Midwife Crisis

by starshine_dash

Morula

Derpy's wings fluttered lightly as she worked her way through her mailbag, tossing random items into random places while she searched for the most important item she packed. The mare grew increasingly worried, until she finally spotted the small argyle handkerchief that she was looking for. Extracting it carefully, she placed it on the table and gingerly removed the object inside. Placing the object on the table, she pushed out the brace on the back and set it facing the couch. Sitting there, she placed her muzzle up against the front and planted a kiss on the glass. Tears dripped down her cheeks slightly as she gazed fondly at the picture in the small frame on the table.

The picture filled her with fond feelings. She was there, standing in the middle, one eye looking down, the other off to the right. Beneath her, where the eye was focused, was her youngest foal. Dinky, her precious muffin, smiling happily and looking up at her. Next to Dinky stood Sparkler, Derpy's oldest. Her mane was hiding part of her face as the foal looked at her mom. Flying above the happy family was Derpy's closest friend, and her only sister, Ditzy. Her parents had taken the picture just before she'd moved to Ponyville to take the job delivering mail.

A long, slow sigh escaped the gray mare's mouth as she stared longingly at the picture. She desperately missed her family, her precious muffin, "Oh, Muffin... I hope you get back from camp soon..." she whispered softly. Dinky and Sparkler had gone off to spend the summer at camp and with their father. He was a fine unicorn, but the marriage had been a sham. Soon after they'd had Dinky together, she caught him with his "best friend" doing things that just last night she had been doing with him. She didn't really hold anything against him for being a colt-cuddler. After all, she'd done her fair share of filly-fooling in flight school. They'd remained great friends, exchanging letters and pictures of their fillies. He'd gone on to host a grand stage show called "The Birdcage," which she thought was a story about, well, a bird. She was happy for him, even though she missed him terribly. Thinking about it, she missed him as much as she missed her daughters.

"Oh well," she sighed, laying back and staring up at Fluttershy's ceiling, "At least he's nicer to me than Cracker Barrel... I just don't know what I saw in that colt..." she whispered to no one in particular, unconsciously running a hoof over a well hidden scar on her chest where he'd accidentally hit her with a broken bottle after a particularly long night of drinking. Well, she thought it was accidental at the time. She didn't want to admit that he'd been... not the greatest pony she'd every been with. He'd started out sweeter than a sugar cube, but soon, it got bad.

The night before she left, he'd screamed that she was "a useless, wall-eyed, nag," and made some unkind comments toward her parentage. Everypony thought she was stupid, because her eyes wandered and she was a bit scatterbrained from the unfortunate consequences of running into things all the time, but she understood a lot of what ponies called her. Another low sigh fled her body before she shook her head. This line of thinking wasn't helping at all. She had to cheer up if she was going to help Fluttershy around the house in exchange for a place to sleep. Plus, she had work tomorrow and everypony would miss that smile. That smile that Ol' Witherby called "The sweetest smile that's not Pinkie Pie's." Just thinking about that lifted her spirits a little.

Derpy blew a strand of blonde hair out of her eyes and stood up, moving back over to her bag and continuing to root and sort through it until she'd gotten several piles organized. Essentials, clothes for fancy time, a couple random bits of items that she picked up over the years and the small box of gifts that her foals had given her. She kept all of them, no matter what.

Looking through, she found the first thing Dinky had ever given her, a small Daffodil. Derpy had taken it and dried it out so it would stay with her for as long as possible, even pressing it between two clear pieces of glass to protect it. Sparkler’s first gift, a piece of clover, was sitting right nearby. A soft smile appeared on her lips as she continued to look through her box of treasures. Nothing in it would be considered valuable by anypony other than her. To the pegasus nearly crying again, it was worth more bits than anyone in the world could possibly have.

It wasn’t long before she was startled by Fluttershy returning home. The door opened softly and the yellow pegasus leaned down to slide her saddlebag off, “Oh my, that’s heavy,” she said, looking tired.

“Hello, Fluttershy!” Derpy said with a smile and waved a hoof.

The poor mare was completely surprised, flipping over onto her back and freezing up with a bleat not unlike that of a goat. Her legs eventually let her move them again and she got back to her feet to the giggling of her guest.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to surprise you,” she said apologetically, standing up to help her host with her package.

“Oh it’s not your fault,” the pink-haired mare said, before looking around her house. The entire front room was covered with random items. Clothes mostly, but it was absolutely everywhere, “Oh my... Oh my... Derpy, what did you do? The whole place is a mess.”

“It is?” the other mare asked, looking around, eyes going every which way, “I thought it was perfectly organized!”

“It isn’t... It’s a horrible mess!” Fluttershy gasped before taking a deep breath, before calming herself visibly, “It’s alright, I’ll get you set up in the guest room, there’s plenty of room for your stuff there.”
“Thank you again for letting me stay, Fluttershy,” Derpy smiled, placing her forelegs around the other mare’s neck and giving her a warm hug.

Were she able to see her cheeks, she would have noticed that the mare in her embrace was blushing enough that her cheeks now matched her mane, “You’re... You’re very welcome, Derpy...”

Derpy let go and turned to start gathering up her stuff, “I’m really sorry about making a mess, Fluttershy. I guess I just don’t know what I’m doing sometimes,” she said with a smile.

“It’s alright, um... Is Derpy your real name? I feel a little bad calling you that now that I think of it.”

The grey mare smiled, “Oh, you’re the first one to ask me that. My name is Dephina Doo... Derpy is just fine though, my sister gave me the nickname.”

“Oh, okay, Derpy...” Fluttershy smiled back, before realizing what time it was, “Oh my! Are you hungry? I could make lunch, that is, if you want...”

“I’d love that! I’ll put my things in the other room then.”

Fluttershy smiled at her and vanished into the kitchen, leaving Derpy to pick up her clothes, stuff them back into the mailbag, and start taking everything into the other room. As she was stuffing one of her favorite shirts into a drawer, there was a knock at the door. She knew from other chats while delivering the mail that Fluttershy didn’t often get visitors. Muffled voices were filtering through the door. Although she couldn’t catch much, it was obvious the other pony was a mare, and was very, very angry about something. Derpy gulped and opened the door, looking down the hallway that lead to the entry.

Her mouth dropped open in a gasp. “YOU!”

Thanks for all the feedback and everything everypony. Don’t worry, Cracker Barrel will get what’s coming to him eventually. I tried to make this a little longer and had ThreeVolt proofread so hopefully there’s less issues.