Hearth’s Warming (Christmas Special), Part 2

[Hearth’s Warming Eve, Ozzy’s POV, 7:40 a.m.]

I felt an unusual, yet pleasing sensation as I slowly woke up. I was strangely hot, slightly damp, and a little tight in a strange area. I get my senses into gear and used the dim lighting in the room to look around me. I turned my head to the left, and my face met with something soft, smooth, warm, and moving as it expands and retracts, light thumps that were coming from inside at a steady beat. Something grabbed my head from behind and pulled me closer to the purple objects while I was able to smell a strange mixture of cinnamon and something else I couldn’t recognize. I looked up and saw a muzzle of the same color with strands of hair splayed over it, reflecting to the dim light.

It was then that I realized my face was in Shining’s sweaty cleavage.

My insides warmed up while that strange area from earlier was getting tighter than usual. I carefully moved my head to the right, and noticed something was on my chest. I looked down and saw a bundle of hair in two shades of pink, a white horn poking out of it, and a matching muzzle laying across me. There was also a pair of mounds pressed against my stomach, and as I trailed down a white arm under the blanket, a hand was grabbing something over my night pants that was throbbing, the source of the tightness from earlier.

The second realization that came was Fleur has got my morning wood in a hold.

I tried to get a feel for where my hands were, my right lightly rubbing against something soft and velvet-like while my left grabbed something firm and squeezable. The girls made a shallow gasp in response as Shining pulled me closer to her breasts, and Fleur gripped my morning wood harder, still in their peaceful sleep. I noted my hands just rubbed one of Fleur’s ears and groped Shining’s ass.

Okay, I should be used to something like this by now, but the unconscious handjob is a new one for me. If I don’t do something to get out of this before it gets out of hand, I’m afraid one of us is in for a wet wake-up call.

I tried to quickly come up with an escape plan until I felt one more alien presence that skittered to my forehead. I looked up and everything went downhill in a single shriek.

“SPIDER!”

“AAAAAAAAGH!”

SMACK!

“GAAAAAAAUGH!”

[Shining’s POV, 9:30 a.m.]

“Here you go, Ozzy. And again, I’m really sorry for smacking you like that,” I said as I placed a plate of pancakes, eggs, and six strips of bacon while I forced a smile.

“And I’m sorry for, uh… choking your ‘jewels.’” Fleur apologized while mimicking my gesture.

“Let’s… just forget this ever happened. Oh god, my balls,” Ozzy said as he shifted a bag of frozen peas under the table.

Our first morning of Hearth’s Warming Eve with Ozzy wasn’t off to a good start. I woke up to him screaming with a spider on his face, and I squashed it in panic. Fleur somehow had her hand over his morning wood as she woke up screaming as well. In her time of fear, she smacked and squeezed his balls enough that they might have exploded if she kept going. The aftermath was so gruesome he had to shower for almost an hour to feel the slightest bit clean, and he was not only sore between the legs from Fleur’s death grip, but also from not releasing his storage that built up overnight.

Oh what I wouldn’t do to help him unwind and take care of his blue balls myself, but extra helpings of bacon will have to do for now.

“So you’re going to Fancy’s later to help prepare for the party?” I asked as we began eating, trying to steer away from the subject of earlier events.

“Yeah, he said he gave the service staff the next couple of days off so they’d spend the holiday with their families,” he explained. “Bubbles, Silver, Soarin and I are going to help set up the arrangements for the party later tonight.”

“Could we come and help?”

“NO!” he cried. Fleur and I almost jumped from our seats. “I mean, no, we’ll be totally fine. We got it covered.”

“Oh… okay.” The three of us continued eating in silence, an unsettling feeling in my stomach sinking into my seat that made me cringe.

Stupid Shining. We promised to give him the best Hearth’s Warming ever, and he gets a squashed spider and sore balls to start the day off. Now he doesn’t want to be anywhere near us so he won’t get hurt again. I don’t blame him for doing this, but still…

Fleur looked like she was having similar thoughts as she occasionally played with the food on her plate with folded ears. Once we finished breakfast, I cleaned the dishes and put them in the washer while Ozzy made phone calls to Fancy and Silver in another room. I prepared some tea for Fleur and I while Ozzy settled with some water as he waited for his ride. We heard sounds of a carriage crunching through the snow from outside until it came to a stop.

“I guess that’s my ride,” Ozzy said as he stood up. “I’ll be sticking around once we’re finished setting things up. So I’ll see you two there?”

“Yeah, sure. See ya, Ozzy,” Fleur bid. He walked out as we waved from the couch until the front door closed, leaving the two of us sighing. “We really messed up this morning, didn’t we?”

“Most likely,” I answered. “I’ve never seen him so defensive of us before. Did I really smack him that hard?”

“And I thought I didn’t have as much of a grip as you do,” she added. “Guess I don’t know my own strength.” We took a sip of our tea from the mugs. “Have you noticed how often Ozzy’s been visiting Fancy’s place lately?”

“Now that you mention it… yeah, like first thing in the morning after breakfast. Why did he go over there again?”

“A few times were about a few of Fancy’s service staff being sick and asking him for some help, then there was getting the decorations set up around the mansion for the holiday, and finally today, preparing for the party later tonight, at least that’s all what Ozzy said.” Fleur looked up as she took a long sip from her tea. Her irises suddenly shrank as she set the mug down and bit her knuckles. “Could it be that they’re really… no, that’s impossible. I know he’s not like that, and even if he was, we had an agreement.”

I raised an eyebrow at her mumbling. “Uh… Fleur? What are you talking about?”

She whipped her head back to me, paused, and then shook her head before rubbing her eyes. “Sorry, it’s nothing. I might be overthinking things, nothing to worry about.”

“Oookay,” I answered. “Anyway, he certainly takes a considerable amount of time over there before coming back for a late lunch. You think he might be working him too hard?”

“Absolutely not. He treats his service staff quite nicely, and his friends even more so. I highly doubt he’d make Ozzy go through something like that, or we’d see it every time he comes home.”

“True…” We took another sip of our tea to swallow our worries away. “You got his gift wrapped yet?”

“Indeed I do.” Her horn and hand were covered by a light pink aura as she floated an overly decorated gift from the closet to her lap. “He’ll love these boots I specially ordered and the wool socks to go with them. No longer will I have to worry about his poor feet getting cold from the harsh snow. What about you?”

“I was sure Ozzy would like some high quality sound from his laptop when he isn’t doing work on it, so I got him some speakers he could plug into, plus a cover for his tablet for good measure.”

“Practical, yet fun. I like it… What do you think Ozzy got for us?”

“I don’t know. He didn’t ask us anything about it since a few weeks ago, so he must have some idea of what to get. I’m not expecting anything big or fancy though, that’s for sure.”

“Same here.” We downed the rest of our tea and sighed. “A lot has happened over the past year, huh?” Fleur asked. “What do you think will happen when we move on to the next?”

“Who knows? I don’t even think the princesses would know something like that. I just hope Ozzy still stays with us. That’s the one thing I’d rather not change out of everything else.”

“Of course, and hopefully our relationship will go somewhere by then too.” We fell silent as we try to come up with something else to talk about, preferably something that doesn’t relate to our current relationship with him. “Toffee looks great in her pregnancy right now.”

“Oh I know. I’m positive they’ll have a healthy foal coming along.”

“You excited to be a mother soon?”

“Godmother, Fleur. Though the foal won’t belong to me, it’s still nice to know that I get to play a big role in his or her life.”

“Oh I’m sure it is. Still, being a mother must be something.” Fleur looked down at her stomach and rubbed her stomach. “Goodness, I’d look so fat if my pregnancy would be anything like Toffee’s.”

“Oh please, pregnant or not, you’ll still look fantastic. Besides, at least you have a chance to have foals.”

“Oh… Right, sorry.”

“It’s no trouble. You want more tea?”

“That would be lovely, thanks.”

[Fleur’s POV, 5:30 p.m.]

We made our way to Fancy’s mansion with our presents when it was nearly time for the party to start. I didn’t get a chance to see what his mansion looked like since we started our break, but when we got there, we were in awe of the display that could be seen from miles away.

With the daylight already dimming at the time, the mansion stood out with multicolored lights all over the roofs, walls, around windows, and even the chimney. There were also decorations in forms of lawn ornaments, same multicolored lights to shine the walkway towards the front door, and even neon ones where Windigos would flash with each step towards the path before a big heart erupting with flames would scare them off.

If Ozzy actually took part in setting up these decorations, I’m most certainly impressed.

The three of us made our way to the front and I rang the doorbell. When the door opened, Soarin in a hideous sweater was seen in the entry with lights and music pouring out from the inside. “Hey! You guys made it! Happy Hearth’s Warming!”

“Happy Hearth’s Warming to you too, Soarin,” I greeted with a smile.

“Well don’t just stand there waiting for Windigos to nip your noses, come on inside! Everypony else just made it before you three arrived.” We followed Soarin inside as the music got louder. Silver closed the door behind us and we made our way to the dining hall. We were greeted by our friends once we stepped inside, with a quarter of the long dining table stocked with snacks and pots and pans of freshly cooked food.

“Glad you guys could make it,” Bubbles greeted with Toffee sitting in a chair beside him.

“You might want to grab your helpings while you can,” Claire advised. “Toffee’s eating for two tonight, and Soarin’s got his eyes on the pies for quite some time now.”

“HEY! Save some food for the rest of us, or I’ll make ya burn it all off with twenty laps tomorrow!” Spitfire ordered

“Yipe! Yes Captain!”

A chuckle directed our attention to my brother making his way into the dining room. “Not to worry my friends, there’s plenty to go around with more to come. Toffee, my cooks are more than welcome to cater to whatever you crave tonight, so don’t be shy to make any requests.”

“Really? Well in that case, I’ll have chocolate drizzled hay bacon, a hayburger with extra onions and horseradish, and scrambled eggs with barbecue sauce please. Oh! And don’t forget to bring on the eggnog!” Everypony in the room stared at the round-bellied Toffee with mixed expressions of disgust, curiosity, and amazement.

“Hey Cap, you can have the rest here, I think I lost my appetite.” We all burst into laughter at Soarin’s woes.

I looked around and noticed one important party guest was missing. I stepped up to Fancy before he went into the kitchen. “Excuse me, Fancy? Where’s Ozzy?” I asked.

“Oh he’ll be down momentarily,” he answered. “Just cleaning himself up after all the hard work he put in for me for the last few weeks, including today.”

“Was it really that difficult setting up for the party?” Shiny asked. She looked back at the end of the dining table where the rest of our friends were gathered. “It looks really simple compared to what I’ve seen here before. It shouldn’t be that hard to set things up, right?”

“Oh trust me, after working with him, I know it will all pay off soon enough.” Shiny and I exchanged a raised brow at each other as Fancy made his way back into the kitchen.

The next couple of minutes we ate and chatted with the others. Toffee actually ended up with the food she wanted, and everypony besides Bubbles was grossed out from the presentation. Shiny looked like she’s getting along with Claire pretty well despite her worries from earlier. Bubbles and Silver were reminiscing old times while I talked with Spitfire and Soarin for a little bit.

Suddenly, a couple of claps drew our attention back to Fancy once more who came back inside. “May I have everypony’s attention, please? We have put together a special performance for you all in the dance hall. We’ll be starting in a couple minutes, so please gather around and follow me. You may bring your plates with you, but don’t dillydally!”

I looked around and there was still no sign of Ozzy. A mix of worry and annoyance was welling up inside me as I questioned why he hasn’t come to see us during dinner.

I know we gave him quite a hard time this morning, but it’s certainly no reason to avoid us on such a day like this. I’m going to have such a word with him when this is over.

We followed Fancy to the dance hall with our plates in hand. Along the way, I remembered Ozzy mentioning this morning about the colts in the room helped setting up for the party earlier too. We stood in front of the stage in the dance hall, Fancy left for the final preparations, giving me the perfect chance to ask them what happened today.

“Excuse me, boys?” Bubbles, Silver, and Soarin turned to me. “Has Ozzy acted strange today while you helped with the party decorations?”

“What do you mean helped with the party decorations?” Bubbles asked. “I was with Toffee the whole day.”

“It’s true,” she vouched.

“I didn’t come by to help either. Nopony asked,” Soarin said. “Should I have come though?”

“I only provided Oz the ride over here,” Silver added in. “I am as much in the dark about this situation as the rest of us here.”

“Yeah, where is Ozzy, anyway?” Claire asked.

“Did something happen earlier?” Spitfire asked.

Shiny and I looked at each other with concern.

Ozzy said he was helping with the party decorations with the guys, yet they didn’t even come by or seen him at all today. If that’s the case, then where does that…

Suddenly, the curtains on the stage opened, and our eyes widened. On the stage was Ozzy dressed up in a suit with styled hair and a mic in front of him, while Fancy was at the grand piano from behind. Ozzy tapped the mic, making thumping sounds from the surrounding speakers. “Testing, testing, one two three, can everypony hear me?” He asked into the mic. “Alright, thank you all for coming tonight. This song is an early Hearth’s Warming gift that goes to two very special friends of mine who I love dearly and don’t know where I’d be today without them. This makes up what I have felt for quite some time, and I hope you like it. Happy Hearth’s Warming.”

No… he couldn’t be.

Ozzy turned to Fancy on the piano and gave a nod. On cue, the piano began playing. I turned to Shiny who was getting just as red in the cheeks as I probably was. I looked back up on stage when Ozzy starts to sing. He wasn’t kidding when he said he was in a choir back on Earth, he might have been a great soloist too if his voice was that great. Throughout the song, his gaze was directed toward us, and I felt so much heat spreading throughout my body. He may not have come up with those lyrics, but even so, he looked and sounded like he meant every word he sang, making my eyes well up despite what the song said. A touch on my shoulder directed my attention to the source, which was Claire giving us a smile. I nodded to her and went back to Ozzy as he finished his song while Fancy played the last few notes on the piano.

The dance hall was filled with applause as Ozzy and Fancy took a bow. They stepped off stage and Ozzy walked over to Shiny and me. We embraced him tightly before he got a chance to speak.

“You idiot, do you know how worried we were when you left this morning?” Shiny asked.

“Huh? What do you mean?” He asked as we pulled back.

“I think she’s referring to how you were behaving before you left,” I explained. “You know, with what happened earlier, how you declined our offer to come help with the party decorations, and how serious you looked when you left… We thought you didn’t want to be anywhere near us.”

“Oh… I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to leave that kind of impression,” Ozzy apologized. “I didn’t want you two to come because of what I was really preparing for tonight. It was a surprise I came up with a few weeks back after hearing about how popular singing is here.”

“So… All those times you came here over the past few weeks doing those chores Fancy mentioned?” Shiny asked.

“Excuses I made up to have Fancy help me rehearse. I was honestly surprised he knew how to play the piano when I asked him for assistance, and he certainly helped me a lot over the last couple of rehearsals.”

“It was nice stretching out my piano fingers after not playing for so long,” Fancy commented, “and Oz having a background with music definitely made helping him sing an easy task. He must have been one heck of a Baritone-Tenor back in high school.”

“Anyway, I’m sorry for lying to you two over the past few weeks, and how I acted this morning,” Ozzy apologized again. “I just really wanted to put my all into this.”

“Well I think it was definitely worth it,” I said with a smile. “Probably the best Hearth’s Warming gift I’ve received in my life. Wouldn’t you agree?”

“Definitely,” Shiny answered with a nod. “Thank you, Ozzy.” The three of us went into one more hug while everypony else awed at the display of our friendship.

“I just have something I need to ask,” Soarin intervened. “What the heck was it that happened earlier you three kept talking about?”

My warmth of affection turned to heat of embarrassment as I felt my whole head burning up. Shiny and Ozzy looked like they were feeling the same way judging by how red they were getting. We tentatively pulled back and looked in different directions.

“Um… Nothing to worry about, really.”

“Yep. It’s come and gone, and we agreed things were okay.”

“Uh huh.”

Everypony in the room exchanged glances with raised brows while we tried to smile.

“Geez, what’s up with you three? You sound like you just got out of a poorly performed threesome on your first try,” Spitfire said.

“WHAT?!”

“Nothing like that happened this morning!” I exclaimed.

“Really? Your faces seem to say otherwise,” Toffee said.

“I’m telling you, we didn’t—”

“Whoa, Ozzy did a threesome? Way to go, dude! You scored big time!” Soarin interrupted Shiny with a thumbs up and a big grin.

“Soarin, shut up!” Ozzy exclaimed.

“Alright, alright, settle down everypony,” Fancy said. “What happened earlier this morning involves personal business between the three of them that we all shouldn’t pry.”

Finally! Thank you, Fancy, for bringing up the point.

“After all, it’s as they say: a gentlecolt doesn’t kiss and tell.”

I’m going to fucking rip out that mustache of yours in your sleep!

“Speaking of kissing, look up there,” Claire interrupted as we all looked up to where she was pointing. Above the three of us was one of the few mistletoes that were hung up around the dance hall.

“Oh…” Ozzy said before his cheeks turned red.

“Wait, what? What’s going on? It’s just a mistletoe, so what?” Shiny asked.

“I’m glad you asked,” Fancy said. “Since we have two people from another world, I thought I’d set up something to give our new friends a little taste of home. According to one of their world’s ‘Christmas traditions,’ as they say, should a pair be caught under one of these mistletoes…” He glanced towards us with a smirk on his face. “They have to kiss.”

The hall was filled with “ooo’s” as heat rose into my face once more.

W-wait… I get to kiss Ozzy? Here? In front of everypony else? I’m not sure if I should be jumping and screaming for joy or hide under one of the tables right now.

“Well, come on you three! Let’s see some smoochin’!” Spitfire said.

“How would this work? The three of them were caught under it, so would they all have to kiss each other?” Claire asked.

“Alright! We get to see the mares kissing too! Let’s get it on!” Soarin cheered.

Chants were coming from the rest of the ponies as Shiny, Ozzy, and I looked at each other with flushed faces.

“I don’t think we can get out of this,” Ozzy said.

“Pretty sure they won’t stop until we do it,” I said. “How do we decide who goes first?”

Shiny was already on it as she took out a bit from her pocket and did a coin toss. Once she peeked on the top of her hand, she sighed. “I called tails and it ended up heads. So Fleur, you’re up first.”

Ozzy and I stared at each other while everypony else was chanting “KISS! KISS! KISS!”

This is it… My first kiss with Ozzy on Hearth’s Warming Eve. I feel like my heart’s going to burst out of my chest from beating so hard.

We stepped closer while our eyes were locked on each other. Time seemed to slow down as our lips were taking hours just to move an inch towards to their targets, my vision goes black as I closed my eyes, and I eagerly waited for us come into contact while I heard nothing but my increasing heartbeat and a low, high pitch screaming…

Wait, where’s that screaming coming from?

“EVERYPONY GET DOWN! SOMETHING’S COMING TOWARDS US!”

“AAAAAAAAH!”

CRASH! THUMP! THUMP! SCREEEEEEECH!

Dead silence filled the air when the noise came down. I open my eyes, and found myself on the ground with Shiny at my side, both of us under Ozzy who was trying to spread himself over us as a shield from the blast.

“Are you two alright?” Ozzy asked.

“I’m fine, Shiny?”

“Uh huh.”

We sat up and looked at the aftermath. Shards of glass were all over the floor from the broken window. The three of us went over to the source of the crash as everypony else got up and asked each other if they were alright. When we got there, we met with a familiar white pegasus with the messy yellow mane and tail who groaned from pain.

“Did I make it?” Surprise asked.

“Surprise? I don’t remember inviting you to the party,” Fancy said. “It started a while ago.”

“No, not that.” Surprise sat up and popped out some kinks from her sore body. “My seventh cousin four times removed who lives in Ponyville sent me a message to give this to Ozzy at this exact time and place.” She reached into her mane and pulled out a letter before handing it over to Ozzy. “Happy Hearth’s Warming.”

The three of us exchanged raised brows and looked down at the letter in Ozzy’s hands. He opened it up, pulled out and unfolded a piece of paper.

“Sorry, Ozzy, you’ll have to wait for that kiss in the main story as this one right now isn’t canon,” Ozzy read aloud. “My Pinkie Sense said so. Good luck with the girls, Pinkie Pie. P.S. This chapter will end in eight words… Wait, chapter, what the heck’s she talking about—”

Author's Note

Happy Hearth's Warming, Merry Christmas to all, and may I be struck with loads of hate!

Until next time,

This is Dudeler, signing off.