Chapter 3:
Change of Address
“I’m sorry, ma’am. I’ve double-checked—I’ve triple-checked—but there’s nothing here addressed to you besides the letters I already gave you.” The mailpony shrugged apologetically.
“There has to be something else,” Twilight insisted. “Check again.”
He sighed. “Look, ma’am. I’ve already checked three times, and nothing was there any of those times. What makes you think something is going to magically show up now?”
Twilight’s lip curled into a pouting expression. “Just look one more time, please?”
With an exaggerated roll of his eyes and heavy sigh, the mailpony shuffled out of the room.
Twilight let out a soft sigh of her own. “This is so odd,” she said, looking down at Spike. “How could Trixie have been sending me letters all this time and yet I’ve never even gotten one until today? I don’t understand.”
Spike folded his arms across his chest. “Don’t you think you’re overreacting, just a bit? So what? Trixie sent you some letters, big deal.”
“It is a big deal, Spike. Didn’t you read the letters? She seemed different than I remember her, and she thinks I’ve been getting all her letters. There must be a reason why she’s sending me them in the first place.” She closed her eyes in concentration. “Think, Twilight, think. Why would Trixie send me letters? And what is she looking for?”
Spike stifled a yawn, interrupting Twilight’s thoughts. “Come on, Twilight, we’ve been here forever. That guy said he couldn’t find anything, so why are you still asking him to look? Maybe we should just go back home.”
“We can’t go back yet,” Twilight said determinedly. “Maybe he missed something? There’s no way a year’s worth of letters just disappeared without a trace. That just wouldn’t make sense.” She tapped her hoof against the wooden floor unconsciously, lost in thought.
A few minutes later, the mailpony came back, a slip of paper clenched firmly in his mouth. Twilight’s eyes lit up. He placed the paper on the counter and smoothed it out.
“Don’t get your hopes up,” he said. “This is just a note I found back there. But,” he added, “it does have your name on it.”
Twilight cocked her head to the side. She looked down at the little scrap of crumpled paper. Through all the tiny bumps and ridges, she could see that it did indeed have her name written on it. Multiple times, in fact.
“Request to have the mailing address of one, Ms. Twilight Sparkle, changed has been approved by the Ponyville District Post Office,” said Twilight as she read the note aloud. “In the future, all parcels and packages addressed to ‘Ms. Twilight Sparkle of Ponyville’ should be directed instead to the neighboring district—” She came to a sudden stop as she reached the end of the note. It was torn near the bottom, cutting off the last of the message.
She held up the note to the mailpony. “That’s all you found?” she asked. “There wasn’t anything else? No other letters or explanation for why my address was changed?”
He shook his head. “I’m afraid not, ma’am. That’s all I found. You’re lucky I even found that, too. The darn thing was lying underneath somepony’s desk, all crumpled up and covered in dust. Only found it because I dropped my hat by mistake and had to bend down to pick it up. There it was, just lying there all by its lonesome.”
“But, how am I supposed to know who changed my address, or why? Isn’t there anything else you can do?”
He removed his mailpony’s cap and scratched his head. “Sorry, ma’am. I’m not sure how much I can help you.That note’s almost a year old,” he said, motioning towards the paper. “Check the date at the top.”
Twilight squinted; she could barely read the faded lettering at the top of the paper. “September twenty-third, one-thousand,” she read. “So, you can’t tell me who submitted it?”
He shrugged. “About the best I can do is point you in the direction of the neighboring district’s post office. They might be able to tell you whose address you’re on now, but I doubt we would’ve kept records for an address change for this long. Not many ponies live here, so our records don’t need to be updated very often. Half the time we don’t even update the records book at all,” he chuckled.
Twilight sighed. “Well, thanks for your help anyway. I suppose we’ll need to head to that other post office now. You said you could point us in the right direction, right?”
He nodded. “Come on, I’ll show you how to get there.”
***
A tiny bell chimed as the Twilight opened the door to the small post office. It was much smaller than the one in Ponyville and there was only one old, graying pony working at the desk. Twilight let the door close softly behind her as she approached the mare behind the desk.
“Umm, excuse me, ma’am,” said Twilight softly. “Can you help me with something.”
The old mare didn’t even look up from her newspaper to respond. “Mail goes in the basket, payments go in the bucket,” she said, indicating each receptacle in turn.
“That’s not why I’m here, ma’am.”
She lowered her newspaper and stared at Twilight. She had the bored expression of a young foal on her face, but the sagging wrinkles of an elderly mare. “Yes? What do you want?”
“Well,” began Twilight, “I’m looking for a record of address changes from September of last year. Do you have anything like that? Or do you know where I can find something like that?”
Spike nudged Twilight’s leg. “Don’t forget to ask her about buying more stamps,” he whispered.
“Shh, Spike. Not now,” Twilight whispered back. Clearing her throat, she looked the elderly mare in the eye. “So, can you help us?”
She stared back at Twilight for what felt like hours before finally sitting up and approaching the receptionist’s desk. “Records from September of one-thousand, huh? Yeah, I got what you’re looking for.” With heave and a grunt, she lifted a heavy-looking leather-bound folder onto the desk. Unfastening the strings holding it together, she allowed the book to fall open. She spun it around to face Twilight. “You’ll find all the records of address, name, and any other information changes here.” She flipped to the last third of the book. “Here’s where September starts”
Twilight’s eyes gleamed. “Thank you so much!” She placed her hoof beneath the first name and began dragging it downwards, scanning the names. It was in alphabetical order, so she skipped ahead a bit to get to the ‘S’ section. Her brow knit further and further as she read name after name. Eventually, she stopped on one name.
“Twilight Sparkle, Ponyville,” she read. “Found it! Okay, now let’s see what it says about an address change. Request to have, blah, blah, blah. ‘Ms. Twilight Sparkle of Ponyville’. Ah, here we go. The new address is... wait,” she paused. “I know whose address that is. It’s...”
Spike raised an eyebrow. “...Rainbow Dash?”
1684624
Yet again, you have beaten Regidar
>better L/D ratio than Letters from a Senior to a Junior Changeling

the fuck is this bullshit
the
fuck
is
this
bullshit
1699189
People like adventure mystery better than rereading one of C.S. Lewis' less enjoyable pieces, but with changelings?
Oh-HO! That's one helluva twist. Can't wait to see what Dash has to say for herself and what she has to say about Trixie.
Now what is Rainbow Dash going to say as to why she has those letters.
Huh, now that’s a plot twist if I ever seen one. Something tells me, that
just held a grudge, and decided to screw
over. Either that, or someone (somepony) else is framing her.
I’m REALLY surprised now. Either you’re better at improvisation then I gave you credit for, or you’re a genius. Whichever’s true, just keep ‘em comin’.
You know Rainbow took one look who those letters were from and tore them up and threw them out without saying a word. She hates Trixie and probably figures everypony would also. I still want to know who changed Twilight's address and why?
Very interesting. To think Rainbow Dash could possibly steal letters! Can't wait for next chapter.
1699080 Yes. I am Regidar's ARCH NEMESIS IN FIRSTING!
1699189
Where's the "like" button for comments?
Curioser and curioser...
I like this, I like this a good deal.
1700090
Either you’re better at improvisation then I gave you credit for, or you’re a genius.
i50.tinypic.com/9ay6go.gif
This looks really, really interesting. I'm hooked!
1700990 Okaaaay… How exactly am I supposed to react to that?
Could it be that… I actually… guessed or… suggested…
(Brain overload! Meltdown imminent! Immediate evacuation advised!)
fodrizzle.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Mind-Blown.jpg
1701639
Whoopsie daisy, looks like my gif mysteriously disappeared. Should be fine now.
1701728 Oooooh… Well now I feel silly
I'm going to guess RD isn't the one who changed the address--why would she?--but when she saw who the letters were from, decided Twi was better off not getting any letters from Trixie, so didn't bother correcting the change.
Of course, that brings up who changed the address and why...
... HMMM...
...she was trying to get the Daring Do books instead of Twilight, wasn't she?
Something's going on...
So Rainbow's the one. I'm guessing she must have discovered the letters at some point and hid them from Twilight. If that true, then she must also hold a grudge against Trixie.
Either way, she'll have some explaining to do.
Dash.. should've known. *Cracks knuckles*
blah blah blah
“...Rainbow Dash?”
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .WHAT!?
me*?
Well, that's an interesting twist to the plot, Rainbow dash getting Trixie's letters. Most interesting.
This...
Now THIS is a twist. It comes right out of the blue and doesn't give a single inch of foreshadowing - EXCEPT that suddenly that first scene with RD and Twi now actually is IMPORTANT. Very well played indeed. The whole "address change" thing is also a pretty vague mechanism - not exactly as straightforward as kidnapping or murdering someone, but it still seems pretty out there on the "evil" scale - still, it's also a lot creepier in a lot of ways, and asks a whole lot more questions. It's a precision tool, and you've struck a chord nobody expected.
Twilight also is starting to feel a bit more alive now, even though she still feels very much vanilla plain Twilight. But at least she feels like herself, rather than a washed-out dishrag with her name on it. Even if it's rather bleak.
With the twist, I'm expecting more life to come into the characters. Don't disappoint me!
//N
Rainbow Dash?
OOOOOOH! Somedashie gonna get it now
I read the last bit and I was like
i3.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/187/087/fuck-yeah-aww-yeah-l.png
1705081 i think you just solved the whole case! For your hard work, persistence, and diligence, i give you one moustache
Kinda figured that Dash was involved just going by the way she acted in the first chappie. I'll withhold judgement until I get her side of it, though. It better be good for her sake.
I have 2 toughts about this:
1. Dash wants The Great and Powerful all to herself OR
2. Dash doesnt want to have Trixie befriend Twilight. I REALLY REALLY HOPE this is the correct one *pray*
W-what!? I-i should of known from the first chapter. B-but what the hell? What's going on here!?
OH RAINBOW DASH STEALIN TWILIGHTS LETTER AWW U BADASS

Few times does that clip perfectly fit a situation, but this is definitely one of them.
The only question is, HOW COULD TWILIGHT SPARKLE JUST ACCEPT A POSTAL SERVICE NOT KEEPING TRACK OF A CHANGE OF ADDRESS!?!? And changing her mailing address without her say so, I would imagine she would be quite irate.
1700189 1699080 no I am redigers enemy, wait, we should form a union!
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"Identity theft? The unmitigated gall!"
I knew that filly was hiding something!
oooooh! wonder what rainbow has to do with this? and why?
What a twist!
What in the actual hell? How bizarre.
u wot m8
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I think rainbow dash is about to meet twilight rapidash
Good Trixie song for a good Trixie story:
Good to know i can just waltz into the post offices of Ponyville and reroute anyone's mail to my house without so much as an alert to the person that it happened. XP
Because, you know. It's not like doing so is a federal offense, or anything. X3