Delivery! (Ponyville) [ATTN Lyipheoryia]

[Imagination]

Deliveries? Nah, Aubergine was on lunch break. 

 

The sandcat hawk was busy resting on somepony's roof, basking in the sun and enjoying his own homegrown pride: a fresh aubergine. Sure, he could've made a sandwich or something, but with the moves he has to pull to make certain deliveries quick enough, and still take a break, the blasted thing would never hold together. No, just the raw vegetable would do. 

 

He heaved a content sigh, tossing his lunch up and down in his claw, just watching it gleam in the sunlight. He figured he had at least ten minutes of downtime before he had to get doing again to meet his deadline. It was already noonish and he had made... Hmm...

 

"Started at nine... ten, eleven..." he calculated to himself, still laying back on those cool roof tiles. At an average of 30 stops an hour it came to... Probably around 100. He wasn't sure how much he had left. 

 

Come to think of it, he didn't even know which stop he had next. Taking another chuck out of his lunch, he fished around in his mailbag with a free claw and pulled out a pretty official-looking envelope. "Ugh, great." It was marked 'urgent'. 9 times out of ten it wasn't urgent at all, just marked that way in the hopes it'll be delivered faster. 

 

Taking another bite, he read the recipient out loud to himself to try and jog his memory. Going to several different cities and towns, he didn't always deliver to the same ponies. "To... Starlight Glimmer, from...!"

 

The Friendship Rainbow Kingdom?! The griffon spat out what was left in his beak in shock and quickly stuffed the half-eaten aubergine away. 

Oh feathers! A royal letter! Couldn't get lazy with this one!

 

He took off like a shot from that roof, taking some of the shingles with him. Hey, the owner can't prove anything... Hopefully. A potential complaint to the post office aside, he raced all around Ponyville, checking the address on the letter again and again... As best he could anyway. It was hard to hold it steady and read while he was flying blindly above the town. But a friendly tree was happy to remind him of proper flight etiquette! Pay attention to where you're going! Giving the trunk a nasty knock, and sending a few feathers of his astray, he made a messy landing at the base and stumbled to the nearest door he saw. Dazed, he looked at the address one more time to gauge where he was. 

 

Oh, hey, look at that.

 

Shaking off the impact and brushing himself off, he gave the door a few hearty raps.

 

"Postal service! Letter for Ms. Glimmer!" he called to the wood, hoping whoever was supposed to own it was home.

 

Of course, it was then he noticed what was left of his lunch must've been jostled free by the impact, laying on the ground next to it. He picked it up as he awaited a response, if any, trying to brush any dirt off of it. 

 

He wasn't sure how long it was on the ground, so... He was going to assume he was within the 5 second rule.

[Lyipheoryia]

Starlight Glimmer, the ex-mayor of Our Town, the Princess' new student, the one whose magical abilities winded the Princess herself-was sorting mail. 

 

The leaves of mail sailed in, some by traditional hoof, and some by magic.  Ever since Princess Twilight had resumed her Princess duties, mail had been sailing in from all corners of Equestria.  The Princess was still busy with problems around Ponyville, helping Starlight about, and dealing with mail seemed like the last thing on her mind.  She was out this lovely afternoon, going someplace to help somepony to deal with someproblem; it seemed to be in the best interest that Starlight entertain herself in the productive matter on sorting mail.  Opening letters, sorting them by order of importance, highlighting key factors, writing down dates-a tedious, but important, job.  She was bored and found no joy in the duty, but sought not to disappoint the one that had given her a chance at redemption.  And so, she sorted...and sorted...and sorted.

 

The feelings that overwhelmed her as she sorted were painful, memories of the past and actions that had hurt her future.  She thought of Sunburst and his quick abandoning of their friendship; she thought of equality and what she turned it into: inequality; she thought of Our Town and it's mislead, delusional members; she thought of Starswirl's spell; and, last but not least, she thought of her new friends.  The guilt and remorse she felt was strong and in all sincerity, but the six friendly faces had helped her, hoof by hoof, out of the hole.  Now, she stood on top of the mountain.  Sorting mail.

 

 

 

 

"Postal service! Letter for Ms. Glimmer!"

 

 Maybe the mailpony had knocked, maybe he hadn't.  She was too focused on her emotions and memories...and mail-sorting, to notice.  The griffon-like voice had snapped her out of the trance.  She walked towards the door-and, purely through habit, checked the windows-and used her magic to cautiously open the castle. 

 

"Starlight Glimmer here.  Yes?"

[Imagination]

Aubergine peeked in a the door as it cracked open to see if anypony was even there, giving the customary smile and wave.

 

"You got a letter, miss! From... Uh... Here. I guess. Addressed to you!"

 

He was only responsible for special deliveries, luckily. He could only imagine how much extra weight he'd be carrying if this was part of his normal route. Those thoughts aside, he held out his claw... Only to realize he was offering the half-eaten vegetable of his he had picked up off the ground. "Oh!" He corrected himself quickly enough, that aubergine eventually becoming that fancy looking envelope he was inspecting earlier. "Sorry about that, a bit scatterbrained today..." It had nothing to do with the crash, he was sure of it. 

 

He had to look around a moment to see who he was talking to, but eventually found the pink mare in one of the windows. Paranoid much? He guess he couldn't blame her. He wasn't a usual face around here, and trouble seems to find the royal ponies fairly often. Can't be too careful.

 

But the mare herself... She seemed familiar, but he didn't really keep up with news. No news is good news, he says, and ponies usually like to talk to him about the latest goings on anyway. The usual 'Did you hear about___?' conversations where he usually just nods and yups.

 

This seemed like as good a time as any for small talk to the mare in the window, the griffon looking around the open area surrounding the castle. It hadn't been there too too long, but it already seemed a bit familiar. New kingdoms have to start somewhere, right? "Beautiful day! ... You know, minus the cold, the wind, ice, snow... Looks nice though!"

[Lyipheoryia]

She slide slowly towards the door, and opened the rest of the door for the Griffon.  His cutie mark surprised her, an Aubergine for one belonging to a carnivorous species.  Without even meaning to, her thoughts raced back to Our Town.

Wow!  He must really be neglected by his species if he has to be a mailpony.  If he was in my town, he would be as right as rain in a day!  Everypony would love him-as equal as any other, of course-but he would be accepted.  He wouldn't be discriminated by his cutie mark, and he wouldn't need to abide by any form of spell-binding destiny!

 

She shooed the thoughts quickly from her mind, reminding herself once more that she was a changed mare.  And even better mare, to say the least.  One that was the personal student of the Princess.

 

"Starlight Glimmer-that's me."

 

She reached for her mail, and ushered the Griffon inside, "Come in,"  

[Imagination]

Aubergine, thankfully for her, didn't really know about all the events of Our Town. He heard about some... civil unrest...? In a sovereign territory...? He didn't read too much into it. Some series of emergencies the Princess had to respond to, yadda yadda yadda. If there's a problem, the Princess takes care of it. It had gotten to the point where he can allow himself to be carefree despite everything going on in Equestria today.

 

He happily gave her the envelope, though seemed confused a moment when he was being invited inside. Well, this didn't happen often. Not that he was going to turn it down. He'd never seen the inside of a castle before! He came close to going into the royal palace in Canterlot before, but the guards stopped him during his delivery and said 'official business only'.

 

"Do... You have a package for me to pick up? I don't think I have a receipt with me..." he noted after following the mare inside, looking around in his bag once more to be sure. "Mmmmmmnope..."

 

So that wasn't why. Either way, he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Err... Pony. 

[Lyipheoryia]

She shook her head, but kept her eyes steadied on his cutie mark.  She noted for him to follow her into the library, where she sat down on the floor.  Finally, curiosity overwhelmed her, "Your cutie mark...it's...an aubergine,"  

She couldn't bring herself to say anymore, embarrassed for mentioning it and for declaring such a broad, unruly statement.  It was, quite frankly, rude.  She internally scolded herself for letting old Starlight shine through, but she knew-deep inside-old Starlight still held her right of space.  In some hidden part of her mind, old Starlight was willing her to inquire about the...unusual mark of destiny.