Derpy’s powers of observation were always on high alert when she would enter Karyn’s apartment, though this was usually for the purposes of making sure it was clean. But that day she noticed that Karyn had put out her suit to hang on the wall. “Did you get a job?” she asked, hoping for the best response.

“Not quite, but I have an interview.”

“That’s awesome! I’m so proud of you.” She flew in for a hug.

Karyn returned the hug and smiled, but she disclaimed it as anything good. “I’ve sent out enough applications that by the law of averages something good had to happen. Besides, it’s doubtful that they’ll hire me and even if they do I don’t know if I’ll take it.”

“Why not?”

“I know I probably shouldn’t think this way, but I want to make sure I get something good to start out with. See, the trend with jobs today, especially in tech, is to change them every so often, and that’s how you advance. But I’m not sure I’m fit for that. I want to get one or two, maybe three jobs in my life and just work my way up within the company.”

Derpy’s mood fell only a little from when she thought that Karyn had completed her quest. “I can understand that. While I’m not ecstatic about having worked for the post office all my life, at least I’ve always worked under Mr. Mintsugar and I know his style.”

“Exactly. I want to find a good boss and a good role and just fit into it.”

“I hope you find one as good as Mr. M.”

“Yeah, I haven’t talked to him much, but he seemed like a nice stallion,” Karyn said. As soon as she did, she saw Derpy turn away and worried that she had had said something wrong. But Derpy turned back and acted like nothing had happened.

“He is. And a real hard worker too. I’ve seen him lift heavy mailbags and carry them a long time.”

“I can imagine, and—“ Finally it hit her. The week before she had mentioned how Derpy hadn’t been pursuing any stallions since her divorce so many years before. Now she had brought up one that she saw every day. “I’m sorry!” she same out with.

“For what?”

Karyn stumbled over her words. She wasn’t sure how to apologize without making poking at the wound further. “Well, I mean...talking about stallions...and...you don’t...”

“I don’t understand. You don’t have anything to be sorry about.”

“No? I thought you were sore because I mentioned you don’t date much.” It was the best she could do.

“What? Oh! Right, from last week. No, not at all. Karyn, please understand, that’s something I’ve learned to live with.”

“OK. I’m glad I didn’t offend you.”

Derpy looked away again. “Although come to think of it, there are such things as stallions on Earth, right?”

“Huh?”

“Well, I mean, ponies are a thing here, right?”

It struck Karyn as a non sequitur. “There are some, technically, but not the kind you’d want to meet.”

“Maybe I would. It might help me understand your world more if I encountered the part of it that’s closest to me.”

“Really?”

“Sure.”

Karyn heard it, but it didn’t seem like Derpy’s heart was in what she was saying. “Is this something you actually want to do? Or did somepony else ask you?”

“Found me out, did you? Yeah, a bunch of the ponies around town—ones I don’t talk to much like Roseluck or Daisy—want to know about ponies in this world that I go to. The word gets around, but I don’t think that it’s as clear as it could be. They must think that there are a bunch of ponies they could make friends with.”

“Maybe we could ask Twilight to start up the pony tours again. Otherwise put it on her to explain it.”

Derpy shrugged and said, “But it’s still me who comes here every week, so one way or another, I’m the one who gets asked.”

“But you can tell them that the equines here aren’t like Equestrian ponies, right?”

“They don’t listen. They insist on me giving details. I’ve spent some time on the internet looking at stuff, but they say it’s not the same as seeing one in the flesh, and I might have to agree with them there.”

Karyn had already made for the computer to use the internet to get Derpy the information she wanted, but balked when she heard this. Then she changed tacks and tried to find out if there was any place to go see horses. After a few searches she said, “It looks like there’s a dude ranch about an hour away. That’s the best place to go. There are probably some proper horse places, but they won’t be too happy if we show up.”

“Can we do the dude ranch thing?”

She browsed deeper into the web site. “I don’t know that we can afford the full package. It’s a kind of touristy place that’s built to rope in people’s dollars.”

“Maybe I could make it up by doing some work for them.”

“Yeah, see, that’s what I’m talking about with the differences between you and Earth horses. Actually, yes, you could make scads of money because people would pay to see a real pegasus, especially if you flew. But, you know, you can’t.”

Derpy bowed her head from having momentarily forgotten the rules. “So we can’t go?”

“I was thinking that we might say that we’re looking into it and see if they’ll just let us look around. I mean, let me. You’ll be invisible, of course.” Karyn felt she needed to stress this again. “I could say I’m thinking about a group outing, and then just not follow up. Even if we don’t get a full tour, we can see some horses.”

“Let’s go, then.”

Karyn put on a pair of jeans that she didn’t mind getting dirty, and they got in the car.

It surprised Derpy a little that Karyn didn’t put the location into the GPS, and she mentioned it once they had gone a few miles down the road.

“I have a pretty good idea of where it is, and once we’re in the general area I’m sure a ranch will stick out. It’s not like I can just drive by it and miss it. Though finding the entrance might be an issue given that there has to be a lot of fencing. Well, I always have it if I need it.”

By this time, Derpy had figured out, roughly, the direction they were going. “Isn’t this by Riverside, where we went camping? And before that, skydiving?”

“Near there, but we have to go past.”

“Why is all of this outdoorsy stuff there?”

Karyn considered. “Riverside is a small town, and in olden days it used to be a farming town. Since farming’s done in the Midwest these days, places have to figure out new uses for land. So campgrounds and parachuting and dude ranches can spring up.”

“And, the aquarium?”

“That was probably just a coincidence. They built that because they had money to do it.”

Derpy’s tone got very ethereal. “You know what else is coincidental?”

“What’s that?”

“Every time we come out to this area, we find another clue about that letter that we’re trying to get to its destination. It’s eerie.”

“Well, we found out that it was sent here last time. So it makes sense.”

“Speaking of which, did you call at the store where they sold the envelope.”

“I did,” said Karyn, recalling her embarrassment. “They said it was probably one of theirs but there was no way they could remember whom they sold it to.”

“So that’s a dead end. I just don’t know, though. It feels as though someone or something outside of the norm is guiding us every time we go by that town.”

“I don’t get you.”

Derpy waved her hooves in the air to help her talk. “It’s like, imagine if your life destiny were sequenced out in numbers. But all of the Sundays we’ve come out here have been a different destiny, with a different set of numbers.”

Karyn had no way to tell what the feeling was that Derpy experienced, so she said, “Well, if someone is messing with our destinies, let’s hope they have a happy ending in mind.”

With that, they let the conversation lapse and concentrated on the increasingly bucolic roads. About a mile outside of town, even the power lines ceased to exist, and for a stretch they could have been in the middle of nowhere.

But then they came upon a wooden fence and determined that it was the ranch they were looking for. The entrance was right at the beginning and so they didn’t have much of a chance to see it by car. Parking was on the grass.

When Karyn opened the door, she knew what to brace for, but when the smell hit Derpy, she gagged. “Sweet Celestia!” It was the first time Karyn had heard her swear. “What’s going on here? Is this some place where they mistreat the ponies?”

“No, it’s not like that. It’s a difference of how Earth horses digest things. From what I understand they produce quite a lot of waste. And they can’t be trained on how to go only in certain places. Probably all this field is covered in dung, which dries out and fertilzes the ground. But yeah, it’s going to smell.”

“I’m still not sure I like this,” said Derpy, and Karyn could hear the flap of her wings as she stayed in hover. Wisely she wasn’t stepping on the ground, and Karyn wished that she had some rattier shoes to wear. Likely she would get rid of them after the outing.

At the office she met with a receptionist and said that she was interested in touring. She didn’t even have to lie that much as she was told to make herself at home. They seemed nearly as friendly as the Apple family was.

They didn’t have to go far before reaching a stable. There for the first time Derpy saw a proper Earth horse.

“So, what do you think?” asked Karyn.

“I guess...they just don’t look right to me. The joints are all in the proper place, not like they are with you...meaning no offense! I mean, they’re right for the way you work. I’m getting sidetracked. Their faces are so long and not pony-like. And I hope they wouldn’t be insulted if I say that they don’t look that intelligent.”

“Remember, they’re horses, not ponies. Not exactly the same species as you. And these are for riding and such.”

Derpy scoped the ground for a clean area, then landed gingerly. She stared at the horse for a long time, then said, “I wish that I could go visible here. I can’t explain what the differences are between us without seeing it. I’d like to talk to that stallion and see if I can’t bridge the gap.”

“You can’t.” Karyn was worried Derpy would carry it out.

“I know. It’s just frustrating.”

“Besides, he’d probably be scared of you. Like, humans have this thing called the uncanny valley where things that look not-quite-human unnerve us. You could be the same way to that horse. And he’s powerful enough that if he got scared, he could do some damage. I’ve heard of people who’ve been seriously hurt because a horse kicked or trampled them.”

Derpy brooded and took off again. “Can you take some pictures? Maybe once we’re back at your place I can make the comparison that I want to.”

Karyn saw nothing wrong with this, and she’d been told she could do whatever she liked within reason, so she pulled out her phone and started snapping. “There are some phones that can use parallax to make 3D pictures. If this doesn’t do what you want, I’ll have to see about getting one to get the kind of image you want.”

“Don’t think about upgrading your phone already!”

“I was more thinking about borrowing one from a friend, but if I could....There, how about that?”

Derpy scanned some of them. Karyn reflected that the cover of the Bluetooth worked here, because she could have sent pictures to someone and be looking at them together.

“It’s good,” Derpy said, “but I want to utilize the time I have here as best I can. I’m going to try to talk to him.”

“Be careful.”

Karyn stood back, hoping that nothing would go wrong. But the horse reared and swished its tail like it was batting away flies. At this point some of the ranch hands came within earshot, so Karyn couldn’t yell for Derpy like she wanted to. What she did was to back off and hope that Derpy would get the message. The hands steadied the horse and rubbed its neck, unsure of why it was spooked. They looked at Karyn who played innocent, and they concluded that no one as meek and small as she was could have been a danger.

She walked on away from the stables. Irrespective of the incident, it was a nice place to be, if you could ignore the smell. Karyn could see herself spending a vacation on a place like this, dressed like the popular images of Applejack, relaxing. Of course, she told herself, having a vacation depended on having a job first.

Once she was away, she ventured to ask, “Derpy?”

“Yes.”

“Are you OK?”

“I’m fine, but how rude he was! I’ve never in my life been treated so roughly. Someone needs to teach that stallion a thing or two. Are all of them like that on Earth?”

Karyn didn’t know how to answer that. No matter how many times she tried, Derpy just couldn’t accept that Earth ponies weren’t the same as Earth Ponies.

“Not all of them are going to be as skittish as that one. Some are quite gentle, because they’ve been ridden and are used to it. Others, the wild horses, can run so hard and fast that no human can catch them.”

“So they’re all different, just like ponies.”

“Yes, but not really. That stallion shooed you away because he can’t grasp the concept of an invisible flying horse.”

Derpy put more emphasis in her voice. “Which is why I wanted to be visible. And I wouldn’t have taken off around him if it would have helped make friends.”

Karyn didn’t know how to tell her that she believed there was too great a barrier to ever achieve friendship.

They continued walking, having found a path near the outside. Derpy felt confident in the footing, and the clip-clop of her hooves was, for once, not out of place. Karyn didn’t know what more Derpy was looking for.

At last they came upon a different section, where more activity was going on. A young lady was riding a horse while wearing full gymkhana garb, complete with the hemishpherical black hat. She put the horse through its paces, dancing around poles and having it trot sideways. The horse looked well-groomed, fit for a show.

The sound of Derpy’s hooves stopped, so Karyn held up. “What is it?”

“She’s driving that horse.”

Karyn looked again. “Yes, she is.”

A long pause. “I think I get it now. When you ride on me, I’m the one who decides where to go. But not that one. It’s all on the human. You’d never do that to me, force me to turn with your knees and feet.”

“Of course not! Because you’re people.”

“And they’re not. I guess I’ve already found the people of Earth.”

Karyn had nothing to say to that.

“Unless—” Derpy continued. “No, I forgot. You don’t have unicorns or pegasi here. All the ponies and horses are like that one, ready to be ridden.”

“Exactly.”

“But wait. You knew that I was a pegasus pony. You didn’t have to be told what a unicorn was. How did you know? Did you used to have them on Earth but they all went away?”

Karyn spoke quickly. “No, it’s not like that. Unicorns are made up creatures here on Earth. Probably what happened is that people saw horses, and they saw creatures with a single horn on their forehead like rhinoceroses and combined the two. Why they’re associated with magic, that I can’t say.”

“Well, they do magic. It’s only natural that you’d associate them with it.”

“But again, we don’t have any unicorns here. We have an idea of magic, and an idea of horned creatures, and an idea of horses. But why did people conflate them?”

“That’s what I’m asking!”

Derpy’s voice was heading up, and Karyn was worried about it carrying in the open fields, so she started leading them back to the car. “And so am I. Because nobody knows. It happened so long ago, when history was just barely being recorded. So unicorns became legends.”

“And what about pegasi?”

“Same thing. Although...well, let’s talk about it when we’re back home and I can relax. And do research if need be.”

She drove back along the same route that they had come. Clouds were gathering ominously, but Derpy’s instincts told her that rain wouldn’t be for a while yet. She was glad to see them, though; they fit her mood. All week she had thought that meeting the ponies of Earth would be something fun, but it was one of the biggest disappointments.

And there was no equivalent for Karyn. Equestria had no humans other than Lyra’s, and he was an immigrant. Nothing even like them. Derpy remembered that humans were evolutionary offspring of primates, and there might have been monkeys in distant parts of Equestria, but Karyn wouldn’t go seeking them hoping to make a connection.

They made it back with the skies more threatening, and sat down inside. “Now, tell me about pegasi.”

“Actually, I was never even sure that pegasi was the correct plural of pegasus. Because in the legends, there was only one Pegasus.”

“What was her name?”

“His name was just Pegasus. It wasn’t a race of horses or anything. Or maybe there were in some legends. But the famous one had just Pegasus. He came about because in the old days, travel was so difficult. So if a hero had a horse like Pegasus, he could scale any mountain or cross any ocean. Humans always envied the birds who could fly, so even if we couldn’t ourselves, we wanted our steeds to do it.”

Derpy nodded. “If I ever revealed myself, you think humans would take me for this Pegasus?”

“Well, plenty of people know who you are already. And he was always depicted with very big wings, not like yours. But they would understand.”

“So how did you come to know about Equestria?”

Karyn put away the computer that she had looked for pictures of Pegasus on. This was something she needed no help with. “The whole My Little Pony think started about thirty years ago, before I was even born. I think my mom played with the toys. Little girls have always thought that horses were fun. I’m not sure why. But it was something obvious for a toy line. And since they like magic and pretty wings as well, they made unicorn and pegasus ponies as well.”

“You think my wings are pretty?”

“The prettiest. Anyway, long story short, they eventually made stories of Equestria. How it tied in with your world actually existing, that’s magic way above my pay grade.”

Derpy stopped paying attention after the compliment.

The rest of their day together was spent in idle pursuits, and it wasn’t until Derpy was out back of the apartment ready to go home that she remembered something. “Hey!” she cried.

“What’s up?”

“We went to Riverside, but we didn’t actually find out anything about the letter. Remember that I told you we always did?”

Karyn laughed. “In the first place, we went to the outskirts of Riverside. So it wouldn’t count. Second, that’s a coincidence, not something that’s necessarily cause and effect.”

“Yeah, but I had hope. Sometimes I wonder if we can really do it.” Derpy pulled the letter out of her bag again. She looked over the primitive bar code that had let them trace it to the town of Riverside, but beyond that, and knowing what shop the envelope came from, they were no closer to finding the recipient. The penmanship on the front didn’t help either. Surely only a child would address a letter to only a first name, but it seemed like fine handwriting. “I wonder where you are now, Beverly,” Derpy said, apostrophizing the recipient.

With no warning of thunder, rain from the low-hanging cloud dotted the pavement and splashed the grass. Derpy’s first move was to get the letter under cover, then she ran for the shelter of the apartment rather than take the quicker step of just magicking herself back home.

“Pleh,” said Karyn. “Stupid rain.”

“Yeah, and I’ll have to go out in it. Well, it isn’t raining back home, so I can air dry on the way down. I’m just glad the letter didn’t get soaked.” She took it out again and went wide-eyed. A single drop had fallen on it, right at the first letter of the name on the front. Some of the ink seemed to be washing off, but Derpy recognized what was happening. “Look, Karyn!”

“It’s getting wet.”

“Not that. This isn’t all ink. It looks like a grease spot or something. See, the first letter’s changing.”

Karyn peered closer. It was running, but she could still see it, and for the first time, she realized that the capital B wasn’t fully formed. The thin and fancy stroke was fatter at the bottom. “Holy smoke, you’re right! It’s not Beverley, it’s Peverley.”

“Does that help?”

“It’s a much less common name. There couldn’t have been too many Peverleys in Riverside twenty years ago. Maybe we’re closer to delivering this than we think.”

“Fortunate drop of rain, wasn’t it?”

Author's Notes:

As we come down to the end we have some guest stars coming in. Let's take a peek into the next chapter.

“I’m sorry!”

Coming alert, Derpy said, “What? What happened? What did Karyn say? Or was it me?”

“No, it wasn’t you. I brought up a painful memory that I shouldn’t have.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Do you think that’ll happen to us?”

“What do you mean?”

“Will our friendship be like that and diminish and fade out?”

Since she hadn’t started the car yet, Karyn slapped in her Bluetooth and turned to face Derpy directly. “Listen, don’t let that silly piece of paper get to you."

Be sure to read that one when it comes out.