Standing In
The next day just happened to put Shift's plans for training on hold. Derpy had fallen sick for the time being, and it wasn't long before the call for a replacement was sounded in the general Ponyville-Canterlot region. Derpy herself had a reputation among the mailponies: after all, she was practically the only mailpony in all of Ponyville, and that was a lot of mail to deliver!
Post had immediately asked him that morning if he'd like to stand in for Derpy. A lot of the mailponies, who already had to wake up early enough as it was, were unwilling to take up the timeslot simply for the sheer amount of work and early morning insomnia it would require. Perhaps it was something with the muffins that she ate that gave her the energy needed to make her rounds?
Unfortunately, as Shift used the keys Post had given him to enter the post office, it seemed that a lot of ponies severely underestimated Derpy for what she did. Sitting on the lobby counter, next to a small box of muffins--with a note from Derpy wishing her unfortunate replacement a good morning--sat a map of the city of Ponyville, detailing the mailmare's standard morning route.
The clincher, however, was that the map could hardly really be considered one. The thing was covered with so many lines between so many homes and businesses that it was absolutely insane that anypony could even keep track of where they were going, much less the deliveries themselves. She easily had to make multiple stops back at the post office in between given her workload just to restock on more post!
"Derpy, you are one crazy mare..." Shift said, his eyes darting around the paper. Well, it was certainly daunting when one actually viewed it from a glance, but it seemed that Derpy worked her way around Ponyville in a spiral fashion, starting at the outskirts and then circling her way to the center, before stopping for the day. And to think she had the time to take care of Dinky through all of this! Most impressive, considering she was essentially doing the workload of half a dozen mailponies.
And then there was the issue of the mail itself: it was actually before early morning--earlier than most ponies would be awake, to the point where Celestia hadn't even raised the sun yet--prior to the mail delivery. That meant that whoever was working this morning job also had to take up the role of postmaster, as well. And to finish sorting all of it before delivery time? Derpy must have the patience and skill of Celestia herself!
Walking behind the counter, Shift opened the small box to find a plethora of muffins within. He didn't have a preference for any particular flavor, so he grabbed a regular blueberry muffin out of the box, and began munching on it as he examined the map further. On the outskirts of town, or rather, outside of the town itself, sat a house marked as Rainbow Dash's house, and detailed with clouds. So Dash had a cloud home down here?
Shift hadn't notified Dash since he assumed that he would be finished with the rounds before early to mid-morning, if he made good time. He probably wouldn't have if it weren't for Derpy leaving this extremely useful route map here, otherwise he might have been flying around town like a blindfolded parasprite. Interestingly enough, some of the locations had specific delivery instructions, like leaving it behind a pot, or dropping it in the backyard.
"...leave all mail behind purple flower pot in backyard...?" he muttered to himself. Some of Ponyville's citizens sure had strange delivery preferences.
He stored the map in his saddlebags, sure that he would need to use it later. Looking around, he noticed that the post wasn't anywhere to be seen. Was somepony else in charge of that? Not willing to throw away the job to chance, he decided to look around, peeping under the counter and then checking the cabinets to see if any boxes were available: he found none.
Venturing into the back rooms, he noticed a single wooden door labeled 'Deliveries', and peeked inside. The view within was absolutely shocking: there stood a huge mount of post, all in stacked boxes, collected from the day's previous rounds, taking up the span of the whole room. Shift had completely forgotten that mailponies not only delivered mail, they also collected it. It wasn't something he was used to since first-class mail service never dealt with collections.
"Oh, crap," he said, looking through all the boxes. Was this mail even sorted? He could wish it was, but on the off chance it wasn't, he'd end up spending the entire day just delivering mail, and that was time he did not have nor did he wish to relinquish even if he did. Carefully stepping the floor and avoiding the towers on either of his sides, he began the painstaking work of relocating the boxes to the larger postmaster's office, where he could sort them all out in relative comfort.
Shift sat back in the chair, having sorted the boxes' mail into proper categories. It took the longest time in actually sifting out the damn workload until he brought out the map again and looked on the back: there was a set of instructions for the replacement on how to properly categorize the whole workload, along with yet another apology. The amount of stress he went through just trying to finish his current task should have earned him a medal; no wonder nopony wanted the job.
He sighed and closed his eyes for a moment, leaning back in the sturdy office chair and basking in the aftermath of intense labor, as he put one of his rear hooves on the final box on the floor and pushed it away from himself.
"Horseapples, Derpy... you should be working at ten times my own pay," he commented to the ceiling. He looked around with a bemused face, before looking at the clock, and then realizing that though the task had been grueling, Derpy's advice had again aided him immensely, finishing just before 6 AM. "You need to be promoted to headquarters or something."
Releasing himself from the supportive comfort of the chair, he began picking up his first assorted run of mail to the outskirts of town. Sweet Apple Acres, a zebra that went by the name of Zecora, and Rainbow Dash's friend Fluttershy were among the recipients of this batch, as well as several dozen of the town's denizens.
He carefully relocated the box's contents into his own saddlebags, and then trotted outside with a weight load heavier than any delivery he'd ever run, even when he worked part-time in the Manehattan branch during peak hours. Making a note to add 'gargantuan strength' to Derpy's list of outlandish achievements, he took to the skies and headed off in the direction of the Everfree Forest.
Though it was somewhere other than Canterlot, the morning breeze felt even more alive around Ponyville. The first signs of sunlight began creeping over the horizon as Shift flew for the location of the marked cabin in the forest, though he felt a little bit tense at flying into such dangerous areas, even if only for a short distance. Derpy should have received the Mailpony of the Year award at this rate, since there wasn't a single soul alive within Equestria that would have willingly delivered something to the Everfree Forest. Except him, of course, but he was only doing this out of courtesy for her, not because he actually wanted to.
"Zecora, Zecora..." he muttered. "Where in Equestria are you?" He stopped for a moment, taking the time to float in the air as he quickly unfurled the map. It was stated in the small note next to Zecora's marked location that she lived in a treehouse, and was located on the edge of a small clearing; there was a second note that she was exactly a certain amount of distance from a particular view angle, using a mountain as a marker. "Just where are you...?" He looked down. "Oh."
Shift gave a huge intake of air as he began his descent to the treehouse immediately below him. The largest of the packages didn't even fit inside his saddlebags, and he had to carry it in his hooves. Derpy's godlike strength would have been a great boon in this particular delivery.
Leaning the tall package by the door, he looked through the windows of the treehouse. Zecora must have been expecting Derpy's delivery, as she was already awake and brewing something in the cauldron in the center of her home.
Shift knocked on the door. "Hello? Mail delivery!"
There was the sound of hooves on a wood floor, followed by the clinking sound of deadbolts unlocking, before he stood face to face with the zebra.
"I did not know there would be a new mailpony today. I would hope that my package did not encounter a delay," she rhymed.
"No, ma'am, there was no delay," Shift said, pulling the box into sight next to him, before handing her a couple of envelopes. "And here, you have some correspondence, as well."
"Ah, my family's promised gift of a decorative mask! In my home shall its beauty bask!" She opened the box and pulled out a ceremonial Zebrican mask, before walking inside and hanging it on the wall along with masks of different design.
"Um, Miss Zecora, if you'd just sign off on it here..." Shift brought out a clipboard and deftly used his wing to delve into one of the saddlebag's adjoining pouch and pulled out a pen, which Zecora took with her mouth. Shift wasn't used to this aspect of normal mail delivery, either, as first-class meant that the sender had to be extremely specific in recipient and address before it would be delivered, and signatures weren't needed.
With a quick few swipes of the pen, the signature was signed, and Shift bid Zecora a good day before taking to the skies yet again.
Shift uncomfortably avoided the gaze of several animals as he landed outside the treehouse in which Fluttershy resided. Her package happened to be a thickly-wrapped paper package that had a strange scent coming from it. Knowing about Fluttershy's reputation as Ponyville's veterinarian for creatures of all sorts, his conclusion was that it was... a type of food he was better off not thinking about.
Knocking on the door, he noticed an angry stare coming from a bunny in the window directly next to it, before the scowling face disappeared and the door opened, only to reveal that very bunny looking up at him with its arms crossed.
"Oh, um... hello," Shift said. "Would, uh... would Fluttershy be here? Oh, um, mail delivery, of course."
The bunny stared at him for a moment, before holding up a finger, indicating to Shift that he would wait for a moment. The bunny disappeared for a moment and returned with Fluttershy behind him.
"Oh, um... good morning, sir... is... is Derpy not in today?" Fluttershy asked.
"Um, yeah, about that... she's sick today. So they had to call in a replacement, which is... well, me."
"I... I see. Do you... happen to have a delivery for me? It should be a paper-wrapped package..." She leaned around to see the brown parcel obtruding from his saddlebags. "Ah, like those ones..."
"Actually," Shift said, "this is your package. I assume it's something... well, I'm not going to ask. Could you please sign off on it?"
"Oh, of course," she said, as Shift again went through the song and dance of garnering signatures for his deliveries. At least normal post didn't get this sort of tenuous affair tacked on to it. "Good day to you, miss." He nodded and took off to the air, heading for Sweet Apple Acres, and very narrowly missing a yellow blur quickly racing from Canterlot on his voyage, the form starkly contrasting with the early morning dark blue skies as it approached Ponyville.
Shift arrived back at the post office to grab his final haul. Sweet Apple Acres had a postbox right at the entrance, and had no outstanding packages with only mail, and there didn't seem to be anypony around. He quickly finished up his rounds, the weight of all the mail gradually decreasing as he went on and helped him return to his standard lightning-fast travel speeds. That, however, fluctuated as he returned back and forth for more post to deliver. Before long, he was on his final run, which was the route that led to the northern outskirts of the city, and Rainbow Dash's house.
He prepared a cup of water and quickly downed it, before pulling out a tiny spine from his mane. One of his deliveries involved delivering to a pony who just so happened to have a porcupine as a pet, and it moved far faster than its owner did. How Derpy put up with this job, he just couldn't fathom. Thankfully, the other routes were much more normal, and he finished them all without incident.
Around this time, some ponies had begun waking up. They were mostly those who owned shops, running to and fro tending to opening up in the early morning and giving each other greetings as they passed each other on the streets. The time of day was quickly approaching the first parts of the actual morning; it wouldn't be long until the town would be out and about, and Shift had intended to be finished with his run by then.
There was the sound of a bell ringing as the front door opened and Shift poked his head out from the postmaster's office to see a unicorn mare entering.
"Uh... who are you?" she asked. "Where's Derpy?"
"She's sick today. I'm a replacement from Canterlot."
"Oh! I hope it wasn't too much to deal with today. I was out sick yesterday, so I wasn't available to sort the incoming mail, and now there's today, where Derpy wasn't here to deliver them..." Her face widened as if she'd just seen a ghost. "Oh, Celestia! The mail routes! I'm so sorry, I hope it wasn't too much, I know how much work Derpy takes on for herself, but I don't know if any--"
"It's alright, I managed it just fine," Shift said. The mare breathed a sigh of relief.
"Really? Wow... I had assumed that any replacement would be completely swamped with work. I hadn't expected such a capable mailpony of standing in for her. How far are you in her route?"
"Just need to finish up the northern outskirts and I'll be done."
"Wow. Not even Derpy can finish her routes that quickly. You Canterlot mailponies must be some incredible fliers."
"Not really," Shift laughed, walking out with saddlebags brimming with mail. "I'm a first-class mailpony from Canterlot."
The mare's eyes widened in curiosity. "Really? Well, that certainly explains a lot! It's alright, you go on and finish the route. I'm the morning to late afternoon postmaster, so I'll just get right on sorting the mail for Derpy tomorrow, and you can just call it a day after you're done with the route. Good luck!"
Shift nodded and took off through the pegasus exit in the ceiling, flying north, the view of Canterlot standing like a vacation postcard picture with the sun shining through behind it. He smiled to himself; this was certainly a most interesting morning workout if he ever had one.
What was it with Ponyville and getting so much mail? Where did it even come from? Or was it just that Shift hadn't done regular mail jobs in such a long time that he'd forgotten how it was to be a mailpony? Should he try to push for extra hooves down here so Derpy wouldn't have to work as hard? He deliberated further as he was arriving at the last stop on his route: Rainbow Dash's cloud home.
Basking in the feeling of the light wispy ground, he walked up to the door, posing to knock, when he heard the sound of conversation from inside. Curious as to who Dash would entertain as a house guest so early in the morning, he leaned in to listen.
"...oh, really? The show next month?" a female voice said.
"Yeah! It's going to be so awesome! I mean, not like it isn't already awesome talking to you as it is, but I can't wait!" Dash said.
"It'll be a great show, I promise you that."
"I'll bet! Oh, and Shift even promised me a reserved spot at the audition! Have you heard anything about that yet?"
The other mare laughed, a combination of amusement and... sadness? "Yes... I saw your name on the roster. Right where his name used to be."
"Huh? Is something wrong, Spitfire?"
"It's... nothing. Has he told you anything about me?"
"Just that you both grew up in Canterlot together. I mean, how cool is it to grow up with a future Wonderbolt? I don't believe that Shift's better than you. I'll bet you beat him at every race you had!"
"Well..." Spitfire laughed nervously. "...almost? I guess I won once or twice, but the way he flies is unlike any other pegasi I've seen. He gets so into flying that not even hitting a wall would stop him... he'd probably just smash straight through it."
"Wow. So he's really that good then?"
"Has he told you about my audition?"
"Only that he was your coach. He was, right?"
"Hmm..." Spitfire hummed. "Is that all he let on?"
"Yeah. So it's true, then? He really was your coach?" Dash's excitement was barely contained in her voice.
"Yep! Taught me all the tricks of the trade, even the kind of stuff that you wouldn't expect him to just hand out... his flying secrets, you know? All that turning and technique and stuff... he really wanted me to get into the Wonderbolts, and while he isn't exactly too... uh, excited at the thought of joining up with them, he put his heart and soul into helping me succeed. You should be happy to have him as an instructor."
"I am. I'm not the Element of Loyalty for nothing, you know!" They shared a laugh. "Oh, that reminds me, I have another training session with him today! I just have to wait until he finishes up his run in Canterlot and he'll be here this afternoon! Usually, I'd be up around now doing weather pegasi business, but it's been a good month, so there isn't much to do."
"Oh, right. Weather pegasi. I remember back when you got all of Ponyville to pull the water up to Cloudsdale. That's still pretty impressive to me, actually. That one mare... Fluttershy, right? Wow, she was a real surprise. I didn't think such a small town would have it in them, to be honest."
"Yeah, we're best friends. And I gotta agree, I didn't think she had it in her, either... her wingpower was a bit... uh, pretty bad, you know?"
"Oh. Wow. If she didn't fly normally like that, then I'd be impressed that she pulled that much wingpower... Oh, speaking of which, you said Shift was coming down from Canterlot, right?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"That's strange... I talked with his boss this morning, and he said that Shift came down to Ponyville as a replacement for one of the mailponies in this town."
"One of the mailponies? Ponyville only has one mailpony, Spitfire," Dash said, as the sound of cups clinking could be heard from within. "That would be Derpy. She's a hard worker, but a bit clumsy. She delivers to all of Ponyville."
"All of Ponyville? By herself?"
"Yep! It's a tough job, but I can't think of any pegasus better to do it than Derpy. And she still has time for her daughter, Dinky, too! I usually get my mail last, though, it's the last stop on the daily mail route."
"So if Shift took up Derpy's mail route..."
Shift was still leaning his head against the door, trying to listen, until he realized that the soft poofy sounds coming from within was actually the sound of hooves on the cloud... and it was coming straight for the door. He scrambled backwards too late as the door opened, and found Spitfire stood looking at him.
"Oh. Morning, Shifty," she said coldly.
"Uh... morning, Spitfire?" he sheepishly asked.
"I had a feeling you'd be here," she said, as Dash appeared behind her. "You and I have a lot to talk about..."
"Um... what about?" Shift asked, casually avoiding eye contact with her and passing a few letters over her shoulder to Dash. "I... uh, have to go... return... to the post office now... uh, yeah..." He stepped back a few paces, turning away and trying to ignore the awkwardness of running into Spitfire here. No doubt she wanted to know why he'd decided to change his mind on the audition... and she didn't know that it was his father who'd signed him up.
"Hold on a minute!" Spitfire flew back inside and reappeared in a flash with her saddlebag. "I'm going with you."
"Okay, then!" Shift said. "Uh, Dash, I'll see you later today?" She nodded. "Right! Off we go then!" He took off back to the post office at a fast but manageable pace, allowing Spitfire to catch up alongside him. Her usual laid-back facial expression was nowhere to be found... Shift became worried that he might have inadvertently stepped on her tail by swapping out his name for Dash's.
Spitfire had dragged Shift to a nearby restaurant shortly after he turned in his saddlebags, earning a laugh from the postmaster mare on his 'marefriend'--the jokes from Post coming to mind again--which only seemed to worsen the situation. Now he was sitting at a patio table in the morning where barely any ponies were out and about. They'd both ordered a cup of tea; Shift sipped his as he watched Spitfire digging through her saddlebags.
She pulled out a number of papers and slammed it on the table, sliding it towards him. Shift cautiously glanced at the paper's beginning:
Wonderbolts Audition Priority Application - To be approved on Captain's discretion.
He looked further down and he saw his name on it.
"I want to talk about this. Why did you apply? Why did you change your mind? Why is Rainbow Dash in your place now? I want an explanation," she spoke.
He met eyes with her, and knew that there was no way out of this one, not even through flight. Spitfire might even have the drive to outpace even him with the mood she was in at the moment. She must have been absolutely overjoyed that he was going to finally sign up for the Wonderbolts... and now he was going to have to tread on ice and tell her why, and hope that his explanation would be good enough.
"Well, you see, it's kind of a long story..." he began.
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Here you go. Writer's block isn't like a one time thing, it's like an annoying fly that constantly likes to keep buzzing in your face.
Shift's predicament: Ouch! This will not end well at all. .... Great now I'm wondering if you'll pull something unexpected just to muck(no typo) with me!
837668
Amen brother
837668 I know! But I finally beat it to a pulp, and I came out with a chapter for The Color of Apples yesterday, and then I got featured. ME! I got featured! I feel so special now!
It's not like he's romantically involved with Dash or anything. I'm sure he can explain himself out of this one. I hope...
Holy shit an update!
837668
I get the same feeling, I have all this free time, but
for some reason i need like 5 days to think of a really intriguing chapter.
837668
i saw several errors
838037 Care to point them out?
God please give me more!
MOAR!
837668 I know the feeling, I mean I have something like a dozen partially done chapters, all for different stories, and the damn thing keeps coming back when I try to write more of one of them. The Writer's Block Fly must die
3 way?
839056
Genius!
Oh shit. An angry Spitfire has appeared,
You have three options
1. Run like hell and hope the angry mare doesnt catch you
2. Lie and see how that goes
3. Tell the truth and again see how that goes.
MORE :D
*bangs on desk with each word*
"CELESTIA. DAMNIT. CLIFFHANGERS. GET. THE. ROMANCE. GOING. ALREADY."
I have been looking forward to a new chapter. This chapter was a little...uneventful. But it was still fun to read. I really do fucking love this story and the way the plot is going. Oh and i like that you gave derpy some props!
Spitfire is gonna get the truth! Also its a little uncanny how she knew he was prowling around Dash's home. Thanks for the update great as always.
I am so happy this was updated. I had almost forgot about this AWESOME FIC.
Thanks for updating.
I WANT...
i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/169/432/nic_cage_moar.gif
A cliffhanger?
NOT A CLIFFHANGER!!!
839825
you forgot one ...
just let her beat you to a bloodied pulp
882038 I don't think i'd let her do that since i can outfly her any day of the week.
I'd go with RUN LIKE HELL
Whhhhheeeeew, this is going to get bloody 8'D
Me likey~ :D
Hehehe, nice job!