//------------------------------// // Segment 0.1 // Story: Hearth’s Warming in Reality // by Mist //------------------------------// Hearth’s Warming in Reality Segment 0.1 /Our reality is based upon our perception. “I see, therefore I am”. To break the confines of perception is to gain the ability to question reality itself/ A young stallion yawned as he wrestled with a vest that would be pulled over the top of his jacket. He groaned in annoyance when he realized he had put it on inside-out, and thus began to correct the problem so that his badge could be seen for all, as per the expectations of his superiors. His name was Buck Sapphire, a police officer for the Crystal Empire, an offshoot of the royal guards, and part of their investigative branch if your rank was high enough. Buck, however, was only entering his second year at the job, and this would be his first time working on Hearth’s Warming. It was always a lottery to see who would end up with that shift, and as luck would have it, he drew the short one this time. Once his vest was appropriately fastened, he adjusted himself and began to make his way out of the locker room, only for a familiar face to stop him. A pink crystalline pony grinned upon seeing him and quickly got his neck in a hooflock before ruffling the stallion’s short hair. The pink stallion smirked and gave him a few encouraging nudges. “Hey there, old pal so I heard the news, you’re stuck here on Hearth’s Warming, huh? Tough break.” Buck grunted and shoved the stallion off of him. It was far too early and he hadn’t had a cup of coffee yet to give him the fortitude to deal with his friend’s teasing. The pink stallion grinned again at Buck and winked. “Well, we all draw that short straw eventually, am I right?” This stallion was Flaunt Topaz, an old friend of Buck’s who went to high school with him back in the day. Back then, Buck remembered him being a fairly geeky stallion who couldn’t so much as talk his way out of a paper bag, but once he graduated, he had developed good looks and the gift of the gab. There wasn’t a situation that Flaunt couldn’t talk his way out of, which is how Buck surmised he managed to get out of the Hearth’s Warming shift; there definitely wasn’t any straw drawing for him. “Some of us have to actually play fair, you know?” Buck raised a brow as the two left the locker room, and Buck made his way to the coffee machine down the hall. Flaunt followed with a skip in his step and stuck his tongue out. “I’m sure that I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Flaunt teased. Once Buck had reached the coffee maker, he shook his head before pouring himself a cup. His light brown hoof wrapped around the handle and poured. Within moments, he now had a cup of liquid energy that would get him through the morning. Hastily, he grabbed it before gesturing with his head that the two of them should head out. Flaunt obliged. Approaching the front door of the station, Buck grunted at his old friend. “Oh, you know exactly, what I’m talking about. The chief gave you a gesture before we even drew those straws. Don’t think that the rest of us don’t know that was some kind of code to tell you which not to draw, not to mention you always get to draw first.” Flaunt gestured a hoof toward himself dramatically, his voice filled with faux offense. “Moi? What could you possibly think I had done to rig the drawing in my favor? What do you think I sweet-talked the chief or something?” Buck sipped from his cup and smirked. “Well, she is a mare after all.” “And what is that supposed to mean?” Flaunt huffed. “All I’m saying is that we all know how you have a tendency to sweep the mares off their hooves… And then never call them again.” Buck teased. Flaunt rolled his eyes and gave a dismissive hoof gesture. “I would never do such a thing to the chief. Besides, you’re just jealous because mares don’t even talk to you. Maybe if you did something about that mess of black locks that you call a mane…” Buck looked down at the watch on his left hoof before looking back up at Flaunt. “Aren’t you late for your shift right about now?” Blinking, Flaunt looked at his own watch and his expression turned a bit sour. “Bleh, shooting the breeze with you distracted me…” “Don’t blame me for your tardiness. You better get going or you’ll have to sweet talk the chief again.” Buck smirked. Flaunt began to run off and uttered a rude word about Buck as he raced to get to his post, though Buck knew it was all in jest. The two of them would rip on each other all the time back in high school, and the work-life was no different. Buck took another sip from his drink before deciding he needed to head to his own post as well, as he lacked the ability to sweet-talk the boss. Gulping down half of his coffee, the crystal pony meandered toward where he was assigned to keep watch for the day. Grumbling under his breath, about what a long day it was likely going to be. - /How do we know we’re even real? Could a fictional being ever understand its own fictional nature? How could it be when a narrative drives it so? In that sense, we could never know if we’re all just characters in a story someone else is telling/ With his coffee finished, Buck had settled in for a relatively boring shift keeping eye on the setup for the upcoming Hearth’s Warming festival in the Crystal Empire. Every year since Spike the Brave and Twilight Sparkle along with her entourage of friends, the empire would hold a celebration around hearth’s warming to honor them. It had been that way for as long as Buck could remember, his parents used to tell him stories of the day when Twilight and company rescued them from Sombra’s return. It was hard to believe that such an amazing princess still lived somewhere in Ponyville, though now a good three decades older and certainly much wiser. The Crystal Empire was to celebrate their thirty-fifth Hearth’s Warming since the fall of Sombra, so it was quite an ordeal. With every celebration though, there were bound to be a few troublemakers, or those hoping to capitalize on all the chaos around the city, and that was where Buck came in; around this time of year, his job was reduced more or less to a glorified babysitter for teenagers who like to pull pranks and mess up the setup. He just couldn’t wait for the holiday to be over at this point. The Crystal Empire definitely was a hotspot for tourists as well, wanting to see the celebrations of the crystal ponies, of which, Buck was one, but this time of year annoyed him at how many would travel to gawk in awe at his species. He would always try and pay it no mind, but every now and then it got to him. Sighing, the stallion kicked the ground, moving a small amount of snow back and forth, trying to keep his boredom in check, though slowly failing. He couldn’t believe this was likely how he was going to be spending his Hearth’s Warming Eve, all the way up to midnight. His parents had long since moved from the city, and Buck had no siblings to speak of, and of course no girlfriend, so he supposed it was only fair that he was one of the few placed on the job; it wasn’t as if he had any kind of extreme plans for the holidays anyway. He wandered over to a set of crates that had been left about while the workers took their lunch break. The stallion leaned against them and sighed, he was bored out of his mind. “This is the whole reason I became a cop…” He remarked to himself sarcastically. The young stallion yawned as he tried to keep himself awake, but found his eyelids getting heavy. It wasn’t long before his attempt to take a nap was interrupted by a mare bolting in his direction. She slid to a stop, only narrowly avoiding crashing into him. Disheveled and out of breath, the red-maned mare huffed and puffed as she fixed her round glasses that were about to fall off of her face. She was a petite little thing, with a white coat that stood in contrast to her vibrant mane. The young crystal mare gave him a hush gesture with her hoof before scurrying to hide behind the crates that sat next to Buck. Buck blinked in confusion before she spoke, her voice raspy, but feminine. “Please, tell them I’m not here… Please.” He would only remain unsure of what she was speaking of for a few more seconds before he came face-to-face with two familiar faces from the force. They were all out of breath as they had been giving chase to what Buck assumed was the girl whom he now harbored behind him, just out of their sight. “Buck, it’s you… Thank Celestia… Have you seen a mare head this way? Red mane, white coat, big glasses?” One of the two officers asked. Buck was about to open his mouth to answer, but as his lips parted he could see something in his mind, something that gave him pause. He could see that mare, and himself. He was pulling her free from some kind of pit. She wrapped her hooves around him and as tears ran down her cheeks, he could hear her whisper. “Thank you, Buck… I knew I could count on you…” Lost in this mental hallucination, one of the two stallions had to bring Buck back to reality. “Hey, earth to Buck? Did you see her?” Buck blinked and twitched before glancing to the boxes next to him where he could just barely see the girl trying to make herself small, hoping and praying he didn’t rat her out. “She…” He bit his lip before continuing, “went that way.” He gestured to his left. Nodding, the other two officers bowed respectfully before rushing in the direction they had been pointed toward. The young mare waited a good two minutes to make sure they were gone before coming out from behind the crates. She looked Buck up and down and her crystal blue eyes locked upon his own. “You saved me… You don’t even know what they were chasing me for…” Buck shrugged. “I guess I had a feeling you were innocent… Just don’t make me regret it, I do have a job to maintain… Now, run along.” Bowing her head gratefully, the mare grinned. “Yes, of course. Thanks again.” “Just try and stay out of trouble.” Buck smirked. “I won’t make any promises,” she spoke before winking and running off. Buck had no idea, that he hadn’t seen the last of the mare. - /Our existence is based entirely on perception. That’s not something we wish to accept, but through experience, it’s the truth./ Hearth’s Warming Eve was right around the corner, but Buck finally got a day off after three grueling days at work. Each day was more boring than the last. The only exciting thing to happen to him was a teenager tried replacing a box of ornaments with some toads to try and scare one of the decorators, admittedly it made Buck himself laugh. Buck had decided to spend a portion of his day at the cafe that he frequented often. A hot cup of coffee would do him right, so he ordered his usual and sat down in a seat near the window. The glass was frosted due to how cold outside it was, but it only made him thankful to be indoors with the heat on. With his mind clear, the stallion took a long sip from his coffee before releasing a satisfied coo. His zen, however, would be interrupted when a young mare burst through the doors of the coffee shop and peered around. Once she spotted him, she pointed in his direction and hastily approached. He grumbled as he recognized the bespectacled mare from a few days ago. It was the same mare that he had spared from his coworkers only a few days prior, he could recognize her glasses anywhere. She quickly sat down at his table and pulled out a mountain of papers and scrolls that she quickly laid out in front of him. Buck blinked a few times and stared her in the eye before she spoke to him. “You’re Buck, right?” She asked. “How did you know my name?” Buck asked. The mare gave a dismissive hoof gesture. “I have my resources. You come here all the time, so I was hoping to find you here.” “How did you…” Buck didn’t get a chance to even finish his question. “Again, I have my resources. Listen, we could run at the jaw all day and night if you want, but I have some important stuff to tell you, so if you could be so kind, could you just listen for a second?” The mare asked. Buck wondered if she saw the irony in telling him to sit there and listen to her politely as she asked him to be kind while she had rudely interrupted his morning without so much as introducing herself, but he surmised it was possible she hadn’t a clue. So instead of protesting, the stallion nodded for her to continue. “With the tome I took from the crystal library the other day, I was able to make massive progress on my theory. Thanks for your help getting that by the way.” She spoke before adjusting her red glasses. Buck blinked. “So that’s why you were running… You know stealing those tomes is kind of a serious offense…” Buck rubbed his neck. “Yes, but I figured since you assisted me in stealing them by not turning me in, you weren’t going to now because it would be disadvantageous for yourself.” She smirked. He had to admit, she had a point. Trust through mutual destruction could be a lasting foundation after all. “Hold on, hold on… I’m a police officer, you know that, right?” Buck leaned in. She nodded. “Yes, I believe you’re what would be classified as rank three or so. Given your years of service and all.” “How do you know all this?” Buck raised a brow. “Again, I have resources. Anyway, onto my theory.” The mare looked back at the papers in front of them, but Buck reached forward and tapped her hoof to get her attention. The mare looked back up at him and tilted her head in confusion, a strand of her messy mane covering part of her face. “Hm?” “Lady… Who are you?” Buck asked. She placed a hoof over her mouth bashfully before realizing her mistake. “Oh my! I’m sorry, I didn’t even introduce myself… Sorry, my name is Ruby Study.” “Okay… Ruby… Why are you telling me all this stuff? I would have thought someone in your position would have just been grateful I didn’t arrest you and kept their distance…” Buck leaned back in his chair and sipped from his coffee. Ruby bit her lip. “I thought… Maybe you’d be interested…” “Why?” Buck asked. “Because you saved me. No one ever goes out of their way for me, so I thought… Maybe you’d want to hear what I have to say…?” She blinked a few times, and Buck could see there was a sadness behind her words, a lonely mare with no one to turn to. The silence between them only continued for a moment before she started to pile her papers and tomes back together. “Forget it, it was stupid…” Buck stopped her by reaching a hoof out, touching the pile of papers she was gathering back together. “No, please… I’ll listen.” Ruby’s smile was small, but he could feel a lot of emotion behind it. It was clear this girl wasn’t used to anyone even humoring her. Quickly jumping back into her previously eager demeanor, the mare spread the papers and scrolls across the table. Most of them had math that Buck couldn’t even begin to understand, but he surmised that Ruby was about to explain everything, likely in redundant levels of detail. Tapping on a diagram that she had drawn, Ruby began to explain. “What if I told you there’s a chance we’re not living in base reality?” “You mean like… We’re not real or something?” Buck raised a brow. She shook her head. “Not exactly, more like we aren’t the original versions of ourselves. There’s potentially billions and billions of different realities all where one or two things went differently and either affected them minority or drastically.” “Sort of like the old ‘in another world, you lost a coin flip’ scenario?” Buck attempted to follow along. Ruby nodded with a grin on her face, pleased he was understanding. “Right. Anyway, I think I’ve stumbled onto something huge by following this theory…” Sipping his coffee, Buck gave her a face to suggest he’d like her to continue. Clearing her throat, Ruby kept going. “I believe another reality is attached to our own.” Buck shrugged. “So what? You just said there’s a chance there are billions of realities.” “Yes, but this is a little different. The single reality is attached to our reality, meaning the two realities are sort of in flux if you will,” Ruby explained. “How can you know something like that?” Buck asked. Ruby looked up at him with serious eyes. “Haven’t you ever felt like you remembered something that didn’t happen? Maybe the Mandela effect perhaps?” Buck knew that he had, the day that they met. “I… I sort of had some kind of thought when we met. Like… We had already known each other?” “See! And then you have the Mandela effect too!” Ruby seemed to be getting excited. “What is the Mandela effect?” Buck tilted his head. “Okay, so when you were a foal, do you remember reading that book series? The Ponystein Ponies?” She asked. Buck had recalled the books, they were exceptionally popular for decades, everyone he knew had read them when they were a child. “Yeah, I remember them, what about them?” He raised a brow in confusion. Ruby smirked. “What if I told you that they’re actually called the Ponystain Ponies?” “I’m pretty sure it was Ponystein…” Buck insisted. Ruby noddy in excitement. “You’re not the only one! Turns out thousands, even millions of ponies remember it as Ponystein when it’s actually Ponystain.” Buck was starting to lose sight of what her point was. “Okay… So tons of ponies are wrong about the title of a book series, so what?” Ruby sorted through her notes before coming to one that she had made many scribbles upon. She tapped it as she spoke. “What if, both are correct?” “That’s not possible though…” Buck reminded. “Only if there is only one reality. See, this is part of why my theory makes sense… What if the other reality it actually is Ponystein? So the reason we all can remember something incorrectly is because some of the memories from the other reality have bled into this one. Do you understand now?” Ruby explained. All of this information was making Buck’s head spin. He wasn’t exactly the most book smart pony out there, and he probably only did around average at school, so this mare’s knowledge was probably far beyond anything he could keep up with. Still, it was all quite fascinating. “So the two realities are trying to take over then, right?” Buck attempted to follow along. “Correct.” “Well, if there’s only a small chance that we’re even the base reality, then I guess that’s just fate at work then, right?” Buck shrugged. “No, you don’t understand… This other reality… It’s not one we want to come true.” Her face seemed filled with fear. “Why’s that?” Buck blinked. She looked around and then gave him another serious expression. “I can’t tell you anymore unless I know that I have you on my side for this… This is big, it goes over the royal family, over the guard, all of that…” Buck nodded. “Fine, you have my word.” “Okay, then meet me tomorrow at my address, I can tell you more there.” She quickly scribbled onto a scrap of paper and passed it over to the stallion. She smiled at him and nodded. “See you tomorrow.” Buck didn’t even get a chance to respond as the mare had quickly gathered up her numerous papers, tomes, and documents and fled the cafe just as quickly as she had entered. It was safe to say his first assumption of her was correct: she was odd. - /Surely we don’t expect all around us to remain the same, right? The flux of things is constant and out of our control; as such, reality is in flux and out of our control. It is a distinct possibility, is it not?/ Buck had arrived at the address and tapped on the door. There was no answer. Sighing he tapped again, but louder this time. Again, he was greeted by silence. Shaking his head, the stallion decided to try the knob and sure enough, the door opened. Upon entry, he noted the small home appeared as if a tornado had hit it. There were books and papers all over, and dust collected in most parts of the house. Buck had definitely determined that Ruby wasn’t exactly the kind of mare that stayed on top of cleaning. Stepping around a pile of books, the stallion called out to her. “Ruby? It’s Buck.” He heard her raspy voice come from a room in the back. “I’m in here, please come in.” Navigating through the mess that Ruby called a home took a considerable amount of time, but before he knew it, Buck found himself in the backroom where Ruby had stationed herself. The stallion surmised it must have been a dining room at one point due to the large table that the mare was sitting at, though most of the chairs had been covered with books or old notes. Ruby gestured for Buck to take a seat. “Go ahead, sit.” Looking around, Buck could not find an available space. “Ummm… Where?” Sighing, Ruby picked up a stack of books on the chair adjacent to herself and tossed the stack on the floor, then gestured to the chair. Rolling his eyes, Buck approached and sat down. “You really should consider hiring a cleaner or something…” Buck commented. Ruby ignored his remark on her housekeeping. “So you wanted to know what I have been researching this whole time, right?” Buck sighed. He had almost forgotten how to-the-point Ruby was. “Yeah, so you said something about another reality?” She nodded. “Not just any second reality though, this one was not created naturally.” “Not… Naturally? What does that even mean?” Buck blinked. Standing up, Ruby wandered over to a whiteboard where she had already made quite a few notes and drawings upon it. She tapped a crude illustration of Princess Twilight Sparkle along with what appeared to be Spike the Dragon. “You recall Sombra’s return?” Buck rubbed his neck. “I mean obviously I wasn’t born yet, but I know the story.” “Then you know it was because of Twilight, her friends, and Spike that he was defeated, correct?” Ruby tapped the board once more. “Sure, but that was over thirty years ago, what’s your point?” Buck asked. Pulling a large sheet of paper off of the other side of the whiteboard, Ruby revealed more drawings. The first of which appeared to be Twilight being knocked down by Sombra. “What if I told you Sombra created a backup plan? A way that he could defeat Twilight in the past…” Ruby suggested. Buck squinted, unsure of what she was on about. “What? You mean like go back in time?” Ruby shook her head. “No, with this method he wouldn’t have to… He’d only need to wait a while…” “I don’t follow…” Buck said. Ruby drew a long line on the board. “This is our reality… Following so far?” “Uh… Alright…” Buck wasn’t really, but he felt it more productive for her to just continue. From that line, Ruby drew another line running off of it from the middle. “Sombra created a second reality, and in that reality, he defeated Twilight. The empire is never saved, and Sombra reigns king.” “And he did this back then?” Buck tilted his head. Ruby nodded. “I believe so. I found some old documents that suggested Sombra experimented with some powerful experimental magic, stuff that could make something like this possible. However, he wasn’t strong enough to replace one reality with the other, so he did the next best thing.” “Which is?” Buck gestured for her to get to the point. Ruby drew a line between her two drawings of Twilight and Sombra. “He created a tether of sorts. From his created reality, he chained it to this reality… With enough time he knew that reality would eventually be pulled into this one and eventually erase it.” “So you’re saying if this second reality is allowed to continue existing…” Buck was starting to understand. “Then the one we live in will eventually disappear.” Ruby nodded. Buck shook his head. “How did you even stumble on something like this? Does the royal family know?” Ruby sighed and sat down. “No. I doubt they’ll even humor it. It goes beyond them. My parents were the ones studying this before. My father especially was very into the concept of alternate realities, he was quite a scholar, he was alive when Princess Twilight defeated Sombra, and I guess something just didn’t sit right with him… My mother and he spent most of their lives researching this…” “So why didn’t they tell the royal family themselves?” Buck asked. “They lacked enough proof. And then they disappeared…” Ruby frowned. “Disappeared? Like you haven’t seen them since?” Buck blinked. The mare shook her head. “No. It’s been about ten years. I have been determined to finish what they started though, because I finally understand why they were so obsessed with it…” “And why is that?” Buck questioned. “Time is running out.” “How long do we have?” Buck gulped. “My calculations suggest… Hearth’s Warming day, when the day becomes night… It will be too late. The data I have suggests the rate at which things from that reality bleed into this one have increased lately, and suggest we’re reaching an apex…” Ruby explained. “That only gives us around four days then…” Buck stated. Ruby nodded. “Four days and then we’re gone. Unless we stop it…” “What could we possibly do?” Buck blinked. Ruby’s eyes grew serious as she glanced at Buck from behind her glasses. “We cut the tether. If we do that, his reality vanishes, and ours stays…” “This sounds really dangerous for some reason…” Buck admitted. “I know, which is why I can understand if you don’t want to do this…” Ruby frowned. Buck could see on her face that she desperately needed him to say he would help her, to say he would risk everything, and for some reason, he felt compelled to do so. “I’m with you, Ruby.” Buck smiled. The mare returned his smile. “Somehow, I knew you’d say that.” “Where do we begin?” Buck asked. Ruby made an awkward face, her mouth contorted to a shape of annoyance. “That’s part of the problem… In order for this to work, we would need to cut the tether, but I have no idea where it is, it would have to be somewhere no one would notice… Somewhere where it makes sense that somepony hasn’t seen it…” Buck tapped his chin for a few moments. “Maybe, the dungeon in the castle?” Ruby shook her head. “No, if it was, the royal family might have stumbled upon it then…” Buck leaned back in his chair and contemplated. After a few more seconds of thinking, he offered another suggestion. “What about the crystal mines?” Blinking, Ruby quickly retrieved a map of the underground areas of the Crystal Empire. Scanning across it with her eyes, she focused on the crystal mines. “The mines have been abandoned for decades… And some sections haven’t been visited for even longer…” “So any section that hasn’t been even stepped into for a minimum of 35 years, then?” Buck added. She nodded and scanned the map, tapping a single area. “Here… No pony has set hoof in this section since around a few months before Princess Twilight arrived in the empire…” Buck grinned and nodded. “Is there any way you can confirm it?” “I could get a reading if I was able to get close enough to the area, perhaps even if I stood above ground…” Ruby considered. “So let’s go find out then.” Buck grinned. - /Cogito, ergo sum. I think, therefore I am. That is the very basis of understanding we exist in the reality in which we do, but is that true? Are our thoughts based in our reality, or is our reality that which shapes our thoughts? Perhaps thoughts transcend reality altogether./ Standing above the spot that the two of them had discussed, Ruby held a magically imbued rod connected to a few pieces of equipment to detect readings. Most of the items, Buck had no clue what they did, but he trusted Ruby’s expertise. The mare examined her readings and adjusted her equipment before doing another reading. Checking the results once more, she nodded at Buck. “There’s no doubt about it, this is the place. We could cut the tether from here,” Ruby explained. “How exactly are we going to cut it?” Buck asked. “Well, we can use a magic imbued knife which I managed to get my hooves on. It should be weakest at its origin point,” Ruby said. Buck’s eyes widened when she said that. “Wait, origin? As in… We have to go to this other reality?” Ruby blinked and rubbed her neck sheepishly. “Didn’t I mention?” Buck bit his lip. This all was starting to sound more and more dangerous. “Did you want to back out?” Ruby asked, her eyes filled with sorrow, he already knew she would be sad if he said no, but that wasn’t why he agreed. “Of course not.” A bright smile came across her face. “I’m glad… Ever since we met, I’ve felt… Really close to you, Buck. I’ve never felt that way about anypony else…” “I couldn’t let you do something dangerous on your own, Ruby,” he replied. Coming toward him she hugged him tightly. The stallion blushed as he got a whiff of her mango-scented shampoo coming from her messy mane. “Thank you, Buck… You have no idea how much this means to me.” Sighing, the stallion rubbed her back. “Don’t mention it.” Releasing him, she grinned as she was ready to tell him the next part of her plan. “So, obviously we have to go through the sewer system to get to the mines.” “Yeah… Obviously.” Buck groaned, not too thrilled about that part. “I can bring some drilling equipment that should get us through to the mine area, but we will need to do all of this when no pony will notice us going down there or causing so much noise…” Ruby placed a hoof upon her chin. Throwing his knowledge into the ring once more, Buck gave a proposal. “The Hearth’s Warming Eve celebration would be a perfect time. There’s so much noise and whatnot going on that not a soul would notice us.” “You’d have to abandon your post though… Won’t you get in trouble?” Ruby spoke with a concerned tone. Buck gave a dismissive hoof gesture. “I think saving all of reality is far more important, don’t you?” She nodded with glee. “Besides, if I don’t do this, it’s not like I’ll have a job to come back to. It’s worth the risk to keep you from trying to do this yourself.” Buck grinned. “Then we do it together… On Hearth’s Warming Eve.” Ruby grinned. “It’ll definitely be one to remember.” Buck nodded. - /The very essence of existence is something we can not begin to comprehend. The moment we understand it, the rules change. In that manner, the game is rigged against us; the goal is always just out of our reach. Is it even worth trying to do anything about it?/ Buck adjusted his scarf. The winter air was far colder this year than recent memory served him; perhaps he was just nervous about the possibility that he had no clue what was about to happen to him. He had made an excuse to abandon his post with a need to use the restroom, but that was a good five minutes ago. If Ruby didn’t hurry and show up at their agreed-upon spot, there was a chance that his superiors might notice him missing a bit too early, and thus go looking for him before the two were hidden from sight. Luck was on Buck’s side though, as just around the corner of a nearby shop that had closed for the holiday celebrations. The young mare had brought a saddlebag filled with the equipment they would need, as did Buck. She smiled when she saw her new friend and touched his cheek with her hoof when she approached. “I’m glad you made it,” she said. Buck shook his head. “I told you that I wasn’t going to abandon you.” Her eyes looked somewhat moist to Buck, like she was on the verge of tears. “Thank you, Buck… No pony has ever really stuck by me, or believed me when I talked about this stuff…” “Everypony needs a friend, right?” He grinned. She nodded and removed her glasses so she could wipe her eyes. Once her eyes were free of any moisture, she placed the spectacles back upon her face. “Listen… I don’t know what’s going to happen when we go down there, but I wanted to say… this has been the best Hearth’s Warming ever.” Buck laughed. “You say that like it’s over. There’s still so much more to see, right?” Ruby giggled and nodded. “You’re right, come on, let’s go.” The two trotted over to a nearby manhole cover where Ruby gestured to Buck. “If you could do the honors, good sir?” Buck bowed. “I’d be delighted. Onward to adventure.” “Off to save the world, right?” Ruby giggled playfully. “It’s what I do, I am a cop after all.” Buck winked before lifting the manhole cover up. Ruby nodded her head in thanks before making her way down the ladder, Buck watching as she went down. Buck didn’t have a clue what awaited them down below, nor was he sure any of this would play out the way that either of them wanted, but he knew one thing: this truly was the best Hearth’s Warming he had ever had, and that was worth more than anything to him.