As night passes to day in the small town of Ponyville there is one resident who is already wide awake, the past night keeping her up indefinitely.
Princess Twilight Sparkle had been pacing through her library, the grand tree that housed her and her number one assistant Spike. While she was no stranger to odd occurrences since her move to Ponyville, these past few weeks were beginning to wear on her mind.
It had started out innocently enough, the friendly mailmare had been spending more time loitering around the library before making her deliveries and attempting to push her into conversations but soon enough there was more. Twilight would wake some mornings to find the irrepressible klutz searching through the Library before opening hours and even once found her on the upper levels with a slight blush on her face and no answers why she was there. Only yesterday had she been preparing for bed only to find her toothbrush missing, she knew something was up and it was getting to be too much.
“Derpy, what are you up to?” Twilight asks to the empty room.
“Uhhh Twilight? What was that last night? I could barely sleep.” Came a voice from above.
Twilight jumped, shocked to be spoken to at this early hour. Only to realise of course that it was only Spike.
“Oh Spike, please don't spook me like that.” Twilight exclaimed in a rush.
“Derpy broke into the library last night and tried to take some things, I'm so confused with what to do with her. Strictly speaking what she did isn't legal but I couldn't go down that path. Not with her daughter to think about but I need to find out why she is acting so strangely.”
“Then why don't you just talk to her?” asked the obviously tired little dragon before almost crawling back to the room leaving Twilight back to her thoughts.
“I supposed it's all I can do.” Twilight huffed before throwing herself down on the floor, wondering where she could find the mare in question.
One the other side of Ponyville there was another mare who could not stop pacing, her short blonde main whipping around as she stomped across the ground in front of her home.
“Why why why did I do that? She probably hates me now. All I wanted was something of hers to have.”she quietly cried into the open air while a tear streaked down from her golden eyes.
Admittedly she could have taken anything else, but to have something so personal just sounded too perfect an opportunity to pass.
For years the grey mare had watched as the newest resident of Ponyville had gained friends and saved the world many times over, even attaining the privilege of becoming an alicorn Princess. As the days passed her initial curiosity and fascination had become more. Attraction and love, Derpy knew that she held powerful feelings for the purple alicorn but as one who was not very practised in matters of the heart she knew not how to express them.
Allowing instinct to take over she had begun trying to spend more time in the areas that Twilight would enjoy spending her time. Knowing only that the library was where she could catch er the most Derpy had starting floating around outside trying to work her will up to knock on the heavy wooden door only to be shocked each day successively as the Princess would open the door before her and smile.
“Hello Derpy, any mail for me today?” she would be asked.
The smile on Twilight's face instantly melting the pegasus' heart, but so flustered was she that all she could do was nod before handing over the days mail and rushing off so the purple mare wouldn't see the extreme blush beginning to work it's way across her muzzle.
Another plan was hatched by the mailmare, if she couldn't knock on the door she would just have to find another way in.
As the day began to break further other residents of the small town began to emerge and so Derpy hastily retreated inside, to get Dinky ready for school and prepare for a new day of mail delivery, her mind heavy with regret and sadness.