• Published 12th Apr 2014
  • 2,090 Views, 50 Comments

Shipping and Mishandling - Noble Thought



Sometimes, love needs a helping hoof, and it's up to Derpy Hooves, Ditzy Do, and Bright Eyes, mailmares extraordinaire, to save Hearts and Hooves day! Their plan is to ship love in a container. Will it work?

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Schemers Unite

On a far away cloud top, Derpy Hooves, Bright Eyes and Ditzy Do sat sharing a pair of binoculars. The Three Mares of Love giggled excitedly. The target of their latest attempt to ship love in a container apparently had been a rousing success.

Off in the distance, Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow flew off to enjoy their first date; hopefully a date at a bath.

Bright Eyes pumped a hoof. "Success! If only Ditzy Do had put the right label on the crate the first time, this would have been less messy."

"Me?" Ditzy threw a piece of cloud over her sister's head, "I was the one who suggested Rainbow and Twilight last year. You only shipped the books, not the romantic interest!"

"It wasn't my fault your instructions were garbled. 'Ship Romance' is a rather vague instruction. I thought you meant the romance novels."

Derpy Hooves interjected before her sisters could descend further into their argument. "Girls, please. I think this worked out for the best in the end. Rainbow Dash is hard to manipulate reliably and Twilight Sparkle even more so. Subtlety was necessary on both accounts." She held out her hooves to either side to hoof bump with her sisters, "Good job girls. We've saved Hearts and Hooves day again."

All three of them decided to ignore the fiasco with the trio less than an hour before that had threatened to ruin their year long scheming. Water under the cloud, they decided. Maybe things wouldn't turn out so bad for the trio.

Ditzy Do pulled out a list and held it out to Bright Eyes, "Who's next on the list?"

"I think... Fluttershy and Rarity?" her sister asked, squinting at the list and trying to focus.

Derpy, the oldest by a few minutes, shook her head at her two younger siblings. "Really? That's too obvious. They already have a date at the spa every week, and it wouldn't work out so well. For... reasons."

All three cringed. Memories of animals jumping all over Rarity while she screamed flitted from one to the next of the triplets. No... That attempt had not gone over well at all.

"Why not Fluttershy and Applejack? Or, what about Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie? Those names rhyme at least. We could write a poem."

The youngest of the triplets, Bright Eyes, squealed in excitement. "Yes! Let's do it!"

Ditzy Do, the more subdued middle sister only clapped her hooves. "Oooh. I like that idea."

Author's Note:

Was once a part of Chapter 1... But it felt better to end that chapter with the kiss and Rainbow Dash's parting thought. Also... This one is a bit more scattered, since it's an omni-perspective from the triplets' combined point of view.

The triplets are an allusion to the three Witches from Macbeth - turned light. Though... I didn't think it fit to have them actually talk in Iambic Pentameter. This is a modern romance, not a dramatic retelling. To be honest, it's a tenuous link at best.

And now I feel it's ready for the Twidash contest. Probably.

Comments ( 46 )

Isn't Ditzy and Derpy the same pony?

4223613

Depends on the headcanon, I suppose.

4223613
For the most part, but she was never officially renamed anything. I think Hasbro kind of decided not to touch on it after the fuss over her initial naming scene. It is a very real possibility though.

4223647 indeed I'm just making sure

4223647
4223712

I decided to take some artistic license with the character and make them something of an allusion to Macbeth's three witches. Though... obviously a tenuous link at best.

This is my OTP right here!
Loved the story!
Bravo! Bravo!

I like those three sisters of love's fate. Are two of them identical and the other fraternal?:ajsmug:

4225601
I don't think so in my head, but it could be. Derpy Hooves is the dominant one, while Ditzy Do and Bright Eyes are the younger (if only by a few minutes) siblings. I view them as being physically identical - hence why everypony gets their names confused. But their personalities are at least at different levels of maturity... an exaggeration of their minute (haha) difference in age.

I had tried to make the joke "The Three Horsemares of Love" trying to play off the horsemen of the apocalypse... but that felt forced. I had pictured them as sort of incidental cupids, really, and I might write a short story further exploring their origin as the Mares of Love in which they accidentally cause a couple to fall in love through a mailing mishap.

In that one, too, they will be, well, background ponies, manipulating things without seeming to. But I honestly don't know if I will or not. It depends on if I can make it work. I ... barely got this one to work, I think. It's not my best work.

4224169

I'm glad you enjoyed it! It ain't gonna win any contests, and I want to rework it so that it stands out more as a romance with light comedic elements than a mutant fusion of romance and comedy. The Thunderlane/Flitter/Blossomforth joke went on for too much of the story, for example, especially since it never went anywhere. I can see that now that I've had a day to think about it.

4226673
Let me know when you do!
I would love to read it!

Not bad. Keep up the good work.

Derpy, Ditzy, and Bright Eyes all being seperate ponies? That's quite an interesting headcanon. I'm intrigued...

Can you have a shipping contest without ponies getting shipped? I think not!

Nice, quirky little story you've given us. I certainly enjoyed it, and I'm curious to see how it will do in the competition. You definitely thought outside the box. Or in...never mind.

Good luck!

4276101

And good luck to you as well!

Unfortunately, sad tearjerker stories... I tend to stay away from them. I like my tears to be happy, pride filled tears mixed with an occasional sad tear. So... I'm sorry. I just can't bring myself to read your story, I'm afraid. I have a tendency to be empathetic on a wildly disproportionate scale and it throws me out of whack for at least a week.

Edit: I mean, I had to put down the Game of Thrones series for a month after getting to Ned Stark's beheading. I put it down for damn near ever after The Red Wedding incident.

4276192
If it's not your thing, it's not your thing. I understand.

Anyway, I also love the idea of the three mail mares as the three witches from Macbeth. The thought of them rhyming while mixing a muffin of love in a bubbling cauldron makes me laugh.

4273808

I keep hearing that on my stories :raritywink:

I must think sideways, or something, compared to most of the fandom.

No I don't... I've heard it from one other person on one other story.

4276192

Unfortunately, sad tearjerker stories... I tend to stay away from them. I like my tears to be happy, pride filled tears mixed with an occasional sad tear. So... I'm sorry. I just can't bring myself to read your story, I'm afraid. I have a tendency to be empathetic on a wildly disproportionate scale and it throws me out of whack for at least a week.

That is so much like me it's scary.

Also, the end hints at a sequel. Am I just crazy, or is that your plan? :rainbowlaugh:

4317832

Maybe...:raritywink:

If you've seen my user page then you would see the projects I have planned. Including a monster TwiDash adventure.

If there is it'll probably be an experimental piece. This was my first attempt at writing romance, for example.

Edit: What Ifs and Never Weres doesn't count.

Edit edit:I'm not sure if I'd have time to plan a sequel.

PresentPerfect
Author Interviewer

I have never been so befuddled by a story. @_@

But you got me to laugh, so have an upvote.

4322877

Yeah. The story sort of evolved rather than was planned. I'm working on my planning and plotting skills. I need to be less impulsive when I get an idea, honestly.

PresentPerfect
Author Interviewer

4322909
I'd suggest outlining as a way to organize your thoughts. :) It works well for me!

4323412

I am. I had to rethink how I thought of outlines before I could do a proper one. Old habits, old ideas are sometimes hard to let go of. I'm having to rethink a lot of what I thought I knew about writing and realize that I really don't know all that much. It's helping me to move past a place I was stuck at for close to 5 years.

Toodles.

4324907

Originality is one of the things in the contest... I think maybe I jumped off the deep end with this one, actually. It feels a little disjointed in places, but manages to tell some kind of story. I wrote it over the course of a weekend, then sat down over the course of a week and edited and tweaked it. Perhaps I should have asked an editor... but I am so eclectic that I worry an editor would quickly get frustrated with my writing and editing style.

I am very much not a hands off type of writer when it comes to editing.

Edit: Then I rewrote parts of it almost 3 weeks later and did more tweaking.

4327029

Thanks for the advice. I have noticed that I tend to be rhetorical when my characters face a dilemma. I need to work on that. My voice should be the least vocal in the stroy.

4327044 Don't let my last comment detract from the story. I thoroughly enjoyed it. :yay:

4329282

Nah. Yer good. Sometimes it's just nice to hear that somepony enjoyed my writing.

And that, my friends, is why you get a bubble-y feeling when your in love.

4329385

And why there's a terrible, empty ache in the middle of your chest when you lose it.

Sorry... Melodrama. :raritydespair:

All this shipping has made me think back on my past, some of the present, and things and people lost, some forever, and some not, but all missed.

Is it odd that, right now, the thing I miss most of all is a bunny rabbit doll that an aunt gave me when I was five? My aunt is still around, but I have no idea where the doll is.

You know something interesting? This has been in my read later list for about a month now, and I didn't even realize it was a contest entry until tonight. :rainbowlaugh:

4336093

I'm guessing it's because of the cover art and description?

No TwiDash! Only the character tags give it away.

4336575 No, I understood it was twidash. I picked it up from a different folder in the army. Lol. I guess I just skimmed over the fact it was in the contest folder. :twilightblush:

4337280

Yeah, I put it in a different folder before I added it to the contest folder. I was suffering doubts that it would stand up at all in a contest. I feel better, having gotten some feedback from it, though.

4337298 I'll be reading it and judging it at some point today. However, now you know that it caught my attention regardless. :raritywink:

btw...why is it two chapters instead of one? :rainbowhuh:

4337354

Artistic license... I was going to put the chapters together, but it felt wrong to drift from the last thought to the three scheming mares without a more significant pause in the story than a scrolling down.

I'm weird like that, I suppose. It felt right to do it that way and felt clunky to just drop them in after a tender moment between the new couple.

4337361 Was Surry asked about that? :applejackunsure: I mean, it won't make a great deal of difference, but I'm just trying to get my facts straight before I assume things.

4337442

Actually, no, I hadn't even thought to ask, truthfully.

Good use of subtext there, too. I'll understand if it disqualifies me from the contest, but I don't think I'd change the way I arranged the ending. Sometimes the story just demands that I arrange it a certain way.

4337470 No, it just docks 2 points from the score I'll give you, but that's just in the "Contest Criteria" category. If you'd like to see how we're judging, I made a forum for it. :moustache: As I said, it won't make a great deal of difference. It's 1/30 of your score.

4337734

Sorry... Melodrama me. :raritydespair: 'Tis another freaking cold May day. Seasonal Affective Disorder is in full swing for me.

4337741 Seasonal Affective Disorder? :rainbowhuh:

4337834

Seasonal Affective Disorder

It happens to me every spring when the winter just refuses to fade away. I'm normally a very happy person, very stable. The cold just kinda seeps into me and it's harder to let go of sadness. I suppose I'm not actually depressed. I just get sad at the drop of a hat... crying spells are common. But, summer's around the corner, so I'm cautiously optimistic. Might help too if I turned the heat up a bit.

You will find me very strange, I am sure. A grab bag of dichotomous things wrapped up all in one person.

4337848 Ah, I see. I hadn't heard of that specifier before. And don't worry about me thinking you're weird...

We're all mad here. :pinkiecrazy:

This was truly a weird fic. I've read better.:ajbemused:

4404131

I agree. It is not something I'm terribly proud of, but it's also not the worst thing I've written. And yeah... Is weird. It was conceptualized and cobbled together over a weekend, then frankensteined into its current form over the course of a month. It's a mess, storywise.

Thats an awesome headcanon. The whole Derpy Hooves, Ditzy Do, and Bright Eyes being triplets thing.

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