The Art of Bubbles and Waiting

“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.