffee Shop”.
The bell gave off a merry ringing sound, as Ditzy walked in. The smell of coffee and baked goods,
while strong outside, in here it hit her nose like a delightfully aromatic wall that she was all to
happy to run into. She kept her eyes closed, knowing the shop as well as one would an old friend.
It wasn't quite Sugar Cube Corner, but this was open, and the coffee here was better anyway.
“Well hey there Ditzy!”
Ditzy’s eyes flew open and looked up to the counter to see Java, a light brown stallion earth pony
with amber eyes, dark brown mane and 4 coffee beans as a cutie mark. He was standing on his
hind legs with one of his forelegs laying on the counter, a crooked half smile on his face. "The
usual?"
“Oh, um. Yeah please.” Ditzy said with a smile. She glanced around the shop, and noticed for the
first time that there were other ponies around her. Suddenly it felt as if a vice had tightened
around her heart. “Oh no...” She thought to herself. “What if my eye acts up now?”
Java, however, seemed unaware that there was a war being waged in Ditzy’s mind. He merrily
hummed to himself as he bit into a coffee pot handle. It was clear to Ditzy that he was in a world
of his own as he worked on his art of making the perfect cup of coffee.
“Sweet Luna, why is he moving so slowly today?” Ditzy thought to herself.
She let her eyes quickly scan the small crowd, searching the faces and scrutinizing there pupils
hoping that none were set in on hers. It seemed, they were all in there own little worlds, and that
was all that mattered to her.
Sighing in relief, Ditzy started to tap her left forehoof impatiently as she waited for Java to finish
her order. She watched him sprinkle nutmeg into her cup of coffee, pause and look at the cup for
a few moments. Then he shrugged and went to get the cream.
Ditzy rolled her eyes before she let her eyes wander around the room once more, this time out of
sheer boredom. Before she knew it, Ditzy started to make mental notes of what the other ponies
were doing in the room around her.
There were three pegasi at a table, merrily chatting away about the weather schedule for the
week as they had some coffee and doughnuts. “They must be weather ponies.” Ditzy thought to
herself before turning her attention away from them.
The mayor was in her usual early morning spot, a tired look on her face as she read an issue of
“Equestria Daily”, sipping on a cup of what appeared to be hot tea. Ditzy looked closer at the
news paper and read the headline to herself, “Scandal within the staff of this paper! Cereal
Velocity and Sethisto found tied in a closet. Phoe charged with pony napping!”
Lastly, Ditzy noted a purple unicorn in a corner booth. She was surrounded by scrolls and books,
and was using her magic to write frantically on a piece of paper. A cup of coffee sat, ignored by
her.
“Here you go Ditzy!”
Ditzy jumped at the sound of somepony addressing her so suddenly. Her right eye turned to the
sound of the voice to see Java had been the one to address her. But her left eye went in the
complete opposite direction.
“Um, your order’s ready.” Java said with a smile, pointing out a cup of coffee in a drink carrier
sitting next to a white paper bag, a lone blueberry muffin stowed within.
She smiled, out of embarrassment as her eyes focused where they were both supposed to be.
“Thank you.” she said in a very soft tone. Ditzy then unstrapped her mail bag and began to search
for bits she kept inside.
“Hang on a moment.” she said as she looked around in the bag. Her face scrunched up in
frustration as she began to open different flaps on the inside of the bag. She dug her face deeper
and found them jammed in a small pocket near the bottom of the bag. Carefully she pulled out five
bits and placed them on the counter.
Taking the muffin, she placed it into her mail bag before strapping it onto her back. “See you
tomorrow Java.” She said merrily. Then picked up the drink carrier by the handle with her mouth,
and turned for the door.
She was half way to the door, when the sound of whispers reached her ears.
“I heard, that she fell out of Cloudsdale as a filly.”
“They could be talking about anypony... just ignore them.” Ditzy thought to herself.
“Why do you think she does that with her eye?”
“Just ignore them.”
“Can you believe that Derpy used to be a weather pony?”
Ditzy stopped dead in her tracks, and looked at the table where the three pegasi sat.“They are
talking about me.” she thought to herself. Her mind was racing, she had to say something, or it
was going to eat at her for the rest of her day. “Excuse me,”
Before she could say anything more than that, she felt the drink carrier slip out of her now open
mouth. Time slowed down as she watched her coffee fall. Desperately she stuck out a hoof and
leaned forward in hopes that she could catch it.
The carrier hit the tile floor, and the cup bounced up, lid flying open splashing coffee everywhere.
Ditzy closed her eyes and held her breath. A million thoughts flashing through her mind, but the
one thought that stuck out most was, “This is going to hurt.” Then it hit her, and she suppressed a
yell from the searing pain of being soaked with burning hot coffee.
She opened her eyes, and looked at the damage that was done. Coffee was spilled all over the
floor, but a large enough portion had soaked her. Ditzy’s eyes had crossed as she pursed her lips
to keep silent from the scream that wanted to force its way out of her.
Ditzy could feel every eye was on her, as she stood frozen in the coffee shop, wishing more than
ever that she could become invisible. The deafening sound of silence settled in as nopony moved,
or said anything.
Suddenly, the three pegasi began to snicker, then howled with laughter as Ditzy stood there,
dripping with the coffee that had splashed her. She looked around, both eyes open wide, going in
opposing directions.
The warm sting of tears beginning to form, blurring her vision even further. She did not know what
to do, and took the first action that came to her mind, “Run.”
The mare bolted out of the shop and ran up the road, she had to get away from them, from the
cruel laughter that was being inflicted on her by those pegasi. Desperately, she tried to hold back
the tears that were beginning to blind her, but was failing. “Nopony can see me like this, I wont let
them!” she thought to herself as she ran into an alley, just out of sight from the coffee shop
window. The torrent of tears begin to fall, now out of her control. Suddenly the ringing of the
coffee shop bell struck her ears and she heard shouting.
Cautiously, Ditzy closed one eye before taking a peek around the corner to see what all the
commotion was. She gave an audible gasp at what she saw.
Floating in the air before the coffee shop, were the three pegasi, enveloped in a purple aura as the
unicorn from the shop held them in place with her magic. Ditzy could see that she was saying
something, but was not sure of what. She raised her ears and took a few tentative steps forward
until the words became audible to her.
“What is wrong with you? Talking about other ponies like that.I can't believe 3 grown ponies
acting like this. Why would you do that?”
“Well, Derpy IS weird looking, what with that one crazy eye,” One of them started as he
continued to flap his wings in a futile attempt at getting away.
“That's no reason to make fun of somepony and hurt their feelings.” the unicorn said to him with a
look that could probably cause a hydra to think twice about approaching her.
Ditzy smiled a little to hear somepony defending her. Giving off another small sigh, she wiped the
remainder of tears off her face with a hoof before slowly trotting back to the shop.
“Why would you call somepony Derpy? Java, is that something ponies actually call her?”
Java looked over at the unicorn then shook his head. “Ponies have called Ditzy that for years.
Some even think its her real name and call her that without knowing how much it hurts her.”
Ditzy slowly cantered up closer to the group, and saw now that she was closer, that not only was
Java standing in the open door, but Mayor Mare was close behind him.
The unicorn looked as if she was about to say more, when the mayor suddenly trotted out the door
past Java, "You three... don't you have somewhere to be today?" She asked in a soft, yet
commanding voice.
The weather ponies floated in the air before her, looking down at there hooves in what looked like
shame, no longer struggling against the magic keeping them in place. “Yes ma'am” the three
spoke in unison.
“Then I suggest you get going, before you are late. Let them go please.”
The unicorn nodded and let them go. The three fell to the ground and sat there stunned for a
moment before taking off with not another word spoken between anyone. Everypony stood there
in the silence of the morning, not sure of what to do next.
Suddenly, Java’s voice cut through the air, causing the other ponies to jump a little bit. “Ditzy!
There you are, I'm so sorry about all that. Here lets get you another coffee, on the house."
“Oh... thank you Java.” Ditzy said softly.
“Not at all, not at all. I can’t leave my best customer without her daily cup of coffee, now can I?”
Java held the door open as everypony else headed inside, Ditzy went over to the counter and saw
that the coffee she had spilled was already cleaned off of the floor. The mayor headed back over
to her table and resumed her reading of the news paper. Java and the unicorn, came in together as
Java headed for the counter, the unicorn went to sit in her booth again.
Ditzy stood before the counter for a few moments, and watched as Java made a fresh cup of
coffee, when suddenly she felt something tap her side in a soft but quick jab. Her head spun to her
right to see that the unicorn was standing by her now, with a warm smile on her face.
“Hey, why don’t you sit with me while you wait.”
“Oh... Um, sure, I guess. Thank you.”
The two went over to the corner booth, and the unicorn moved a few books on the table so they
could see each other better, before she sat down. Ditzy followed suit and sat opposite of her and
decided that she should be the first to say something.
“Well, I would like to thank you for um, defending me, miss....?”
“Twilight Sparkle, and you don't need to thank me. It was just the right thing to do.” She said
waving a hoof nonchalantly and smiling.
“Oh. Um... Right.” Ditzy said smiling a little bit. She sat there nervously unsure of what to say.
Ditzy waited for her to say something, anything to make a conversation happen, but nothing came
as the air hung between them both. So she took a breath and tried her best to start the
conversation.
“Ive seen you around town, with your friends. And at your welcoming party before the Summer
Sun Celebration last year. But I never really got your name before... Cause um, well.. you never
get any mail, well, not by name. But I know you stay at the library, and I deliver packages there
sometimes, and that's how I know most ponies names, cause I'm a mail mare, and that's what I
do.” She smiled feeling accomplishment for starting the conversation. Then, she realised how silly
that all really sounded as she repeated the words in her mind. She closed her eyes as she felt her
face warm from embarrassment.
Twilight sipped her coffee until Ditzy fell silent, she looked over and saw that her eyes were
closed, almost as if she realised that she had done something wrong. Twilight smiled and decided
to say something to end the awkwardness that had filled the air. “Oh I don't usually get regular
mail, because I have a dragon that sends and receives most of my private letters.”
Ditzy opened her eyes at this, both of them were now finally straightened out. “That is really neat!
We have a dragon fire system at the post office, but its for receiving only. It comes in a fire place,
but we don’t have an actual dragon so we can’t send letters out like that.”
Twilight sipped on her coffee lightly, then asked, “So, whats it like to be a mail mare?”
That was all it took, Ditzy started to go on about how great it is, how she meets all the wonderful
ponies around town, and how she feels that she is helping ponies by bringing letters to them. Java
brought over Ditzy’s coffee while she chatted animatedly with Twilight about her job, and some of
the short stories about her fellow postal workers.
“... and then,” Ditzy said between laughs. “He placed the package on the counter for her and said,
“O.K. miss Pie, here’s your package.” Then, a baby alligator came out of her mane, and bit his
muzzle! For no reason, true story!”
She and Twilight laughed for a while over the story. Then, Ditzy looked down at her cup and saw
it was empty. Also, the blueberry muffin she had stowed in her bag was eaten.
She then looked at a clock and gasped. “Oh no, its Five Fifteen, I gotta go!” She hastily got up,
strapped her mail bag to her back and galloped out the door. “Ill see you later Twilight, It was nice
meeting you!”
As she ran out the door, Twilight looked over at Java and saw he was smiling at her from the
counter. "You did the right thing there, That mare needs all the friends she can get."
Twilight smiled a little bit, “Well everypony needs friends.” She sighed then pulled out a fresh
scroll of paper, she knew it was too early to send now, but she wanted to write this down before
the rest of her day caused her to forget about it. She then used her magic to dip the quill into ink,
then began to write, “Dear Princess Celestia,”
Ditzy galloped down the road and saw that some more shops were preparing to open, and one or
two had customers already going in. “No, no time to look around, you gotta hurry!” she thought to
herself. Opening her wings she took flight low over the ground to speed up a little. Then she saw
her destination, the Equestria National Postal Service, Ponyville Office.
Ditzy stopped flapping her wings and went back into a gallop as she landed and ran to the door.
Slowing down before heading inside, she saw the post office was already busy.
Ditzy looked to her left and saw the punch in clock. She cantered over and searched for her
punch in card among all the others. “Where is it, where is it... Ah! There it is.” Her name,
“Ditzellia Esmeralda Doo” flashed out to her on the card. She pulled it out of its spot, and
grimaced as she saw that there were 2 red marks indicating tardiness in that quarter. Quickly she
placed it into the clocks slot and pulled a leaver. The clock gave off a soft chime, and slowly,
Ditzy pulled out the card and looked at it, “5:20 A.M.” it said in green letters. She sighed in relief
and trotted to her morning station.
She smiled at the other ponies in the sorting room on her way to to the station, when suddenly she
found her path blocked by a giant bag floating in front of her. “Good morning Ditzy.” Said a voice
from behind the bag.
Ditzy leaned left and right to look behind the bag before the bag lifted up enough that she could
see it was Orchid Dew, a sorting pony. “Oh Good morning Orchid. How are you?”
“Fine thanks.” Orchid said with a smile that looked as if it were threatening to break into laughter
in any moment.
“Um are you sure your OK Orchid?”
“Oh, yeah I’m fine, just taking these letters over to station B.” She said, waving a hoof from the
bag to the general direction of the aforementioned station. “See you later!”
“OK later.” Ditzy said, with a puzzled look on her face, as Orchid started to chuckle softly to
herself walking away, The bag of mail following her.
Ditzy made it to her station and rubbed the brass name plate to give it a nice shine, and sighed as
she took off her delivery bag and hung it on the cheep cubical style wall separating her station
from the next. Then pulled out some twine and a jar of Stick-On (apply directly to forehoof!) from
the bag.
She looked up at the wall behind the counter, loaded with cubby holes to fill with letters by address
that was to be delivered that day. Then looked back down at the counter and saw a pile of letters
and a few packages had already been left there for her to go through.
This was usually the slowest and most boring part of her day, but it made for easier and faster
deliveries later. She was about to start separating them, when she heard a crash behind her. Ditzy
turned to see a large crate had fallen to the floor as two pegasi hovered in shock at what they
have done. The floor master, Boxxy Brown flew over to see what had happened.
“Truly this room is chaos incarnate.” Ditzy thought to herself as she looked around. The sorting
room was organized in the most disorganized way imaginable. Pegasi flying everywhere, carrying
letters to the delivery pony stations, so they can separate the individual letters by address.
Unicorns were separating letters by delivery area in one section. Earth ponies were running about
everywhere carrying bags of letters that were coming in to be separated still, and out to a delivery
wagon for out of town deliveries. Ditzy smiled a little as she turned back to her own work, and
kept out of everyponies way.
“Ditzy... why is your coat so.. dark looking?”
Ditzy stopped what she was doing and looked down at her self, and was shocked to see that she
had forgotten to wash off the coffee that splashed up on her, and had stained most of the front of
her coat a dark brown. She froze in her work station and turned to face the inquisitor.
It was Boxxy Brown, a look of concern on his face. She smiled a little nervously and tapped her
forehooves together as she sat in front of him. “Well you see, this morning I was at Java’s, you
know, like I am every morning. And see, these weather ponies, they were talking about my eye
and...”
He held up a hoof to stop her. “I don't want to hear about it. Go wash up before you stain any
letters.”
“Yes sir.” Ditzy said softly and flew over to the restroom.
Ditzy looked at herself in the mirror as she scrubbed herself with a wash cloth, the brown sticky
coffee was coming off, but not without a struggle. It was everywhere on her front, her face and
legs. It was even in her mane. It was just all over her in large splotches.
When she finished washing off, Ditzy ran a hoof through her mane. Then sighed as she looked at
herself in the mirror, and saw two of everything, her left eye was again set inward.
“Come on... focus.” she said aloud to the offending eye. It slowly slid back into proper position
and she smiled. “Alright, there were a few set backs... But I will have a good day for the rest of
the day.” she said to herself in the small mirror.
She opened the door and flew back over to her work station. When she arrived she saw that
somepony had stuck a note over her name plaque.
She looked closer and saw it said, “Derpy Hooves”. Her face became red as she saw the
offending note. She felt fury rise up in her like a dragon, and grabbed the note and tearing it up
with her hooves before tossing the pieces into a trash bin. Nopony seemed to notice, or care about
this small act of anger.
She huffed as she entered the station and dipped her right hoof into the jar of Stick-On (apply
directly to forehoof!) so she can grab letters by hoof with ease, and started to separate and sort
the letters by address she was to deliver.