Dinky leaned back in her seat and grabbed her belly. “That was some good muffin,” she exclaimed. She heard a small burp come from her mother across the table.
“Excuse me,” Derpy said between giggles. “You said it Dinky.”
Pinkie took their plates away and they remained sitting there letting everything digest. Dinky broke the silence by asking her mother a question stemming from the previous discussion, “Have you ever looked for a special somepony for you that could be a daddy to me?”
“Not really,” responded Derpy. “Not to say I haven’t gone out with a couple of ponies, they just turned out to be better as friends. Besides, I have you and that’s all I’ve needed.”
Dinky put a hoof to her chin and pondered for a bit, and then she came up with a brilliant idea. “What about the pony you hang out with from time to time, the one you call Doctor.”
“DOCTOR!? WHERE!?” Derpy sat straight up scanning the room.
“He’s not here,” Dinky said stifling a laugh, “at least, not that I can see. I just know you spend a lot of time with him and I thought you might like him. I like the times I’ve joined you in hanging out with him; he’s funny.”
“Well…you see…he…that is…,” Derpy sighed dejectedly and laid her head on her hoof, “he’s, just a friend. It’s not like I haven’t tried,” Derpy grumbled the last part to herself.
“Um, mom,” Dinky interjected pointing for Derpy to turn around. Her mother turned around and went as white as the friend her mother talks about from time to time, Bulk Biceps I think Dinky thought to herself.
“D…D…Doctor! What are you doing here!?”
“I just stopped in to pick up some English muffins I usually get every Friday,” stated Doctor Whooves. “I was just on my way out when I spotted you two and thought I’d say hi.”
“English muffins,” Derpy hissed. “I will never understand why you buy those traitorous things to the muffin kind.”
“They’re not all that bad, plus I’m not the only one that gets them. That grey mare that plays the cello and the white mare with the sunglasses buy them all the time, though from her expression I think the one with sunglasses is just there to get them for the cellist.”
“Another enemy to the muffin kingdom,” Derpy said under her breath.
“So what brings you two to the shop?”
Dinky came up with the answer before her mother could come up with something, “Muffins, family, and love.” She wasn’t lying, but she did that more for the benefit of getting a reaction out of her mother. It worked perfectly because her mother’s face turned scarlet and she started to sink under the table.
“Oh, so this is that thing I keep hearing about; mare talk is it? I’ll just leave you two to it then. I’ll see you around Dinky.”
“Ok,” she said joyfully.
“And you as well Derpy.”
“Ok,” Derpy squeaked.
The Doctor looked at the top of Derpy’s head for and bit, shrugged, and headed out the door.
Derpy did not rise until she was sure that The Doctor had let the eatery. “You did that on purpose, didn’t you,” Derpy asked with a playful, hurt expression, using the joking demeanor to hide her slowly diminishing embarrassment. Dinky responded with nothing more than a smile stretching from ear to ear. Derpy looked down at the now empty table, “I guess since were finished, we should probably start heading back home.”
“Actually,” Dinky interjected, “I was wondering if I could stop by the library first.”
“Sure, Muffin, I guess we can stop by there on our way back home.”
“I was actually wondering if I could go by myself,” Dinky said. After seeing the downtrodden look on her mother’s face, Dinky added, “It’s just that I am meeting some friends there and I don’t know how long I’ll be, and I know you’ve been working hard today and would like to get some rest.”
“Oh, I see,” Derpy responded, her face showing an understanding look. “I guess that is alright. The library isn’t far from home, and Twilight is there if you run into any trouble.”
Dinky jumped gleefully out of her seat and hugged her mother, “Thank you mommy.”
“Just don’t stay out too late. I want you home before dark.”
“I will,” and with that, Dinky bolted out the door. She was glad that her mother let her go, especially by herself, because the real reason she wanted to go to the library was actually for her mother. She also hated lying to her mother, but the ends justified the means. Besides, she knew some of her friends sometimes were at the library, so she may not end up lying after all. She just hoped Twilight was there instead of running another errand for the princess. In no time at all Dinky was standing at the library’s door step, slightly out of breath from running all the way there. She took a moment to catch her breath before knocking on the door. It was the library, but it was still a private residence.
“Just a minute,” came a voice from the inside. The door creaked open and there stood a small purple dragon not much bigger than Dinky. “Oh hey Dinky,” greeted Spike. “What brings you here today? Come to check out the new fantasy stories that came in today?”
“Maybe some other time,” Dinky responded. “Is Ms. Sparkle home?”
“Ya, she’s downstairs running tests on…” Spike tried to remember the science lecture Twilight gave him. When he couldn’t think of it, he finished with, “…stuff. Come on in and I’ll get her for you.” Dinky followed Spike in and sat down at the table in the center of the room while Spike headed downstairs to fetch Twilight. It wasn’t long till Spike returned accompanied by the purple unicorn.
“Hello Dinky, how are you today,” Twilight greeted Dinky in her usual chipper tone.
“I am fine Ms. Sparkle, and you?” Dinky responded.
“I’m fine, and you can just call me Twilight. The formality just makes me feel old,” Twilight chuckled. “Spike said that you needed to see me; is there something that I can help you with?”
“Yes, I was wondering if you would be able to help me send a letter to somepony.”
Twilight gave Dinky a puzzled look, “I guess I can, but wouldn’t you want to ask your mother to help you with that. She does work for the post office after all.”
“No, I can’t do that. The letter I need to send is actually a surprise for my mother.”
“I see, but still, why me? Not to say I won’t help, I just don’t know how I can help.”
“I need to send the letter to Princess Cadence and I thought you could help since you know her personally.”
“Oh, then we would be happy to help you, wouldn’t we Spike?”
Twilight and Dinky both turned to look at the purple dragon with parchment in one hand and a quill in the other, “Right!”
Dinky smiled and cleared her throat, “Dear Princess Cadence, my name is Dinky Hooves and I live in Ponyville. I was wondering if you could help me find a very special somepony for my mommy.”
Dinky was interrupted by a gasp from a smiling unicorn. “Sorry,” apologized Twilight, “continue.”
Dinky turned back to Spike, “I already have somepony in mind. It is a friend of my mommy’s that I have seen her show interest in. His name is Doctor Whooves.” Dinky tried to ignore the elated squeal from across the room. “I don’t know if he feels the same way, but he does enjoy spending lots of time with my mommy. I was wondering if you could use you special talent to help my mommy and Mr. Whooves fall in love with each other. Thank you. Dinky Hooves.”
Spike rolled up the piece of parchment, sealed it, and sent it off in a brilliant flash of green fire.
Twilight looked back at Dinky, “Her response should be back her very quickly, you are welcome to stay here and wait.”
“Thank you,” Dinky replied. “Maybe I’ll look at those books Spike mentioned earlier.”
“Right this way,” waved Spike as he guided her to the section they were stacked.
Dinky grabbed one of the new ones, Rise of the Alicorn, and took it to a pillow in the corner. It was a book more geared towards older ponies because of the more advanced words and concepts, but the author still kept it somewhat simple for younger audiences to follow. This one was about a young unicorn that was given her role as an alicorn early in her life and was told to lead her village. With no tutoring, she didn’t know where to start and her village desperately needed a leader to pull them out of dark times. Dinky had almost finished with the first chapter when she heard a loud belch accompanied by a flash of emerald light. She looked up and saw a parchment in Spikes hand held together by a seal with a heart and wings on it. That was the seal of Princess Cadence.
“I believe this is for you,” Spike said as he handed the letter to Dinky.
Dinky set the letter on the floor, tore off the seal, and unrolled it to reveal the message inside. Dinky was about to start reading when she felt an odd presence behind her. She looked back to see Spike and Twilight hovering over her trying to read the message. They both gave Dinky an embarrassed look and slowly back away. Dinky turned back to the letter with a giggle and began to read.
Dear Ms. Dinky Hooves,
I have read your letter and I would be more than happy to help find that very special somepony for your mother. From what you told me, I have some good news and some, while not bad, slightly unhelpful news. The good news is that this might be very easy to do because it sounds like they already love each other; they just haven’t told it to each other yet. The unhelpful news, however, is my special talent won’t be of any use in this situation. My talent helps those ponies that are sad or angry at each other see beyond their problems to once again see the love they have for each other. Using my talent on your mom and Mr. Whooves would be like adding a drop of water to an ocean. What I can do for you is give you some tips that require no magic, but still might help them express the love they have for each other; plus they’re the same tactics that helped me find my special somepony so I’m sure they should work. First, you need to find what they are interested in and find things that are similar between them. Then, you need to find a place they both can relax and talk to each other, and when I mean talk, I’m not talking about simple friendly talk that you and your friends would do at school. I’m talking about them actually coming out and telling each other how they feel. So try and make the location have a romantic feel like a walk through the park or out star gazing. Beyond that, it’s all up to the two of them to decide if they will continue or not. I hope that helps, and do tell me how it goes.
Sincerely,
Princess Mi Amore Cadenza.
P.S. Do say hi to Twilight for me and her BBBFF.
Dinky rolled up the letter with a dejected but satisfied look.
“Did you get the help you wanted,” Twilight asked.
“Yes and no,” responded Dinky. “It wasn’t the exact help I was looking for, but Princess Cadence did give me some things I can do myself to try and do the same thing.”
“Well, I’m glad she could give you some help with the matter. Now, you should probably get back home soon. Celestia is about to lower the sun and I don’t want you mom getting worried.”
“Ok, thank you,” Dinky said. She was almost out the door when she stopped and turned back to Twilight, “Oh ya, Princess Cadence wanted me to tell you hi from her and your…,” Dinky unrolled the bottom of the letter to read the end again, “…BBBFF.”
Twilight smiled and thanked Dinky.
With that, Dinky rushed out the door and off back to her house. She needed to get there before dark or her mother might ground her. Luckily, her home wasn’t too far from the library, and she made it back before Celestia’s sun was replaced by Luna’s moon. Dinky rushed into the house and made a beeline for her room when she was stopped by a voice in the living room.
“Is that you Muffin,” asked Derpy.
“Yes mommy,” Replied Dinky.
“Did you find what you needed?”
“Most of it.”
“Well that’s good. Now go wash up and get ready for bed. I already drew the bath and the water should still be warm.”
Dinky agreed and continued on to her room. She put the letter in her room where her mother wouldn’t find it, and head off to the bathroom. While sitting in the bath, Dinky pondered on what she could do to get her mom and The Doctor together. Finding out things about her mother was covered because she knew nearly everything about her, and her mother has already told her everything she loves about The Doctor. Now she would just have to find a way to talk to The Doctor and find out what he likes and if he likes anything about her mother. Since there was no school tomorrow, she could go visit him and talk. She knew where he lived, she just never actually seen his house. Her mother always said it looked like a phone booth. It was an odd way for a house to be described, but Dinky knew her mother had an odd way of explaining things. Then, after she has figured out all she needs to know about The Doctor, Dinky had to find a way to get them together and confess their love for each other. That was going to be the hard part, because Dinky could only get as far as getting them together; the rest is all up to the two of them. Dinky had not notice how long she had been thinking until her mother came in to check on her.
“What is taking you so long Dinky?”
Dinky snapped out of her trance only to now realize the warm water was now ice cold. “Sorry mommy, I was just thinking and lost track of time.”
“Is that so, and what seems to be on your mind.”
Dinky couldn’t tell her mom about her plans, so she had to come up with something fast and that wasn’t a lie, “Nothing much, just trying to figure out what I’ll do tomorrow. I remember earlier this week you said you had to cover another pony’s shift and I didn’t want to sit around the house all day.”
“Well that’s good to hear,” Derpy said as she dried off Dinky. “There, now off to bed. You don’t want to be too tired and end up ruining your plans.”
“Ok,” agreed Dinky. She headed off to bed while Derpy tucked her in. Derpy shut off the light and shut the door behind her. Dinky laid there in her bed trying to fall asleep, but found it difficult with the anticipation of the events that lay before her for the next day.