The sun was usually an indicator of a warm day. After all, its warmth and beauty were defining features in the seasons of spring and summer, and many a pony liked to spread themselves in the grass, letting their bodies soak up the sun's rays. The plants absorbed the light to grow, turning into lush and green organisms of beauty or delicious food. It was an understatement to say that ponies were thankful for the heavenly body that Princess Celestia had power over.
Still... why the hay was it cold today?!
Cheese Sandwich liked the sun well enough; but today, he was grumbling about how it was not doing its job. Sure, winter was just around the corner and that meant snow; but could the temperature be just a little bit higher until he got home?
He shivered under his serape, wishing he had taken his brother's advice about a longer sleeved shirt. His frosty hooves ached as they crunched the fallen leaves on the path he was on. And his nostrils felt raw from breathing in the frigid air, and he could feel a sneeze coming on.
He looked at the rubber chicken on his back. "You doing okay, Boneless 2? Don't worry; we're almost there. Almost home to Pinkie... and Pizza... and Fu... Fu--WAH-CHOO!" The sneeze was strong enough to send him into the air, and some confetti had appeared as a result of his sneeze. He drifted back down to earth, and finished the sentence. "And Fudge."
Just thinking about his wife and four-year-old twins was already warming him up. He couldn't wait for the festive greeting that Pinkie was sure to give him, and there was no doubt that the twins were going to cling to him, with his son Pizza Pockets excitedly recounting a tale of eating a bug or something and his daughter Fudge Fondue just peppering his cheeks with kisses.
He could see the tip of Twilight's castle appear as he went over the hill, and the tip was followed by the spire, and the spire followed by the crystalline tree that was the home of the Princess of Friendship. He stopped upon reaching the hill's peak, and looked over Ponyville. It was strange to call it his home after years of not having one; but if anything, wherever Pinkie was, that was where his home was.
A familiar shout and a familiar squeal reached his ears, and he looked down the hill. He grinned from ear to ear upon seeing two toddler foals bolting up the hill. One was a colt with a coat that matched Cheese's and had a head of red-orange curls under a green propeller beanie; the other was a pink filly, with her chocolate curls dangling over her head and blue-rimmed glasses perched on her muzzle. And both had large smiles on their faces, hollering in unison, "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!"
Cheese sat down and spread his front legs out wide, letting the pair crash into him, making his hat fly off and his back making contact with the cold, hard ground. He was going to be sore after that, but he didn't care. Laughing, he hugged them tightly and tousled their manes. He released his daughter, who immediately crawled up to his face and started rapidly kissing him on the cheek.
He sat back up, and the filly slid back down beside her brother. Cheese smiled warmly at his children, taking in the excited gleams in their teal eyes. "Ahaha, look at you two! You just keep get bigger and bigger with every return home!"
The colt jumped back, stood up on his hind legs, and flexed. "I been getting stronger, too!" He growled with each flex of his not-so-obvious muscles. "I'll be a stallion in no time!"
Cheese laughed. "Don't grow up too fast on me, Pizza!" He gently pushed his daughter's nose. "And that goes for you too, Fudge. By the way, sweetheart, love the glasses, they look absolutely adorable on you!"
Fudge blushed and twiddled her hooves. "Thank you."
Cheese looked up at the still flexing Pizza. "Oh, yep, yep I can see those muscles you've got. You been working out with Bulk Biceps?"
Pizza fell back down to four hooves and nodded. "He let me lift some of his weights!" He picked up a nearby stick and roared before throwing it in some random direction.
Cheese laughed. "Careful, don't hit any squirrels. Now, where's your mother? Doesn't she usually come with you two?"
"We were playing with our friends before Daddy Sense come on," Fudge explained.
"Yeah, it was really buzzy, and turned my hair straight! But it's curled again," Pizza exclaimed. "But not Fudgy's, her hair don't go straight, so it just went 'poof'."
Fudge frowned. "It ruined my hair..."
"I'll be happy to fix it for you, Fudgy..." Cheese said. "Where's your ribbon?"
Fudge produced a yellow ribbon, and Cheese immediately took it and tied her mane into a small, but curly ponytail--or rather a "bunny tail". When he was finished, he said, "Okey-dokey, it's done. Say, you two didn't answer my question of where Mommy is!"
"Home," they answered bluntly.
Cheese set Fudge down, and stood up. "Well, let's go on home and see what she's up to! Then we'll throw a nice little family party with just the four of us, m'kay?"
With simultaneous cheers, they leapt forward and clung to his front legs, looking up at him with wide smiles on their faces. Fudge was especially showing off her little dimples, until she buried her face in his leg. With a sigh, Cheese walked down the hill, knowing that once those two clung on, they would not let go until tickled. And he was in no position to tickle them.
Still, at least the twins made good leg warmers. It was easier to ignore the cold now, though it would be slower going home.
They reached the bottom of the hill, and Cheese trudged forward with his leg passengers, just marching right into town. Ponies that were going about their day suddenly noticed him, and greeted him warmly. Cheese would have tipped his hat in reply, but given the extra weight on his legs, he merely nodded in acknowledgement to the ponies around him.
"Dad! Dad! Watch this!"
Cheese looked down at Pizza, who was puffing out visible breaths. The colt looked back up and announced, "I'm a dragon! Like Spike!"
"And a fierce one you are," Cheese replied.
The next thing he knew, he felt another form land on his back. With an "Oof!", Cheese paused in his walk, and turned to find a green unicorn filly on his back, right behind Boneless 2. "Uh, hello? Who are you?"
"I'm Jade!" the unicorn replied. "Are you Pizza and Fudgy's dad?"
"Well, yeah." Cheese pursed his lips. "I'm, uh, trying to go home?"
Jade didn't seem to register that, so Cheese said, "That means you have to--"
The very next moment, a pegasus colt latched onto his tail. Cheese leaned some more, and the colt seemed to be enjoying the taste. The little foal noticed Cheese looking at him, and waved, with a muffled, "It tastes like pie!"
Cheese chuckled nervously. "Well, I did have a few pie fights in some recent parties..." Cheese started to move again, with his walk much slower now that there was extra weight on him. All four of the foals on him were giggling, while he tried to think of a way to get Jade and the pegasus to leave as nicely as possible.
A blue unicorn colt then jumped him from the front, and started to poke him with his horn. "Die, Sandwich, die!"
Cheese looked at the colt in horror. "'Die?' Now that's just mean."
Fudge stuck her tongue out at the colt. "No! Don't kill our daddy, Pinhead!"
Cheese gave his daughter a funny look. "Hey, now, don't call him names..."
Fudge blinked. "But... that is his name."
Cheese blinked, and then looked at the colt trying to kill him. Who names their kid that? he wondered. He watched as Pizza tried to come to Cheese's rescue by trying to clamp onto Pinhead's tail, only for his teeth to keep missing the wavy, two-toned purple hair that hung from said tail. Taking a deep breath, Cheese trudged forward yet again, noticing the murmurs and the laughter of the Ponyville citizens.
Cheese cleared his throat. "Okay, all foals that are not mine, please get off and return to your parents."
The three foals that had hitched a ride on him stared blankly, until they said in unison, "Nah."
Cheese groaned. "Look, I know you want to play, but--"
And yet again he was interrupted by another unicorn foal jumping onto him, and this filly hung from the side, looking up pleadingly at Jade to help her up. Jade stared at the other filly, before trying to kick her off. In retaliation, the other filly tried to push her off, resulting in screams from the both of them.
"Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa! No fighting!" Cheese snapped. "Sheesh, I have enough room on my back, you know."
A magenta filly came next, sitting on the back of his neck, clinging to his mane, and saying, "Giddyup!"
Cheese snorted, stopping once again in his tracks. "Okay, everypony who is not my kid, please get off!"
The foals were quiet for a moment, before they all proudly stated, "NOPE!"
Cheese tried to shake them off, and he was soon trudging forward again, with him now trying to shake off the foals that were refusing to get off. He tried to whip his tail out of the pegasus colt's mouth, but the colt held on, letting himself be swung up and down by Cheese's attempts to lose him. The two unicorn fillies were still fighting, with Fudge shouting at them to stop, and Pinhead was still trying to stab him in the neck, with Pizza trying to grab his tail to drag him down. The nub of the horn was not sharp enough to break the skin, but it was enough for it to be painful with repeated pokes. The magenta filly was just clinging onto his mane, bouncing on his and shouting, "Giddyup! Giddyup!"
He looked around at the townsponies, who were charmed by the fact he was giving the foals a ride, but were oblivious to his growing aggravation with the situation. "Can't they see I'm not smiling? Ugh, times like this make being a party pony a little frustrating."
Three little baby ponies suddenly popped up in his mane, and knocked off his hat. A couple more foals caught the hat, and one wore it, even though it was too big for his head. Cheese sighed.
"Come on, kids!" he complained. "As fun as playtime is, I'm trying to get home to my wife!"
The foals still laughed, and ordered him to keep marching. Jade was kicking him and telling him to go faster, even though he couldn't. Pinhead still tried to stab him, and all the others were clamoring and fidgeting to the point that it was getting really uncomfortable.
Cheese took a deep breath. "Look on the bright side, Cheese... at least you're warmer, and you can't feel the cold anymore."
That was when Jade sneezed, and used Cheese's poncho as a tissue. The other unicorn filly sneezed as well, and did the same. Pinhead sneezed on his chest, and the pegasus colt released Cheese's tail in a sneeze, before latching onto it once again. Soon all the foals were sneezing, including Pizza and Fudge, who at least were polite enough not to sneeze onto his legs. Of course, Cheese sneezed as well, much to the shock of the foals clinging onto his mane, and he thought he heard Boneless 2 sneeze.
He laughed nervously. "All right, kids, time to get off!" They ignored him, still clamoring and pulling at every part of his body. "Seriously, get off!" They still ignored him, and still spurred him to keep on walking. "Please! Come on, it's the magic word!"
After what felt like hours, but was more likely minutes, he found his house in sight. Panting, he said, "Come on, kids, please get off now!" Once again, he was ignored, and still he ambled on forward, having decided that Pinkie was his last chance to get free.
Right on cue, Pinkie Pie opened the front door, shivered for a moment, and bounced on out. She stopped once she saw Cheese, having been piled on by foals and bearing a sheepish grin on his face. After staring at him for a moment, she giggled, and hollered, "Who wants some hot chocolate?!"
Every one of the foals' ears perked up, and they all peeled themselves off of Cheese, and all ran into the house, cheering over the offer of hot chocolate. The only foals that didn't do so were Pizza and Fudge, who simply leapt forward to hug their mother. Pinkie was happy to hug back, and once the hug was done, she walked to Cheese, who had collapsed in a tired heap. She helped him up and hugged him, which Cheese gladly returned.
"I'm so, so, so happy you're back, Cheesy!" Pinkie said, nuzzling him. "It's almost winter, and I was worried you'd turn into a Cheesicle before you came back!"
Cheese took a deep whiff of Pinkie's cotton candy smell. "It's a good thing I didn't." They broke the hug and looked into each other's eyes. "And man, oh, man do I have stories to tell you guys! Well, other than the one that just came at our doorstep with me."
Pinkie giggled. "Silly!"
She grabbed his face and kissed him, right in front of the twins. Both recoiled in disgust, with Pizza gagging and sticking his tongue out, and Fudge covering her eyes.
Cheese and Pinkie broke the kiss, and the latter announced, "Well, come on! Let's get some hot chocolate!"
The twins cheered and ran into the house, and Pinkie led Cheese in. The latter sighed, having wanted to just relax with his family when he got home. But, a little hot chocolate party with several four-year-olds would have to do.
Author's Note
This was an idea that had been in my head ever since my "Thread o' Brainstorm" several months ago. Admittedly, this piece would have been more appropriate for Father's Day, instead of writing it at Christmastime, but who cares, you get another story from me. 
But, nevertheless, this is just for fun.
