A home
[Intro]
It was a beautiful day in Equestria—Celestia's sun high in the sky, the birds singing, the flowers blooming—and one grey pegasus mare with a bubble cutie mark and a bubbly personality was on her way from Cloudsdale to Ponyville.
Today was a big day for Derpy. She would finally be moving to the sleepy town called "Ponyville" and begin a new chapter in her life. She was eager to meet new ponies, make new friends... maybe even fall in love. She had many ideas what to do and what she wanted to see in this sleepy little town.
First stop would be the bakery she heard about. She didn't know exactly where it was located, but the rich decoration on the shop called "Sugarcube Corner" was a good indication that she was in the right place. When she walked in, she was immediately greeted by an earth pony mare with pink fur and pink fluffle hair. Also, Pinkie Pie was there too.
Pinkie Pie, standing behind the register that day, recognized that she was looking at a pony she never saw before.
"Welcome to Sugarcube Corner!" Pinkie smiled brightly. "You must be new here, yes? I mean, I know everypony in town and I don't know you, so you. Must. Be. New." Her smile spread across her entire face and she added, "I would like totally organize a party for you, but... I can't leave til work is done. We'll see that you get your surprise party later... Wait, now I said it, so it won't be a surprise anymore, right?"
Finally Derpy got her chance to talk. "Actually, I'm here to buy some muffins. I will be moving to Ponyville today, so there will be plenty of time for us to celebrate—Also, my name is Derpy Hooves, nice to meet you."
"Oh, right," Pinkie said, sounding a bit embarrassed. "Introduction... I forgot, sorry. I'm Pinkie Pie, welcome to Ponyville."
After carefully choosing what muffin to buy—the selection fell on blueberry—Derpy parted from Pinkie with the words "Oh, and for the party, I still can pretend to be surprised, if that helps." The two mares gave a short giggle at each other and Derpy was on her way to her soon-to-be new home.
[New Home]
Derpy did not use her wings to find her new home with a pegasus eye view. Instead she took her time, trotting through the streets. The weather was perfect and she had time to take a look at the town where she would work as the new mailmare, delivering letters and boxes to everypony around.
The big moment came around, the time she was waiting for: she was standing right in front of her new home. The key turned inside the lock and the door sprung open. The new chapter of her life was about to begin.
Empty rooms looking at her and she was already imagining a place for all of her furniture. Then she noticed it really was a lot of room—she even had a basement. (You can imagine how that would be something special for a mare from Cloudsdale, right?)
Suddenly she heard a sound—one of hooves trying to be as quiet as possible. Then she realized in what condition some of the rooms were. Old newspapers on the floor, a mountain of dirty clothing, old furniture all around and the windows covered with curtains... something was off.
There it was again! A weird sound: A sneeze from one of the rooms. She carefully closed in on said room, grabbing the next best thing to use as a weapon—you never know who might be here. There was a shadow right in front of her. Instantly, she brought down whatever she had in her hoof... and noticed two things.
[You and Me]
...First: the shadowy figure was a young, dirty, scared-looking little unicorn filly. Second: She just pinned a muffin on the unicorn's horn... Blueberry jam ran down the unicorn filly's head. She honestly didn't know what to do.
Derpy was embarrassed beyond reason. Being afraid of a small unicorn filly? She carefully took the muffin from the filly's head. She couldn't even put it back in her saddlebag before the filly had already instinctively taken a bite of the muffin.
Noew the grey pegasus mare fully understood the state of affairs. This little unicorn filly was homeless. She was probably using this empty house to not be forced to sleep on the street, but now... She had somepony to share a meal with. She ended up giving most of the muffins to the little filly, but the one muffin Derpy did eat was, in fact, the best thing she ate in her entire life.
"Where are your parents?" Derpy began to ask after their shared dinner.
"What are parents?" the filly answered, confused.
This was wrong. The mare did her good deed for today, but she knew deep inside... "I could do more. I should do more...I WILL do more."
Derpy was searching for words... After twenty awfully long seconds of silence she said, "What would you say to us living here together?"
The filly's eyes began to sparkle. "Really?"
"I will take care of you." Derpy replied. "I will be there for you."
Finally the grey mare said, "I didn't catch your name, what is it?"
"I don't know." The filly hung her head.
Derpy gave it a second of thought. "Dinky will do, right?"
The filly's eyes filled with hope. "Dinky Do?"
Derpy smiled at her. "Yes. Dinky Do."
[Epilogue]
It took the rest of the day for the two ponies to clean the house and give Dinky a bath. The furniture arrived in the afternoon and the two were pretty occupied with furnishing the rooms, by which I mean Derpy moved furniture and Dinky used her unicorn magic to decorate it. It was just as Derpy imagined when she checked out the rooms—just as she imagined, plus one bedroom for a filly.
In the evening somepony knocked at the door. "Visitors? So soon?" Derpy thought to herself as she and Dinky went to greet their guest.
It was Pinkie Pie. "I know you're tired and all, so we'll have your surprise move to Ponyville party tomorrow, okay?" the pink party pony began, when she suddenly noticed the little unicorn filly. "Oooh another new pony? Who is she?"
To which the grey mare replied,
"This is Dinky Do, my daughter. I am her mother."