Derpy put the last letters from her bag into the last mailbox for the day. Sighing, she turned to fly away. It had been another long day of flying into things, deciding to walk, and delivering mail. She crouched to take off.
“Wait!” Derpy fell over in surprise. A brown stallion trotted out from the house, carrying a small box. “I wanted you to have this.” He reached Derpy and slid the box onto the ground. She poked at it curiously, but didn’t open it.
“What is it?” she asked, tilting her head.
“Well, Pinkie Pie got sick for once, so she missed you moving in. It’s a cake. It’s not a very large one, but I’ve only seen you with one other pony, so I didn’t want to get one that was too big…” the stallion trailed off. “Oh, by the way, my name is Doctor Whooves, but I just go by Doctor.” He stuck out his hoof suddenly. Derpy flinched.
“Um, my name is Derpy.” She slowly put out her hoof.
“That’s a lovely name, Ms. Derpy. Who’s the filly I’ve seen you with?”
Derpy’s face lit up. “She’s my daughter. Her name is Dinky.” Derpy cut off awkwardly with a large smile. Rather than note the awkwardness, the stallion smiled back.
“Well, I would love to meet her sometime. Feel free to stop by any time! Mealtimes, too. I always have a stash of snacks if Dinky gets hungry. Or you of course,” the Doctor laughed. Derpy smiled back, but wasn’t sure about going to anyone’s house yet. She thanked the Doctor, took off shakily, and headed for home. She finally met someone in Ponyville. He seemed nice enough, but it felt like people out in the country noticed her eyes more. Shopkeepers would look at her for a moment before she bought things and Dinky said ponies talked about her in school. She said she would’ve beat them up, but the fillies and colts liked her eyes. Derpy was just glad Dinky wasn’t getting into fights.
As Derpy opened the front door, a filly's voice echoed out. “HAY I know what we should do!” the small voice cried. “We could get cutie marks in bear baiting!”
“What’s that supposed ta mean?” a small country voice replied.
“It has bears, so I bet it’s cool. I bet Rainbow Dash-”
“Um, guys?” Dinky’s voice finally cut through the excited fillies’ dialogue. “Maybe we should ask my mom before we bring bears in the house…”
Derpy rounded the corner into the kitchen to find a group of fillies wearing capes sitting around a diminishing pile of crackers. She smiled to see Dinky with friends already. “I brought cake.”
Suddenly she was surrounded by the fillies. Somepony asked if it was rainbow cake, some pony said they really liked her eyes, and she eventually made it to the table where she pulled out the cake. On the top “Welcome to Ponyville” was written in rainbow icing. (One of the fillies proceeded to explain rainbow cake was the best cake.) The whole thing was gone when the fillies left.
“How was your day at work?” Dinky settled onto the couch next to her mom. Derpy leaned into her and sighed.
“It was alright. I met a nice stallion who gave us the cake. He said he’d like to meet you.” Dinky looked up with large eyes, not expecting her mother to be talking to anyone.
“So, when am I going to meet him?”
“Oh, I don’t know. I don’t really know him..” The room remained silent for a while as both ponies thought about their day. “How was your day, muffin?”
Dinky grinned. “Great! I’m a member of the Cutie Mark Crusaders and those girls are my new best friends! There are two mean fillies at the school that were picking on me, but they stood up for me. They even took me to see their clubhouse. I think Scootaloo is like us, too. Sweetiebelle is super good at art stuff, so she made me this cape, and Applebloom is super nice and lives on a really neat farm.”
Derpy nodded and smiled, but was falling asleep. She wanted to keep listening to Dinky, but her eyes disagreed. A few minutes later, she felt a small kiss on her head as Dinky slipped off to bed.
“Dinky, pack up all your things.” Derpy burst into Dinky’s room and began dumping her drawers on the floor. Clothing, toys, and pictures of Sparkler spilled out, covering a relatively clean floor. Dinky was already in bed, with her pillow solidly over her head so she couldn’t hear her parents fighting. She looked out from her pillow to inspect the damages from that night. A new bruise on her mother’s side. A hurt hoof.
“Wait, mom, are you bleeding?” Dinky jumped out of her bed and turned her mother’s face to where she could see a cut on her forehead.
“He had a knife tonight. I don’t even know where he got it. I’m getting you out of here. I should have left a long time ago.” Derpy was stuffing the most important things Dinky owned into her school bags. “Get your favorite toy.”
With the bags filled, Derpy put on the bags and went to pack her own things while Dinky looked over her floor. Which toy was her favorite? Many of them were broken, but she had a few toys that were in excellent condition. She dug through the piles with her horn, wishing she had better magic to find it faster. Finally, she found an old stuffed horse. It had three poorly made diamonds on its flank, put on by Sparkler when she was a filly. Yes, if she was leaving, Sparkler was leaving too.
Derpy went quickly through her things, finding reference letters for a new job, her hidden money, and all the clothes she would need. Suddenly tasting blood, she remembered the cut on her head.“It must be bleeding a lot then,” she thought, pausing only long enough to find one of his scarves to tie over her wound. “No blood on my scarves,” she muttered.
She wiped tears from her eyes as she walked back to Dinky’s room. Funny, she didn’t remember them getting there. Dinky was sitting on the middle of her floor, looking at Sparkler’s old doll. The one Sparkler used to make up another life for herself. Derpy felt a sharp pain in her chest knowing she raised Sparkler in this place. Dinky looked up as her mother came in the room, and they walked wordlessly out the front door.
