Derpy trotted along her mail route, humming a cheerful sounding tune, as she waved to ponies, greeting them with a cheerful, “hello.” The longest part of her job as Ponyville’s resident mailmare, was having to read the mailing address, as ponies often saw that she took the longest time to look at the address. The cramming into the courier container, and retrieval of outbound mail only took a matter of moments.
The clouds above was a dark charcoal color, as a chilling breeze blew across the land. Her coat stood on end, as the wind blew over her body, and she ruffled her feathers, as she briefly looked skyward, taking note of the weather condition above.
“Hey Derpy!” Rainbow Dash greeted as she hovered near Derpy. Her mane looked extra-disheveled today, though her wings looked to have been preened to be in excellent condition.
“Hiya, Rainbow Dash,” Derpy responded with a smile, “lovely weather we’re having aren’t we?”
Rainbow Dash looked skyward at the handiwork of her and all of her other teammates on the local weather team and raised an eyebrow. “Uh, if you say so. You should probably finish up as quickly as you can, because it’s gonna snow later sometime this evening. Oh, and I heard about them giving you more mail routes to deliver to. I just wanted to say, congratulations!”
“Thanks. And thank you for the heads up about the weather! I should get moving if I want to be done before it’s time to pick up Dinky.”
“Hey, do you want me to pick Dinky up if you aren’t finished with your work by the time it’s time to pick Dinky up?”
“I don’t want to trouble you.” Derpy scuffed her right forehoof against the ground, as her brow creased and her nose scrunched as she gave Rainbow Dash a hesitant look.
“Hey, us ponies got to stick together, right?”
“Not to sound ungrateful, but you’ve never bothered to volunteer to watch over my daughter before.”
Rainbow Dash groaned, and her right forehoof dragged down the front of her face, the skin stretching slightly under the hoof’s friction before it returned to its normal elasticity. “Okay, but I don’t want you telling just anypony, alright?”
“Okay.”
“Alright, so last night I had a nightmare. The me in my dreams had been experiencing vomiting, dizziness, and I felt warmest after I woke up. So the dream me went to Ponyville Hospital to get a checkup, and they did some tests, and announced that I was pregnant! My friends stuck with me for the first few months, but gradually they started to hang out with me less and less, until I just didn’t see them anymore. I felt alone and sad, like it was just me against the whole world. And seeing the care and attention that the Cake’s foals demand, I can see that foal-rearing isn’t easy. It’s harder when you’re a single parent and you’re trying to rear a foal. My nightmare got me thinking that I’d have wanted somepony to lend a helping hoof to me, if I were to ever have to travel down that road. So, I thought I’d just extend the offer to you, because I’d want it done for me, if I ever ended up a single parent,” Rainbow Dash explained.
“I see.” Derpy pulled out a small notepad, and wrote a small note to Dinky.
My beloved Muffin,
If Rainbow Dash has given you this note, it means that I’m still working and couldn’t finish in time to pick you up. Be good for Rainbow Dash, until I finish with work and can pick you up.
With all my love,
your mommy
Derpy folded the paper until it was about a square hoof in size. She passed it over to Rainbow Dash, who slipped it into the collar part of her weatherpony uniform. “That’s a note to give to Dinky, if I don’t get finished in time. Rip it up, if I find you and have finished with work before it’s time to pick Dinky up.”
“Alright. Well, I’m going to get going. The less time I take up of your time, the sooner you can get finished with work. Later Derpy,” Rainbow Dash called, zooming off in the direction of the Golden Oaks Library.
“Bye, Rainbow Dash,” Derpy called to the already distant pegasus.
* * * {Fishing} * * *
Derpy entered her home, shaking what snow that had coated her grey coat and her light straw-blonde mane. It was already as dark as the inside of an underground cave outside. She entered her living room to find Dinky covered with a faded pale yellow quilt, sleeping soundly beside Rainbow Dash, who was reading a book titled Merry Matcher: Dragon Hatcher.
“Wow! You sure are home late! Was everything all right?” Rainbow Dash inquired while keeping her volume low.
“Yeah … It’s just taking so long, since I’m still not familiar with the additional routes that the Ponyville Mail Office gave me. It ought to go faster once I’m more familiar with my new route and get to know the ponies that live there. Thanks for watching her Rainbow Dash.” She went upstairs, rummaging and pulling out a suitcase, where she stored what bits that she didn’t spend. She grabbed a small bag of 15 bits and placed them in the bag, drawing the drawstring closed before going back downstairs. “Here.” She gently placed in Rainbow Dash’s lap the small sack of bits.
“What’s this?”
“It’s for watching Dinky while I was away.”
“I don’t want to accept this.”
“Why not?”
“Because, friends don’t do things expecting to be paid for every little nice thing that they do for their friends!” Rainbow harshly whispered.
“But-”
“I’m not taking your bits, Derpy.”
“What? Are you going to out-generous the Bearer of the Element of Generosity?” Derpy harshly whispered back.
“No, but like I said before, us ponies need to stick together. Besides ponies should be able to do nice things for other ponies without having to worry about having to pay ponies that do things out of the goodness of their hearts, for the nice thing that was done to them.”
Derpy’s eyes held two crystalline orbs of tears at the corner of her eyes, her bottom lip trembling, as she swallowed, before wrapping Rainbow Dash into a hug. The surprised Rainbow Dash was frozen briefly, before she wrapped her forehoof around Derpy’s back, and patting the other mare’s back. Rainbow Dash chuckled nervously, as moments like these went totally against her image as the most radical, awesome, and cool pegasus in Equestria.
Derpy ended the hug, smiling, even though her eyes looked red and puffy. “It’s really late, Rainbow Dash. I have a bed in the guest room, if you want to spend the night here. I’m going to put Dinky to bed, and then I’m going to head to bed myself. Do feel free to sleep in the guest room if you decide to stay.”
“Okay, Derpy. I’m feeling a bit tired myself, so I-” Rainbow Dash yawned, blinking her eyes sleepily, and smacking her lips before resuming where she had left off before she yawned. “-I think I’ll take you up on that offer.”
Derpy nodded, before nuzzling her sleeping daughter onto her back, and trotting up the stairs to the door that had a wooden plaque cut in the shape of a unicorn silhouette with a steeple-style conical hennin towards the back of the head’s silhouette. Thin ribbons of pink and purple fabric dropped down from their attachment at the top of the hennin. Dinky’s name was spelled out in gem appliqués of many different colors; rubies, citrines, and tanzanite, just to name a few. Derpy’s right wing curled around the doorknob, as she twisted the knob, and pushed, opening the door to enter Dinky’s room.
Derpy peeled back the covers, with their sunflower design on them and tucked her daughter into bed. She placed Dinky’s favorite stuffed teddy bear, who Dinky had named Mr. Snuggles, into the hooves of her little filly and smiled as the sleeping filly smiled in her sleep and snuggled closer to Mr. Snuggles. Mr. Snuggles had honey-golden brown short velveteen fur. Mr. Snuggles paws, muzzle and ears were a light creamy color, in a similar velveteen ‘fur.’ His eyes were cornflower blue, with flecks of aqua blue dividing the uniformity of the cornflower blue iris. He also had a red, green and light honey-brown plaid bow under his neck, attached to a collar of the same fabric. He had a black stitched anchor style mouth, which gave it an endearing smile. Derpy brushed the bangs of her daughter back and kissed her daughter on the forehead, opening the curtains to let the light of Luna’s moon in, so that her daughter wouldn’t be afraid of the dark. “Sleep well, my beloved daughter.”
* * * {Fishing} * * *
“Well, since I don’t have to work today, is there anything you’d like to do today Muffin?” Derpy asked, as she flipped another pancake onto the growing pile of hot, sweet, and fluffy goodness and poured more batter into the pan, starting another pancake.
“I want to go to Equestrian Princess amusement park!” Dinky exclaimed excitedly, devouring the pancake on her plate like she had not eaten for a month, bits of pancake dough and maple syrup coating the sides of her diminutive muzzle.
“Oh, I don’t know Muffin,” Derpy replied, her voice sounding doubtful.
“Oh please Mommy? Please, please, please!?” Dinky eyes grew wide, as she looked up at her mother, tears in the corner of her eyes and her bottom lip quivering, and her ears flattened against her head.
Derpy chuckled, shaking her head at her daughter’s attempt to get her mommy to cave in. “That’s not going to work on me, Muffin, but we shall see. But first, breakfast!”
* * * {Fishing} * * *
“Mommy, mommy! Look they have a cute kitty cat in that crane game! Get it for me, please?”
“Okay, but after this we have to go home.”
“Okay!”
Derpy chuckled, watching her filly rear up onto her rear legs, and pressing her forehooves and muzzle against the glass, as she fished around for the few bits she still had, after a fun day of riding rollercoasters, whirlygigs and the rocket ferris wheel. It was like a ferris wheel, except that the wheel spun really fast, and could even tilt to spin parallel with the ground! Derpy inserted the bit into the coin and started maneuvering the claw to get the cute little stuffed kitty Dinky asked her to get.
* * * {Fishing} * * *
“I’m sorry Dinky. I’m all out of bits.” Derpy looked at her filly somberly, feeling bad that she hadn’t won a single thing from the crane game, much less the stuffed kitty Dinky had wanted.
“You want that cute kitty plush in that crane game, right?” A familiar voice giggled.
“Pinkie!” Dinky cried, immediately cheered up by the presences of Ponyville’s pink party pony.
“Oh, I couldn’t possibly ask you to do that,” Derpy protested.
“Nonsense! If I can possibly make a pony happy, then as I, Pinkamena Diane Pie, lives, I shall do everything in my power to spread cheer, joy and laughter to as many ponies as I can!” Pinkie raised her hoof upward, as though she was taking a sacred oath. “They don’t call me the Joyful Joystick Jockey for nothing!” Pinkie giggled.
Dinky and Derpy watched in fascination as with each bit that went into the crane game, a kitty plush was dropped into the prize slot, with Pinkie placing the plush into a large rucksack. Ten bits had gone into the machine and ten kitty plushes had come out of the machine. Pinkie grinned, hoofing a kitty plush over to Dinky. “See you in Ponyville!” Pinkie called out, before leaving a pink puffy cloud, the prolific party pony nowhere to be seen.
* * * {Fishing} * * *
“Did you have fun today, Muffin?”
“Uh-huh! I had fun because I was with you, Mommy!”
Derpy felt her eyes grow wet, her mouth pulling tight into a big smile, her cheeks enclosing her grin, as she nuzzled her daughter affectionately, and placed Mr. Snuggles next to her daughter before tucking Dinky and Mr. Snuggles into bed. “Goodnight Dinky. I love you.”
“—Love you, Mommy.” Dinky sleepily murmured, before Derpy closed the door behind her.