“Miss Slipcase, you have a young gentlecolt here to visit you. Shall I let them in?”

Slipcase peeked out from behind the massive stack of papers on her desk as she heard the voice of the mayor’s secretary through the intercom. She scrambled to look a bit more put together. The bun she had tossed her mane into had been becoming steadily messier throughout her day and was on its last legs at this point, but she did her best to make it look presentable before she cleared her throat and responded, pressing the button. “Oh yes, of course, please, let them through.”

A few minutes later, through her door trotted the colt in question!

“Hi, Mom!”

Oh yes, her adorable little colt. She smiled warmly at the sight of him, pushing her chair out from behind her desk to get up and walk over to meet him halfway. She threw a leg around his neck and hugged him close, the two of them nuzzling against each other softly before she caught a whiff of-

“‘Nito, is that-”

“Mhm! Dad bought us both one, so I decided to bring you yours before lunch so it wouldn’t be too cold,” He said sweetly as he pulled from the embrace to pull the confection’s paper sack from his saddlebag, presenting it to her happily.

“Oh! Dad says he loves you by the way,” he adds, tacking it on as an afterthought, gently smacking his own head as he remembers he had been asked to relay the message.

“And I love both of you,” she says, taking the bag in her mouth and placing it on the desk behind her before turning back to her son. “I take it you closed the library early again huh? No customers, I presume?”

“Yeah, Dad closed up and took me out back to help me work on my telekinesis. I even got it up a level!” he said with a hint of pride as he placed his hoof on his chest and did a little pose for effect.

She chuckled and gently tousled his hair “Well I am very proud to hear you have been working so hard, honey. Can I see what your stats look like now then?” She asked as she looked down at him approvingly.

At this, a small look of realization crossed his expression, and a look that she as a mother was far too familiar with quickly followed, one of shame. “Oh uh…m-maybe later, I kind of have a friend waiting for me outside. She wanted to hang out with me at the library until you guys got home.”

Although she certainly did not forget what she just saw, what she just said was enough to get her to not pursue it. Her eyes widened a bit and she gave a small smirk “‘Nito! You didn’t tell me you had made a friend!”

“Yeah uh, I met her on the way here. She’s really nice, I’m sure you’d like her,” he said, giving her a brave smile and attempting to mask that expression, but he was not doing a terribly convincing job of it.

She clicked her tongue softly, and he wilted slightly as he caught wind of that glint in her eye. The one that always signifies that they are definitely going to discuss this in detail later. But for now, she seemed content to let him be. “Well, I hope the two of you have fun. Go on ahead and run off now, I have a few more things to do before I head off and have lunch.”

“Thanks, Mom! I love you!” he said quickly, hugging her once more before quickly turning to trot his way out the door.

As it closed behind him, she gave a small sigh and rubbed her head. “What am I going to do with that colt…” she said softly to herself as she turns back to face the monumental task still at hoof. “And what am I going to do with this…” she said with a small groan as she took a seat at her desk once more. Something told her she would be having a late lunch today…

—-----------------

“So Derpy, what do your parents do for a living?”

The two of them were sat on the floor together, both making liberal use of the lovely collection of building blocks the colt had gotten last Hearths Warming while they chatted. Incognito was in the process of building a little fortress, complete with a watchtower.

“Well, I never really got to see my mom a lot, she left when I was really little, but my Dad says she was a salesmare,” she said as she put together what looked to be a sort of blocky, office-building sort of structure. “My daddy is a delivery stallion though. He says when I get old enough, he’ll let me work with him and he’ll teach me all about how to be the best delivery mare in town.”

“Oh! You mean, Mr. Handy?” he asked her, his ears perking a bit at hearing her dad’s profession. There weren’t a lot of mail ponies in Ponyville since it was such a small town, so Handy Hooves stuck out in his mind as the only one who was a stallion amongst them. “Big guy, Brown eyes and coat, blonde mane? Cutie mark of a box?”

“It’s not a box, it’s a package! It’s very different.” She said as though she has said it a thousand times, giving him a playful boop on his nose for his troubles. “But yeah! That’s him.”

“Oh! I always thought he was a pretty cool guy, really friendly and all of that.” Incognito commented, which seemed to satisfy Derpy who nodded in agreement and kept playing with her blocks.

“What about you, ‘Nito? Your mom is the Record Keeper at town hall, and your dad works here, right?”

“Yeah! Well, with Dad it’s less a job and more like, a passion project. The library doesn’t make a lot of money outside of donations, and that mostly goes towards keeping everything up and running. Mom brings home most of the money in the house.” He said, rubbing at one of his arms. “Dad always says that one day when I’m older he hopes I’ll get married and take over looking after the place. ‘Nothing is more important than the pursuit of knowledge, and nothing more important to maintain than the facilities that make it possible!’” the colt finishes, putting on a deeper, gruffer voice in a poor impression of his father.

This managed to get a small titter out of the filly, who flashed him another warm smile. “Well, I’m sure he’s really good at it. I don’t really come here since I don’t read a lot. It’s kind of hard because of…” She says softly, tapping at her eyes and looking a bit down before perking right back up. “But Daddy always reads to me whenever I want, so it’s not so bad!”

Incognito gives her a sympathetic nod. “That’s nice. My dad reads to me sometimes too. He knows lots of cool old stories that no one else around her knows.”

“Really? Wow, no wonder your dad is a librarian, he must be really smart!” She said, sitting up a bit straighter at the prospect of stories. “Maybe If I come by again, you could ask him to tell me some of the stories he knows. I could bring my daddy along and they could be friends just like we are!”

Incognito smiled softly at that. Handy Hooves had come by on more than one occasion, delivering new books and appliances from mail-in catalogs and the like, so his dad was acquainted with them, and they seemed to get along fine when they chatted. And his dad got along with most of the folks in Ponyville so they might already be friends. He nodded at her idea, smiling back at her “You know. That sounds really nice. I’m sure they would be best friends!”

“Yeah, just like us!”

His heart skipped a beat at that statement in a moment of mild panic. He looked up at her confused. “W-wha-?”

“Well, you’re my only friend, so that makes you my best friend, right?” She asked, tilting her head to one side with that same innocent, wall-eyed stare.

He hesitated for a moment, but he couldn’t really refute her logic. After all, he didn’t have any after friends either, so he couldn’t rank her below number one here. “I...yeah. We’re best friends, Derpy,” he said kindly, feeling a small pang of guilt in his chest at the statement. He knew he didn’t deserve to be her friend, let alone her best friend. She deserved somepony who could look out for her, somepony who wouldn’t chicken out when she was getting bullied on the street like some sort of

[Coward]

He thought back to the Accolade and cringed a bit, shaking his head and trying to rid himself of the train of thought. It was ultimately self-defeating and definitely unhealthy to dwell on, and he should try to move past it and do better next time.

Knowing that intellectually was one thing, but acting on it, especially when your emotional and mental maturity are no longer synced, was another entirely, however.

He did his best to not let his hurt show though. Derpy was innocent in this, and as long as she was happy, he didn’t want to drag her down with his problem. She was such a nice filly, and well, if she wanted to be his best friend, he supposed he didn’t have the will or the desire to tell her no.

The smile she gave him at his confirmation of their friend status was almost worth it too. It warmed his heart when she beamed at him and gave a small little squeak of delight. “Oh boy! Daddy will be so happy to hear that I have a best friend. I can’t wait to tell him.”

“I’m sure he’ll be very happy to hear it. My mom was pretty happy when I told her I made a friend today, so I bet your dad will be too.” The colt said gently.

Derpy smiled a bit longer, then her expression changed as she seemed to be thinking about something, then back to a smile as she thought of it! “Hey! You said your dad tells you all kinds of neat stories right?”

He nodded slowly, having a feeling he knew where she was going with this, but letting her finish. “Yeah, lots! Why?”

She seemed to hesitate for just a moment before deciding to go for it and asking “Would you mind telling me some of them? It could be fun. and then I could tell you some of the stories my daddy tells me!”

Incognito couldn’t help but smile a bit wider at this request, quickly nodding “Yeah sure! Here, my dad told me this really good one the other day about how The Mare on The Moon got up there…”

Author's Note

And another one! I'm really making the best of these two days off. Hope you all enjoy ^^