Dinky Hooves's New Friend

by pjabrony

Chapter 3 - Swingset

Derpy was looking at another mess in her kitchen, and thought to herself that after she put Dinky down to bed, she would have a good hour of cleaning two rooms before she could lay down herself. She hoped delivery work would be light tomorrow.

Dinky was finishing the last crumbs of a chocolate-chip muffin which she had devoured with relish (not the condiment.) She looked up and said, “So the next time I see Suzie, I want to show her my blow-up swimming pool, or—no, that’ll be too heavy to bring. My kite! We can take turns flying it!” Dinky liked kite flying, though more than half the time it was her mother holding up the kite.

“Do you know when you’ll see her again?”

“Huh? No, she left so soon, I didn’t get a chance to ask when she’s coming back. OK, I’ll just go to the park every day until I see her!”

“You can stop on your way home from school if you like, but you know that when the big clock chimes three, you come right home, got it?”

“OK, Mommy. But what if Suzie comes at four?”

“Then you hope she’s a slow walker so she has to start an hour early and you see her trotting up.”

******

Suzie had steeled her courage as she went into her mother’s sitting room to kiss her goodnight.

“Mo. . . Dam, may I go to the park again tomorrow?”

“Suzanna, you know tomorrow you have polo practice.”

“Oh, right. How about Tuesday then?”

“Tuesday is Filly Scouts.”

“Then—“

“Wednesday is your religion class. You can’t miss that, you’re making your Celestial Communion this year. And Thursday is more polo practice, you have a big match on Saturday against Cloppington.”

“Friday is free.”

“Friday I’ve got a dinner to go to. You can’t expect me to run you around every day of the week. Don’t be selfish, now.”

Suzie thought to herself that she’d like to be as unselfish as she could by giving up all of the activities mentioned, but she had said yes to every one when offered, and she liked doing dressage.

“I could go on my own then.”

“At your age? Forget it! I’d be so worried about you I wouldn’t enjoy myself at all.”

“Well, what if the match Saturday is rained out?”

Inkara didn’t wear glasses, but if she did she would have nodded her head down to look over the rims at her filly.

“First, if your match were rained out, the park would be too. Second, why would the pegasi schedule a rainstorm when little kids are playing polo?”

“Maybe they want to see water polo!”

Inkara realized her daughter wasn’t leaving. “All right, here’s what I’ll do. Next Sunday I’ll take an earlier salon appointment, if I can get one, and after that we can go for a half hour. And only on the swings, slide, and carousel! I’m not going through what we did again today!”

“That’s fine, Mom! I love you, good night!” She kissed her mother and galloped off to bed.

The gray pony sighed. She had the prime appointment slot and giving it away gave the other mares a chance to swoop in and take it. She hoped that by the end of the week Suzie would forget about going.

******

But Suzie did not forget. Every day of that week, in school and in her activities, she kept looking forward to going to the park. She hoped that Dinky would be there, but even if not, Suzie could go down the slide or play on the swings as she liked, without it being a practice or a meeting or having any kind of structure.

Dinky of course knew none of this. She went every day after school, but most other foals her age were in activities just as Suzie was, so all she could do was play on the equipment and wait. Sliding soon paled, swinging wasn’t really fun without her mother to push her, and she wasn’t strong enough to go across the monkey bars yet. But for six days straight she went after school until the clock struck three, then hurried home as instructed.

On the next Sunday, Derpy had no need to spur the little one to hurry with her things. Dinky seemed to be ready as soon as the sun rose, and as it peaked in the sky they arrived. Mother pushed daughter on the swings again for a while, then was about to go for her flight when she paused and turned back.

“Little Muffin, do you like coming here? Do you want to join some club so you can learn a sport or some such?”

“The playground’s swell. I wish they would put in some new stuff, but I always have fun.”

Derpy took off, somewhat relieved. If she had gotten a different answer, it would have been difficult to find the time and the money to sign Dinky up, though she would have found a way. But, she thought, it was easier to just spend the time they had together on simple things.

Suzie and her mother came trotting into the park while Dinky gave the slide another go. Suzie broke into a gallop as she saw her friend and arrived as Dinky came down, putting them face to face.

“Hey, you’re back!” said Dinky.

“Yep! I had to convince my mom, but she finally said yes.”

“Want to finish the game from last time?”

“My mom said I could come only if I don’t get dirty.”

“OK, want to do the slide then?

“How about the swings? Those are fun.”

Inkara had caught up and joined the two of them. She stood behind her filly and looked down at Dinky.

“So, you’re the friend Suzie has mentioned, Dinky is it?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“And where are your parents?”

“My mommy went off for a bit to play by herself.”

“Great,” Inkara muttered to herself. “Irresponsible mare dashes off and leaves her brat here for me to give free babysitting to.”

Dinky turned back to Suzie. “Since your mom’s here, she can push us on the swings. I’ve never been pushed by an Earth pony before. You’re all super-strong, right? I bet she can even push us over the bar!”

“Mother never pushes me. I always just swing myself.”

“You can do that?”

“Yeah, come on, I’ll show you!”

They ran off to the swingset and Inkara kept talking under her breath. “Expects me to push her on the swings, as if I have nothing better to do.” She went to have a seat where she could keep an eye on the two of them.

“So, put your belly on the swing, and then push off of the ground to start yourself,” said Suzie, getting into one swing as she described.

Dinky climbed on the next swing over, then flailed her legs. “I’m too short! I always just run and jump into the swing.”

“That can work too, but once you get going, pump your forelegs when you go forward.” She wasn’t too much taller than the unicorn, but she could get enough of a hoof on the ground to start herself, and then demonstrated the technique.

“OK, I’ll try,” said Dinky, and she leaped into the swing, then seemed to start dancing wildly. The swing twisted left and right, and came to a stop quickly after. “It’s not working!”

“Don’t swing each leg on its own. Do both.”

“I don’t get it.”

“Forget the legs then. Just put all your weight forward when swinging down, and then bring it back to center going up.”

Dinky got off, waited for the swing to come to a stop, then jumped in again. She leaned forward, and though she felt like she was losing her balance, held on until she swung back, and kept going. She was losing momentum with each pass.

“I’m still slowing up, but it’s longer than I’ve ever lasted without mommy pushing!”

“It takes practice, and when you get taller you can always use the ground to cheat. Or you’ll learn to magic yourself into swinging.”

******

Derpy circled overhead and noticed three tiny bodies interacting in the park. Correctly guessing that the other on the swing was Dinky’s friend, she glided down to a landing and trotted over to the young ponies.

“Hi, little muffin! Having fun?”

“Sure am! Suzie’s showing me how to swing without being pushed. Suzie, this is my mommy.”

“Pleased to make your acquaintance, Mrs. Hooves,” said Suzie.

“How polite you are. It’s very nice to meet you, Miss Pie.”

Suzie was staring at Derpy’s face. Derpy looked quizzical. “Is something wrong?”

“Your eyes go all funny!”

Derpy was thrown off at first, but then found the child’s honesty refreshing. Most ponies she met went out of their way not to mention it, but didn’t look at her too much either.

“Yeah, I suppose they do.”

Inkara got up and joined the others. “Ah, you’re the little unicorn’s mother. She was all alone when we got here.”

“I know, she’s so glad that her friend came back.”

Derpy had not picked up the full meaning of what the gray mare had said. She tried to be a bit less subtle.

“Aren’t you worried about leaving her by herself?”

Derpy looked around the park. “Not really, ever since they put in sawdust under the slide and monkey bars, you can’t really fall and hurt yourself too much.”

Inkara gave up. Clearly, she thought, the other mother was not very responsible or intelligent, as her eyes indicated. She looked away and again spoke under her breath. “Typical pegasus parent.”

Derpy, perhaps because of her eyes, had excellent hearing. “What’s that you said?!”

“I said. . . Pretty good weather for us. . . ain’t it?”

“Yes, it’s quite so. The weather pegasi sure do good work.”

Dinky picked up on her mother’s rising temper and decided to vacate the conversation before it could be deflected to her. “C’mon, Suzie, let’s practice swinging more!”

The two fillies sped off. Their mothers returned to their vantage point, Inkara staring to make sure nothing went wrong, Derpy just glad to see her little one so happy.

Inkara decided to try to engage the blonde pegasus again. “So, do you work the sky?”

“I sure do!”

“Do you happen to know if there are any storms scheduled for this week.”

“Nope! Never much pay attention to the weather ahead of time, just let it hit me.”

“But you’re a weather pegasus.”

“Huh? I’m a mailpony.”

“But you said you worked the sky.”

“And I work it hard, pushing it this way and that to get all the letters delivered. I clock an awful lot of mileage, I’ll tell you.”

Derpy was definitely not her first choice of conversational partner, but there was little else to do, so after a few minutes during which Derpy just rocked on her haunches and sang to herself, Inkara tried again.

“I’m a rock farmer myself.”

“Yeah? I don’t think we had any rock farms where I grew up in Cloudsdale. Good thing too, for anyone walking below.”

Inkara decided she would put up with the boredom and singing and resolved not to speak again. She turned back to the girls and watched them closely for several more minutes. She was about to shout to Suzie not to go too high, when Derpy spoke to her.

“So is Suzie going to be here every Sunday? My little Dinky’s so happy to have her as a BFFFF.”

“Bee-eff-eff-eff-eff?”

“You never said that when you were young? It means best filly friend forev-fer.”

“I suppose we can come regularly if nothing interferes on my schedule.” And if I can bring my TrotMan music player so I don’t have to listen to you, she thought, but was careful not to say anything, even in whisper. “I moved my salon appointment to earlier, and I probably won’t get my old time back.”

“Salon appointment every week, huh?”

“Oh yes, wouldn’t miss it,” she said, throwing her head so that Derpy could be impressed by how shiny her mane was.

“I wouldn’t think that salon workers needed farmed rocks so often, but like I said, I’ve never been on a rock farm.”

Was there no end to this pony’s non sequiturs?! Inkara decided that enough was enough.

“Suzanna! Let’s go, I don’t want to be late.”

Suzie turned to Dinky. “I’d better not dawdle. You can keep practicing swinging though. You’re getting good.”

“OK, Suzie, it was good to see you again! Come back soon!”

Inkara headed over and nudged her filly along. She placed her own body between Suzie and Derpy as if to make sure that Suzie didn’t catch the derp.

“I guess we’ll see you next week.”

“We’ll be looking forward to it.”

And they trotted off. Derpy went over to her little one. “OK, muffin, you ready for me to push you?”

“Actually, Suzie showed me a way you don’t have to. I want to keep practicing.”

“Oh. All right. I’ll just watch then.”

She stood behind and watched Dinky try time and again to get the pumping technique down. Several times she was tempted to spread her wings and give a little push, but she was afraid that her daughter would know.

Dinky seemed to have limitless energy. She kept on jumping in and trying hard, and the swing eventually seemed to give her a little more time in the saddle before stopping entirely. She worked until the sun was low in the sky.

“Come on, my little muffin, time to go home.”

“OK, mommy.”

They headed for home at a slow trot. It seemed to Derpy that Dinky had something on her mind, but said nothing.

About halfway back, as the red sun set behind her, Dinky turned to her mother and said, “Mommy?”

“Yes, dear?”

“Why do your eyes go funny?”

Derpy knew the question would come someday, though she held out slight hope that it never would. She had the vague outlines of an answer prepared, and she stopped her trot and faced her daughter full on.

“They do that for you, Dinky.”

“For me?”

“Yes. You see, every parent has two jobs. One job is to protect their little foals and make sure they’re safe. But the other job is to make sure they grow up to be big ponies. For a lot of foals, the daddy will do one job and the mommy will do the other. But I have to do both with you, and my eyes help me. Whenever I look at you, my left eye sees a little filly wrapped in a blanket that’s crying out for me to hold her, and my right eye sees a beautiful grown-up mare, a unicorn with a horn a foot long, who knows all her magic and can do anything she puts her mind to. Sometimes you get hurt and cry, and I close my right eye and only see the tiny filly, and then I know just how to make it better. But other times you tell me that you want to do something on your own, and then I close my left eye and see the big unicorn, and I know that I have to let her do as she says.”

She turned back and started walking slowly home. Dinky followed

“Once in a while I even see that mare with a little colt or filly of her own, and when that happens it’ll be important for you to know the two jobs. Your eyes work different from mine, but if you look hard enough you’ll see the foal and the full-grown pony, and you’ll see them with both eyes. And you’ll never see anything else so lovely.”

Comments

[Trinary]

D'aaaaaaaw. Derpy's explanation was so adorable! She is the best mom EVER!

[Delicious]

209086
I approve of this comment!

[PonyofTacos]

D'aaaawwwww!!! PINKIE Y U NO GET UR SISTER TO LOOSEN UP?

[EpicGuy]

Aww. I think my heart exploded at Derpy's eye speech.

[Zaehlas]

The ending of this chapter.. epic. So touching.

[pjabrony]

911948

Thanks. I think that speech is one of the best things I've written.