Home for Hearth's Warming
Twilight stared deeply into her newest book. She wasn't the only pony in Ponyville's rustic appeal who was any touch of a bookworm, but she was a bookworm to the core. There were few things that could pull her out of a book she was reading. A grey, wall-eyed pegasus crashing through the ceiling was somewhere on that list. Derpy picked herself up rather quickly, she was used to such crashes, why earlier to day in fact she had disturbed Rainbow Dash's fifth nap with a broken cloud wall. Rainbow had been nice about it, everypony always was.
"Hi!" Derpy giggled a bit. "I was just seeing if your tree grew any fruit."
Twilight laughed as she said her part of the greeting, "Apparently it grows nut, one just fell through my roof."
The two shared a laugh. They always greeted each other as such. "So what brings you around here this time, Derpy?" Twilight said, expecting the usual bills to send to Celestia to be paid.
"No bills this time, Twi. Just a letter," Derpy responded, giving the librarian the scroll, "It's from Spike."
"Spike?" Twilight said, sounding a bit distant. She hadn't heard from him in a while. He had gone off to buy more comic books in Canterlot, but he had been gone for a couple days. She quickly read through it aloud, knowing Derpy was just as curious about Spike's whereabouts. And what-abouts.
"Dear Twilight, I'm doing fine, just in case you're wondering." Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. At least he was okay. She began reading once more, "The reason I've been gone so long is Discord. Me and him have been pulling pranks on the Princesses all Hearth's Warming Eve. I'll be home soon, though. I can't have Hearths Warming without my sister, can I? Anyway, see you real soon. I should be getting off the train by the time you get down to the station after reading this. Sincerely, Spike."
Twilight rolled up the scroll and put on her coat as fast as she could, she had to get to the train station! She wasn't concerned about the drake being cold, she knew he'd be wearing his coat, right? She wanted to see if her assistant was as good at scheduling as he seemed to think. He was.
"Twilight!" Spike said, happy to see his sister, "How's it going?"
"Looks like you've picked up a bit about scheduling," was Twilight's only response.
"Hey, Derpy!" the young drake said after pulling away from the hug Twilight wrapped him in. "How about you?"
"Oh, same old, same old. Deliveries to make, muffins to bake," Derpy answered.
"What about greeting a young drake?" Spike added to the impromptu rhyme.
"Good to see you're alright, Spike. Twilight's been worried." Derpy told the dragon.
Twilight blushed just a bit. Had she been that obvious?
"Well, that's the Twilight I know, and I wouldn't want anything else," Spike replied, "Because then I wouldn't have the best sister in every other way."
The group returned to Twilight's house, and Derpy left to make the rest of her deliveries before she could go home for Hearths Warming. Twilight started a fire in the fireplace, and sent her friends invitations through Spike-mail. Within twenty minutes time, six ponies and one dragon were all nestled by the fire on a cold night in Twilight's tree-house/library...
Twilight woke up, even earlier than usual. She had so much to do, and so little time to do it! Spike would wake up in about an hour, more or less. Twilight slipped past her friends and off to her basement. Besides having enough science instruments to make the most astute scientist jealous in every way, Twilight had stashed enough Hearth's Warming decorations to make sure Princess Celestia could see her Great Golden Oaks Library from Canterlot's highest tower. They'll be so impressed, Twilight thought to herself, This will be the BEST Hearths Warming yet! As Twilight shuffled through the boxes, she found that none of the decorations were there!
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She'll be so impressed, Spike thought as he hung the last of the ornaments, I'll bet she doesn't even know the boxes are missing.
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Boxes don't just disappear! Neither do decorations! Unless, Twilight's brow folded into worry as she realized what must have happened, Some dastardly crook has stolen all of my decorations, and boxes, too! And at that very moment, somepony, or something, walked down the stairs...
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Spike walked down the stairs to put away the boxes he had taken out to decorate for his adoptive sister when he recognized a soft pink-purple glow of magic. "Twilight?" He asked the glow.
"Spike?" The glow asked him.
"Who else?" He answered in his most sarcastic voice.
"What are you doing up this early?" Twilight asked, as if it was illegal for the dragon to wake up on his own.
"Taking initiative," Spike said, setting down the empty boxes he was carrying and gesturing toward them, "I was starting to think we'd never get this place decorated."
"You decorated?" Twilight asked, in shock. She wasn't used to Spike doing anything he wasn't told.
"Why don't you tell me," Spike remarked as he gestured Twilight to follow him up the stairs.
Twilight couldn't believe what she saw in the living room. "How did you do all this without me knowing?
"You might wake up early, but you're a heavy sleeper before you do," Spike answered.
"You did all this so I wouldn't have to?" Twilight asked.
"Well, would I be your number one assistant if I didn't? Besides, Owlowiscious lent a wing." Spike shrugged.
"You just wanted to be first one to open a gift, didn't you?" Twilight accused jokingly.
"No...maybe," Spike sighed, "yes."
Twilight laughed to herself.
