To Love a Muffin

It was a long and boring school day in Ponyville and a grey filly with a silver mane thought of a way to entertain herself and her purple and white maned pink friend.

"So what do you think her cutie mark is for?" Silver Spoon sort of whispered, gesturing behind herself.

"Who, Dinky? Bubbles from a wand, probably shows how effective her magic is" replied Diamond Tiara at the same not so quite volume.

The two fillies giggled while the pale purple unicorn filly named Dinky Doo with a soft yellow mane and amber eyes sat behind them and tried desperately to focus on what Ms Cheerilee was saying. It was pretty hard for Dinky to ignore the two bullies seeing as Cheerilee was going on about political reforms in the late renaissance era and it was bo~oring.

"I've seen babies with more magical ability than her, the only pony in all of ponyville with worse magic is Sweetie Belle" jeered Diamond Tiara

Deciding she'd heard enough Dinky leaned forward and said "That's pretty rich coming from a couple of earth ponies who can't even pull a cart"

"You got something to say to me Dink" spat Diamond Tiara

"Girls! What is going on here?" interrupted Cheerilee

"Nothing Ms Cheerilee" started Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon before Dinky continued their conversation

"All I got to say is that I've seen earth worms lift more than you" said Dinky bitterly

"Oh yeah? well I've seen pegasi that can fly straight" said Diamond, smirking as she saw Dinky's reaction and knew she'd struck a cord

Before Cheerilee could do anything more Dinky had bucked Diamond halfway across the class room.

"DINKY, MY OFFICE, NOW!" screamed a shocked Cheerilee

"But, But she" stammered Dinky

"NOW!" repeated Cheerilee

***
"Now Dinky" started Cheerilee

"She started it!" shouted Dinky

"I was there, I heard what happened and I know it's not your fault but I think it would be better if you went home for the rest of the day" said Cheerilee before quickly adding "to calm down of course"

In response Dinky merely harrumphed and sat down.

"Is your mother home?" asked Cheerilee

"No she's working 'till the afternoon" replied Dinky

Cheerilee nodded before telling Dinky to stay there and leaving her office. Outside Cheerilee looked around hoping to see someone she could trust. She was in luck as she saw Golden Harvest walking by. She called to her and asked her to fetch Derpy from the post office. After Golden had agreed Cheerilee went back inside and brought Dinky out. The next twenty minutes passed fairly uneventfully; Cheerilee checked in on the class a few times and Dinky claimed she was fine to walk home alone several times.

At the end of the twenty minutes the two ponies were greeted by a grey pegasus with a dull yellow mane and beautiful misaligned amber eyes wearing a blue mail mare's cap. Derpy's eyes moved, each in their own way, from Cheerilee to Dinky and back again with a concerned look on her face. Cheerilee led Derpy into her office and Dinky ran to the door to listen, it was a bit hard to hear through the door but she managed to make out pieces of the story of what happened. The story was followed by some yelling from Derpy that Dinky only caught part of: "I HAD TO BE DRAGGED FROM MY WORK... SOME PRISSY LITTLE... NO MANNERS!" but Dinky got the gist of it. Next came Cheerilee saying something about someone being hard to reach and emergencies then something about social something. Then it was Derpy's turn; "HOW DARE YOU... NOT LETTING... TAKING HER AWAY". Seconds later Derpy burst out Cheerilee’s office to find Dinky sitting innocently on a bench a few meters away.

"Dinky we're going home" said Derpy sternly

"Miss Doo I meant no disrespect" pleaded Cheerilee

However Derpy simply walked away with Dinky by her side and all she received in response was a dirty look.

***
The two walked in silence for a while until Dinky started trying to apologize but when she did Derpy just shushed her and pulled her in close with her wing.

"It's all right muffin, it wasn't your fault" Derpy said softly

"I know but you had to leave work to look after me and..." Dinky trailed off

"I had to leave my work reorganizing the package storage system to take my little muffin home so we can drink hot cocoa and play board games and maybe some arts and crafts" said Derpy with a smile

Dinky giggled a bit and smiled up at her mom "We should bake some muffins, we haven't had any in a while" cheered Dinky

"Maybe" said Derpy with a little less cheer

The two kept walking and chatting until they reached the building which they called home, or at least they called part of the building home. Dinky and Derpy walked in to the lobby of the building and up the stairs to their apartment. In the apartment there was a frayed old couch against one wall in the living room, a kitchen separated from the rest of the room by a breakfast bar and a hallway with three doors; a bathroom, a bedroom and a broom closet.

Once they were inside Dinky ran over and sat on the couch smiling and waiting patiently for her mom to bring her drink. Derpy went to the kitchen and opened the fridge and grabbed the milk carton, as she closed the door she tried not to think about how little else there was in the fridge. In a few minutes Derpy was back in the living room and on the couch with Dinky and two steaming cups of hot cocoa.

"Make sure not to drink it to fast" said Derpy partially to make sure she didn't burn her tongue and partially because they were now out of cocoa

"I know mom" whined Dinky but sure enough a few moments later she'd burnt her tongue which resulted in her sticking it out and trying to check the damage i.e. the cutest thing ever

When they had finished their cocoa Derpy got up and took the arts and crafts tub out of the closet and opened it in the living room.

"We're running out of stuff" observed Dinky

"Well, what do think you can make from what we have?" asked Derpy

Dinky put her hoof to her chin and seemed deep in thought for a few moments while Derpy assumed an excited and expectant position. After a few moments Dinky raised her hoof and called "EUREKA!"

"What have you thought of o' great and wise Dinky Doo" said Derpy who was gripped with the suspense

"You know how were different because you're a pegasus and I'm a unicorn" said Dinky as she started pulling stuff out of the tub

"Eeyup" said Derpy curiously

"Well" Dinky said as she continued to fiddle with the feathers and tape

When she finished Dinky tied a rope around her middle that had two large feathers taped to it then levitated a paper cone and taped it to Derpy's forehead then proclaimed "Now we're not so different because now we're both ALICORNS"

"Yaaaaaay" cheered Derpy while clapping her hooves together "That means we're both Princesses"

"Then we're going to need crowns" said Dinky "We should make each other's"

"Yeah" agreed Derpy

They both grabbed what they could from the tub and began working on the others crown. At the end of ten minutes they both turned to each other with their work behind their backs. On the count of three the both pulled out their creations; Derpy's was a crude recreation of Celestia's crown (as good as you can get with hooves) and Dinky's was a crown/muffin hybrid, crown enough to sit on your head and look regal, muffin enough to be perfect for her mom. The two swapped crowns and said simultaneously proclaimed "It's perfect!". After a brief fit of giggles from both of them Derpy stood up on four hooves and set herself in an imposing stance (the effect was kind of broken by her crown being a muffin, her eyes and the grin fighting to break free on her lips).

"As my first royal decree I, Princess Derpy Doo, hereby declare free muffins for everypony" regally stated Princess Derpy her muffinness to be greeted by the thunderous applause of the assembled ponies of equestria

"And as my first royal decree I, Princess Dinky Doo, hereby declare free warm milk to wash down the muffins" regally stated Princess Dinky her cuteness to yet more applause from the adoring crowd

The two ponies looked at each other before collapsing into laughter. When Derpy opened her eyes after a few moments laughing she stopped and instead just smiled as she saw her little filly laughing too hard to stand up. This was one of those moments the really made Derpy regret selling her camera, she already had a few pictures of Dinky but every time she saw her laugh giggle or even smile she thought it was a picture perfect moment that she wanted to remember forever.

When Dinky finally recovered from her laughter she asked if they could play monopony so Derpy got it out from the closet and they played for hours, if only real money came so easily. Eventually Dinky won and Derpy was shocked to see that it was half an hour till Dinky's bedtime. Derpy ran to the bathroom and begun drawing a bath, meanwhile Dinky took a quick peek in the kitchen.

"Mom!" Dinky called

"What is it muffin" Derpy called back

"You left the stove on" Dinky called back

"Oh sweet Celestia no" Derpy gasped

Derpy ran to the kitchen and to turned the stove off, not able to stop thinking about how she'd turned it on to make hot cocoa five hours ago and about what their next bill was going to look like. With that settled she led Dinky off to the bathroom were the bath was almost half full perfect for a filly Dinky's size.

"MOM, WAIT!" screamed Dinky as her Derpy lifted her to put her in the bath

"What is it muffin?" asked Derpy putting her back down

Dinky panted a bit, her heart was racing after that scare. How had her mom not noticed the massive cloud of steam rising from the bath? Dinky didn't know what to say so instead she just looked at her mom and Derpy, a bit worried by how scared her little muffin was, looked in the bath, immediately getting a face full of steam. Derpy could have face hoofed, in fact she did. Derpy reached her hoof to the water to pull out the plugged but was stopped by a protest from Dinky who stood up, just peaking over the edge, levitated the plug out of the bath. Derpy face hoofed again; she had just been about to put her hoof into scolding hot water to pull put a plug that she could never pick up first time and as the water drained she could only think of how much half a bathtub of hot water costs.

Derpy turned the taps back on and told Dinky to stay still while she started preparing dinner. Dinky looked at how the taps were now and saw that her mom had gotten the taps confused again. Dinky adjusted the taps to how she had seen her mom do them properly before and waited. Just as the tub was getting half full Derpy re-entered the bathroom and, checking the water first, lifted Dinky in before stepping in herself and turning the taps off. Dinky always enjoyed bath times with her mom and she expected this one to be better than the others considering it was after a day of laughing and playing games however when Dinky looked up at her mom who had begun to clean her she noticed Derpy looked a bit sad.

"What's wrong mom?" asked Dinky

"Nothing muffin" lied Derpy

"Is it about the stove or the bath because you shouldn't worry about those, everypony makes mistakes" Dinky said trying to comfort her mom

Derpy smiled a bit at that statement; how innocent a young filly's views could be, unburdened by the thoughts of financial limitations. In a perfect example of Derpy's thoughts: Dinky took her mom's smile as her accepting her message and smiled. The smile growing on Dinky's face was soon helped along by a generous watering courtesy of a splash from Derpy however Dinky wasn't going to take this assault lying down and quickly returned fire (or rather in this case water). The two giants raged and battled in the ocean, summoning tidal waves with flicks of their hooves to send at the other. When the larger giant decided enough time had passed she lifted the smaller giant out of the writhing seas and set her down on land before draining the water, dooming the small boat that had weathered the storm to a land-locked fate.

The two mares walked back to the living room where Derpy finished preparing a small salad for the two of them. When they had finished Derpy went around the apartment checking everything was secured and Dinky followed her double checking everything i.e. the front door, the stove and the taps in the bathroom. Then they went to their bedroom and got into bed (a mattress on the floor with a thick blanket).

"Hey mom" Dinky said as the got comfortable in their bed

"Yes muffin" replied Derpy

"Why are Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon so mean to me all the time?" asked Dinky

"I guess some ponies are just like that but for their sake I hope they grow out of it" answered Derpy "Wait, what do you mean 'all the time'?"

"Nothing" said Dinky suddenly regretting bringing it up

Derpy simply looked at Dinky with a concerned face.

"Night mom" Dinky said before quickly burying her face in her mother's fur

Derpy wrapped her forelegs around Dinky and sang her a lullaby:

Don't be so sad

Don't let them get you down

Whenever you feel bad

Remember not to frown

Just come to me little one

We'll have so much fun

We'll dance and sing and eat and cheer

So don't have any fear

If you ever feel like letting no one in

Know that that will never do

Because you're my little muffin

And I love you

"Thanks mom" said Dinky softly

Derpy said goodnight as she kissed Dinky's forehead and hugged her close before they both drifted off to sleep.