Crime and Punishment...and Muffins [Dinky/PM]

[Derpy Hooves]

It was the middle of the afternoon. School was letting out, but most importantly for Derpy it meant that the last of the letters were delivered and she could head off to the schoolhouse to pick up her daughter. As usual, she was still in her uniform; she usually didn’t get a chance to change until she took Dinky home. She still had her bag with her as well, but instead of letters and packages she had swung by Sugar Cube Corner to pick up some small muffins for a snack. They were going to need the energy later since Derpy was going to need Dinky’s help with some stuff.

Because of their busy schedules, cleaning had been sort of neglected around the house. Since it was the weekend, however, they were finally free to start trying to make it up. Nothing too big; just sweeping, dusting, wiping down counters, laundry. The house wasn’t that big so it didn’t take too long. Derpy just really didn’t like dragging her daughter into it though; she wanted her to have time to play with friends. But if the stuff didn’t get done soon, it would eat up into the weekend. More importantly, however, Dinky was still grounded after running off to the Crystal Empire with her friends. Derpy was ready to take down Sombra herself when she found out the news. It had been sometime since the whole fiasco, and at some level Derpy was loosening the restriction. But Dinky still had a lot of chores worth of stuff to make up for making her mother worried as Tartarus.

And so she sat outside, slightly early for the school bell, waiting patiently for her little muffin to come running out with all the other kids.

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Dinky was sad. A little. Her momma had definitely not been happy with her whenever she found out Dinky had gone to the Crystal Empire... Then again, a lot of the foals from school had, and their parents were slowly finding out about it. Dinky hadn't been in front of her Momma for one minute before it all came out. Dinky did not like lying, especially to her mother. So, the dam broke, and the grounding began. It had been some time since then, and Dinky knew as she exited the school that Momma was planning chores for them. Her grounding made her think of her more recent wrongdoing, and how her mother still didn't know. Dinky had stolen a treasure map from some ponies, gone into a bar and stolen two more pieces of the map, and even gone into the Everfree with only her two friends, Sweetie Belle and Compass Rose, by her side. Thankfully, Derpy had no idea it had ever occurred. Dinky had no idea how her mother would react to Dinky doing two really bad things back to back. Dinky wasn't a bad foal, she was just adventurous. And adventure tended to lead down a dark path. Dinky was steering clear of adventure for a little while. Dinky walked past the laughing fillies and colts as they exited the schoolhouse, and sighted her Momma. She smiled, and trotted over. "Hi Momma!"

[Derpy Hooves]

It wasn’t too long before the school bell rang and the foals came sprawling about. Bad eyes or not, Derpy was scanning the crowd to make sure Dinky didn’t try running off. She didn’t really think her kid would do that, but this was also the biggest trouble Dinky had ever been in. If there was anytime for Dinky to try and learn the art of escaping punishment, now would be the time. Of course that would end up just making it worse in the long run but, well, kids weren’t always the smartest.

There was no problems, of course, as Dinky faithfully walked up to her and said hi. She was really excited for doing chores apparently.

”Hi muffin. Did you have a good day at school today?” she said as she gave her daughter a wing hug, which also had the nice benefit of providing no way out for her. Unless she had started learning teleportation all of a sudden…how did unicorn parents deal with that anyway? She would have to go ask Twilight or something one of these days…

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If Derpy was looking for her daughter to try and make an escape, she would be sadly mistaken. Dinky knew better than to try something like that. Even if she got away for an hour or two, she had to go home for dinner at some point. And with a town like Ponyville, wherever she went wouldn't be a secret for long. Besides, if she kept up her good behavior, maybe she'd get out of trouble faster! Dinky Hooves smiled, somewhat happily. "School was fine." It hadn't been anything too exciting or fun. It was just a day that made her say "meh".

[Derpy Hooves]

Well, it seemed like Dinky was sincerely fine. Sometimes Derpy was worried that Dinky would say something like that just to stop her from worrying; after all, Derpy was very much aware some of the foals weren’t exactly nice. But it seemed today was just a good day over all.

”That’s good to hear,” she said, freeing her daughter from the wing hug before starting the walk home.

Since it was just the two of them now, Derpy figured it might be a good time to ask the question that was on her mind since her meeting with Twilight the other day.

”I was talking with Twilight the other day, and I wanted to ask you about something we talked about; do you have any interest in attending Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns?”

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Dinky trotted alongside her mother, looking at nothing in particular. At the mention of Twilight, Dinky turned to her mother. Hey, she remembered Twilight talking about this! "I do! A hundred times, I do! Twilight told me you talked to her, while I had been talking to Trixie!" That had been a fun day! Heeheehee...

[Derpy Hooves]

Derpy smiled at her daughter’s excitement, but inside she felt her stomach turn a little. Her little muffin did in fact want to go a school far away from home. She knew it was wrong of her to have wanted Dinky to say no, that she wanted to stay here in Ponyville with her. Anyone who attended Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns would be very well set in the future; it wasn’t a prestigious school for nothing after all. So if Dinky got in, it would be a wonderful opportunity for her. Yet here she was putting on a false smile for her daughter.

”Well, maybe later this week we can talk with Twilight about trying to apply to the school, if that’s what you really want.”

As they kept walking they started past Sugar Cube Corner. They were a little head of the post-end-of-school crowd of foals. Now would probably be a good time for them to get a little something before they headed home for cleaning…and was not in any way trying to make up for her feeling guilty about how she felt about Dinky’s interest in the school.

”Do you want to get a treat Dinky?” Derpy said.

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Applying to the school within the week! It was like a dream come true! Dinky skipped alongside her mother, even though they were on the way home to continue with part of her punishment. Upon the asking of Derpy's question, Dinyk gasped. "Yes! Can we? Please?" It almost made Dinky forget that she was supposed to be being punished. Her Momma was great. "Should we get muffins? Or maybe something else? Your muffins are always the best, so maybe we should get something else..."

[Derpy Hooves]

”Just get what you want dear, but nothing big because we still have to eat dinner later,” Derpy said as she opened the door for them to enter.

She was fully aware that Dinky was supposed to be punished, but even during punishment it didn’t hurt to occasionally give out a treat, right? As long as it was small and they got right back to punishment it wouldn’t do anything. Besides, if they were going to talk about something as serious as this school they probably should be in a good mood and not one spoiled by punishment and chores. Derpy didn’t exactly feel up to getting anything herself, though, so she simply let Dinky make her order before she went and paid for it.

Moving off to one of the tables on the side, Derpy sat down and waited for Dinky to get settled in before starting.

”So Dinky, what were you talking with Twilight and Trixie about? Were they teaching you some new spells?”

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Dinky picked out a few cookies before joining her mother. She nibbled on them, listening to her mother wholeheartedly. "Well, I saw Trixie was back, and she was going to teach me some things, but then Twilight came, and I showed her some of the stuff I knew." Dinky munched on some more cookies, smiling.