The Mailbox: Reloaded 86 members · 1 stories
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Peroth E
Group Admin

Dear Pinkie Pie,

I wish you were here right now to see the Griffin Kingdom personally, it’s absolutely amazing! I just got off the ship and I’m in a carriage with one of the safari guides. He’s a hippogriff - the result of a griffon and a pony - and he’s very knowledgable! He just finished telling me that he had been trailing an odd little creature to find its burrow when he remembered he had to meet me. What a gentleman! He missed researching a rare creature just to come meet me!

I hope we manage to find it while we’re exploring Griffalabella, I would love to see what a Snipe looks like. It sounds cute! I should have slept on the boat here so I could be awake for the rest of the night to help him find it, but even now my eyelids are getting heavy. We’re going to a hotel for the night before we start our safari tomorrow, and I’m worried I’ll be too excited to get to sleep.

Oh, but the kingdom! It has a lot of very tall towers, and there are only a few benches and roads on the ground. Since the griffons and hippogriffs fly, the towers have large wooden balconies with seating and open-air entrances for them to land in. At night, everything is lit up like fireflies, and the griffons dart in and out of sight going who knows where. The ground is nice and lit up too, I’m looking out the window right now and I may have spotted a sweets shop.

~*`*`` Sorry about the ink stain, I was about to write when Fabian - the guide I’m with - started talking to me. We were talking about animals, and he’s so knowledgable! He asked me lots of questions too, which makes sense, I’m supposed to help study habitats and herding patterns with him. I think I surprised him with what I know, but he seems worried about letting me study up close with him and the others. He’s a real sweetheart, but I came here to watch animals, and I know how to handle an angry bear, I think I’ll be able to keep myself safe.

Griffon architecture uses a lot of towers and a lot of windows, I think they’re meant for quick escapes and lighting, but with so many lanterns outside, you’d think they’d have a few inside too. I think you would have a blast seeing all the sights, and I know you would throw the griffons the best party they’d ever had.

Oh, but I’m rambling! How has your travelling been? Hopefully not as bumpy as mine, but I’d think Manehatten is good at transportation. It must be nice seeing everything getting prepared, have you seen any floats yet? I can’t wait to see your pictures, I always wanted to see their parade, but I couldn’t stand in such big crowds. I hope it’s not a problem for you though!

Anyways, we’re almost to the hotel. Then, I get to meet the safari team! Have a most wonderful summer, and keep in touch!

Much love,
Fluttershy

JaketheGinger
Group Admin

Heya Fluttershy

Super happy to hear that you’re having a great time. I was kinda worried that you’d be real nervous of a strange new land by yourself, but it sounds like I shouldn’t have needed to worry in the first place.

And I hear ya on struggling to sleep. Happens to me almost every other day. You just gotta do something to tire yourself out. A few laps around Sugarcube Corner usually does it for me! But I don’t think a safari like yours is gonna be a walk in the park (mostly because there are no parks in the wild), so it’s likely you’ll be falling into your comfy sleeping bad every night, no problem!

Oh, before I forget. If you get this before you leave, take the free soap from the hotel! It’s deadly important. We can’t have you all smelly when you come back.

I’d love come to visit there sometime with ya, ‘cause it sounds really cool! But from what you’ve told me, I’d have to take my candycopter. It doesn’t seem kind to groundbounders. Try those sweets from the shop for me if you can! I wanna know if griffons like different flavors than we do, or if they have entirely new ones.

Fabian sounds like a nice guy, and I’m sure he’s just trying to keep you safe. Can you imagine if you got eaten by a Let’s not go there. Just remember to be assertive if you think he’s holding you back from all the nice stuff. The old Fluttershy way, not the new Fluttershy way.

Manehattan’s pretty good. It’s definitely ‘alive’, since there’s always something to do! But… I dunno, I think you’re onto something with not liking it very much. Even if it’s busy, it sorta feels a bit… ummm… stale, I guess? Like, in Ponyville ponies are always saying hi to each other and stuff, and in Canterlot everypony seems pretty happy to be in such a pretty place. But Manehattan? I dunno, everypony seems different here. Like they’re only going from A to B and not even bothering with C. You think I’d like the big cities, but something about this place makes me feel weird, if only a teeny weeny bit.

I dunno, hopefully that feeling will change when the parade starts. Only a few days or so to go! The streets are starting to get all partied up, streamers and lights on the lampposts and stuff, so it looks like it’ll be a big event!

All the others are probably telling you to be safe, and I’m not gonna lie and pretend I wouldn’t say that too. But I’m sure you’ve heard enough of that, so I’ll just say this: have fun out there! Write back as soon as you can, since mailboxes don’t grow on trees. (Unless they do in Griffonland.)

Much lovey love back,
Pinkie

Peroth E
Group Admin

Dear Pinkie Pie,

We’ve left Griffalabella already, though I wish we could have stayed. It was such a big and beautiful place, and you wouldn’t need your copter, actually! They have grounded entrances for groundbounders, but you’d have to be able to climb a lot of stairs to live here. I think it would be worth it for a vacation (I don’t know about staying though, it’s a lot of stairs).

Fabian is really nice, and he’s constantly checking up on me. He’s our group’s cook and navigator, and he’s very good. I don’t think we’ve even needed a map, he seems to know all sorts of backwoods trails to get to our locations. I think we cut down on our way to Griffalabella’s coast by about two hours? We’re currently camped out at the top of the cliff, but there’s a town that’s only a forty minute flight away.

I had a hard time convincing the others to let me fly there to mail my letters. Sir Dusty Tracks and Fabian seemed hesitant, but were okay as long as I was only mailing letters. Candis insisted that we were on a safari, and the only way to get the real experience was to rough it. He thinks we should be hunting and gathering our food and only going into town in places that were hard to hunt.

Candis and I got into a big argument about hunting. I didn’t want to hurt any of the animals we were observing when we only had to throw some bits to a local butcher shop - I am trying to keep myself from screaming or being queasy, griffons have a right to eat - but he grew really angry and I think flustered when I stood my ground. He and Broch started growling at me, but I asked myself “what would my friends do?” and growled right back. I think I confused them.

Fabian eventually got him to agree to hunt only animals unrelated to our safari, and got me to agree that I’m to only go into town to deliver letters, and not to buy food. Since I’ve learned how to scavenge, I’d agreed, but I feel like I got off on the wrong hoof already. Maybe I should have been more pliable, but this is a safari to to observe the animal’s natural behavior, not see how they’d react to the introduction of a new predator in their ecosystem.

I’m sorry if I’m coming off as angry, I’m just frustrated.

As for Manehatten, I felt the same way. It was certainly a beautiful place on the outside, but it felt cold, and empty on the inside. Like all the life was in the business and the commute rather than the ponies. I hope the culture faire brings out the best in everypony! I know Ponyville always got extra proud and happy whenever we were celebrating.

Who knows? Maybe it just needs that Pinkie Pie touch to really bring the cattle to town. I wish you the best of luck with your float!

Much love,
Fluttershy

JaketheGinger
Group Admin

3304888

Hiya!

So the griffons like stairs, huh? Interesting… very interesting.

And wow, some of these guys seem like real hardcore safari… ers. You should ask them why they aren’t sending letters. Surely they’ve got friends and family back home too, right? Just because you’re in the wild doesn’t mean you all have to be like caveponies. Neigh.

As for the hunting… hum, I dunno! I think it’s good you stood your ground ‘n’ all, but things work differently there. I’ve seen you feed fishies to your otters before. It’s kinda like that, I guess. Circle of life and stuff. I guess you’d know better than me, but that’s what I think. From the sound of things, griffons have been hunting for aaaaages.

Maybe you just need to be more tolerant of each other? You’ve only just met, but you’re all going on this epic safari adventure! Normally that’d be something we’d do, but you’re doing with a bunch of new griffons. That makes things kinda different. But you’re still doing really well just by being there, so Auntie Pinkie here is proud of ya.

Sorry I haven’t written much lately, but I had to work real hard on my float. I talked to Coco Pommel (you remember her, right?) and she said that I like singing and stuff, so why not make a musical float? I thought that it was a good idea, but it felt like it was missing one thing…

So I added bubbles. Everypony likes bubbles.

Basically I had all these giant trumpets wrapping around the float, and the base of it was a giant drum, and there were loads of other big instruments for decoration! All the trumpets blew out bubbles onto the crowd and they seemed to love it! I played my one pony polka, which went down a treat! It’s pretty tiring though, so I had to eat some candy afterwards to keep going.

There was so many other floats there, you wouldn’t believe it! The Daring Do was really cool! It was like, a giant temple of something with (fake) fire erupting from the top! All the kids seemed to really enjoy that, but I had to laugh at all the adults getting all giddy about it too. It’s fun to see the grown up ponies go back to their childhoods for once.

The city felt so alive, it was amazing! Music played throughout the streets, and the cheers of the crowd was just electrifying! Everypony seemed real happy to be there, even the guard ponies!

But then… everything just kinda stopped when it finished. Like, there wasn’t much of a post-party cheer. Life went back to normal for them, so that lifeless came back like a moody Opalen Opalasen Opalesense Opal when she comes back to Rarity’s house. I don’t think I like Manehattan very much, but neither do you or Applejack, so that makes three of us at least.

I’m going to Baltimare tomorrow. There’s a boat race that’s got my name on it! And these won’t be the boring sail boats, nah. These are gonna be the super cool new steam boats! I can’t wait!

Trying to find her sealegs in time,
Pinkie

Peroth E
Group Admin

Dear Pinkie Pie,

That sounds very fun! The floats I mean, I just wish that sort of cheer could have stayed. I bet it must have been really exciting being apart of it. Then again, so many ponies watching you and cheering at you, or what if they’re not cheering? What if you make a bad float and nopony likes it and they start booing?

Or even worse, you try to be clever and ironic with, like, a Nightmare Moon float and they get super mad and start throwing things?! I don’t think I could put up with that stress, you’re very brave for risking your creativity like that, ponies can be so cruel sometimes…

Though boats aren’t. Boats don’t feel, but I always feel good near the water. The ship that brought me here was really nice, and the sailors were handsome huge nice and thought I was sexy were very complimentary. It got me thinking about maybe looking into a sail boat. Steamboats are too noisy and fast for me, I would be happy with just wind power and pillow to lay on.

Despite that, I wish you the best of luck in your race! Don’t worry about winning, I’m sure they’ll have some ponies like Dash competing, and if that’s the case, just do your best and enjoy the nice weather, unless it’s terrible, in which case you should probably stay inside where you won’t get rained on.

I talked with my safari friends about letters, and Sir Dusty Tracks said that he wants a totally pure experience to write about. He wants the safari to be about us and the wild, and that too much interaction with home makes his loins heart ache. I wasn’t sure what he meant by that, but he probably has a wife.

Candis had similar feelings, saying he wanted to have the whole safari feel isolated and wild. I get the feeling he’s not a big fan of cities, he got grumpy when we stepped into Silbera. Speaking of which, we’re in a new town. This one has some ponies and griffons, but it’s mostly zebras, so we’re definitely further south than I thought. It’s more of an outpost than anything, none of the buildings look permanent or new, and the food is mostly gruel (but it’s pretty good, they’re doing incredible things with potatoes).

Broch was silent as usual, but I get the feeling he’s more concerned with our stuff in the cart. He’s been defensive about it, and we have to ask him to retrieve what we want for us. He’s extremely protective, and the only time he raises his voice is when somebody gets too close to our stuff without asking. I don’t want to make him mad by asking him about why he’s being defensive, but he actually escorted me to the cart, got the paper and pencil for me, and then came back with me to eat (and boy did he look unhappy about it). I guess he just needs to know he can trust me.

Fabian says the thought hadn’t occurred to him, which is a little odd considering he’s so smart and charismatic, he can talk the zebra language as easily as pony or griffon. Still, it seems I’m the only one I convinced to write any letters, and they’re letting me do it without a fuss.

I’ve agreed to let them hunt for their food, but we’re on a strict “don’t ask don’t tell” basis about it. While I’ve been keeping my head turned, I do catch them preying on the wildlife and… goodness. Griffons are almost hawk-like, I never realized just how sharp their eyes were, or how fine-tuned they are to hunting. Those claws are so strong, Candis especially is an amazing hunter.

I wish I hadn’t looked, but watching him catch fish was hypnotizing. Broch is a little clumsy, but he’s so big he’s probably more suited to large game. I bet he could carry off a full grown buck without an issue. Fabian seems to prefer ground hunting, he’s good at pinning things in their holes and…

Sir Dusty Tracks recommends I don’t pay attention, but I can’t help it. These griffons are emulating their ancestors, hunting and eating purely through instinct. They don’t hunt anything endangered so I’m a little less troubled, but it still leaves me feeling numb whenever they come back.

I wish I wasn’t so judgmental, they know how I feel about it, but after getting to know so many animals, you start to really feel that nature isn’t some big dog-eat-dog world. All my animals get along, so I forget just how unforgiving nature can be outside of Ponyville, or even outside of Equestria.

Still, I’m trying to tolerate them. I’m in their home, on their safari, I need to act with proper respect.

Much love,
Fluttershy

JaketheGinger
Group Admin

OOC: The back of the letter has been stuck to the envelope.

Hiya Fluttershy,

Just gonna get the bad stuff out of the way first: I’m not allowed to race. Apparently I need a boating licence or something. I told all the official-y race ponies that I can fly a candycopter, but they just looked at me funny. So now I’ve got nothing to do until the race starts in a few days time. I’m kinda just wandering about, looking at shops and stuff. Baltimare’s nicer than Manehattan, but it’s smaller than Canterlot and not as pretty. It’s just… average.

Sorry. I just wanted to race so badly, y’know? Stupid rules.

But I better check out some of those handsome sailors. Sure, they’re not the same as the ones you saw, but they can’t be that different. Heehee! You better tell me what they really said about ya. ‘Cause it definitely sounds like I’d agree with them! Don’t worry though. I’m not Dash, so I won’t tease ya (much). I wonder what they’ll think of me? I think they’d totally get down with a fun mare like me.

Yus! That is what I shall do: drink rum with the sailors! Pretend we’re pirates or something. That’ll be fun.

Right! Let’s go through your safari friends, girl. I can totally give you advice on how to deal with them. I talk to loads of different ponies on a day-to-day basis, so I know what it’s like. Like, with Rainbow Dash I’ll prank a bunch of ponies, but with you I like the animal tea parties.

So, Sir Dusty might have some kids, right? And you like kids, so that’s something you got in common! Also, try asking what he did to become a ‘sir’. Unless Dusty is actually his middle name… that’d be funny. I wonder if pony sirs are different from griffon sirs… huh.

Candis sounds like a li’l bit of a grump. Okay, so I didn’t like Manehattan so much, but I still think Canterlot is really good fun! I’d just keep your distance. But you’re quiet, which is a pretty good skill to have around poni griffons like him. I’m sure he won’t go after ya all grump like.

Broch is… hiding something. He’s gotta be, right? It might not be a bad thing he’s hiding, but all that kinda stuff sounds suspicious. Unless he, like, had all his safari stuff stolen by animals once. But if that happens you could tell the animals not to do it, right? Maybe he just really likes his stuff.

Fabian sounds swell though! Not much I can say about him!

And if they think they’re good hunters, they’ve obviously never seen me when I’m hungry. You know I could totally tear down a house if it meant I’d get one cupcake. But luckily, I’m almost never hungry! Just hang in there, Fluttershy. I mean, do griffons eat grass off the ground like we can (in desperate times, at least)? They probably think veggies are totally yuck! You’re just two different things and that’s okay, ‘cause differences make life exciting.

Oh! And can you tell me if all Zebras rhyme? ‘Cause if they don’t, then Zecora is totally awesome-er. But even if they do, she’s still really cool and nice. She’s gone from evil enchantress to enlightened enchantress. Since she knows so much stuff.

Seriously though, if there’s one thing you do, make sure to find common ground with everypony else. Then you’ll mesh together a lot better, like a really good sandwich.

Talk to ya later!
Pinkie Pie

P.S. Hoped you liked my surprise! Teehee!

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