"Again!" Twilight barked, towering above the small wisteria adolescent. The princess whipped her tail and narrowed her eyes, circling Dinky as she performed the self-levitation spell. Twi didn't always enjoy using what she nicknamed the Tempest-method, but she knew what she had to do to unlock all her student's potential, and Dinky was the hardest to crack. Her self-doubt limited herself, and her mind was always in two places, though Twilight had yet to learn where the second place was. "Come on, Dinky! You're too shaky, any higher and you'll hurt yourself."
"S-Sorry, Miss Sparkle." Dinky's soft yellow aura faltered and she struggled to right herself.
"Don't apologise to me, Dinky. Calm and empty your mind," Twilight sighed, righting the filly and sitting before her. She settled her wings into a comfortable position and watched as Dinky struggled more and more, as she screwed up her face more and more. "The more effort you try to put into this, the heavier you'll find yourself." She felt as though she'd said that sentence more in the past few weeks than she'd expected.
Eventually, though, 6 o'clock rolled around and Twilight had dropped her tough-love act and returned to her usual kindness. She sat with the 12-year-old snacking on dragon-made cookies. "Dinky, my dear, you really need to learn to let go of whatever's troubling you. You have too much of burden to master the level of spells you want to achieve." She ruffled Dinky's mane and smiled gently.
Dinky avoided her eyes and just nibbled on the chocolate chip cookies available to her. She glanced at the owl themed clock, searching for a different conversation path. "Ame's running later than usual..." She noted. "Bet she's 'catching up' at the flower stall," The two mares chuckled and agreed before a knock at the door captured both their attention. They rose from the cushions and headed towards the entrance. The door-pony had already opened the great crystalline doors and allowed in the guest, who had made an attempt to converse with the uppity stallion.
"Mom?" Dinky had been caught off guard to see the grey pegasus, wrapped up in her mail uniform.
"Ah! My little Dinky," Derpy trotted over to her daughter to steal her up in a great hug, overly affectionate as always. After finally releasing her, she turned to the famed princess. "Your Highness," She gave a wobbly bow, grinning up at Twilight. "Or is it Majesty? I can never tell."
"Neither can I, if I'm being honest," Twilight laughed, reaching out her hand. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Mrs Hooves." She held a little uncertainty in the title, testing the waters.
"Miss, actually." Derpy happily shook her hand, looking the larger purple mare up and down. "Though, you may call me Derpy."
"Mom!" Dinky groaned, quickly shuffling towards the door. "What are you even doing here? I thought your shift wasn't over for another hour," Her mother explained that she had wanted to speak to her tutor about her progress, to be sure her bits were in the right place.
"She's amazing, Miss Hooves, so much power there. It's just the technical detail she's missing, to channel unicorn magic at a university standard requires concentration, which Dinky lacks. She's distracted and thinks she's weaker than she is. I'm limited in my time, so it's tougher for me to crack, perhaps you or Amethyst could try to help?" Derpy nodded thoughtfully throughout, flicking her golden eyes over to her daughter.
"I'll try, thank you, Princes-."
"Twilight, please," Twi interjected, resettling her wings.
"Thank you, Twilight," The tall alicorn had never been a victim of what Rainbow Dash had told her was a wing-boner, but hearing the older mare's voice speak her name, the way it was almost purred, but also innocent in a way, she found herself struggling to keep the feathery appendages under control. But what she couldn't control was the dark blush forming on her cheeks. Derpy smiled teasingly, seeing how the princess floundered in the face of what could hardly be called flirting and returned to her daughter's side, who gripped her hand immediately. They left the castle, and Dinky chastised her mother for reducing her tutor to a ball of feathers, Derpy just laughed but did not deny what she had done.
With each session of tutoring Dinky received, she was now being picked up by her mother, and not her older sister. With each session, Derpy teased and flirted with the almost oblivious princess. With each session, Twilight found herself looking forward to the end more and more. Her teaching style ended up softening a little, despite Dinky's frustration increasing, and everyone around her noticed a distraction had taken a hold of her mind.
Starlight had especially noticed, seeing the way Derpy and Twilight interacted after returning from a shopping trip at the same time. She unpacked in the kitchen - refusing help from the staff - and intently listened to the doors closing and Twilight's distinctive hoof-steps. As soon as she heard it, she teleported back to Twilight, leaving a good portion of shopping left over. The kitchen maid - a 19-year-old earth pony named Velvet Chaser - was used to this, however, and without complaint, began to unpack the rest.
"Twilight!" Starlight grabbed onto the shoulders of her startled former teacher - now castle-mate - to keep her from fleeing.
"Star!" Twilight would be putting it lightly if she said she was taken aback by the sudden appearance by the unicorn. "What... What are you doing?"
"We need to talk." Starlight grinned, almost shaking with excitement. She'd never taken part in gossip like other mares did with their friends, but she now understood the appeal, plus she needed a distraction from moping about her best friend's sudden disappearance.
"About..?" Twilight released herself from the not-so-strong grip, remembering she was no longer the athletically challenged unicorn anymore.
"Your love life, or the potential for one. Or, the astounding lack of one?" She almost yelled going a million words a minuted. At Twilight's confused face, she shook her head and tried again. "Your crush on the mailmare!" Twilight had barely processed the words but was immediately denying it, sputtering and shaking her head.
"Wh-What? I d-don't..."
"Hush up, yes you do. And since I know you're a useless excuse for a pony-" Twilight opened her mouth to retort but instead was flicked on the nose like a dog. "I shall help you." To Twilight, Starlight looked like a proud bird with the way she was sticking out her chest and grinning. "Go call her and set up a date, just a day and time, and I'll sort out everything else.
So Twilight obediently went to the landline and dialled the number listed as Derpy's on Dinky's student file. "Uh, ahem, hello Miss Hoo- Derpy..." She stammered awkwardly. It seemed both ponies on either end of the line were taken aback by the call, and their respective supporting purple unicorns (Starlight for Twilight, and Amethyst for Derpy) cringed as the listened to the conversation, but despite this, a date was set up, and now all they had to do was show up.
Author's Note
Okay, so, an (I feel) underappreciated ship in this fandom is Twilight Sparkle and Derpy Hooves, and since they are a couple in my Next Gen AU, I thought I'd write their story since I enjoy it immensely.