Corrosion

"Where are you taking me to...? I thought we were going... h-home..."

"There's something I need you to see," replied, almost immediately, the pegasus.

They walked down the road from the hospital, in direction to the town hall. The color of the sunset plagued everything in sight, filling it with a nostalgic value as the both of them remember the recently demised pony.
Raindrops stopped in her tracks suddenly with her eyes lost in the wide skies.

"Are you alright?" asked the filly after a while. Raindrops herself seemed to be out of her self, completely stationary.

"Dinky..." she said slowly.

"Y-yes?"

"Do you fit... in this bag...?"

The unicorn filly lowered her gaze towards the aforementioned object: a bag that was usually filled with letters, but now was completely empty. Had she planned this?

"Ah... I think... w-why...?"
The yellow-coated mare left out a sigh, closing her eyes for a moment.

"I need you to... enter it."
Before Dinky could answer, she continued talking:
"I've heard your mother say that she had always wanted to take you and fly with you some day and... I really feel like that it's my duty to make that a reality. Maybe... maybe I'm not her, but, just like she would, I swear I'll give my everything for you. She... she knew that her condition was troubling for a pegasus, let alone a mailmare, but everyday she said that, even when the job seemed daunting and nigh impossible for her, she'd do it all because of you. Many, many times I heard her talk to herself, saying that she would never give up when it was about her daughter..."
When she finished, both of them shared a sorrowful look.

"I'd love to go... with you..." said the filly in a low voice, tears slowly running down her face. "I love... you..."

Raindrops just looked at her, but with a little smile on her face this time. Derpy was right, she thought: Her daughter really is worth all the trouble she was going through.

"And I love you too, sweetie. Now come on, there are many things I want to show you."

And after some shuffling about, Dinky popped her head out of the leather bag as Raindrops extended her wings.

"You'll see such pretty things..."

"A-anything wrong, Miss Raindrops...?"

"Ah, no, nothing... nothing..."

The still fresh air of Cloudsdale flowed through their manes as they flew through it. Raindrops had started with naming the landmarks of the city and explaining what their purpose was, but after some of them, she just stopped.

"I'll just... take you to one more place and then... then we'll go..." said the pegasus, approaching the place that had changed completely since her friend's demise.

After some minutes where the only sound was the flapping of wings, the mare slowed down to a halt in mid-air in front of a building.

"The- the post office?" asked Dinky, feeling a knot in her throat. She remembered her mother saying that she would show her daughter her workplace someday.

Raindrops didn't answer and only left out an almost mute sigh before dropping to the cloud floor with a thud, before walking into the edification.
The doors opened, the building itself unnervingly quiet.

"Your mother gave me a letter a week ago... she said that I had to give it to you when she was gone..."

Dinky stuttered something, puzzled:
"Did mommy know that she would...?"

"No... not at all. She was... going to Canterlot for quite a long time, and she told me to take care of you..."

Jumping outside the leather bag and landing on the ceramic floor, Dinky looked around the place: walls filled with papers going on about the mailing process, together with drawings that ponies had sent. She could recognize some of them, even. Before she could ask Raindrops anything, she directed towards a seemingly random door and just slid inside in silence.
And then she saw it.
There it was, on the wall: her drawing, a drawing of her mother working, a determined grin on her face. It was laying over a desk filled with other papers.

"This is the place where the letters that have been sent to the post office itself end up."

"...Why is my drawing--?"

"She used to look at it everyday. She always said that she... was so proud of you..."

A silence took over the room as Dinky approached the desk in a mute intrigue.

"This letter has my name on it," she announced in a whisper that barely reached Raindrops' ears.

"That's... the one..."

"Can I read it?"

"I'm not forcing you... But if you want, you can take it with you... I'm a little bit tired since I cleared the mailbag all by my own..."

"...I want to read it here."

"Okay, Dinky... I know, I'm struck by all this as well, but I really need you to listen what I'm about to say now."

"My mother wasn't going to leave me, was she!?" asked the filly, desperately. After reading her mother's last letter, she had understood the fact that she was forced to move towards the capital city, to find a better job as a mailmare, and had understood her worries about her daughter back in Ponyville; but when she passed her eyes over the phrases that went on about how long she would be away, there was something in Dinky's head that triggered a reaction of incredulity.

"S-she was just leaving for some months, it isn't that much..." replied the mare after some seconds. All that she wanted was to get Dinky to understand the situation. "Now, please, listen to me..." she continued; only to stop to leave the words sink in. What she was about to say would be difficult.

"The... the..." she muttered, failing to put together the phrase. "The funeral is tomorrow," she bolted out, then, after taking a deep breath.

Silence was the only answer.

"I don't want to hurt you, sweetie, but this is necessary. After that, we'll be a family, together..." she said, her voice quivering. "I'll--"

"Don't worry... we'll... be fine..." mumbled the filly, as she reached the end of the letter. "That's what it says," she finished the phrase, showing the letter to Raindrops.

"But don't worry, we'll be fine, I know it," said the pegasus as she read, leaving out a shy smile.

"...Your mother will never forget you... neither will I..."

"Ah, poor Dinky... how difficult it must be to live through this... a funeral, at her age...? And it's her mother's funeral!? Talk about brutal..." mumbled Raindrops as the filly fell asleep. It seemed like she would adjust pretty fast. "What might have Derpy wanted to say to her daughter...?"

The letter was laying over the desk, opened, the crude and shaky writing inside being literally a trademark of her mother.

"Dear Dinky, my daughter...

I know you don't know this, but I felt it was completely unfair that you wouldn't be able to know, so... I'll tell you anyway.
We, as a family, have been struck with very hard times, and I don't think that working in Ponyville can maintain us anymore. That is the sole reason of why I'm going to Canterlot to seek a new place to work as a mailmare. I would never change my job, since I love it.
...But I don't love it as much as I love you.
Daughter, you're the sunshine of my life. Dawn would mean nothing if it weren't for you. I wouldn't even bother with getting out of bed if you weren't there: because I love you, and I will always do so. I know that I can get mean with you sometimes, but everything I do, I do it for you, and then for me. I don't want for you to grow up like me; I want for you to be the mare that you've always dreamed.

No matter what they tell you, I'll always be there for you, and you know that very well.
You're the willpower for me to keep on going, even when the job is hard for me.
Every morning when I wake up, I ask myself what am I going to do to make your life better. My life isn't that important when compared to yours, after all...

Most of my workmates ask me how does it feel like, to have a daughter that is my reason to keep on doing what I love.
I will always answer the same:
"It's the best feeling I've ever felt."
No amount of words, no amount of actions would even begin to explain how much I care about you. Whenever I'm in doubt, you're there. And I hope that, someday, you'll be able to say the same about your own daughter.

But enough of that, because the tears are staining the paper and the shivers are making it a tad too hard for me to write.
When I part towards Canterlot, which will be in a week or two, I'll leave you with Raindrops. She's my best friend and a great worker, so don't you fret. I think you know her and both of you have a great relationship.
But don't be sad, darling. I don't know very well when will I return, but I promise you it won't be too long. We'll be together again before you even notice, of that I'm sure.

This is actually one of many letters I've written to you, but this is the most important one and the only one I've truly put my heart into. If you ever feel like reading them, ask Raindrops about them. She'll know what you're talking about immediately.

Oh, they're calling us. I think there's a package we need to deliver. My wing is stiff and it hurts a bit... but thinking of you will make me forget any kind of pain.

I love you, Dinky, and that will never change. I know that being away from you will be very difficult, and that's something I'd like to never happen, but don't worry, we'll be fine, I know it.

~D. Hooves."