NaPoWriMo 2014: A Compilation of Pony Tales

by Fluttercheer

Day 26: Derpy's Day: The Morning

06:00 AM.

Like on every day at this time, Derpy's alarm was abruptly ending her sleep. The grey pegasus mare opened her eyes and reached out to the alarm clock to switch it off.
She stretched out her hooves and groaned comfortably. Her sleep was good and relaxing and she felt well-rested.

Suddenly, she could hear tiny hoofsteps galloping over the floor out in the corridor in front of her bedroom. She looked over to the door. Dinky appeared on the doorstep. The little filly ran up to her and made a dive into her bed. She climbed on top of her mom and, lying on her chest, she gave her a gentle nuzzle. “Good morning, mommy!”, she said. “How did you sleep?”

Derpy returned the nuzzle. “I slept very good, thank you, Dinky!”, she answered in her slightly clunky voice. She ruffled the unicorn filly's mane and Dinky beamed at her. “Now let's get up and eat breakfast!”, she said then.

Dinky nodded and with a dart, she jumped off of her and galloped outside and down the stairs.

Derpy smiled. Then she wriggled herself out of the blue covers and followed her energetic daughter. As she trotted out in the corridor, Sparkler went out of her room. Her mane was ruffled and Derpy could see on her face that she was still tired. Sparkler yawned like she wanted to confirm her thought.

“Good Morning, Sparkler!”, Derpy greeted her.

“Morning.....”, Sparkler answered tiredly. Then she disappeared in the bathroom.

Despite her tired look, Derpy did not ask her if she hadn't slept well. She was her daughter and she knew how much Sparkler hated it to get up so early to get to school. But she needed to catch her train to Canterlot at seven and so she had no other choice. Derpy smiled as she walked downstairs. The young mom was proud of it that her oldest daughter visited the School for Gifted Unicorns of Princess Celestia in Canterlot.

The stairs creaked slightly as she leisurely went down. At the bottom, she turned right and went through the door into the kitchen.

Dinky sat at the table already, cheerfully humming a song and kicking her legs around. Derpy trotted past the table and up to the oven at the wall opposite of the door. She lifted off the tea kettle from the hotplate and filled it with fresh water in the kitchen sink, then she put it back on the hotplate and turned it on to boil water for tea.
As she reached up to the cupboards, Dinky slid down from her chair and trotted over at her side. “Can I help you with something, mommy?”, the filly asked.

“Sure! Can you get the muffins out of the fridge and bring them to the table?”

“Consider it done!”, Dinky answered happily and enforced her words with a playful salute and a determined expression. Then she dashed away for the fridge.

Derpy reached up to the cupboard over the kitchen sink again and pulled out three tea cups. Dinky trotted past her, balancing a plate of freshly-baked hazelnut muffins in her mouth. After she had taken out all the cups, she opened the drawer and took out three spoons, then Derpy placed everything on her back to carry it to the kitchen table.
As she put the last cup onto her back, she accidentally released it too early and dropped it. It shattered with a clank on the floor. Derpy groaned and rolled her eyes, which looked funny because due to her crossed eyes, one of them moved up and the other one moved down.

Shattered cups were a thing that often happened in their household due to Derpy's clumsyness. She should have been used to it by now, but buying so many new cups every new month also hurt Derpy's wallet quite a bit and the income as mailmare was not exactly generous. Especially with two daughters to care of.

Dinky had put the plate with the muffins on the table in the meanwhile and returned back to Derpy, as she heard how the cup shattered on the floor. She giggled a little, as she saw the reaction of Derpy's eyes. While Derpy carried the remaining two cups over to the table, Dinky activated her magic and levitated the pieces of the cup in the bin in the corner. Then she climbed on the kitchen unit, opened the upper cupboard and lifted out another cup to replace the broken one. She jumped down the unit again and carried the cup to the table where she placed it at the only seat that hadn't a cup in front of it yet.

As Derpy noticed it, she gave her another ruffle through her mane. “Thank you, Dinky”, she said.

The two heard a groan aside from them suddenly and looked at the door.

Sparkler was entering the kitchen. Her mane looked better now, improved by her visit in the bathroom. It was tidy now and not sticking out in all directions anymore.
But Sparkler still looked tired. She put a hoof to her mouth again and let out a long-stretched yawn, before she sat down at the table, opposite from Dinky, who had taken seat as well again in the meanwhile. As she noticed Dinky at the table, she smiled. “Morning, little sis”, she said.

“Good Morning, Sparkler!” Dinky answered her smile.

“I hope you have slept well”, Sparkler added, an ironic tone in her voice.

Dinky just nodded and smiled even brighter. And Sparkler was not surprised. It was always like this, every morning. Dinky had not the slightest problem to get up so early, despite that she wasn't going to bed any sooner than her. How Dinky got together all this energy to be so active in the morning was a mystery to her. She yawned again and Dinky giggled.

In the meanwhile, Derpy had returned to the kitchen unit and continued to prepare their breakfast. As the teakettle hissed, indicating that the water was ready, she filled it into a teapot, that already had some teabags hanging in it. Now she was almost done. She pulled out a sugar bowl and filled some of the sweet, white mass into it, then she carried the teapot with the hot steaming tea and the sugar bowl to the table, without dropping anything this time. Carefully, she placed everything in the middle of the table and took seat on her own at Dinky's side. Then the small family began to eat.

One after another filled their cup with the delicious fruit tea and added some sugar into it. They took a sip and then reached for the muffins on the plate. Derpy was the first one, of course, then Dinky and Sparkler grabbed one muffin each. She had baked the muffins just yesterday and they turned out as tasty as always. If there was one thing Derpy was really good at, then it was baking muffins. Despite her clumsyness, she had never ruined a single muffin as far as Sparkler and Dinky knew.

While eating, they talked about their plans for the day.

As they had finished their breakfast and ate all the muffins, of which Derpy ate the most, they put the dishes into the sink and prepared to leave. Dinky and Sparkler hurried back into their rooms to pack their things for school and Derpy went into her room to put on her mailmare uniform and to get her saddlebag for the many letters and packages she would have to deliver today.

As she had to leave earlier than Dinky, Sparkler was finished before Dinky. Her school bag on her back, she went out in the corridor and entered Dinky's room. The little unicorn was still busy with getting the things she needed for school from her desk and to pack them in her own school bag.

“I have to go now, little sister.” Sparkler approached her. She gave her sister a hug and then proceeded into Derpy's room. Another warm hug later, she went downstairs, opened the entrance door and was on her way to the train station.

Having put on her uniform and snatched her saddle bag, Derpy left her bedroom and closed the door behind her. Then she trotted into the direction of Dinky's room. “Are you ready, Dinky? We need to go now!”, she called her little daughter.

“Just a moment!”, it came as answer.

Derpy heard hasty rummaging from her room for some seconds and then Dinky trotted out of her room, carefully closing the door behind her as Derpy just did. She went over to her mom.

“Let's go!”, she said and before Derpy could reply, she was already galloping downstairs. Derpy followed her slowly.

“Mom, what's taking you so long? Come one!”, the active, little filly asked impatiently after she had reached the entrance door of their house. It was like she wanted to make up for it that she needed so long in her room.

As opposed to Dinky, Derpy trotted down the stairs calmly. “Don't worry, we have still enough time”, she said as she had catched up with her.

Dinky turned round at the spot and opened the door. She happily jumped outside and down the few stairs in front of the door. Derpy followed her slowly and shut the door behind her, then they made their way.

It was six fifty-five now and school was starting for Dinky exactly at seven fifteen and so they had plenty of time to get there.

Their first stop was the post office. As usual, Derpy used the opportunity to get the letters and packages with their delivery she was assigned. Since the town was Derpy's workplace, in the most literal sense, she accompanied her little daughter to school every day and on the way there, she already began with her work to save a little time. She was not the only mailpony in Ponyville. Even though it was just a little town compared to cities like Canterlot or Manehattan, it was too big for one pony to handle it alone.
The local post office had segmented the town in several districts and depending on the routing, the district she had to deliver was a different one every day.

Today she was lucky. The district she got assigned today reached partially into their daily way to the Ponyville school house. It were just a few houses of the district that lied on the way, but that was enough to shorten her work time a little on this day.

Not that Derpy was slow in delivering the mail. That she was a pegasus made the job a lot easier than for her colleagues who were earth ponies or unicorns. Unicorns had the advantage to be able to levitate the letters into the mailboxes, but being able to fly was still the faster way to get the job done, as Derpy could just fly over the houses, fences and other obstacles, instead of having to take the long route through the streets. But sometimes, Derpy lost the mail on the way and had to go back to search for it to not lose her job. She was skilled in doing this, as she was used to it that these things happened, but it was still taking more time and so it was useful for her that she could save some time this way.

After they had picked up the letters and packages, they continued their way to the school. They stopped by at a few houses where Derpy put the letters into the mailboxes, assisted by Dinky, who opened and closed them for her with her magic.

Finally, they arrived at the school. The bell had not rung yet, but a lot of fillies and colts were already moving into the building, while laughing and chattering with their friends. Dinky turned around to Derpy and they shared a hug before they had to split up. “Bye, mommy!”

“Goodbye Dinky, see you later!”, Derpy answered and then they released each other and Dinky galloped up to the entrance of the school. She turned around a last time and waved at her mom and then she disappeared in the building.

Having waved back at Dinky, Derpy trotted away from the schoolhouse. Now her work day really began.

After a few steps, she took off into the sky. Some letters fell out of her saddle bags already and she darted back to the ground, put them back into her bag, an embarrassed smile flashing over her face as she noticed that some fillies had seen it, and launched again.