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A Shot in Time Saves One1,952 words
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Standing Offer1,838 words

Standing Offer

It was approaching midnight as Derpy was laying her daughters down to bed. Tucking both of them in personally and hugging Sparkler. Well ‘hugging’ in the sense of crying and wanting to hold her as long as possible to make sure she was there. Tears still rimmed her eyes, as a matter of fact, when she heard a knock on the door to the building. She wondered briefly on who it could be this late at night, not knowing many night owls aside from Twilight Sparkle, who often ended out studying long into the morning.

But, of course, it wouldn’t be her. She had no reason to visit Derpy and Derpy couldn’t blame her much for preferring to read her books as opposed to visiting the townsfolk every now and then. Derpy herself had a fondness for romance novels and had stayed up late more often than she would admit to in an effort to finish some entralling tale, it didn’t seem too unbelieveable that other ponies might have fondness for other kinds of books.

So Twilight was off the list then. Who else? She couldn’t think of anyone. There’d been that creature from the Everfree that had followed Sparkler home, was it nocturnal? Could be, Everfree wasn’t exactly a normal place. Being active at night wouldn’t be beyond the possibilities of it’s residents. She waited for a moment at the door. What if it was the creature? Sparkler had neglected to say anything about it, was it dangerous? Would she be safe if she opened the door? Maybe it was like a vampony and had to be invited into residences, or maybe it was like a Timberwolf and would attack her first chance it got.

Another knock came from the door. Derpy took a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves. But it seemed she had been too loud in doing so as a voice spoke from the other side of the wood. “If you don’t want to open the door I can’t blame you, I’ve just come to return Sparkler’s stuffed animal, she left it at my camp.” Sparkler’s animal had been noticeably absent, she’d neglected to say where it’d gone though.

Hardly a moment later she decided that, since the creature had delivered her daughter safely home from the Everfree, it deserved at least some level of trust. She cracked the door slightly and looked out onto the porch, the light from the full moon casting the silhouette on her stoop in light. She saw the same biped that had been with her daughter bent over, placing a small plush animal on the wood with care.

He glanced up at her as she opened the door, his eyes gazing at her from beneath a set of bushy brows. It looked at the plush once again and let go of it slowly, making sure it stayed upright without assistance. It straightened up again and Derpy’s eyes followed its eyes as the head rose higher up. “Goodnight m’am.” It said simply, nodding to Derpy and adjusting some strap across it’s chest.

Derpy saw something in its eyes as it stood. Some glint of loneliness behind the irises, nigh invisible in the dim light. It was only for a moment but as it turned to walk away she found herself speaking almost subconsciously. “Do you want to come in for a-” She wanted to say hug, she felt like she needed to say hug, but she suppressed it in favor of something more traditional. “Snack?” She said instead, opening the door a bit more in greeting.

“No thank you Ma’am. I’m rather full at the moment. I appreciate the offer though.”

“It’s a standing offer… anytime you need a snack or a chat…” Derpy said, smiling softly.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” He said and nodded again. “Goodbye Ma’am.”

“Goodbye.” Derpy said, a bit more welcoming than she’d sounded at the beginning. She watched him leave and didn’t realize just how soon it would be before that offer would be collected.

Dinky was having trouble sleeping, she kept imagining Sparkler being gone for good and she had to go and make sure her sister was still asleep in the home before she could go back to bed and steal an hour of slumber from the aether before she would wake up again. Eventually she decided against sleep all together, staying as awake as she could manage in the living room. It’d been barely an hour or two since her mom had gone to bed when she heard a knock at the door.

It was sort of frantic, and in her drowsy steps Dinky didn’t even think it could be a monster. It was just a knock at the door, why wouldn’t she answer it? A large towering form filled the doorway as the door swung open and Dinky was struck with a sudden fear that dispelled all her tiredness. It was breathing heavily and seemed to be examining her with it’s searching eyes.

“Is your mother home?” It said, a familiar but exhausted tone that Dinky couldn’t quite place.

“Yea… let me go get her.” Dinky said, not knowing what else to do in the circumstance. She left the monster at the door to go find wake her mom up. It took a bit of persuasion, and persuasion of course meant nudging her often in an effort to force her to her hooves. Eventually Derpy brought herself awake, just barely, but she stood and followed her daughter down the stairs. Wondering what exactly was the cause of the unexpected wake up call.

When she saw the biped she gasped, he had one hand outstretched against the doorframe, his body barely managing to keep itself up, and small pools of blood had begun to form on the wood panels of the floor, occasionally growing with the addition of a loose drop of blood. She wasn’t able to see the wounds themselves however, on account of the thick coat he wore over his body, the hood blocking his face from view.

“What- What happened?” She asked, moving forward to support the biped, who waved off her assistance.

“It was nothing, I was stupid. Shouldn’t have left my camp in the middle of the night. Those wolves are smarter than I thought, they set up an ambush.” He almost fell into the room but stopped himself, staying politely outside.

“Oh come in, please, there’s some first aid equipment in the bathroom upstairs.”

“Thank you.” He said, lurching finally over the threshold and moving at a steady pace up the stairs, once again declining assistance as he forced himself into the bathroom. He leaned heavily over the sink, as it barely came up to his waist, and looked through the nearby cupboards until he found some bandages and cloth. He snatched the soap from it’s place next to the sink and ran it under some water.

Derpy and Dinky looked on as he pulled up his sleeves and revealed the scratches that covered his arms. He began to wash off the blood that caked his arms and clean the wounds as best he could, Derpy spoke up then, hoping perhaps to get his mind off the wounds that tallied his arms.

“It’s a good thing that you were so close to town, those wolves don’t pursue over the edge of the Everfree.”

“Really? Wish I’d known that sooner.”

“What? But if you didn’t… then how-” Derpy’s eyes widened in realization, Dinky looked on confused, not fully understanding the course of the discussion.

“Did you know that they reanimate if there’s a lot of them in the same area? Found that out today, that was fun.”

“Well,” Said Derpy, a bit conflicted. “I’m happy that you made it out unharmed.” What she didn’t follow that up with was how scared she was of something that had single-handedly destroyed an entire pack of timber wolves. She added a mental note never to get on the bad side of….

She realized she didn’t know his name. Did monsters have names? Was he a monster? He didn’t seem like a monster. He fought like one apparently though… was he sort of a monster? Did ‘sort of monsters’ have names? Would it be rude to ask?

Dinky spoke up. “Hey, Sparkler didn’t say your name, what is it?”

Derpy looked at Dinky, surprised, but then back to the biped, curious to the answer herself.

He didn’t respond and turned his attention instead to wrapping cloth around his arms and following that up with a layer of bandages. With a glance to the pair he opened the area beneath the sink and glanced around inside. “Do you have a bucket anywhere?” He asked as he looked around.

“Oh! I’ll go get it!” Dinky said before running off.

“What do you need a-” Derpy was interrupted by a crash. A moment later Dinky came back with a bucket.

“Thank you.” He slid the bucket under the faucet and turned it on, watching it fill with warm water. He ducked back down and snatched a bottle from the area beneath the sink, adding a short measure to the filling bucket before he stowed it under the sink again.

The bucket filled up in a short moment and he lifted it from the sink with his newly wrapped arms, turning the water off after he had done so. he held it tightly and stepped down to the main floor again, placing it by the door and cleaning up the pools of blood with the mixture. Derpy looked on worried.

“You don’t- you don’t have to do that.”

“I caused the problem, I’ll fix it. Blood stains wood extremely badly, you have to make sure to get it out before it settles in or you’ll never see the end of it.” He scrubbed it powerfully, the water in the bucket turning more and more red after each pool was cleaned.

Derpy looked at him worried, Dinky looked at them both with confusion. The man simply cleaned the floor. “You can go to bed if you want.” He said. “This isn’t the most thrilling thing in the world.”

Derpy glanced at a nearby clock. “I’d love to, but I’ve got to go to my mail job soon, have to get started early so I can be sure everyone gets their mail.”

“I could do that, do you want me to do that?” Said the man, pausing his cleaning job for a moment to turn and look at Derpy.

She felt unnerved by that, “No, I can do it. Thanks for offering though.

“Are you sure?” He asked, not turning away for a moment.

“Yes, I’m sure.”

“Alright.”

“Alright...”

Author's Note:

I think this chapter is crap, but I also think every chapter I write is crap, so whatever.

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