For Derpy the day at the beach with Dinky was a dream come true, they could spend all day there together, building sandcastles and reading quietly. (Though it may not look like it, Derpy really enjoyed a good book.) While she was lying on her towel, a sudden thought came to her: Dinky needed a rubber ring. As a child Derpy's favourite toy was a little inflatable star that glowed when you hugged it, the beach was the best place to play with it so she went there as often as possible. What Dinky needs, she thought, is a toy that will last until she's, dare I think it, all grown up and doesn't need toys anymore.
"Dinky!" Derpy yelled over the sound of the waves.
"Yes Mummy?" Dinky replied,
"We need to go and get something; we'll be back in a minute."
"Okay Mummy." Dinky sounded slightly disappointed as her sand fort would probably be knocked over by the time she returned.
They left to go to the hut down the beach selling toys and on the way Dinky was rambling, mainly to herself, about the merit of socks. When they arrived Dinky suddenly stopped, in awe at the huge selection of all things inflatable.
Suddenly, one thing caught her eye, tucked away in a barrel at the far end of the shop was a pink rubber ring. However in Dinky's mind the appeal wasn't with the pinkness of it what really drew her eye was the small stars dotting the surface. When she was very little her mummy had told her magical stories of evil space monsters and mysterious planets and the stars that kept everyone alive and got the wicked shadow beast that ate ponies.
"Mummy," she breathed, "Can I have this one?"
Derpy, who'd been browsing the inflatable sharks, turned and looked at what her daughter had been gazing at, as soon as Derpy saw it she thought it was perfect.
"Muffin, it's perfect."
As they paid their bits and set off back down the beach Derpy suddenly asked a question,
"Why this one? I mean, there were hundreds of others, more fun ones, like sharks and crocodiles but you choose this one."
"The stars Mummy!" Dinky replied chirpily, Derpy smiled wistfully at her daughter and replied,
"I thought so..."
They reached their towels and Dinky was delighted to discover that her fort hadn't been trampled. She returned to it and Derpy returned to her book, looking worriedly at the clouds gradually growing darker but the waves hadn't gotten that much higher so she let Dinky continue to splash around. When it was time to go home, Dinky sighed and started to skip towards her house singing quietly to herself, while Derpy followed behind her, laughing.