A Bubbly Hearth's Warming Eve

After taking a quick shower to wash off the sweat of the day, you find clean clothes and get dressed. You did not put on anything fancy, but they are not rags either. As you walk past your dresser, you notice the little rectangular container with the necklace you bought for Derpy sitting on top. You reach out and grab it, immediately putting it on your coat pocket before heading towards the door and head to Her house.

It does not take you to long to reach her home. Just as you reach the steps of her house, the door opens and you see Derpy standing on the other side. She sees you and smiles as she shuts the door behind her.

“I see you have perfect timing.” She states as she starts down the stairs.

As she walks down the stairs, she fails to watch her step and tumbles forward. You rush to grab her before she hit the ground. As she lands in your arms, your foot catches a rock sticking out of the snow causing you to fall backwards with Derpy in your arms. You hit the snow-covered ground with an audible crunch from the snow around you.

As you lay on your back, feeling the weight of the grey mare on top of you, you take a second to catch your breath. A fuzzy feeling tickles your nose as it scrunches the skin, but not hard enough to hurt. You open your eyes to meet her eyes staring into yours. Her snout presses against your nose with her lips centimeters away from yours, her warm breath gently caressing over them. Her cheeks redden a little, her eyes seem to unfocus. You think you catch her glimpse her look at your lips just before she pulls away completely from you.

“Sorry, my klutziness is acting up again.” She says, trying to laugh it off.

“It’s fine, I’m just glad I was able to catch you.” You smile while chuckling, trying not to ruin the mood.

She slowly gets off you and dusts off the excess snow on her clothes before helping you up. You do the same before heading to the play. You both make it with plenty of time to spare. You both sit in the middle, right next to each other waiting for the play to start. Some idle chitchat helps pass time for a bit, talking about various things like what the play is about and what to expect. She tells you about how Equestria used to be at war with the three different species of ponies. In addition, she explains how three ponies from each race saved them all, though she did not go into much detail.

The play soon gets underway and starts as Derpy said, with the tale of how the three warring nations caused their own strife and turmoil. As the play went on you can tell she is watching intently as she sat in her seat. You watch on, getting into the show as well. Something soft touching your shoulder pulls you out of your trance however. Looking over, you see Derpy resting her head on your shoulder. You cannot help but become flustered at her actions, though you are certain she is unaware of her actions.

Your thoughts drift back to a little earlier when you both were laying in the snow. Thinking about it again, you realize how close you were to kissing her again. You wonder what would of happened if you had kissed her, how would she of reacted? Would she pull away in confusion? Alternatively, would she have kissed you back? A bunch of questions passed through your head all at once. It was obvious that she held you close in her heart but was it a close friendship or something more. You really want to figure it out and if it were not for the fact that she was enjoying the play, you would be tempted to ask then. That would be slightly embarrassing for her if you ask in a public setting most likely though.

“ I’ll defiantly ask her afterwards, defiantly.” You thought to yourself as you resume watching the play.

The play ended with the three races learning to work together in harmony. Everyone starts to clap, including you. It really was some play, and the fact that real events created this play amazes you. As you both get up from your seats, Derpy nudges your arm.

“I have to use the restroom so wait outside, okay?” She says, in which you agree to.

You stand by the entrance of the building and wait. Seconds turned to minutes as the last of the ponies left the building and still no sign of her. You start to become rather curious and start to walk back inside. However, just before you do, a snowball hits the back of your head.

You turn, expecting to see Derpy but instead see a Stallion looking at you with a cocky grin on his face.

“Hey, if you’re waiting for your marefriend, you’re wasting your time.” He says as he walks into the alleyway next to the building.

Worried, you follow him and after you catch up to him, he stops and turns towards you. “What did you mean by I am wasting my time?” You ask in a serious tone.

“Hey, he told you he would get revenge on you one way or another.” The Stallion said as he laughs.

You look at him in surprise. “What happened to her?”

“Let’s just say, my friend persuaded her to accompany him somewhere.”

“So you guys kidnapped her!? Where did they take her?” Anger laces your words.

“Who knows, I’d like to see you try to get the info from me.” He says in a threatening tone.

A sense of urgency hits you as you think of a way to persuade him. “Why would you do something so petty for the sake of getting back at me? I did nothing to you!” You say, raising your voice.

“You did when you humiliated my friend. Besides, a human or whatever you are shouldn’t try to fit in around here.” He cracked his knuckles and walks towards you.

“We don’t have to fight you know. Just tell me where they are and we can leave it at that, please.” You plead to no avail.

~*~*~

“Let go of me!” Derpy struggles to break free of the Stallion that is carrying her.

“Shut up already. We are just going to have some fun with you while we wait for that human.” The Stallion says.

“Whenever you’re found out you’re going to regret it because he will come and save me!” She says while struggling some more.

“That’s the plan; I will make him pay for making me look like a moron.” He says, gritting his teeth.

“You are a moron if you think you can just do what you want!” Derpy yells.

“He said shut up wall eyes!” one of the other Stallions raises his voice, earning a small squeak from Derpy.

They arrive at their destination soon enough. “So, is this really his home? Pretty lame style if you ask me. Of course, trash deserves trash.” The Stallion laughs as he triys the door.

“It’s locked.” The third Stallion states.

One of the ones not carrying Derpy walks in front of the door and gives it a strong kick, breaking it open. They all walk in soon after.

“Wow, crappy interior as well, almost feel sorry for him.” They all start laughing, except for Derpy who is still struggling, trying to untie her hands with her teeth.

The stallion tosses Derpy onto a small couch and walks over to the small bookshelf to examine it.

“Quite a selection he has.” He said as he shoves the small bookcase over, books scattering across the floor.

“Stop it!” Derpy yells.

“What? Mad because we are wreaking the freaks house?” He laughs

“Don’t you dare call him that; you have no idea what he’s like at all!” Derpy furiously shouts.

The Stallion laughs and walks over to her and leans in at eye level. “I can call him whatever I want. And besides, what are you going to do about it?” He asks grabbing her chin, leaning in further to taunt her.

“This!” Without warning, Derpy kicks upward, hitting him in the groin with her hoofs causing the stallion to yelp in pain and collapse on the floor next to her. The other two stallions ran over to help him up.

In a bit of rage and in pain, the Stallion gets up, grabs Derpy by her shirt, and lifts her up.

“You’re going to regret that, wall eyes.” He seethes as he throws her to the side, ripping her shirt down the middle just past her breasts.

Derpy starts to tear up slightly as she covers herself up.

“Strip her.” The Stallion says in a deep voice, still slightly in pain. The other two Stallion walk closer to Derpy, who can only look in horror.

~*~*~

You bolt down the streets as fast as you can. The cold air rushing past your cheeks gave a chilly bite to them. However, it did not even register as your only thoughts are making it to your house before anything bad happens to her. As you ran towards your house, you start to think of what that Stallion said to you.

“If you beat me, I’ll tell you.” The stallion lunged at you.

Dodging him and kicking him in the back caused him to stumble forward and fall. You took this chance to try to subdue him but he managed to jump up and take a swing at you. Unfortunately, you were not fast enough to duck and he hits you in the cheek making you cringe in pain. Stumbling backwards, you barely duck under another punch and spin around him and get him in a choke hold.

“Tell me where they are now!” You demanded.

“Okay okay, let me go, you win. I will tell you everything!” He pleaded, as you slowly loosened your grip.

“Got’cha!” He elbowed you in the ribs and pulls away as you gasped for breath.

“I don’t want to get serious, please tell me where they are.” You say as one final plea.

“Serious? I would like to see what you do when you’re serious.” He lunged again, ready to take another swing.

Blocking his swing with your arm, you moved in closer and delivered a knee to his diaphragm, which caused him to collapse on the ground in pain and gasping for air. You immediately grabbed him by the shirt and forced him to look at you.

“One more chance, tell me!” You said through gritted teeth.

“They’re at your house. They didn’t take her to long ago.” He said through gasps

“You let him go and took off towards your house as fast as you could.”

“Please just let me make it in time to protect her!” You yell in your head, picking up the pace.

~*~*~

You can see your house just ahead. Looking closely, you also notice the door is open. Skidding to a halt just outside your door and breathing heavily you swing the broken door open.

All eyes are on you as you stood in the doorway panting. You see that they are in the middle of taking Derpy’s cloths off, they seem to have managed to get her pants almost off and tore her shirt.

“Well, look who’s here; I’ve been waiting on you for so long I ended having a little fun with your girl.” The leader stated, trying to get a rise out of you.

However, you completely ignore him and look straight at Derpy who is smiling at you, tearing up.

“Are you okay? Did they do anything to you?” You ask in a calm voice.

She knew what you were meaning and shook her head. “No, they didn’t get that far.” She said with a shaky voice.

“Thank Celestia I made it in time.” You say under your breath.

One of the other stallions walks up to you and places a hand on your shoulder. “Hey, who said you can ignore us like that?”

Without hesitating, you grab his hand and twist it just before the breaking point making him cry out in pain as he grabs his arm. Afterwards you let go and punch him in the gut hard enough to make him collapse and fall over.

The other one charges you in which you simply side step and after tripping him, pushing him into the wall head first, knocking him unconscious.

“I was going to give you a chance to just leave but after what you did to Derpy, you’re going to pay for that.” You say through gritted teeth.

The leader simply stands and laughs at you. “You sure are getting cocky aren’t you?”

“Shut up, trash has no right to talk.” You say as you turn to face him.

The Stallion growled in anger and ran at you.

This time you do not move or waver, letting the punch connect as you take a step back to keep yourself from stumbling. He smiles cockily at you until he notices your expression has not changed as you stare at him.

“That was simply to prove a point to show you how weak you are. Now then, I will show you a real punch.” Your fist slams into his snout, sending him backwards into the wall. He slowly stands up, grunts and places a hand on his snout. Looking at the same hand, he notices he is bleeding a lot. He then looks at you and charges you yet again.

You deliver a straight kick into his stomach, launching him backwards, slamming his head into the bookcase he knocked over, knocking him out cold. You immediately turn and run to Derpy’s side sitting on the couch next to her.

She lifts her hands up showing you the rope in which you start to untie. It takes a couple minutes but you manage to do so. As soon as the rope fell from her wrists, she lunges into you and wraps her arms around your neck, toppling you over so she is lying on top of you. She rests her head just under your chin.

“I knew you would make it in time to save me. I never once thought differently.” Derpy says to you while squeezing you tighter.

“Derpy, if I wasn’t fast enough, for all we know they would have done something. I don’t want to put you in danger like that again.” You say, causing her to look up from her resting spot.

“As long as you’re with me I know that will never happen.” She says reassuringly.

“I was so worried I wasn’t going to make it.” You say as you hug her tightly.

Derpy smiles gently and looks you in the eyes, melting your worries away almost instantly. “It makes me sad when I see that frown appear on your face like that.”

You take a deep breath and let it out slowly, letting your negative thoughts disappear with it. Derpy slides off you and sits up, letting you do the same. You take this moment to look her over and notice a few things.

A blush grows on your face as you look away from her.

“What’s wrong?” She asks, curiously.

“You’re pants are still down and your shirt is wide open.” You explain, still not looking directly at her.

“She looks down and blushes deeply while covering herself up and pulling her pants back up.

“Sorry about that.” She stutters.

“Don’t worry about it, though I have to admit I wasn’t expecting you to be the type to wear panties with frills on them.” You say in a joking tone.

Derpy looks at you with an annoyed expression and sticks her tongue out at you. You could not help but chuckle at her childishness.

You slide off your coat and wrap it around her to give her something to cover herself up. She thanks you and slips it on the rest of the way. You hear movement coming from behind you, making you turn to look.

The two Stallions you first took care of slowly get to their feet and look around. They notice there friend still unconscious and go to check on him.

“He’ll be fine. Though, I’m sure he has a broken snout.” You say.

“We’ll get him out of here, don’t worry about us attacking you, we never wanted to in the first place but we were afraid of him, sorry.” One of them tells you.

“Fine, I won’t hold it against you. Though, I suggest getting better friends.” You say back as they picked up the other Stallion and carried him out of your house.

Soon after however, you hear someone yell, “What’s going on here?” Coming from direction of the broken door, as you stand up to turn and look, you see Derpy’s father standing there.

“I just saw some kids leave your house looking like they were hit by a wagon.” Her father says.

The next ten or so minutes was spent explaining what happened from start to finish. Derpy clung to your arm through it as well. As you finish your story her father looks at his daughter and looks her over.”

“I’m glad you are safe and after I explain this to Mayor Mare those kids are going to be punished as criminals. Thank you for looking after my daughter.” He says as he walks over to Derpy and hugs her tightly.

“Well, we are heading back, don’t worry about anything that’s broken or damaged, It will be replaced once I explain everything to the authority’s.” He tells you as him and Derpy leave you alone.

After looking around the room and seeing what was damaged, you decide you will just deal with it tomorrow as you head for your room and collapse onto your bed.

~*~*~

“You really are okay right?” Derpy’s father asks her.

“Yes I’m fine for the fifth time Dad.” Derpy says to you worried father.

“I just had to make sure. He is a remarkable young Stal-err man.” He says, almost forgetting you are human.

“Yeah, he is….”She trails off as he wraps your coat further around her.

Her father chuckled slightly at his daughter actons. “You know your mother did that a lot as well.”

“Did what?” She asks curiously.

“She would do the same thing when I gave her my coat.” He stated causing Derpy to blush and look away while shoving her hands into the pockets.

She pauses when she feels a rectangular box in one of the pockets and pulls it out. She stops at a streetlight to get a better look at the item she is holding. She notices right away what it is. She gasped and with curiosity gripping her, she slowly opens it to find the gold necklace you bought her inside it with a piece of paper.

Her father turned to see why she stopped and noticed the box and shook his head while smiling.

Derpy picked up the little note and read it silently.

Derpy, I cannot express how much you

mean to me. When I felt alone, you came

to my rescue and became a true friend to

me. I will never be able to repay your kindness

But I thought this would be a start. I also need

To tell you how I really feel about you as well.

it ate away at me that I did not tell you right away.

Believe me when I say, I wanted to but had to be sure.

So, once you read this I will tell you face to face with

no more hiding.

Derpy wipes a tear from her eye as she finishes the note and looks up at her father.

“I guess he’s been through a little too much today to be alone. Just do not think I completely approve of him yet. I haven’t given him the full check out.” He finishes up with a kiss on his daughters forehead and hugs her.

She smiles widely and hugs her father back before running back to your house.

~*~*~

“Why did today have to turn out like this? I had it all planed out and everything.” You say aloud to yourself.

You almost want to take it as divine intervention against you. Sitting there, fifteen minutes pass as you think of reason after reason for why it did not work out. However, in the end you decide it best not to think about it as you lay back down.

Suddenly, you hear your door opening up and hoofsteps coming into your house. Thinking it might be them coming back for another round, you jump up and walk to your bedroom door. As you open it, you see none other than the one mare you thought you would not get to see again tonight. Derpy stands there a few feet from the door staring at you.

“Derpy, what are doing here? Didn’t you head home with your dad?” You ask, confused.

“Yeah, but I found something of yours that I thought I should return.” She says as she looks into your eyes.

“Uh, if it’s the coat I lent to you so you could cover up from the cold so don’t worry about it.” You say, still not sure where this is going.

“No, it is something else. Something I’m sure you probably wanted to give me yourself.” She pulls out the rectangular box and hands it to you.

You freeze in place as your breath hitches in your throat. You are not sure what to say or how to react at all. You forgot it was in your pocket the whole time and kicked yourself mentally for forgetting it in the first place.

Slowly, you reach out, take it, and look at it.

“Um, did you look at it?” You ask hesitantly.

“Maybe.” She simply adds.

Taking a deep sigh and steeling your mind, you place it back into her hand and smile at her.

“So, what did you want to tell me after I read that wonderful note?” Derpy smiles sweetly at you making your heart skip a few more beats.

Taking a deep breath, you ready yourself “Uh, remember the other day I hid something from you and told you I would tell you when I was ready?”

“Mhmm” She nods.

“Well from that morning to now I have realized something that I think I have felt since I first meet you. Something that after all we have been through and how close we are is allowing these feelings to nurture and become what they are now.” You take a deep breath before continuing.

“Derpy, since the day I’ve meet you to now. I think I have fallen in love with you.” You finally say and throwing it all out there for her to do with as she pleases.

Derpy blushes and places her hands to her heart as she shed a few tears.

“Are you okay?” You ask, worried.

“Yes, I am. I am just so emotional right now. I have wanted to hear you say those words for a while now, I was just too afraid to ask you. But the truth is, I love you to.” She looks up at you and smiles.

You wipe her tears away and look deep into her eyes while taking a deep breath. “Will you be my marefriend?”

Derpy throws her arms around your neck and pulls you into a passionate kiss of pure bliss. You wrap your arms around her waist and hold her closely as electricity flows through your body from the sensation of Derpy’s lips pressed against yours.

Derpy pulls away from you, panting slightly. “Yes, I want nothing more than to be together with you more than anything else. It is because of you that I am happy again. You protect me, stand by my side and are always there for me. I love you; I love you so much!” She leans back in and you both slowly let the world around you disappear aside from the passions of both your hearts. Your last thoughts were merely.

“ I will always be here for you, my love.”