Shipfic Folder Series

by SS Nomad

In Which Dad Stops By

It was a truly rare day. A weekday off. As much as she hated to give up some of her usually unilateral control over sorting the town’s mail, the gray pegasus mare was quite happy to be lazing around the house without her daughter running around. Even though the filly was just a year shy of going to college, she was still a hoof-ful. With an adorable yawn that barely fit the age of the mare, Derpy sat upright and set aside the newspaper that had been resting on her belly. No real plans or callers, she’d just relax for once, maybe get some cleaning do-

There was the unmistakable sound of metal on metal from just outside her door. Derpy turned to face it, her weak eye slowly drifting out of position from the sudden motion. It sort of sounded like somepony messing with her mailbox. Odd… her coworkers usually just kept her mail there for her to pick up the next day. Also, it was way off schedule.

Her expression flattened. The new kid must have both not known to keep her mail for her and have been delayed in the sorting. With a light grumble, she trotted over to the door to see which carrier had delivered the mail and ask them what was going on.

She opened the door to see the backside of a large red stallion trying to sneak away from her house. She closed her one eye and tried to control it back into a normal position, tilting her head.

“B-big Mac?” she called out confusedly.

“Uh,” Mac stopped in his tracks and turned back to face her, “Ee..”

Derpy shook her head in a little shock, “What are you doing here, Mac? Is something wrong?”

“Uh… Nope,” he replied, sort of looking down at his hooves.

Derpy opened her mailbox and looked in, spotting a nearly unmarked envelope, only her name written on the outside in the stallion’s script, “What’s… this?”

Mac chuckled shyly and finally made eye contact, “Surprise, Ah suppose.”

Derpy chuckled a bit at him, “Better or worse than the last surprise you gave me?”

“Don’t see how it could be better’n her,” Big Mac joked in return, his mood recovering, “Open it when she gets home.”

Derpy tilted her head, “What are you up to, Mac?”

“Nut’in,” he shook his head, “Jus’ keepin’ a promise.”

Derpy eyed him suspiciously, but he turned to leave with a proud smile and his head held high.

“I’ll tell Dinky you said, ‘Hi,’” Derpy called after him.

Big Mac just waved to her over his shoulder.

---

“So how was class?” Derpy asked across the dinner table.

Dinky just smiled and shrugged, “Pretty good, you know how it is. Got another test back.”

“Do I even need to ask?” Derpy joked with a proud smile.

“Nah, not at this point, I don’t think,” Dinky giggled, “I’m sure you’d have noticed me moping by now if I did poorly.”

“By ‘poorly’ you mean like… a B, right?” Derpy continued to tease.

Dinky just shrugged and went back to her food with a grin. There was a long pause in the conversation before she brought up, “So I talked a bit to miss Cheerilee.”

“About?” Derpy started to ask, but the context reached her quickly, “Oh, college stuff? Yeah, how’d that go?”

“She’s pretty sure I could get into CU if I wanted,” Dinky reported with just a hint of sadness to her tone, “We talked a little about financial aid and stuff, but…”

Derpy bit down on her lip, “Canterlot… it’s a good school. I- I’m sure if they let you in, we could make it happen.”

“It’s an expensive school, is what you mean,” Dinky smiled weakly, “I was thinking… if I do get accepted there, I could probably use that for leverage somehow to get into some other uni. You know, ‘Hey, I’m smart enough CU wants me, what’s your offer?’”

With a sad grin, Derpy replied, “Dinky… come on, you deserve the best. I’m sure I’ll make ends meet.”

“But I don’t want you to have to,” Dinky retorted, “Don’t make yourself go broke just so I can get a fancy degree.”

Derpy wanted to object, but the words caught in her throat. She knew a private university like that was way out of their budget, but… she sighed and shook her head.

There was a long silence at the table, the two of them both just stick with their minds running in circles for ideas. Some things were just… out of their grasp, though. Derpy sighed deeply as she finished her food, but Dinky reached forward to take her hoof comfortingly. Derpy forced a smile and stood, taking both of their empty plates and heading off to set them in the sink.

On the way out of the room, she spotted that envelope on a counter. Blinking a bit, Derpy realized she’d forgotten all about it through her lazy day. After setting down the plates, she grabbed the letter and looked around for Dinky again, who had made her way to the couch.

Dinky watched her mom walk into the room curiously, “What’s the envelope?”

Derpy just looked down at it and flopped down on the couch beside her daughter, “Dunno, haven’t opened it yet.”

Casually lighting her horn, Dinky cleanly slitted the top edge of the envelope, “There ya go.”

Derpy smiled and nodded, knowing that would have taken her far longer to pull off, and pulled out the piece of paper inside. Oddly enough, it looked like a bank statement. She opened up the folded piece of paper and looked at it for just a second before dropping it and covering her mouth.

“W-what happened?” Dinky sat abruptly upright, picking up the paper in her magic and looking at it herself.

Derpy just laughed once, the shock of it too much for her.

Dinky just stared at the sheet blankly, “Wait, you have a college savings account for me?”

“Nope,” Derpy replied with a smile, tears welling into her eyes.

Dinky just gestured at the name on the holder’s line. ‘Parent of Dinky Hooves’

Derpy took her hoof and slid it down to the line that read ‘Current Balance.’

Dinky dropped the paper as well.

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Will this ever be continued?

[PaulAsaran]

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