“Number Seventeen Cherry Tree Lane,”
Ditzy looked through the stacks of letters, and placed the letter in the stack for Cherry Tree Lane before looking back at the small pile left to sort through.
And thus was her morning routine. Grab, “Number twelve Mane Street,” stack. Grab, “number four Apple Blossom Road,” stack. Grab, look, stack.
“If time stopped now, would anypony have noticed?” Ditzy thought to herself, as she looked over at her little clock hanging on the divider wall to her right. It did not tick.
“What the?” she looked at the clock and gave it an experimental tap and saw that nothing happened.
A brief wave of panic went through her mind, “Oh Celestia, something has gone awry with everything and times stood still, or maybe something happened to the princess to make time null and void, am I going to be stuck here forever and never make a single bit because time doesn’t exist anymore?”
“What are you doing Ditzy?”
Ditzy looked up and saw Raindrops, another delivery pony, poking her head over the divider, a look of curiosity on her face.
“Oh, um... I think time stopped?” Ditzy said with a sheepish grin on her face before she tapped the clock again.
Raindrops giggled as she flew over the wall to look at the clock. “Oh Ditzy, I’m sure time didn’t stop, if it did, we wouldn't be moving.”
“Oh, well, can you see whats wrong with it then?”
Ditzy exited her work station so Raindrops could get a closer look at the clock. Raindrops looked at the clock with a hoof on her chin for a few moments, then her eyes lit up. “I got it! Ditzy, when was the last time you wound this thing up?”
“I’m not sure.” Ditzy started, as she began to think about it Raindrops grabbed one of the decorative chains that hung under the clock, giving it an experimental tug and found that it slid all the way down bringing the other chain all the way up.
Raindrops then gave a smug smile with her eyes closed as she tapped the pendulum and it started to tick away the minutes again.
“Oh, that’s it?”
“That’s it.”
Raindrops exited Ditzy’s work station and trotted over to her own as Ditzy slid into hers, then flapped her wings to look over the separating wall and asked Raindrops, “Hey what time is it anyhow?”
“Oh, its five forty five, sunrise in fifteen minutes.”
Ditzellia gave a nod as she twisted the hands of the clock to match up with what Raindrops had said, “OK I got it, thanks.”
“Mhm, no problem.”
With a sigh, Ditzy sorted out the last five letters to there respective piles,, then started to go through the Mane Street addresses.
“Number nine, number nine, number nine, number nine, number nine, number eleven, number seven, number seven, number five, number twenty two, number nine, number eighteen,”
The sound of Ditzy’s clock chiming the top of the hour brought an abrupt stop to her work, and she turned to look out one of the high windows facing east. An odd silence came over the entire post office as all looked toward the eastern facing windows and waited.
The sky’s inky blackness of night began to soften, as a glow began to grow on the horizon. Stars faded away as the black of night gave way to purples and pinks, and the sun rose into the sky, bringing forth the dawn and the official start of a new day.
Everypony facing the sun gave a respectful bow to it, as if the princess herself had entered the room. All was silent in the room for exactly thirty more seconds before everypony rose, and Boxxy addressed his employees.
“Mares and stallions, as you know we are a government service. As such, we owe our gratitude to our princesses for giving us the jobs we have. We must always pause to give our thanks to Celestia for bringing us the sun, and our thanks to Luna for every night she brings.”
A few ponies in the room nodded to this, while others only faked there attention untill they could get back to work. Ditzy only listened half heartedly, knowing the speech well by now. Not one given every day, but often enough that she could probably recite the speech by memory alone if asked to.
“Alright, we are officially open for the day. Remember your oath as mail ponies,” and with that everypony in the room raised there right forehoof into the air and recited together.
“Through storm and snow, Darkness and light, Sky and sea, nothing shall stop the Equestrian mail. We as couriers shall make swift completion of our appointed rounds.”
At the end of the oath, everypony in the room lowered there hooves and immediately went back to work, Boxxy went to his office as Baritone opened the front door before sliding behind the counter to take care of any pony needing assistance.
Ditzy kept sorting the letters, pile by pile. Tying letters to the same address together before sliding them into the cubby hole they belonged to and moving on to the next pile.
After fifteen minutes of this, her mind felt numb with the repetitive action, as a glazed look came over her eyes. Every few minutes a new letter or two being dropped on her desk for her to sort out into the piles, sometimes back tracking her to addresses she had already finished.
The sound of a roaring fire suddenly brought everyponies attention to the fire place next to the office. Faster than anypony could think, Boxxy galloped out the door of his office and ran to the fire place to see what has come in.
Ditzy however, payed no mind to him, nor to the fact that everypony else in the room had stopped working. She continued to do as she was supposed to and continued to sort out the letters as quick as possible.
Boxxy held a single scroll in his hoof, “Post master Boxxy” was written on the scroll. He tucked it under one of his wings before he looked back at the room staring at him. “Is this a post office or the world champ staring contest convention?” Everypony in the room looked away and started to go back to there tasks.
Boxxy walked into his office and sat down at his desk littered with paperwork regarding the business end of running a post office. He sat down and pulled the scroll out from under his wing, opened it carefully and read it to himself.
“To the postmaster of Ponyville post office.
We need you to assign your fastest pegasus to deliver a parcel to Miss Cheerilee, of the Ponyville Elementary School. It is important that she receives this before the school day begins at Eight O’clock today.
When you have selected your fastest delivery pegasus, please send a response, and you shall receive another scroll along with a parcel.
Sincerely,
“Maxie” Madmax,
Secretary of Princess Celestia.”
After he finished reading the letter, Boxxy rolled it up and placed it into a drawer before closing it to open another. Pulling out three folders, he looked at who he had to deliver this the fastest.
“Raindrops? No, shes not very quick, maybe Phineas Scrollbottom? No, hes too new, and a unicorn... not a fast one either. Ditzy? Maybe I should just deliver it myself. No, I need to stay here or they would take a break until I get back.”
As Boxxy mulled things over and looked at his three delivery ponies profiles, weighing the pros and cons of each, Ditzy was going through the last of the Second St. Addresses before moving on to Third St.
“Hey, who do you think hes gonna have send it out?”
Ditzy looked up and left and saw Phineas was peaking over the divider with a grin plastered on his face.
“Send what out?” she said, pretending to sound interested at the moment.
“You know, the letter, we only ever get things in the fire if its important”
Ditzy looked back at her letters for a moment and tried to get back to them before replying in a flat, uninterested tone, “I don’t know, maybe you?”
“Yeah, maybe. I mean, I'm already done sorting my letters so I should be able to go now.” He said with a grin.
“Mhmm... yeah, glad to know, Ill see you when you get back OK?”
“Well I think Ill get to go, cause I have been working here longer than you have Phineas.”
Ditzy looked over to her right to see Raindrops hovering just high enough to look at Phineas across from her station with a smug grin on her face.
Ditzy looked at the two of them as they started to argue back and forth between each other about who would be best to go, and felt herself get dizzy from looking back and forth between the two of them so fast. She stopped as she felt her anger rise once again.
“Hey, you two... IF you don’t mind, I still have to finish my letters, so why don’t you take your argument to somepony who cares about how great you think you are.”
Raindrops and Phineas looked down at Ditzy in shock and amazement for a moment, not sure how to take that. After a few moments Phineas spoke up. “Wow, I didn't know you could be so, bitter.”
“I am not bitter, just, look I have a lot to do and you two are distracting me is all.”
“Oh, well, I guess Ill go see what else I can do around here then.” Phineas said as he dropped back down into his own station.
“And I guess Ill finish these last few letters before I go take a break.” Raindrops said as she lowered herself down.
Ditzy sighed as she rubbed her eyes with her hooves for a moment. She then dipped her hoof into the jar of stick on (apply directly to fore-hoof!) and continued to sort out Third St. addresses.
“Ditzy, we need to talk.”
Ditzy groaned as she spun around, only to find herself face to face with Boxxy standing outside her station.
“Oh, oh my, I’m sorry about that, but its just they just got on my nerves with they’re,”
“I don’t care about what you have to say at the moment, just come to my office.”
“Yes Mr. Brown.” she said as she followed him to the office, head hung low in shame.
Boxxy held the door open for Ditzellia as she went into the office, then looked at her with a stern look on his face. “I’m going to send a reply to the Canterlot office, have a seat and don’t move.Ditzy only nodded as Boxxy grabbed a bottle of dragons flame before shutting the door.
She sat in the office thinking to herself about what could possibly be the reason that she was called in to the office, she never had been before really. “Maybe its because Ive been late too many times... Or maybe he is going to reprimand me for talking to them like that. What if I’m fired?”
“Because I spoke derogatorily to my co workers.”
“No, Ditzy you are not.”
Ditzy looked up, her eyes wide in shock, and crossed from surprise. “Well, what am I in trouble for then? Did I do something wrong, like wrong address or something? I’m usually so thorough, or because I've been late a few times,”
“No, Ditzy. Now, be quiet for a minute so I can talk please.”
The mare closed her mouth instantly and waited with baited breath to hear what Boxxy was about to say.
“I want you to send out this letter.”
“Me? But I mean, surely somepony else would rather do it, I mean, Phineas has finished his sorting, maybe he could do it?
Boxxy looked down at the open folder with Ditzy’s work history and skills that was in her profile, and read out loud, “Placed among the top of the class in summer flight camp, won several Junior Speedsters events as a filly, and according to this you recently placed second in the best young flyer competition.” He looked at her across the table for a moment raising an eyebrow at her. “Do I need to go on?”
“No sir.”
“Ditzy, you are the fastest flyer we got. I need you to make this delivery now.” Boxy said, as he leaned forward and passed a scroll and small package to her.
“Go to your locker, and get your uniform on, you are representing Celestia herself with this delivery, do not fail her.”
Ditzy hated the full uniform.
Most ponies did for different reasons, and usually did not wear it unless told to.
Some hated it for the powder blue button up shirt, or the dark blue tie, some hated the matching dark blue skirt, or pants if they were a stallion. And some hated the peaked hat because it was funny looking.
Ditzy didn't mind the hat, she thought it looked rather smart, all black with gold rope styled trim and small ENPS logo pin on the front. She was also rather fond of how professional she looked in the dress shirt with the tie, and thought that the skirt was comfortable enough.Ditzy hated it because of the flight goggles.
Ask any pegasus in ponyville, and chances were that they had a pair of flight goggles with clear glass lenses so they could fly faster and still see clearly.
Ditzy had to wear goggles with dark lenses that kept her eyes hidden from sight. The inside of the left lens was painted black to block everything so if that eye were to act up she would not notice.
She hated that it blocked her vision, how they hid her eyes and made her look more threatening.
Most of all, she hated that she was told she had to wear them when representing the postal service, be it for a special delivery like now, or photos for special edition stamps or advertisements for the postal service. It made her stick out, with her eyes hidden it made her look colder and inapproachable.
But worst of all, it pointed out that she was different from the others.
Ditzy placed the goggles over the brim of her hat before placing it on her head and gave a look at herself in the mirror of her locker, double checking to make sure that her shirt had no wrinkles, and the tie was perfectly straight. She gave herself a quick nod of approval, then shut her locker, grabbed the letter and package, then headed over to her station to grab the delivery bag.
"Oh, Ditzy,"
She turned to look over at Boxxy who was headed over to her at a quickened pace before she could have a chance to get out. "Yes?" she said, without looking at him, as the kept trotting to her station.
"Listen, I told Phineas that you were going to make the delivery, so he finished sorting the rest of your deliveries for you, they are already in your bag so, when you are done, just do the rest of your deliveries OK?"
"Sure, Ill take care of them." Ditzy replied in what she hoped sounded like a casual tone.
She headed over to the station, Dropped the parcel and scroll into a secure part of her bag. She checked the time quickly before heading out, "Six Thirty, OK." She then grabbed her bag, then lowered the goggles over her eyes and trotted out the station only to get stopped by Phineas.
"Ditzy, before you leave, I just wanted to say something."
Ditzy's eyes narrowed. Despite the fact that he couldn't actually see them it gave her a very stern look. "Oh? And what was that?"
"I just wanted to say, that you owe me for covering you on your sorting."
She looked at him for a moment, not sure of what to say or think of that phrase. Finally she asked him "well, what do you want?"
"Oh, nothing really, just you owe me."
"Right, look I gotta go." with that she headed out the door at a quickened pace.
Her wings spread open as she looked to the skies, and she felt a tension rise inside of her. Clearing her mind she flapped her wings and took off into the sky once again and flew over the post office, for the north end of town, to Cheerilee’s apartment.
The town below her was alive with action this morning, as ponies everywhere were bustling about the town in the usual morning manner as Ditzy flew above them. She sped the rhythm of her wings, and hummed to herself.
Before she knew it, she was in the northern district, with its tightly wound alleyways and small apartments. Ditzy held her wings stiff and turned counter clockwise, spiraling into a landing in the center of the road, and started to read numbers.
"111, 112, 114, Wheres 113? agh nevermind... Ah, 116."
Ditzy quickly looked at the apartment building, and saw it was one of those smaller styled ones, the kind that has only 4 apartments in one building that probebly used to be one single house at one point. She shrugged to herself before entering the building and climbing the stairs, to the third floor, to get to apartment Three.
KNOCK KNOCK. "Equestrian Mail Service."
Ditzy, stood before the door trying to look as professional as possible, standing perfectly straight and keeping a serious look on her face as she waited for the door to open.
She raised a hoof to knock again, when the door opened to revel Cheerilee behind it.
"Hello, may I help you?"
Ditzy straightened up and coughed into her hoof before reciting the official spiel to her,
"Greetings to you Miss Cheerilee, My name is Ditzy Doo, from the Equestrian National Postal Service. I have brought you a letter and package from Canterlot, on the behalf of her majesties, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna."
"Oh my," Cheerilee said with a puzzled look on her face, "I wonder what they would want."
Ditzy did not answer, nor show much sign that she noticed the question, but instead passed her the scroll and package silently before pulling out a clipboard and pen.
"Sign here please to show that you received your parcel and scroll, without damage."
Cheerilee nodded as she took the pen into her mouth and signed her name on the bottom.
Ditzy looked at the signature a bit before placing it back into her mailbag. While she was busy closing the strap of her bag, she heard Cheerilee cry out suddenly "Oh! This is such wonderful news!"
"Oh? What is what?"
"The letter, is nothing much really, but the box has what I needed. Passes to the castle grounds!"
Ditzy looked at her for a few moments before letting curiosity get the best of her. "Why do you need passes there for?"
"Well you see, I’m taking the class on a field trip to Canterlot today, to see the castle and Royal Gardens. But I applied for the passes almost a month ago and while I got a letter saying I was approved to bring my students there, I never got the passes, I was worried they would not come in time but here they are!"
Ditzy smiled a little bit and tipped her cap, "Well, we at the E.M.S. take pride in our jobs."
Cheerilee nodded a bit as she placed the package on a small table. "I see that! Thank you so much."
"No problem. Well I gotta go, I have lots of mail to deliver."
Cheerilee nodded a bit as she started to open the package, "Ok, I'll see you around. Oh wait! I've got something for you!"
Ditzy stopped in her tracks and waited as Cheerilee ran off to another room as Ditzy stood in the open doorway.
Cheerilee returned with a muffin in a paper bag, "Here, in case you don't have a lunch already."
Ditzy looked at the bag. She tried not to, but as she breathed in she could smell cranberries inside. One of her favorite muffins. She started to reach for the muffin before she remembered something and stopped, and said with a frown,
"I can't take that Cheerilee, the law states that giving a member of any government services an item of sweet, elleet, or desirable status is considered a bribe, and punishable by fine of no less than 200 bits, or 2 months jail time."
Cheerilee stood in shock for a moment, not expecting to hear that. Then nodded and placed the bag into a small box, wrote something on it, and placed a stamp on the box. "Then would you be so kind as to deliver it to this mare please?"
Ditzy looked at the box and read it to herself.
"Ditzy Doo,
Number 98 Country Rd.
Ponyville, Equestria, 39601"
Ditzy smiled to herself a bit as she turned the box over in her hooves, then pulled out a small rubber stamp, and placed it over the paper stamp to show its been possessed, "Ill see to it she gets this immediately."
Cheerilee smiled at her a bit as she nodded, "Thank you, Ill see you later on then."
Ditzy smiled back at her, "Ill see you around." Then she stepped out the door of the apartment, and started for down the stairs to start her official delivery route.
Ditzy had a certain way of doing things. A fairly logical way, but her way none the less.And that way was start at the top, and work your way down. In her case, north end of town, to the south end of town. Her delivery route started at Sweet Apple Acres, wound its way through town, and finally ended with Carrot Tops place.
Ditzy took her goggles and placed them around her hat, now done with the very formal delivery as she made her way to Sweet Apple Acres. She flapped her wings in a slow pace, stopping and gliding most of the way there. When she saw the wooden fence she spiraled down to land at the front gate, and looked around to see if Big Macintosh, Applejack or little Apple Bloom was close by like they sometimes were to pick up the mail, but discovered they were not there.
The only thing there other than a mailbox was a fence, and a dog.
Ditzy smiled as she looked Winona over, "Hey there girl, who's a good dog? Who's a good dog?"
Winona tilted her head in response, as she sat down and stared at Ditzy, wagging her tail.
Ditzy reached in her bag and grabbed the bundle of mail for the farm in her teeth and spoke to the dog around the letters, "I'm jusht gonna put theash in da mail bawksh."
Winona wagged her tail in response.
Ditzy opened the mail box, and placed the letters inside as she kept watching the dog, "Good girl, now I'm just gonna go now."
Winona wagged her tail for a bit longer, then gave off three barks before she ran and jumped over the fence giving chase to our favorite mail mare.
Ditzy screamed in a very high pitched shriek as she ran away from Winona, her left eye instantly going into doing its own thing, "No, Bad dog, go away I didn't do anything to deserve this!"
Winona kept on chasing her, with a smile on the dogs face as she gleefully barked at her.
Ditzy kept running away from Winona, zig zaging for a while before finally remembering she had wings, and taking flight.
"Goodbye Winona, go home." Ditzy said as she took off, before feeling something tug on her, making her coming to a stop.
She looked back and saw Winona had jumped and bitten her skirt, and was wagging her tail in victory.
"Oh no... not again." Ditzy said as she flew for the farm house in hopes that she would find anypony home.
Ditzy landed on the porch of the house and knocked on the door in three rapid knocks and waited for somepony to answer.
"Just a minute, I’m a comin'"
Ditzy sighed as the door opened to reveal Applejack and she gave a smile to her.
"Good morning Miss Applejack, umm... Help?" said Ditzy as she turned to show the dog still clinging to her skirt, now showing rips and tears.
"Oh my stars, Winona! I thought I told ya' to leave her alone!"
Winona simply wagged her tail but showed no sign of letting go.
"Get off 'a her now and go inside, Go on now!"
Winona let go of Ditzy's skirt and wagged her tail as she marched triumphantly inside the house, with a grin plastered on her face.
"I am awful sorry about that Ma'am, did she hurt ya?"
Ditzy smiled a bit, as she stood there awkwardly, "No, I'm fine... Thanks for helping me."
"T'wernt nothin'," Applejack said confidently as she headed out the door.
"I'm surprised to find you still in the house, usually you're already out working the fields."
Applejack nodded as she paced herself down the path to in the direction of the Fields, "Well normally you'd be right, but yeh see, yesterday I checked on the corn, and some look ready to be picked out. I’m a gonna head out and bring a cart and just pick any that's ready and prune the rest for the next few days."
Ditzy nodded slowly to Applejack as she pretended she understood what she was talking about. Truth was, she didn't know anything about growing food, nor how farmers can get corn to come in during the early spring rather than the usual harvest time. Ditzy smiled anyhow, "Thanks Applejack for getting your dog off me."
"No Problem there Miss Doo, I'll see ya around then."
"Right." Ditzy said as she flapped her wings and took off to head for the next delivery.
Three Hours Later, Ditzy was humming merrily to herself as she flew over a field to the southern outskirts of Ponyville, with only a few more letters to go.
For the most part things went pretty well, no major hiccups, just the usual minor ones.
Ditzy counted them off in her head as she flew over a stream "Lets see, I had a total of three dogs chasing me, one of which got my skirt. Only five ponies called me Derpy, but whatever... the muffin from Cheerilee was pretty good, and I managed to see her and her class off when they departed for Canterlot on the train. That was nice."
"So, despite a few negative things, nothing unusual for the life of a delivery pony, and a pretty good day." she said with a smile as she lazily flapped her wings, not caring weather or not her eyes were crossed at the moment.
Up ahead in the sky, she saw an extravagant cloud house, with rainbow pools and falls. Ditzy looked at the house for a few moments before going up to the front door and landing on the cloud.
It was an imposing looking home, not exactly what she would call comforting looking. More like a castle in the sky, or something the ancient pegasus warriors would have designed. Very stately and grand looking, but not too welcoming.
Ditzy stopped looking at the house after a while, and finally reached into her mail bag and grabbed the mail for the house and placed them into the mail slot in the door.
She smiled to herself as she took flight once again, her route almost done, when she heard somepony shouting behind her.
"Ditzy wait come back here!"
She stopped and turned around to look at the voice, it was Rainbow Dash flying to her from her cloud home. "DItzy, is that really you? I haven't seen you in years! How've you been?"
"Oh, I can't complain." Ditzy said softly.
Dash smiled at her as she flew beside Ditzy, "So, Its been a couple years since you were dropped off of the weather team, what happened since then?"
Ditzy frowned at the thought of that as she searched her mind for the right words to use. "Well, not much really, I had to go to the employment services to get a new job, and I had to retake my flying test at the Department of Winged Equines. Then they, the employment services, set me up to work the ponyville post office and Ive been delivering since then."
Dash nodded as she flew by. "So, are you almost done for the day? I just cleared out the clouds I was supposed to, and we should hang out."
Ditzy smiled a little bit, "Like a couple fillies at summer flight camp?"
"Naw, more like old friends catching up."
"Well, I have only one more place to deliver to, then I usually go to sugar cube corner for a lunch."
Dash rubbed her hooves together as she grinned. "Excellent, I'll head there now, later!"
"Later Dash," Ditzy said as she saw her friend take off in the direction of town. She smiled to herself as she hurried to finish her route as quick as possible. Ditzy lowered her goggles back over her face as she sped up, and headed in a southwestern direction, spotting at last Carrot Tops home sitting on the edge of town, with a small garden around it. Leaning to her left she spiraled down to the earth landing with a thud on the grass in front of Carrots house. Quick as she could she pulled out her bundle of mail and opened the mail box and put them in before taking off again, heading to the post office at top speed, a contrail following behind her as she flew.
Ditzy dove in low as she neared the back of the post office, and folded her wings to the side, she felt contact with the ground after she went past the door and slid her way across the room skidding to a quick stop, garnering herself looks from the other ponies still in the work area of the post office.
Ditzy quickly got up and brushed herself off and ignored the looks from the other ponies as she trotted off to the locker room to change.
Quick as she could she took off her uniform and folded and hung everything up neatly in the locker, placing her cap on the small shelf she smiled to herself, and looked in the small mirror in the inside of her locker door. Her mane was a mess, and she quickly ran a hoof through her mane to try to smooth it out, and her mane went to its usual style. Then Ditzy took off her goggles to put them up, and realised that she was once again wall eyed.
She gave off another small sigh, then placed her goggles on a hook in her locker before closing it and heading back to her station, and to report to Boxxy.
She exited the locker room and flew quickly with her bag to her station, and grabbed her jar of "Stick-On" (Apply directly to forehoof!) and twine, placing them in her bag. She then pulled out the letters she had picked up throughout her day and took them to the processing center, dropping them off into the pile then headed to Boxxy's office.
Ditzy adjusted her bag carefully, then knocked three times on the door, immediately she heard the gruff voice of Boxxy answer "Enter."
Ditzellia pushed open the door, and found Boxxy sitting behind his desk, checking on reports, "Well, did you do it?"
"Oh, yes Boxxy, umm sir. I delivered her package on time."
"Excellent, is there anything else I should know about then?"
Ditzy suffled her hooves for a few moments, then spoke her mind "I got my skirt ripped, when a dog bit it."
Boxxy reacted the way that anypony would have, He threw his right hoof into his forehead and face hoofed.
Ditzy sat there quietly, not sure if Boxxy had knocked himself out or not. Then he spoke up. "Did this happen before or after you delivered the package."
"Oh, after, way after."
"That’s good. Ditzy, did you finish the rest of your route?"
"Yes sir."
"Then you can go home for the day, your shift is over."
"Thank you sir." Ditzy said with a small smile as she headed out the door. Once the door shut, Boxxy looked around to make sure nopony was looking, opened a drawer to his right and pulled out a bottle of Applejack Daniel's super sweet Whisky, poured himself a shot and downed it.
Ditzy meanwhile punched out on the clock and ran out the door headed to Sugar Cube Corner as fast as she could, blissfully ignorant of how she drives her boss to drink.
Rainbow Dash sat inside Sugar Cube Corner, waiting for Ditzy to show up.
Pinkie Pie was on shift working in the kitchen at the moment, every few moments she could hear her hum or even belt out a song in full as she mixed and baked treats.
Dash heard the sound of the door opening and looked up quickly only to find it was Raindrops and Phineas heading into the shop talking about something boring about there work day.
The cobalt pegasus groaned as she laid her head on the table and started to tap out a rhythm on the table with her hooves, waiting impatiently for Ditzy to come in.
Carrot Cake was working the counter today, and he smiled kindly as he filled out the orders for customers.
Suddenly there was a loud crashing noise.
"Oh, I'm so sorry I didn't see you there."
Rainbow Dash, along with everypony else in sugar cube corner, looked outside the bakery windows and doors to see what was going on.
Two ponies were entangled in each other, trying to get up off the street. One was a butter yellow pegasus with pink hair, the other was a grey pegasus with blonde hair.
"No, I’m sorry, I should really watch where I am going."
"Its O.K., you didn't do anything wrong miss, I just was rushing so fast I didn't realize I wasn't focusing right." Ditzy said as she finally got up and offered a hoof to the other pegasus.
"I was just on my way to see an old friend, Rainbow Dash, and I wasn't paying attention,"
"Really? I was just looking for her myself, do you know where she is?"
Ditzy nodded as she helped the yellow pegasus to her hooves, "Yeah, shes inside Sugar Cube Corner, she said to meet her there, I'm Ditzellia by the way."
"Oh, I didn't introduce myself, I'm sorry. My name is Fluttershy."
Ditzy smiled kindly at Fluttershy as they both trotted into the bakery together, and looked around for Dash.
"There you are, I've been waiting here for like, forever!"
Ditzy looked for the source of the sound and found Rainbow Dash sitting over at a table in the far corner of the bakery, looking as though she wanted to leave a while ago from simply being in one place for too long.
"Sorry I took longer than I thought to get finished." Ditzy said with an apologetic smile.
"Geez, I saw your little crash there, were you and Fluttershy having a kindness contest out there or something?"
Ditzy sat down across from Dash and smiled a little bit, "No I wasn't. I was just correcting my folly."
The speedsters face went flat as she frowned a bit before speaking, "Yeah. Well, Fluttershy care to join us?"
"Oh, I don't want to impose,"
"Its no imposure, come and join us." Ditzy said with a smile.
"Well, If its O.K. with Dash,"
"I'm fine with it. Just, have a seat."
"O.K." Fluttershy squeaked out as she sat.
The three mares looked at each other for a moment, then a few moments more before Dash coughed into her hoof.
"Sooo... what do you want to eat?"
Ditzy thought for a few moments about it before saying, "I don't know, you guys like muffins?"
Rainbow and Fluttershy nodded a bit.
"O.K., Ill just get three Blueberry muffins then." with that Ditzy got up and went to the counter.
"Well, shes nice." Fluttershy said with a smile.
"Yeah, she always has been." Dash agreed, "She's a little clumsy sometimes, and well..." the speedster stopped and screwed her face in concentration.
"Well what?" Fluttershy inquired.
"Well, she has an eye condition, and that sometimes makes her accident prone, and Ditzy is kinda well ditsy."
Fluttershy looked at Rainbow Dash with a puzzling look, as Dash felt her face flush a little with guilt. "I'm not saying she's, you know mentally not all there or something, She just sometimes doesn’t think about things before doing it."
Fluttershy nodded a little bit as she took this information in, "Well, I don't want to hurt her feelings or anything so, maybe we should talk about something else."
"No, It's fine. You two can keep going."
Fluttershy jumped and gave off a squeak as her irises shrank to pinprick points before looking around to see Ditzy was standing by them with a tray of muffins and drinks on her back. "Ummm, Sorry. Didn't mean to startle you Fluttershy."
Fluttershy looked up cautiously, and spoke barely above a whisper. "It's okay"
Ditzy smiled as she spread out her right wing and tilted her body to let the tray slide off her onto the table."So, I didn't ask you what you wanted to drink, but, I wanted coffee, so I figured I would get you two something to drink too."
The other two mares nodded a bit before Ditzy continued to talk. "So, I figured Dash would want one of these new energy drinks, so I got you a can of 'Wonderbolts Energy', and Fluttershy seems a little, nervous, no offence, so I got you a cup of tea, with a lemon slice on the side."
Dash and Fluttershy smiled at Ditzy, and thanked her. They all grabbed a muffin and ate them in between moments of talking.
Ditzy looked at the other two and smiled a little bit, "So Dash, you were talking about my eye."
Dash almost spat out her drink as she quickly racked her brain to figure out what to say to that.
"Well, she was, but only for a brief moment." Fluttershy stated, "I didn't notice anything wrong with your eyes, are you blind in one?"
"Thank Celestia no." Ditzy said quickly, "No, I have 'Sudden Bozemares Simplex'."
Fluttershy tilted her head as she listened, and even Dash was quietly listening. Ditzy almost never talked about her eye condition, and now that she was, both mares sat in silence.
"Everypony can get it, and usually has at one point or another. Have you ever seen a pony have something smack into them and there eyes spin around?"
The other pegasi nodded at this statement before Ditzy continued, "Well, basically its like this, when I was a filly, back in summer flight camp, I was flying by myself, practicing tricks. I remembered I used to want to be a Wonderbolt then, and was always trying to improve myself during my free time. Anyhow, I was trying to do a stunt, when I felt the air shift around me, there was an explosion of color, knocked me out. I woke up a week later, with my eyes all, messed up. It took time, but they went back to normal, but sometimes they go back, like if I'm startled, or nervous."
"SURPRISE!"
Ditzy was immediately assaulted by a sudden shower of confetti, as her left eye quickly went inward as her right eye spun around to try and find the source of the voice. "Wha? Who did that?"
Laughter filled the room as everypony looked to see Pinkie joyfully giving off her contagious giggles, "Sorry girls, but you were so serious, so I was thinking, Hey you know what we need? A way to cut the tension! So, I just yelled SURPRISE really loud! Did it work?"
Rainbow Dash and Ditzy had nearly the same looks on their faces. A state of shock, and general what-the-hay-is-going-on-here-ness. The only thing different about Ditzy, was that her eyes were still trying to get back to a normal alignment. Meanwhile, Fluttershy was lying on her back, legs straight in the air with her eyes wide open. A look of pure terror plastered on her face like a fainting goat.
Pinkie Pie laughed as she looked at the three of them, then looked at Ditzy, "Oooh, are we making faces? How do you do that with your eyes, OOH OOH let me try!"
Before anypony could follow Pinkies train of thought, she started to try to imitate the way Ditzy’s eyes were looking in opposing directions (unsuccessfully) bringing up a general round of laughter from everypony, including Ditzy and Fluttershy now that she was recovered.
“So wait, you mean you basically have, what is that word called, Derpression?” Dash asked out of her fit of laughter.
Ditzy stopped laughing when she heard that and made as serious of a face you can with crossed eyes, “Well, yeah I guess you can call it that, its just I really don't like that name for it.”
Everypony at the table stopped laughing, as they looked at Ditzy, her eyes straightened and a look of slight anger across her features, “Everypony knows that phrase, and they all use it against me. I don’t like it. Sorry.”
Dash coughed into her hoof, and looked at an interesting spot on the ceiling, as Fluttershy stared at her tea. Pinkie Pie meanwhile scrunched her face into mock seriousness and stood up, knocking her hoof on the table like a gavel, bringing all attention to her. “I have an excellent idea. Lets change the subject.”
Ditzy looked at Pinkie for a few moments, not sure how to take the randomness suddenly brought upon her. Suddenly Pinkie popped up behind her to her right, and was looking at her flank, “Oooh bubbles! How did you get those for a cutie mark?”
Ditzy looked at the pink earth pony for a few moments before looking back at where she was a second ago. “Weren’t you, Didn't you just? Oh, never mind.” Ditzy shook her head then continued, “Yeah, well, I got it after my accident. I was in a rehabilitation program, and I was upset, thinking I would never fly again. But I learned that no matter what, I should always be as positive as possible, and not feel sorry for myself. I worked hard to get myself to be able to fly again, little at first but eventually, I came to a point where it was almost like I never had the accident. When I flew on my own again these appeared. The bubbles signify that I don’t have to be down, just having a good attitude can help even in the worst of times.”
Pinkie smiled at Ditzy, “Wow, that's really neat! I got mine when I discovered I like to make ponies smile!”
“Mine are for the love I have of animals.”
“Well I got mine for being awesome and making a sonic rainboom!”
Ditzy tilted her head a little, “But Dash, you only did that last year, you had that mark a lot longer than that.”
Dash smiled and shook her head, “No, not that time. The first time, when I was a filly at summer flight camp! I was racing these two jerks who insulted Fluttershy here, and I challenged them to a race, that’s when I pulled my first sonic rainboom! And that one was so awesome, I mean, it bursted clouds, and it caused things to happen to make five of my friends get there cutie marks before I even met them. Rarity even told me that it split a rock in half!”
Ditzy sat at the table, a serious look on her face as she started to put things together. “Excuse me, but I need to go home now.”
“Now? But we just got here.” the cyan pegasus said as Ditzy started to make her way for the exit.
“Yeah, I gotta go clean my cottage, or something.” And with that Ditzy was out the door and flying off towards home.
“I wonder whats wrong with her?” Dash said to the others.
“Maybe she’s tired, or maybe we upset her, OOOH I know, we can throw a party for her to make her feel better, I bet that would help!” Pinkie said as she bounced and started to list things she would need for a cheering up party.
“I think, you upset her Rainbow Dash. I mean, I saw her expression change after you started talking about your first rainboom.”
“I don’t get that mare.” Dash said. Suddenly Pinkie Pie was standing next to her with a generals helmet on.
“O.K. Listen up, I gotta battle plan ready for this.”
Dash and Fluttershy looked at each other and shrugged as they looked at the pink mare roll out a map of Ponyville.
“Now, Fluttershy will go here, to Sweet Apple Acres to ask Applejack if we can use her barn for the party. If she says no, we will instead converge here at Sugar Cube Corner at thirteen hundred.”
“Got it.” Fluttershy said with a salute.
“Dash, you will go here, to inform Twilight about the plans so she can help with general organisation of the party, then collect Rarity to help with decorations. Got it?”
“Yeah I got it.” Dash replied with a smile.
“O.K. I will remain here to make treats and drinks for the party,” Pinkie said as she pointed to Sugar Cube Corner on the map with what looked like a riders crop, “If Fluttershy fails to return at thirteen hundred I will assume that the party will be held at the barn. Any questions?”
Fluttershy and Dash both shook there heads.
“Good, and lastly, Dash, you will collect Ditzy at fourteen hundred hours, to bring her to the party. Clear?”
“I got it.”
“That should leave plenty of time for her to calm down and be ready enough to go somewhere. Now lets move out!”
And all three left the table to enact a plan to make Ditzy feel at least a little bit better.
Ditzy was laying on her couch, thinking about her life, and what she has just learned.
“An explosion of color that the world has never seen before knocks me out of the sky and gives me a permanent disability. And Rainbow Dash caused it.”
Ditzy rolled over off the couch and trotted over to a mirror that hung on the wall, and sighed. “It’s all her fault, if it wasn’t for her I could have been something great! I used to be able to see right, I used to be able to do stunt flying too, now look at me. I deliver letters and get laughed at by other pegasi.”
The mare in the mirror looked back at her with crossed eyes, “Now Ditzy don’t say things like that. She didn’t know, and she did not mean to cause harm.”
Ditzy looked back at herself, and started to mutter, as she sat on the floor. “They have no idea what I have been through.”
Ditzy laid down on the floor and covered her eyes with her hooves, as the tears began to pour like rain, soaking her fur and dripping onto the carpet. “The way I see it, the only way to stop this mockery, is to close my eyes. Forever.”
Ditzy kept crying to herself on the floor of her living room, feeling so lost that all she could do now was cry. “Now Ditzy, you surely don’t mean that.”
“I do, I can’t stand to live this way any more!”
Ditzy looked into the mirror and found her reflection grinning manically at her, walking closer to her on its own. “You haven’t got what it takes to end it all, you are just being a drama queen.”
“SHUT UP!” Ditzy said as she yelled at the mirror, then paused as she looked at the smug reflection, and realised she wasn't making that face. “Oh Celestia, Ive finally gone and snapped. I’m arguing with my reflection.”
The reflection did a back flip in her backwards living room, “Well looks like the last horse to cross the finish line today is you!”
“This makes no sense, How can you do things on your own?”
Suddenly a joyous laugh echoed through the room followed by a voice, dripping in mirth and a decidedly dangerous undertones. “Awww, what fun is there really in making sense of anything?”
Ditzy’s wings flared, as she looked around for the cause of the voice, “Who’s there, show yourself!”
Ditzy looked around the room, and saw nopony, and was about to shrug it off as her mind playing with her again when she spotted the mirror on the wall.
Ditzy went up to the mirror and stared at her reflection, and saw she had yellow eyes with red dots in the center.
Ditzy shrieked and rubbed her eyes, and looked again and saw that her reflection was behaving normal, only to see those same eyes staring at her in the dark doorway of her bathroom, floating on there own with a snaggletoothed grin floating below.
Ditzy turned around and looked at the door, only to find nothing, she looked again at the mirror and saw the eyes were still there in the reflection, along with the toothy grin that was all she could see of the intruder, no body, or anything, just eyes and a grin, in the mirror.
“Well that does it, Ive lost my mind completely, I knew this day was coming.”
The entity in the mirror laughed and stepped out of the shadows, showing it had an equine head with bushy eye brows and a beard, but it had miss matched horns, one of a goat and one of a deer. The rest of the body did not make any sense at all either, it had an eagle claw for one hand, and a lions paw for the other, the leg of a lizard like thing, and another that looked like it came from a goat. Its body was pony like enough, but the wings were miss matched, one a blue pegasus wing, the other a dragons wing, lastly a long snakes tail with a tuft of hair on the end made up the last of the creature in the mirror.
Ditzy stood shaking in place at the reflection, to scared to move, her eyes crossed enough that she could see it wasn't in the room with her, but the reflection made it seem real enough to frighten her out of her wits.
“Well, aren't you going to say something? Its very rude to treat a guest in your house this way. Offer me a drink, or a chair or a snack of some sort. Honestly, ponies these days, your stoned for a thousand or so years and suddenly manners go right out the window.”
Ditzy shook her head to make sure that she was seeing things right, then nodded, went to her fridge and grabbed a muffin and a bottle of apple juice. When she looked back at the mirror her reflection also held the tray in her teeth, sharing the same shocked expression as she did at the moment.
“Ah I thank you, I am so parched you just would not believe it if I told you.” the thing in the mirror said as he grabbed the bottle and drank it, leaving the contents behind, Ditzy watched in awe as the items in the mirror did this, but the ones on her tray remained stationary, as if it didn’t happen at all.
Ditzy placed the tray on her coffee table and watched as the thing in the mirror sat down and began to eat at the muffin by sucking it like a noodle, the one on her table stayed in place, not effected by its reflective counterpart. Finally Ditzy found her voice and said the first thing that came to her mind.
“What are you?”
“Ugh you back ground ponies are so boring.” the thing said with an unamused look glazed over his face. “You never say anything interesting, its like someone fell asleep at the sound booth!”
“What?”
The thing in the mirror rolled its eyes and made a swooshing sound as he sliced the air over his head with his lion paw. “Right over your head that one, anyhow, I am a draconequus, but you may call me Discord. Spirit of chaos and disharmony, and until about twenty minutes ago, thousand time winner of must handsome statue of Celestia’s royal garden, at your service.” he said with a grin.
Ditzy just stared at awe at him, silently wondering where she heard about Discord before. Her mind drew a blank as she watched the spirit in her mirror grin at her. “My service?”
“You called me, whether you know it or not, your troubled mind called to me like a siren does to the sailors at sea, and I just had to meet you.”
“Me? But I never called you.”
“Oh but you did.” Discord said as he floated above the couch in the mirror, “If I may,”
Discord touched Ditzy’s reflection in the mirror and it started to move backwards, going through everything she did the last few minutes until it showed her on the couch lamenting out loud. “It’s all her fault, if it wasn’t for her I could have been something great! I used to be able to see right, I used to be able to do stunt flying too, now look at me. I deliver letters and get laughed at by other pegasi!”
Ditzy looked at the mirror in awe and then looked at Discord in the mirror, “Am I really that melodramatic?”
“Yes you are! And now would you like to ask me the million bit question?”
“Umm, what do you really want with me?”
“Oh we have a winner Johnny, tell her what she’s won!” Discord exclaimed as another, smaller discord showed in the mirror, “Well Discord, she wins One deal of a lifetime!”
“A deal? What kind of a deal?”
Discord laughed as he floated closer in the mirror until he filled the image, as if he were leaning against the glass on the other side. “Oh its simple, I make it as if you never had your accident. Your precious cutie mark will of course remain the same, but you will have a new life, new house, new carrier and best of all for you, normal eyes. That's what you really want, isn't it?”
Ditzy looked at him in wonder, and thought to herself, “Can he really do all that? And if he can, what is the catch?”
Discord chuckled softly “The catch as you put it is simple, I want just one small thing, I mean come on this is a big deal, Monty Hall ain't got nothing on me!”
Ditzy stood there for a moment, wondering how he knew what she was thinking and who in Equestria was Monty Hall before asking, “Fine, what do you want.”
“What I want is very simple, I want you to stay out of Canterlot for the next forty eight hours, let me carry on my plans without disturbance. The moment you start to head over there for any reason, I will call a breach of contract and you go back to the life you have now.”
Ditzy shook her head as she listened to all of this information being pelted at her, “Wait, how would you know if I went there? Why can’t I go there anyhow?”
Discord raised an eyebrow as he looked back at her, “One, I wouldn’t but the spell I place on you would break. Two, because those are the rules to my game, and I say so.”
Ditzy looked at Discord for a few moments before saying something. “Well, I don’t know, I mean what about my friends?”
“Friends?” Discord said with a laugh, “You think you have friends? Here let me show you what they are doing right now.”
The image on the mirror changed to show Applejack on her farm with Fluttershy, the two of them talking about something. “So, Pinkie asked me if I would ask you if it’s O.K. to through the party here. So is it?”
“Yeah, we can have a party here tonight if ya really want to. Jus' I gotta go and collect some o' the corn thats ready for picken, you wanna help?”
The image shifted to show Rainbow Dash inside of Carousel Boutique talking to the store owner. Rarity if Ditzy remembered right. “So, we are going to have this big party at Sweet Apple Acres, do you think you can help with decorations?”
Rarity looked around the shop and sighed. “Well, I suppose that I should, after all who else could possibly help to make sure that the decor is to die for? After all, I haven't had a customer all day.”
The image shifted again to show Twilight in her library writing a check list. “So, according to my calculations we should have the maximum room for about twenty ponies, so we need approximately four gallons of punch, and forty plates, twenty cups, and enough snacks to go around. But wait, what if somepony drops a cup?” The mare went on for a while before the image went away to show Discord in the mirror, again reflecting her living room.
“Looks to me that your so called friends are throwing a party tonight, did you know about this?”
“No.” Ditzy said as her ears fell back.
“And they don’t seem to know how upset you are do they?”
“No, no they didn't”
Ditzy started to cry, and watched as Discord placed his hand on her shoulder in the reflection, and Ditzy felt a weight on her shoulder. She looked to her right and Discord was right by her side, outside of the mirror and just as real and solid as anypony else.
“Now why don’t you shake my paw, and you can have everything you ever deserved, and more.”
Ditzy looked at him, as she dried her eyes, “Your right. Who needs friends if that's how they are!”
Discord smiled wide, with his eyes narrowed, “So we have an agreement? You stay out of Canterlot for the next 48 hours and the new life is yours to keep.”
Discord stuck out his lion paw to Ditzy, and she looked at it for a few moments before placing her hoof in his paw. “Deal.”
They shook once, and Discord started to laugh, softly at first, then harder as if he had just witnessed the funniest thing ever.
