Cadance bundled herself further into her large, pink winter coat, a slight breeze causing a shiver to pass through her body as she stood outside of the Castle of Friendship. The towering structure had festive lights decorating its surface, a sure sign that its owner had sought out the help of the premiere party pony of Ponyville to make it as festive as possible for the holiday. They had certainly done an amazing job; as soon as Cadance had departed off of the train from the Crystal Empire she had seen the bright glow of the Castle far off in the distance, a beacon for her to follow towards her destination.

The Princess of Love looked behind her, the small town of Ponyville very much alive even this deep into the night. She smiled as she saw several couples out in the snow, some taking pleasant walks around town as they gazed up at the snow falling around them while others sat cuddling on benches, huddled together to shield themselves from the cold winter night. There was always something about the holidays, the crisp air surrounding her more saturated with love now than at any other time of the year. Above her, the flakes of white snow descending towards the ground had replaced the stars of the night sky, thousands of frosty specks illuminated in the lights of Ponyville as they seemed to float in the air.

Cadance sighed out in contentment from the feeling that spread through her body as she surveyed the town. With one last glance at a couple kissing underneath mistletoe that had been hung from a street lamp, she turned back around towards the Castle and began to walk down the pathway towards the door. Small lights lined each side of the road, each one in festive shapes such as a snowflake or a wrapped gift. Her attention was drawn towards the end of the path as eight special ornaments sat before the grand door of the Castle of Friendship, each one in the shape of a pony’s cutie mark. There was one for each of the former element bearers as well as one for herself and her husband, Shining Armor.

‘How pretty… I’ll have to ask Twilight where she got them from. They would look great in the crystal gardens…’

She took a moment to stare at the one of her beloved husband’s mark, a light illuminating the violet star at the center of the blue shield. Each of the three stars that sat on top of the shield twinkled in the night, the lights within syncopated as they lit up in waves from left to right. It was too bad he wasn’t here to shelter her from the cold, his strong body holding her close to shield her from the dropping dots of ice falling from the sky. She grinned, thinking about what she had planned for the rest of the night.

‘I guess I’ll be seeing him soon enough, anyways…’

Lifting her hoof towards the door, she let it rap against it three times before waiting. It only took a moment before it swung open, revealing the smiling face of her sister-in-law.

“Cadance! Happy Hearth’s Warming!” Twilight immediately went into position, Cadance smiling as she did the same.

“Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake, clap your hooves and do a little shake!”

The two shared a laugh at the old dance shared between foal-sitter and sittee, embracing each other in a warm hug. Twilight was the first to pull away, her mouth split in a grin as she did. “It's so good to see you again, Cadance! We haven’t had enough time to hang out, what with you ruling over an Empire and me, well…” - she waved her hoof at the Castle around her, - “dealing with all this!” She turned around, beckoning Cadance to follow as she made her way down the hallway. “I’m sure the girls will be excited to see you, too! It’s not everyday my favorite sister-in-law gets to visit, even less so on the holidays!”

Cadance playfully rolled her eyes at her. “Twilight, unless something strange happened since the last time I’ve seen you, I’m pretty sure I’m your only sister-in-law.”

Twilight sheepishly blushed, bringing a hoof up to rub at the back of her head in embarrassment. “Oh yeah, right.” She paused for a moment, Cadance stopping just as she entered the Castle and turning towards Twilight as the purple mare’s eyebrows scrunched up in thought. Cadance waited for a few seconds, worry starting to grow for each second that went by as Twilight didn’t make even the slightest of moves. She was about to bump her in the shoulder with a hoof to see if she was okay when Twilight finally opened her mouth. “Ah! I figured out what’s missing… or, I guess, WHO'S missing…” Twilight looked around the room as if expecting somepony to jump out of the shadows. “Where’s Shiny?”

Her wince at the question luckily went unnoticed by her naive sister-in-law, Cadance reaching up to scratch the back of her head just as Twilight had. “Uh… well… he’s a little… tied up at the moment?” she half-stated half-questioned.

Shining Armor sighed out from boredom as he laid upon the bed. At least, he assumed it was a bed, whatever kind of blindfold his wife had covered his eyes with preventing him from seeing. In fact, he couldn’t really do much of anything at the moment. Each of his limbs was pulled taut towards four different corners of whatever he was on, giving him very limited options in terms of mobility. He had been like this for what felt like ages now and he began to wish he hadn’t agreed to whatever his wife wanted to do for Hearth’s Warming.

All she had told him was that she had something special in mind, something that would make it the best Hearth's Warming night ever, and then before he knew it his vision and hearing were taken from him. He wasn't even sure where he was, only figuring out that Cadance had taken him somewhere by train and then teleported him by magic from feeling alone. And now he waited, his wife promising him she would make it worthwhile if he just stayed put until she returned. He was doing okay for a while, up until around the time an itch formed right at the tip of his nose…

“Oh… that’s too bad…” A small flash of sadness crossed Twilight's face, quick enough that Cadance almost missed it before it turned back into a smile as she once again started to walk down the hall. “I’m sure he’s real busy, especially this time of year. You guys must be swamped with tourists coming to spend Hearth’s Warming up near where the whole legend took place.”

Cadance absentmindedly hummed an affirmative as she took the chance to really look her sister-in-law over for the first time since she had arrived. It was amazing how just a couple-inch growth spurt from becoming an Alicorn had really caused Twilight to look more, well, like an adult. Gone was the meek little filly that spent just about every hour of the day with her head buried in books, replaced by a grown mare that walked with confidence in each step she took. Of course, she had become more of a mare in more areas than one, but Cadance pulled her gaze away before she could get too much of an eyeful. She instead let her eyes wander towards her sister-in-law’s hooves, a small smile forming on her face as she saw that Twilight had dressed herself up for the holidays. Red stockings that reached up to the halfway point of her leg clung to all four of her hooves, a cute ring of white fluff framing the sock at the top. Further up, Cadance could see that she was wearing an adorable red hat on the top of her head, the entire set up complete with a small clip in her hair of a piece of mistletoe.

Cadance found it strange that Twilight would be so bold as to put mistletoe on her head for all to see, but instead of calling her out on it, she beat around the bush with a similar question. “You certainly seem to be in the Hearth’s Warming spirit. It’s not like you to get so dressed up for such a casual get-together.”

Twilight stopped for a moment, a small blush on her face as she waved Cadance off. “What, this? This is just some stuff Rarity had lying around that she wanted me to wear. Except for the clip, that came from Rainbow. She says it's some kind of pegasus tradition or something. I think it looks nice.”

Cadance smiled. ‘Ah, so that’s how it is. Twilight always told me that mare was one heck of a prankster…’

The pair reached the end of the hall, Twilight opening the door in front of them with her magic to reveal the room beyond. What Cadance recognized as the Map Room had been done up for the holidays, Hearth’s Warming banners streaming across the branches of the tree above the table with large snowflake ornaments hanging from the ceiling all around it. Folding tables had been set up against each wall of the room, stacks upon stacks of sweet treats taller than Cadance herself waiting for someone to devour them. She couldn’t help but laugh as Pinkie Pie came into view, grabbing onto a side of one of the tables and tipping it towards her to slide all the treats into her gaping maw just as Rainbow Dash was reaching for a cupcake.

‘Wow, I gotta figure out that mare’s exercise plan…’ the Princess thought to herself.

Shining Armor grinned triumphantly at another disaster averted. ‘Take that, itchy nose!’ Of course, he felt kind of embarrassed that he had forgotten his magic for a moment, using it to scratch his nose only after he had exhausted every other option available to him. His neck still hurt from when he had tried to turn it way too far to the side in order to rub his nose on whatever it was that he was lying on.

Still grinning, he relaxed his body once more as he continued to wait for his wife. The grin quickly turned to a frown when his stomach gurgled up at him, taunting him with its emptiness.

‘Dang it…’

Pinkie gave out an earth-shaking belch, meekly saying "sorry" to the pegasus she had robbed of a cupcake. When she turned her attention to the doorway, her eyes grew wide and she gasped in excitement. The pink mare practically teleported over to Cadance, jumping up and down in excitement as she went off on one of her trademark Pinkie Pie monologs. The rest of the mares seated at the table turned to see what the commotion was about, and seeing as a new guest had arrived they all got up to welcome her. As she was surrounded by ponies seeking to greet her, Cadance smiled and decided to settle into the party for a bit.

‘I’m sure Shining won’t mind if I enjoy myself for a little while…’

30 minutes later...

‘Man… this sucks!’

Shining’s belly once again growled up at him in response.

‘Shut up…’

Cadance leaned back in her chair, patting her overfilled belly with a hoof while softly groaning out. She figured she would regret that fourth slice of cake later, but for now, the sugary bliss that flooded her body simply brought a smile to her face. The rest of the girls seemed to be in the same boat as her, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash especially so as they appeared to be in a sweets-induced coma. The only ponies who seemed capable of still moving around were Applejack, who was currently making up some hot chocolate in the kitchen for everyone to enjoy, and Twilight, the purple mare checking up on her guests and asking if they needed anything, just as she had read in the guide she had used to prepare herself to host the party, 'Hosting a Holiday Party 101'.

Cadance closed her eyes and rested for a moment. It was quite the party; plenty of food, plenty of friends, and plenty of good times to be had. She really needed to compliment Applejack and Pinkie on a job well done with the catering, but the bloated feeling from her already pregnant belly told her to rest for a while longer. She looked at the other ponies seated across the table, each sitting in large stone chairs emblazoned with the unique cutie mark that each mare possessed. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie had gotten into a brutal cupcake eating contest, the ferocity with which they attacked the confectionary delights shown by the crumbs that littered their fur and the frosting that laid upon their lips. Rainbow was on her back, head resting on one hoof-rest of the chair while her legs hung off the other side. Pinkie was in more of a normal pony sitting position, but her head was planted onto the table in front of her. Cadance was almost certain that a cupcake had been crushed by the pink mare’s face, another fallen soldier on the battlefield of treats versus partying mares.

Rarity and Fluttershy seemed to have had better restraint with eating, each mare now taking small sips of hot cocoa as they chatted. Rarity had a simple but elegant white jacket covering her body, the furry white rim of the hood settled on her back framing her makeup covered face perfectly. Fluttershy had taken a much more casual approach to her attire; a simple scarf that hung around her neck and a cute pair of pink earmuffs that protected her ears from the cold, both of which sat next to her in the chair. Cadance felt like asking Rarity why she was still wearing her jacket even while indoors but shrugged it off as a fashion thing, something the fashionista would know a lot more about than her.

Twilight walked up to her sister-in-law, two steaming mugs in the grasp of her magic as she took the seat next to Cadance. She levitated one of the mugs over to her, asking as she took a sip from her own, “Hot cocoa?”

Cadance accepted the offered drink, muttering a “thank you” before taking a small sip of the chocolaty brew. The warmth spread throughout her body as she drank, a smile crossing her face as she relaxed further into the chair. She took a glance at the clock, checking to see what time it was…

‘Oh, crap!’

Already a half-an-hour had gone by, and she had left her husband tied up and alone! Looking over to Twilight, hoping the panic she felt went unnoticed by the purple mare, and asked, “Hey, not to rush things along, but can we get to the gifts? I'm kinda beat after the train ride.”

The studious mare placed her mug on the table in front of her before floating over the party guide over. “Hmm… well, if I move this here… I guess we can do that later… uh… yeah, I don’t see why we couldn’t do presents now.”

The mention of presents got the attention of the other mares around the table, Pinkie and Rainbow reincarnating from the cold depths of their desert-death as they jumped off their seats in excitement. Even Rarity and Fluttershy seemed to be somewhat enthusiastic at the prospect of opening gifts, though not nearly as much as the sugar-filled pair that grabbed Twilight and drug her towards the table. Cadance followed behind the flailing Princess of Friendship, chuckling at her sister-in-law’s misfortune. The purple pony pouted as she was pulled along the path to the presents, pleading with Pinkie to put her down.

The pair of ponies only released her when they reached the tower of tantalizing presents on the table. Each of the mares had bought a gift for all the other members of the group as well as Cadance, creating a large mountain of colorfully wrapped boxes just waiting to be opened. After Rarity took a short detour to the kitchen in order to round up the apple mare still brewing hot chocolate, she and Applejack joined the rest of their friends at the table as everyone began to open gifts.

Cadance did her best to keep things flowing quickly and smoothly, passing out gifts to their intended recipient immediately after the ponies in question had finished unwrapping their previous present. She took another peek at the clock, wincing as she saw that another couple of minutes had already ticked by. The Princess of Love soon found herself without any further packages to hoof out, frowning as each pony now had a small stack of gifts next to them due to taking the time to thank whomever the present had been from.

Applejack got a good cry out of Rainbow, the apple-emblazoned wrapping paper covering the greatest gift the cerulean flier could have ever imagined; a mini-keg of a special Apple Family Holiday Cider brew. As the mare hugged Applejack as hard as she could, the other’s receiving the same exact gift and only politely thanking her in return, the orange mare opened up the gift she got from the pony strangling her. She wasn’t very surprised at what the long tube had contained, a large poster of the Wonderbolts unraveling in front of her. She thanked Rainbow, once again the other’s receiving the same exact thing with mixed reactions towards the gift.

Not surprisingly, Rarity’s gift had the exact opposite reaction from her friends; those who liked the poster were not very impressed with the gift card to the Ponyville spa as the fashionista and Fluttershy exchanged a happy embrace. Pinkie gave the gift of even more sweets, everypony keeping the bag of candies closed due to their already full stomachs. Except, of course, for the pink mare herself, who no one questioned as she swallowed the bag of candies whole, bag and all, that she had gifted to herself. Fluttershy ended up being the most creative of the group, hand stitched outfits for everyponies' pets ‘just in case their itty bitty feet get too cold in the snow’. Last but not least was Twilight, everypony staring at the notoriously bad gift-giver with a blank look as she handed each of them the usual rectangular-shaped gift. Twilight blushed, waving at her friends to hurry up and open the gifts, which led to a soft gasp from the ponies as they did.

Twilight’s gift was a framed picture of her and all of her friends, each one with a personalized border that showcased the cutie marks of the giftee etched into the wood. Pinkie immediately darted over to her friend, wrapping her up in a spine-breaking hug that eventually drew all the others like a moth to a flame. Cadance waited a moment, looking down at her one-of-a-kind picture of Shining, Twilight, and her lined up for a picture at the royal wedding. She looked over at the seething pile of hugging ponies, a small tear coming to her eye as she made her decision.

‘Ah, buck it… Shining can wait a little while longer…’

Shining laid alone, darkness swirling around within his mind as he awaited his demise. Had it been days,... months,... years? What had caused his love to abandon him within this Tartarus forsaken room? Left chained to something he wished he could just incinerate with one furious bolt of magic. His stomach spoke to him once again, pleading him for anything to sate the painful hunger that consumed him. The once proud stallion, former Captain of the Canterlot Guard and now Prince of the Crystal Empire, could feel a tear begin to form in his eyes with images of corn dogs dancing before him as he felt the last shred of his life fall into the dark abyss…

That was until a ring fastened around the base of his stallionhood suddenly started to vibrate, Shining grabbing onto the edge of life and quickly crawling his way back into the light. The spear sheathed within the bundle of flesh just above his balls began to rise up towards the sky, a beacon that he hoped signaled the approach of his savior, Cadance.

Cadance led the group of ponies down the hallway, bumping up the speed on the vibrator controller she had concealed from the rest of the group. She looked behind her at the oblivious mares, Rainbow taking swigs from the keg of cider as she flew above the group, almost slamming into decorations that filled the hall. After the group hug session had come to an end, Twilight had pointed out that Cadance had seemed to have forgotten to bring any gifts. The Princess of Love had panicked for a moment, almost about to slam her hoof into her face for forgetting the gifts on the desk all the way back in the Crystal Empire. Her brain scrambled for something, anything that could save face and rectify her mistake. The answer had come along with a devious grin, turning around and waving at the mares to follow her up to the guest bedchambers.

‘Well, seeing as he’s been so patient, I might as well reward him…’

And so the group marched their way down the hall, Cadance leading them like the band leader in a marching line. Pinkie Pie bounced directly behind Cadance, attempting to guess what the gift that had to be kept a secret in the guest bedrooms could be. Cadance grinned at the pink mare’s guesses, so far off that she knew that they could never figure out just what it is that she had in store for them…

Of course that was until she reached her hoof up to open the door, Pinkie Pie gasping one final time as she stood stone-still behind Cadance. Before she could even turn around, Pinkie practically shouted out, “You secretly brought Shining Armor here by teleporting the both of you from the landing at the train station and have him tied up on the bed using holiday-themed bondage gear and your original plan was to have fun with him tonight but the party went on longer than you had anticipated so you felt bad and then felt even baderer when you forgot our gifts all the way back at your castle so you decided to share him with us instead!?”

Cadance could only stand there like a deer caught in a magic light. Her mouth opened without releasing a sound, her hoof still resting on the door. The other mare’s looked at Pinkie with a mix of confusion and embarrassment, most notably in Fluttershy who had her entire face hidden beneath her mane as she laid herself on the floor below. Seeing as her mind couldn’t form any kind of coherent thought, she decided to dive into the deep end and opened the door for all to see what her gift actually was.

There, laying on the bed, was her husband, Shining Armor. It wasn’t that which brought the surprised gasp from the group of mares, it was the fact that Pinkie had been spot on with her prediction. The stallion was on his back, rear legs spread to show off everything to anypony who wished to see. And what a sight it was; a bright-red Hearth’s Warming stocking had been put over his stallionhood and stood straight up to point at the ceiling, the shaft hidden underneath it fully engorged and twitching in need as a ring vibrated at its base. The bottom of the shaft laid bare, the ring slightly constricting it and causing noticeable veins to bulge out along its surface. The top of the stocking had a piece of string coming out of it that went down to his balls, dangling a piece of mistletoe just above the two meaty orbs, waiting for anypony to come over and kiss it.

Further down, at the base of his tail, was a beautiful bow large enough to mostly cover the bulge of his puckered plothole. Each of the girls followed the curves of his legs and thighs down to his hooves, each one having cute candy-cane-striped socks pulled up to his knees that perfectly melded with the pure-white of his coat. Even after Applejack gave an amazed whistle at the sight, the prone stallion did not move an inch. The reason became clearer with each step they took towards the bound male.

Strips of cloth had been tied around each of his hooves and spread him out in all directions. A wide red ribbon, usually used to tie together a gift to be given on the holiday, had been wrapped around Shining’s head and acted as an impromptu blindfold. A large pair of puffy white earmuffs sat atop his head and covered his ears, preventing him from hearing anything but vague and indistinct mumbles. They found out that he couldn’t even call out to them, a large Hearth’s Warming ornament stuffed into his mouth that forced him to breath in through his nose.

Even with most of his senses blocked Shining could tell somepony had entered the room. The distinct smell of a mare wafted over his nostrils, only a small amount of it from his wife. He would have grinned if not for the gag in his mouth, so instead he gave a groan and a small thrust of his hips to try to entice his unseen guests. He could feel their gazes upon him, focused on the rod between his legs that rocked back and forth from the force of his thrust.

‘Aw yeah… now we’re talking… This is my kind of Hearth’s Warming!’

Author's Note

Happy holidays, everypony!

Sorry about the ending, I had hoped to finish this in time for Christmas but between a cold and a certain chapter of Cadance and the Art of Diplomacy going longer than I had anticipated I decided to split it up into chapters. The chapter should be posted before the end of the weekend, so prepare yourselves!

As usual, tell me in a comment below what you did or didn't like. I am my own editor, so I wouldn't be surprised if there's a mistake here or there. Make sure to leave some constructive criticism if you didn't like it; I'm always looking to improve! If you want to see the rest quicker, the best motivation is a nice complement and a thumbs up!