Disclaimer: I'm Darkon Shadows, which should be enough of a disclaimer considering you can't sue me for anything worthwhile except for my strange love of cute and cuddly characters, I don't own much of anything except my title as a supposedly evil monster and my two favorite minions who are soundly beaten daily with loaves of banana bread, the crumbs can be annoying to deal with.
Summary: Four ponies have been tasked with a very special package and they will deliver it.
Story: Mail ponies.
Prologue: There are Four D's in delivery.
It all started when the four of them were called into the office, these ponies all looked incredibly similar despite not being even remotely related and having no connections to each other other than they were all friends and mail delivery ponies.
First was the amber eyed pegasus pony known as Derpy Hooves; many didn't know if that was her actual name, she had a bluish gray coat with a lime blonde mane, her tail matched her manes color and she had seven bubbles markings both sides of her hind quarters
She was the best mail pony in all of Ponyville and despite a few hiccups and having a slight wall eyed problem where one of her eyes goes wonky once in a while she's never failed to deliver the mail.
Unless it was a heavy parcel as she tended to destroy those quite often by accident of dropping them on some random pony at an inopportune moment, she wasn't allowed to deliver the heavy stuff for while after one too many accidents, until she was cleared to deliver them once again.
Second looking almost exactly like the first except she had one big bubble wrapped around five smaller bubbles as her flank symbol, she was known as the biggest disaster to hit Ponyville that never exactly stopped hitting it. When her slightly green tinted amber eyes were around the mayor feared her presence.
Her name was Ditzy Doo; she had the opposite problem of Derpy where she was always going cross eyed and crashing through stuff, in fact that was her specialty as she was practically impervious to injury and she was the best heavy parcel delivery pony ever except when she eventually gets around to destroying the mayors house again.
It was said that Ditzy acted like a heat seeking missile no matter what residence the mayor would take up in Ponyville it would inevitably collapse inward at the first sign of Ditzy being within twenty feet of it.
She didn't do it on purpose of course, but many a pony agreed that she was hilarious despite whatever she destroys and they were always waiting to see how she wrecks the mayors newest home believing nothing was going to top the ladder stuck around her head incident.
Third same as the first two but her flank symbol was that of a glass of water filled with bubbles and blue tinted amber eyes, her name was Dipsy Duh and her eyes were always stuck in the half lidded position unless she was asleep.
She was the foremost laziest mail pony around, there has been things said about her that she knows a hidden secret about everyone in Ponyville except three ponies and those where her fellow mail delivery ponies of the 'Four D's Deliveries' mailing team.
She delivered all kinds of mail; well she eventually got around to it, she tended to laze about eating apples or sleeping through most of her shift. Until the last ten minutes in which she miraculously delivers all her mail and complains about how much work it was to deliver over usually two hundred letters in such a small amount of time.
Their boss never quite understood how a pony so lazy could deliver that much mail in such a short expanse of time, especially when said pony spends her time listening in on every other ponies conversations all day and Dipsy would never get bloodshot eyes because she's always rested, ALWAYS.
The last member of the 'Four D's Deliveries' team was the most promising pony alive and also the most disappointing at the same time, for one she was hyper competent in just about everything she did except for one slight flaw… she was the worse mail delivery pony of the 'Four D's'.
Her symbol was a bubble like sun shining light on a smaller gathering of bubbles and her eyes were of a more golden kind of amber, she never ever directly delivered the mail where it was posed to go and quite frankly she could do just about anything BUT delivering mail.
Her name was Dixie Day; the only time she could ever deliver the mail correctly was on a holiday where she was the best mail pony around as people actually went to her to get their mail from the festivities loving pony who dressed up for the little ones and when she wasn't working as a mail pony she was the best helper anyone could ask for.
In fact whenever Dixie volunteers to help buck at the apple tree plantation, everyone at the plantation always go on vacation because she's just that good at it on her own and even one of the best apple buckers named Applejack was a tad jealous of her skills.
Need a dress made? She can have it decently done at a ridiculous speed for a pony that wasn't a unicorn that specialized in making them.
Need muffins to be baked? She always brought one for everyone on the team and she makes them especially for Derpy who loves muffins.
Need someone to clear a blocked path? Actually that would be a job that both Ditzy and Dixie would and could do, she had a big heart even if she failed so much in delivering mail directly to people.
Need a letter or parcel delivered on time and in good condition to the right place? Not going to happen if Dixie is the one tasked with delivering it.
To explain the phenomenon their boss mailed a letter to herself and asked Dixie to deliver it without telling her that it was to go to her own house, the letter ended up in approximately three thousand, two hundred and forty different locations before finally ending up in the bosses hooves when she was summoned by princess Celestia to find out why she was receiving the bosses; of these four specific mail ponies, letter to herself.
The letter in question was written so that wherever it ended up someone would write down the locations name and try to forward it back to the address on the letter.
It's been through places called Cybertron, Care A Lot, Fraggle Rock, New York, Japan and even places with a title like Fairy World, before it finally ended up in Canterlot.
In spite of all the skills that she had Dixie was horribly unorganized for a mail pony and it made their boss wonder why she wanted to be a mail pony in the first place or even continue insisting on working as one if she was just that bad at delivering the mail directly to where it was posed to go.
The boss mail pony of these four was Dolly Verance, red coat, large Pegasus wings, short white mane, black tail, a symbol of the weather patterns in a coat of arms on her flank and a beautiful pair of stone grey eyes.
"Okay I asked you here for a special assignment team forty, but first what is our motto" She waited as all four of them recited the motto at the same time, yet in very different moods.
"Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow, no one can stop a mail pony on the go!" Derpy was enthusiastic as always despite not having gotten her daily muffin from Dixie, Dipsy was saying it in a drowsy tone as if she really wanted to be asleep right now, Ditzy voice wavered frequently sounding slightly crazy with a cross eyed look coming to her eyes and Dixie stated it in a proud military like fashion.
They all saluted Dolly with their hooves; as per usual and as expected of her, Ditzy smacked herself in the forehead and knocked herself over.
This caused Dixie to back away and flop down onto the edge of the bench with her work bag that was sitting on the opposite end and sent it flying along with the muffins inside it into the air.
This had Derpy desperately trying to save her favorite confections from one of her best friends besides a pony named Pinkie Pie while yelling "Muffins!" and it was because the way that she always said that when she saw a muffin that she was sometimes seen as less smart then she truly was and she was a genius in most regards if a little strange.
All the while Dipsy took the opportunity to yawn and a muffin fell into her mouth as she fell asleep in the middle of a meeting while sucking on the top of the muffin in her sleep while lazing on her back.
Derpy caught the other four muffins on all four of her extended hooves and was hovering above the ground sweating wanting to save the world's best food ever to her and the ones for her friends to enjoy as well, she wasn't greedy.
All the while Dolly sighed, why was she relying on these four again? Oh, right because she could actually trust them with this special job and maybe they might survive it.
They each grabbed a muffin allowing Derpy some freedom of movement and Dixie was laughing nervously, but nothing went wrong and she was afraid the Applejack muffins incident would turn Derpy completely off muffins.
It didn't but Derpy had to ask if they had been made by the evil tired pony known as Applejack every single time after getting an apology straight from the pony's mouth about the sickening muffins she made.
It took her a while but she was eventually was able to trust the bakery after she learned to trust Dixie that Applejack wouldn't touch on muffin making for a while.
"Okay now, Derpy has gotten her daily muffin and MMmm…. how do you make these things Dixie…" Dolly kept Dixie on for quite a few of her own selfish reasons and one was that she made Derpy exceedingly happy everyday they both came to work.
"With love of course… and maybe a bit of buttermilk… ma'am" Dixie was proud to call herself a friend of everyone on the team and even Dipsy seemed to be enjoying hers as it was halfway into her throat and she wasn't choking on it or at least Dixie didn't think Dipsy was choking on it.
"Anyway as I told you all, you're here for an important assignment because each of your… skills… will contribute greatly to this special assignment" Soon Dolly was pacing in front of the three ponies and the one that seemed to be out cold with a muffin slowly sliding down her throat.
"Derpy your determination to do deliveries despite any issue that comes in your path makes you an excellent choice for this mission" Derpy smiled and blushed at getting praise from Dolly, one of her eyes was staring off in a completely different direction then it should be at that moment.
"Dipsy we need your ears to the ground as you always know what's going on in Ponyville, goodness knows how when you spend half your time asleep or eating on the job but I can't deny your excellent record" Dipsy snorted slightly and wiggled her hooves at the air before settling down and continuing to sleep on her back with a muffin halfway in her throat.
"Ditzy as every pony should know by now you can survive any atrocity, which is why you're always hauling the heaviest and most dangerous stuff I can find, surprisingly doing that makes you even more efficient then when you're just hauling letters where you're at your most dangerous… I hope you don't destroy half of Ponyville but you might be needed to do so on purpose for this assignment so just be yourself" Ditzy nodded with a silly grin crossing her face that kind of spooked Dolly, she was planning to let Ditzy help on this why? Oh right, because the mayor was actually going to be involved in trying to stop this special assignment and nothing scares the mayor more than seeing Ditzy just sitting still or being within the general vicinity of her house.
"Excuse me ma'am, but why would Ditzy need to destroy half of Ponyville? What assignment could possibly warrant Ditzy's importance if it's not in heavy lifting, ma'am?" Dixie received a look from Dolly when she stopped her pacing in front of Dixie.
"Trust me, if Ponyville doesn't destroy half of itself on this assignment then Ditzy will do it for them" Dolly turned her back to Dixie then she turned sharply back to Dixie "You are the worst mail pony here but I actually have a good job for you and your skills are quite varied in many areas correct?"
"I swear I don't know how that letter ended up where it did and yes I'm quite proud of my many abilities but I've always wanted to be a mail pony, please don't fire me ma'am" Dixie said almost feeling she was being grilled for the many, many absurd mistakes she's made in mail delivery history that no other pony has been able to duplicate, not even Ditzy and she's still trying to do so.
"Don't worry about that, your wide variety of skills is going to be useful in this assignment and people have suggested you for bodyguard duty at Canterlot, but I didn't want to give you up and in fact if you left… you'd be making a lot of little ponies sad that they won't be seeing you on the holiday's and we can't have that now can we" From the way Dolly said it had Dixie sighing in relief, sure she might have come from a family of guardian ponies but she really wanted to pursue her dream as a mail pony and she was continuing to live that dream today and hopefully well into the future.
She was receiving a friendly hoof from a smiling Derpy and Ditzy, but upon looking down she saw Dipsy while still asleep also had her hoof in as well barely touching Dixie, apparently Dipsy finally managed to miraculously swallow the entire muffin without even chewing it in her sleep.
"You're all a natural team but you're also the weirdest one we have in all of Ponyville, which is why this mail assignment will take up all of your duties for the next four days other mail ponies will fill in the gaps for you" Before the ponies could protest that they had their rounds to make Dolly held up a hoof to them, to stall any more complaints from the three of them as one wasn't into complaining until after she's done her job.
"You'll understand when I tell you what your assignment entails. Tomorrow a special package will be arriving in this very post office and all four of you are going to be guarding it and just about every pony in Ponyville wants this package even if it's wrong to steal from a mail pony or from the mailing office. The mayor is actually going to legalize this one theft and it'll be anarchy" Dixie had a slightly worried look on her face she didn't like the fact that she'd be fighting other ponies to keep a package safe, Dipsy snored blissfully, Ditzy had the same frown like look Dixie had on her face showing no signs of letting up and Derpy looked to be inredibly pensive about this.
"But as mail ponies our job is to deliver the mail no matter what, with exceptions to protect our own good health and friends. This is a very big responsibility I'm giving the four of you, you have the rest of this day off to prepare for tomorrow but before you leave I'll be telling you exactly what it is you'll be doing" Dolly reached a hoof up and pulled down a cord revealing a screen and the room goes dark and a projector starts up.
"Tomorrow when you come in for work you will be picking up a special package, which has to be delivered back to this post office if it still exists within four days and if not to me directly where I'll finally tell you where to take it, Derpy your assignment is to carry this package and not let it out of your sight, if you for some reason can't carry it then Dipsy carries it and following that Ditzy" The slides that came up were quite weird, the first one showed a smiling Derpy with a package on top of her head, second shows Ditzy and Dixie getting trampled by a crowd of ponies and finally it showed Dipsy backed into a corner with a half lidded glare into her eyes holding a package at her back.
"Man Artsy Tartsy is good, anyway Derpy is the leader of this assignment whatever she says; as long as it's not giving up the package, goes, Dixie you are to protect Derpy, Dipsy, Ditzy and the package as best you can however you are not allowed to deliver it or hold on to it for too long and Dipsy…" Looking down at the sleeping pony Dolly sighed and gave her a light smack with her front right hoof causing the pony to moan as she woke up slightly angry at being nudged.
"You just do your job and make sure nobody other then the four of you has the package, I can't stress this enough that every single pony other than those working at this post office will be after it and we can't let any pony in Ponyville have it, any questions?" All four of them raised a hoof.
"I will not tell you what's in the package, but obviously it's not much of a secret if every pony in Ponyville knows so you'll figure it out eventually, but whatever you do… NEVER OPEN THE PACKAGE, your mail ponies and you should be ashamed of yourself if you even think of it" Seeing as three of them lowered their hooves and only Dipsy still had hers raised Dolly didn't even need to guess what Dipsy wanted to ask "Yes you may now all leave and prepare for tomorrow Dipsy, dismissed and don't tell anyone you're the package carriers they will try anything to get it from you and I mean anything".
As they left the post office Dixie had started to feel worried if it wasn't for Derpy's comforting hoof that everything would be okay, Ditzy flew off doing whatever it is she does when she's off work, probably flying in eccentric patterns.
Dipsy fell asleep outside the post office and didn't move much further then the door causing Dixie to groan and lift her off the ground to carry her back to her home.
Seeing Dixie struggling to carry Dipsy, Derpy turned around to help shoulder some of her weight and Dixie gave a wan smile as the weight was lessened. Ditzy came back and started to help them carry "The Sleeper" pony that once incidentally slept through her entire acting career where she was volunteered to be 'Sleeping Beauty' and somehow made the play a huge hit despite being asleep through the entire thing.
These four would work together or they wouldn't work at all. They were the 'Four D's Deliveries' team and nothing could stop them from delivering the mail, not even every single pony in Ponyville.