Collection of Hearth's Warming Eve Tales

This night was a sad night and the fifth one since the fateful day. A pale blue unicorn with a broken horn and a prosthetic foreleg sat in a pub sipping cider alone. The room was large and the smell of cider, ales, beers, and cigar smoke assailed the nostrils.

The forlorn figure was named nicknamed "Enigma" because she was hard to decipher and figure out. Enigma would seem pretty congenial but on the flip side, she would scare the hell out of you with her adrenaline rush schemes that would get you killed. Enigma also was known to be an oddball and crazier than Pinkie Pie herself.

Enigma had a special some-creature once and was set to be married five years to the day and time. Her boyfriend she caught red-clawed. Her griffin boyfriend had been cheating on her and a three-way brawl broke out. The girlfriend bolted away after slamming a heavy paperweight onto Enigma's horn then disappeared. Her ex-boyfriend stood his ground and as he left Enigma stepped forward and landed in a special trap designed to catch unicorns once enough magic is sensed. With a crushed heart and leg, she watched her griffin walkout. She screamed, "Sandstone! I loved you and you had my heart! When did I not become good enough for you?" With no reply, he took to the sky.

The Pub

Enigma sat silently and observed from across the room a corner booth filled with music ponies. Hearing the chatter die down and glancing from her cider she saw a griffin walk in. Her anger boiled, it was her ex Sandstone and it rose higher when another came in. She fought the urge to use her magic to incinerate the couple. Most of the patrons noticed her horn sparking and were ready to hit the deck. Many of the patrons knew Enigma as a regular to this pub and were shocked to see such anger and malice spew from her normally sweet-looking mint green eyes. She painfully stormed up to the couple and spat, "Sandstone...you got balls coming to my home city...this is my turf and if I were you cunt...turn around and walk out." The cold edge would have severed dragon scales and everypony else sat speechlessly.

"Bitch! Don't talk to my husband that way!"

"I haven't forgotten about fucker, you stole him from me and you were lucky that I didn't kill you that night. Broken horn or not my power is still very potent."

"Poinsettia please leave us a moment."

"Leave you with this crazy bitch? That's not happening." At that moment Poinsettia was blasted from the pub into the street, Enigma levitated several glass bottles and glared.

"Enigma, I came here to this city to re-acquire an item I left in a deposit box that you and I shared, and to my annoyance, I heard you closed it and took my stuff and burned it."

"I burnt it, and that guitar you left behind...I burnt it after I smashed it! I don't give a fuck if it was a family heirloom." Sandstone turned and glared as he walked out, he could see the hurt that Enigma still felt, and his gut was telling him that she knew about his current affair somehow...Enigma always knew his secrets somehow.

Once Sandstone fled the pub with glass bottles flying at him and a stray knife. Enigma sat down and wept, how could she feel such malice toward the creature that broke her heart and yet still have feelings for him. Something in her gut made her feel like Sandstone was in the midst of an affair. After cleaning her mess up and paying for the broken bottles of booze she had taken from some of the patrons and trudged to her home. Anypony who wished her the best holiday got cussed at. One pony bumped into her and she shoved the pony hard and to her dismay, she shoved a small river that flowed beside the street on which she walked. Once she got home she got a beer and began to read a book about death and she turned on her stereo and blasted heavy metal throughout the house to attempt to drown her feelings. Her behavior over the past five years had gotten the attention of the map table and had summoned aid for Enigma.

A very hungover Enigma answered the knocks on her door and when she opened she was staring into the eyes of a greyish blue griffin with hazel-colored eyes. He stood silently when he saw the look of malice. Enigma welcomed the creature in and went to get cleaned up.

"So Enigma, I was sent from Ponyville by Princess Twilight's friendship map to you and I don't know why."

"That map is usually is sending folks to fix friendship problems, my problem cheated on me and married some creature else. In two weeks on Hearth's Warming Even is the sixth year. I don't know what you can do for me....what is your name?"

"I'm Cipher, got named that because they told me that the first thing I played with was a cipher."

Three Days until Hearth's Warming Even

Enigma was finally truly happy again, she and Cipher had grown close and things couldn't have been going better. On a fateful day, a text on Cipher's phone appeared, and Enigma assumed the worst.

"Are you seeing someone else?" What ensued was a forty-five-minute bout of yelling and Cipher getting slammed into a wall. Enigma began delving into a habit that she had stopped for the past 11 days. She began slugging beer down.

48 hours later

Enigma heard knocking and she went to open her door and there stood a female griffin and she sheepishly introduced herself as Shale. "I heard from my brother Cipher about your fight....and I know what was going through your mind. I want you to know that he would never cheat on his girl and...."

Enigma drunkenly bolted through her door and went to search for Cipher. The city of Fillydelphia was large and she went to everywhere that Cipher had said were his favorite haunts. Sadly she began to trudge homeward. She stopped at her usual coffee shop and as she waited her turn she saw the usual patrons and as she stepped up to the counter and in the corner of the shop she saw Cipher. She nervously walked up and asked if she could join him.

She poured her soul out, and Enigma begged and pleaded for Cipher to forgive her. The latter knew he had to do.

Everyone who knew Enigma we're happy that she finally found someone and found someone who loved her. The pair confused others but the news got around that Sandstone and Poinsettia had divorced and Enigma ran into her ex and she no longer felt malice for him but sadness.