(Epilogue)

So the post office huh? That seemed simple enough. She cantered on between the many buildings surrounding her, her little foal in tow, gazing up at all the shops and colorful signs, spread throughout the little village.
“See Dinky, this place is called Ponyville. Mommy’s going to look for a job here so we can live here, won’t that be nice?” She looked down at her filly beside her. The small grey unicorn looked up at her with beautiful golden eyes. She let out a squeal of excitement and nodded her head furiously, a look of awe spread across her tiny features. “But first we need to find the local post office; do you think you could point it out for mommy?” The little filly nodded again, immediately shifting her gaze forward, her little eyes scanning every shop for the envelope symbol that was on every post office she’d been to.

As they turned a corner, Derpy felt a tug on her mane, and looked down. Her foal was pointing down the street as she stared up at her mother with a jubilant expression. Following the direction Dinky was pointing, sure enough, there was the post office, right at the end of the street. Picking her little filly up, Derpy held her tightly against her chest.

“Very very good. You make mommy proud.”
Dinky beamed. Spreading her wings, Derpy flew over to the end of the street, holding Dinky below her as if she too were flying. Derpy heard a squeal of excitement from her filly, and smiled, her heart beating ever stronger.

---

“Hey Al, could you bring in those other two mailbags that need to be sorted?”
Al jumped awake, blinking as a bubble floated past his face. He had been dreaming about her again, as he had every day since the day she’d left. He had wanted her to stay, but she didn’t remember him at all. She had stopped by the post office, following the instructions he’d left her in his letter, but didn’t recognize him.

“I’m sorry,” she had said, “but I don’t remember who you are, or who I am. I want to find out who I am, so I’m sorry, but this is goodbye.” It was the most she had ever said to him at one time. She had hugged him then; he could still feel her warm embrace, as well as the tears that had run down his face that day. He wished she would stay, but he knew he had to let her go, it was what she wanted.

“Yeah, hang on just a minute!” He called back; setting down the bubble wand he had been holding and heading out into the main room to grab the large bags of incoming mail that had just been delivered. He walked over and reached down to pick up the first one, when he heard the familiar jingle of the bell he’d hung on the door, that told him somepony had just walked in. He looked up to see a grey pegasus... with a yellow mane. His heart stopped cold and his blood froze in his veins, as he stared at her crossed eyes. She... she could not be real. Her eyes told him she had noticed his reaction. He struggled to speak.

“D-Ditzy Doo?” He asked finally. The smiling mare before him wrinkled her brow for a second, before responding.
“Um, I think so. I go by Derpy Hooves now, but I think that was my name once. I’m sorry, you’ll have to forgive me, my past is a bit blurry. I think I was in some sort of an accident as a filly,” she said. Her head moved suddenly, and she looked down. “Oh,” she laughed, “little Dinky wants to say hi” she said, lifting a small grey unicorn filly up onto the counter. He did a double take.

“Is this one yours?” he asked, eyes wide in surprise.
“Yeah, this little bundle of joy surprised me on my way through Canterlot a while back. Talk about a blessing in disguise, for the longest time I couldn’t figure out why I was gaining so much weight, but then she showed up,” she said, nuzzling her daughter as she finished.
“She’s the spitting image of her mother,” he said, beaming. She smiled.

“Well thank you, it’s been tough raising her by myself, but we’ve managed,” she said. “I had a job in Baltimare delivering letters, but work slowed down, and I lost the job. I came here following this letter I got from my dad when I was younger.” To his astonishment, she then produced the very letter he had written to her so long ago.

He took it gingerly in his hooves and examined it, barely able to hold back the tears as he read the letter he’d written on that fateful day. “At least I think it was my dad, I’ve always had it, but I don’t remember who gave it to me. I couldn’t read it at first myself, but my friend Mac helped me figure it out. Then he told me I should head to Ponyville, and that I could find this Al there, so here I am.”

He looked up from the letter, nodding. “Yeah, that’d be Macoun I’ll bet. Nice kid, he used to help me out around here, but he ran off after some mare a while back. Alphonse Mailek at your service,” he said, inclining his head.
“Oh so you’re Al,” she said. “You must have known my dad.”

That nearly did it, but he was able to maintain his composure.
“Yeah,” he said. “I knew him. Great pony, a pegasus like yourself, and one of the nicest ponies you ever met. He was always lending a hoof to anypony who needed it.”
“Well, it’s an honor to meet you then Mr. Mailek.” she said.

“Believe me, the pleasure is all mine, Miss Hooves.” he replied.
“Well in that case, do you have a job opening here? As I’ve said I just lost my old one in Baltimare, so I followed that letter here.”
Alphonse smiled.
“I thought you’d never ask, welcome to the team kid.” he said.

---

After she had filled out all the necessary papers, she asked him if he knew a good place she could stay.
“The Cakes own that house next to their sweet shop, but nopony’s set hoof in there for years. You might ask them if you could stay there. It’s right up the street, a delightful place called Sugarcube Corner, you can’t miss it.” he said.
“Thanks,” she replied. “Come on Dinky, let’s go find that sugar cube place.” She turned and ushered Dinky along with her out the door.

“Hey,” she heard Al call from behind her. She turned and acknowledged him.
“While you’re there, buy a muffin for you and the kid, I guarantee you’ll love it.” he said.
“Thanks, I’ll be sure to try that.” she said, smiling. She turned and headed out the door, little Dinky following happily along behind her.

They reached a large gingerbread house with a cupcake on top.
“This must be the place; I don’t see any other sweet shops around.” Derpy said, looking around. All the other buildings were quite plain. She trotted up the steps and in through the door. The smell of baked goods smacked her clear in the face as she walked in. This was definitely the place. As she cantered up to the counter, a bright pink pony popped up from behind it.

“Hi, I’m Pinkie Pie, what can I get you-” She stopped, eyes widening in shock. Pinkie Pie let out a huge gasp. “You’re new in town! I can tell because I’ve never seen you before, and I know everypony in Ponyville, and I mean every pony in Ponyville.” She reached down behind the counter and pulled out a big blue... cannon? Derpy jumped as Pinkie fired the canon, causing confetti to fly everywhere and balloons and streamers to appear almost from nowhere. “WELCOME!”

Dinky began to cry. Pinkie’s eyes widened again, as she suddenly noticed the little unicorn filly sitting behind Derpy.
“Oh no no no, I’m so sorry, I didn’t realize this little filly was back here. I know, how about this.” Pinkie grabbed her cheeks and pulled them back, making strange noises as she did. “Blehhhhh, come on, it’s okay filly. I know, have a muffin, they’re fresh out of the oven.”

Pinkie reached onto the counter, grabbing a warm muffin from the tray, and held it out to Dinky, who continued to wail.
“Shh-sh-sh, it’s all right Dinky, the loud noise is gone. Look, this nice pony is offering you a muffin.” Derpy hushed her filly in a sweet, kind, motherly voice. Dinky looked up, blinked, and promptly grabbed the muffin with her little mouth.

“Huh? Dinky, that name reminds me of somepony I used to know when I was just a filly. Ditzy Doo, she was fun, but she went away after a while.” Pinkie’s eyes drooped as she said this, but just as quickly as her smile had vanished; it reappeared as her face lit up with realization. “I know you, YOU’RE Ditzy Doo! We went to filly school together.” she exclaimed. “I work here now? Isn’t it great?”

Derpy sighed.
“I’m sorry. I don’t remember anypony I used to know, I think I was in an accident as a filly.”
Pinkie’s face fell.
“Oh, yeah that’s right,” she said, almost letting a tear drop. Then, perking up almost instantly, she went on, “So what brings you around here?”
“Well, I just got a job over at the post office, so now I just need a place for me and Dinky here to stay. Al said to see the Cakes over at Sugarcube Corner, so here I am.”

Pinkie immediately disappeared into the back of the store.
“Mrs. Cake! Mrs. Cake! Guess who it is!” She called. Pinkie came back with a blue pony following her, whose eyes widened when she saw Derpy.
“Well what do you know, it is you. How can I help you dear?” she said smiling.
“Al over at the post office says you have a house you’re not using, and I’ve been looking for someplace for me and my filly to stay.” Derpy replied.

The blue pony looked down at Dinky for a moment.
“Oh well isn’t she just adorable. Of course you can stay in that house. Sorry if it’s a little cluttered, we mostly use it for storage, but you can use it of course, and I’ll work out the issue with rent later.”
“Thank you very much.” Derpy said, smiling. “Come on Dinky, let’s go move into our new home” she said, beckoning for Dinky to follow her as she left.

The house wasn’t very large, but it was better than anything they’d had in Baltimare, and it had a second floor balcony that would overlook the street. The main room was full of piled boxes of old cooking supplies. Derpy set her heavily laden saddle bags on the floor with a thump, and stretched herself out, the weight on her back now gone.

She leaned over and rummaged through her saddlebag, coming up with a small bottle of bubble soap. Upon seeing this, Dinky began bouncing up and down in anticipation, giggling wildly. Derpy smiled.
“Yep, you know what this means. Let’s go to the park.” She grabbed a second bubble wand for Dinky, and they headed out the door.

When they got outside, Derpy looked around. Where was the park? She suddenly realized she had no idea where the park was in this town, if there even was one. It was a pretty small village after all, she just had to find an open area with trees. She looked down at Dinky, who stared back with shimmering eyes. Smiling, Derpy gathered up Dinky in her front hooves.

“Now don’t drop the bubbles Dinky, and hold on, this should be fun.” She spread her wings and took off above the small buildings. They were closer to the edge of town than she thought, she spotted a small pond in between some trees not too far away. It was just a short flight to the pond, but for Dinky it was the ride of a lifetime; she squealed in delight the second they left the ground, all the way to the waters edge.

As they touched down near the pond, Derpy let Dinky down softly and trotted over to the nearest tree and sat down. Dinky followed and prodded her with the little bottle of bubble soap, looking up at her hopefully. Derpy smiled, taking the bottle from her and opening it up.
“Okay Dinky, we’ll blow these now.” she said, pulling out the little wand inside, and passing it to Dinky.

The little filly took it in her mouth and shook her head around vigorously, creating a few small bubbles. Derpy chuckled and stretched one of her wings, articulating it carefully to create a small current of air past Dinky’s bubble wand, producing a steady stream of bubbles. When they ran out, Dinky gave the wand back to Derpy, who dipped it into the container of soap, and hoofed it back to Dinky.

When they had blown enough bubbles to create a whole cloud of them, Dinky crawled over to her mother and curled up between her legs. As her daughter went to sleep, Derpy began stroking her mane and gazed up at the clouds. They seemed so peaceful, floating freely on the breeze, just like the bubbles.

She reached over and picked up the bottle of bubble soap Dinky had dropped. No, those were for Dinky, she couldn’t use them all up here, they’d blown enough anyway. She set the bubbles down, sat back against the tree and closed her eyes, the cool autumn breeze blowing past her face. Dinky’s quiet breathing against her belly, began to lull her into a relaxing trance. Derpy wrapped her arms around her daughter and allowed herself to drift off into sleep.

---

“Ditzy Doo?”

She blinked a few times and looked down; Dinky was gone! Looking around, she quickly found her only a few feet to her left, standing next to...
“Jack!” She exclaimed, recognizing her friend. Only one pony she knew called her Ditzy Doo, well, griffin. He smiled.
“I was in the neighborhood and I spotted this little filly wandering towards town. I guessed you might be up by the pond so I brought her here.” He knew her so well. “What brings you two to Ponyville?” he asked.

“I might ask you the same question, ” she shot back, smirking, “Don’t you live in a huge cloud on the far side of those mountains over there?” she said, pointing with her hoof. He threw up his arms for a second.
“So I went on an adventure, and just happened to run into you. It’s not like I’m following you all over Equestria.” he said, chuckling.
“No,” She laughed, “It couldn’t be.”

“Actually I’m just passing through, I was visiting friends when I met you back in San Fransiscolt, and I’m on my way back to Griffin Village now.” he said, straightening up. “It’s almost time for the annual End of Summer Odyssey. All the older griffins take off on a month long journey across the wilderness. It’s sort of like camping, but way cooler. If I’m not there when they leave I’ll get left behind and I sure don’t want to miss it.” Jack paused for a moment. “You could come with us, you’ve got wings.” he added, looking hopeful.

“I only just settled down here,” She replied, dropping her gaze. “And I’ve got Dinky, I can’t really just get up and leave. It’s a tempting offer, but I can’t go, I’m sorry”
He sighed.

“Well, that’s upsetting, it would have been a real fun time you know, you and me.”
“You could stay for a while.” Derpy replied, “Just for the afternoon?” He appeared torn between staying and going, and scratched at his lower beak for a minute before responding.
“I really can’t stay, but just once around the pond? Trot with me, through the autumn leaves,” he said finally, extending a clawed hand.
“It’s a deal,” she said, and reached out with her own hoof.