I'll Be Home For Hearth's Warming
Sunset Shimmer was in heaven. There was a freezing blizzard outside her red-brick apartment, howling away through the bitter winter night. But she was inside, with a roaring fireplace set right in front of her couch. The same couch she’d snuggle into on many a night such as this back when she was a little filly. A couch that was deep, and soft…
Having a boy on it with her, tucked into the depths of a fuzzy Hearth’s Warming blanket didn’t hurt either.
“Mmmm, Flash…” she sighed in contentment, and settled deeper into her boyfriend’s embrace, “I’m so glad we could spend the holidays together.”
“Mmmm,” he agreed, planting a soft kiss on top of her mane, “Me too, Sunny.”
Sunset scrunched her nose up, but didn’t pull away.
“Only my mom gets to call me Sunny.”
“Sorry. Any idea when she’ll get here with the others?”
Sunset shuffled underneath the blanket, trying to find a more comfortable position. She was almost sitting on her dock, as it was. The purple and gold reliefs on the ceiling caught her attention, for a moment.
Did her apartment always have a domed ceiling?
Eh, she thought, Must have. Canterlot’s got all sorts of domes in it.
Sunset shrugged, and looked up into Flash’s face, “I hope the blizzard slows them down. That way, we can cuddle some more…”
Flash Sentry leaned down, and planted a sweet kiss on Sunset’s lips. Their horns met briefly at the base, and gave off a tingly sensation that went down both unicorns’ spines.
“I can live with that,” he laughed, and wrapped Sunset in his hooves.
This was turning out to be the best Hearth’s Warming Sunset ever had. And nothing could ever…
The door to the apartment slammed open with a thunderous bang. Both Sunset and Flash fell over, scrambling at the sudden attack, as ornaments from the fifty-foot tree scattered across the marble floor and the fire guttered against the cold and wet wind blowing in.
“Sunset Shimmer!” a booming, haunting voice echoed through the building, shaking the blinking light displays running up the stairs to Sunset’s bed, and knocking several videogames off their shelves, “We are in need of your kindly assist—”
The voice lowered in volume rapidly, like a deflating balloon.
“—ance… Am I interrupting something?”
Sunset hefted herself over her couch, horn flashing with wild and furious magical energy. She snorted, and glared at the intruder who would dare mess up her Hearth’s Warming smooch-fest with her boyfriend. She prepped a flaming, punishing spell, and readied herself to cast it.
At least, until she got a good look at said intruder.
“Princip… I mean, Princess Luna?”
A midnight hued Alicorn strode into the apartment with a curious expression on her face. She took note of the strange architecture of the room, the way white Canterlot palace marble merged seamlessly into the red-brickwork of – she presumed – Sunset’s human-world home. The combination of Equestrian design and colors with human… devices, was a strange thing to behold for the ancient pony.
But not everything in dreams made easy sense, Luna reasoned.
“Indeed,” she said, returning her attention to the ponies before her, “I have come to…”
She balked, and half-reared up in shock.
“Good stars above! Is that Flash Sentry?”
Sunset frowned at that declaration, and turned around to—
“Oh, jeez…” She hissed and covered her eyes with her forehooves. Sunset tried to wish away the red-hot blush coursing through her face, but to no avail, even in a dream.
The Flash Sentry who stood behind her was… certainly different. A stallion body in excellent physical shape, topped by his dopey, but loveable, human face. The inclusion of a unicorn horn did little to fix the feeling of disquieting wrongness that he exuded, now that Sunset was lucid.
The fact that he was wearing his black jacket over his hind legs didn’t help matters much.
“Eugh,” she groaned, “That is the last time I let Pinkie convince me to eat a cherrychanga before bed…”
Flash glanced about, seemingly silent as he wondered at the strange events playing out around him.
“Uh,” he said as he reached up and scratched the back of his neck, “Is everything alright, Miss Luna? Did we forget to wear pants to school again?”
The Princess of the Night blinked at the pony-human thing talking to her. Then, deciding against indulging in such things, she lit her horn with blue magic, and bid the dream change.
The room spun, literally, shaking off bits of red brick like a wet dog coming out of a bath. Walls stretched, and appliances melted. Sunset watched in stunned disbelief as her apartment came apart around her, slowly morphing from a rent-controlled den just a step above a squatter’s hole into a gilded hall of white stone and crystalized windows.
Flash Sentry vanished into a puff of smoke and starlight.
“Bummer,” his fading shade sighed as it went.
“Flash!” Sunset cried out. She turned a wrathful glare back onto Princess Luna, gritted her teeth, and flared her horn once more.
“Be at peace, Sunset Shimmer,” Luna said with a calm, soothing tone that belied the crimson light bathing the halls of the palace around her, “Your Flash Sentry is unharmed, and most likely still within his own dreams tonight.”
Sunset drew her lips into a thin line, but did not retract the magical energy boiling across her horn.
Luna smiled, softly, and said, “This is all but a dream, my little pony. Nothing here can truly harm you, least of all myself.”
“This is…?” Sunset allowed her glare to soften. She licked her lips, and glanced about. The walls were exactly as she remembered them. This was the palace’s Eastern Hall of Glass, if she could trust her memories. Over a dozen stain-glass windows overlooking the gardens, each dedicated to a pony of great historical importance.
She could remember running past these very windows every day on her way to her lessons with Princess Celestia. She used to count them, as she ran, and would dream every night about how she would one day earn her own place up there, right in between Lord Tumble Dry (inventor of the original unicorn weather spells) and Bauble (inventor of the knick-knack). Their accomplishments may not have all been exactly equal, but they'd all been proud students of Celestia herself. Just as Sunset had been.
Though, something about them, or the hall itself, seemed off. She couldn’t quite put her hoof on it…
Huh, she thought, I have hooves. I must be dreaming.
Luna’s voice cut through the fog of Sunset’s thoughts.
“You do realize Flash is a pegasus in Our world, correct?”
Sunset spun back around, another flash of red across her face. “Oh, um, yeah. I know,” she said, quickly, “It’s just, you know, I always thought horn-nuzzling was really romantic-looking, and while hands are great, I sometimes miss how strong a pony hug can be, and he’s not always…
“Ah, nuts,” she slapped her forehead, “Is that tribalist?”
There was a pause, only the length of a single breath. Then, Luna burst out laughing, throwing her head back with the sudden force of it. Sunset sat puzzled as the Princess of the Night guffawed like a braying donkey right in front of her. Right at her!
“You do not need to explain yourself to me, Sunset,” the Princess said, drawing in a new breath as her eyes twinkled at the amber unicorn, “Sometimes a horseshoe is just a horseshoe. Dreams can at times give us a special insight into the deeper, and more mysterious, parts of ourselves.
“Or,” she chuckled again, “they might just be a bit of fun and silliness. No reason to worry yourself over it.”
“Oh, well.” Sunset shrugged. “That is a relief! I thought…”
Sunset’s nose scrunched up.
“Wait… dream?” she asked, looking askance at the Princess, “This is a dream?”
Luna nodded, but said nothing.
“Then… how are you here?”
“Well,” Luna smiled, “I noticed that Pinkie Pie was spending a sleepover with… herself, actually, and they’d left the mirror portal open, so I…”
“Not that!” Sunset snapped, “How are you in my dream at all!?”
Luna blinked.
And then blinked again.
“I beg your pardon?”
“I mean, I’m sure it’s the real you,” Sunset waved one hoof appeasingly in the Princess’ direction, “Even lucid-dreaming, I’m not sure I could make you more… uh, you than you’re being right now.”
She sat down on the cold – well, in reality it might be, but presently it was neutral at worst – marble floor, and tapped her chin thoughtfully.
“How the heck are you in my dream?” Sunset asked again, “Perceiving the Dreamrealm? Easy! I cracked that mystery for a Conjuration class’ final project. But entering the Dreamrealm, much less traveling into somepony else’s dreams? How!?”
Luna stared at Sunset a moment longer, and then shook her head. “I suppose, you having left Equestria before my return, one cannot expect you to know of my other duties. But you trade correspondence with Twilight, yes? How have I not come up?”
Sunset shrugged, and said, “Well, mostly I’m the one reporting to her. And outside of a few magic studies or a story about Fluttershy learning how to skateboard – and wasn’t that the weirdest letter ever – she really doesn’t share too much about Equestria with me.”
“I…” Luna began to say. Then, she sighed, and rolled her eyes. “I suppose that makes sense. Princess or not, Twilight Sparkle will always be more interested in academic minutia and friendship lessons than…”
She shook her head again, and drew herself up to a proper, royal stance. Her eyes became downright steely.
“Since it were not known to you before…” she said, placing one silver-soled shoe to her chest, “We are the Princess of the Night and the Defender of Dreams. Our cutie mark grants us the power to traverse the Dreamrealm, defeating nightmares and offering counsel to all of Our little ponies who may need it.”
Sunset’s eyes went wide, and her jaw slackened.
“Wow,” she whispered, “That’s… that’s amazing! Celestia never mentioned that whenever you came up.”
Here, Luna’s ears perked up. “She… Celestia mentioned me?”
“Yeah, she…” Sunset’s own ears flattened atop her head, and she lowered herself closer to the dream-floor. “… She told me a lot of things she probably shouldn’t have, to be honest. About herself. And Nightmare Moon. You.”
She sighed.
“Like I said,” she looked away, “Probably not a great idea, considering I let it all get to my head. Figured I needed to be a princess to face you one day. Twilight sure proved me wrong… again…”
Luna, watching Sunset sink lower and lower, nodded slowly, a soft and sad smile faintly gracing her features.
“I can see that,” she said, blowing out a breath through her nostrils, “My sister must have trusted you like no other. Not even Twilight knew of me before I returned.
“However!” Luna’s voice tightened, and she took slow, measured steps towards the pony before her. She carefully wrapped her wings around Sunset in a hug, and brushed the unicorn’s sides with her pinions. “I am not here to wallow, or to remind ourselves about our collective failures. Know that my sister has long-ago forgiven you, Sunset. As you should have forgiven yourself, by now. Did she not make that plain, when last you visited us?”
Sunset sank into the feathered hug for a moment longer. A thousand memories were wrapped up in such hugs, which passed through the stain-glass above without her notice. Luna, however, paid some attention to the flashing images. Fragments of a life long tinged with the all-too familiar filter of sadness and hurt.
But then, it was done. Sunset sniffed, and pulled away, leaving Luna a touch off-balance.
Sunset composed herself as best she could, and stood up straight and proud.
“Right, right,” she said, matching Luna’s gaze with one that teetered on the edge of watering up, “You, um… you had something you wanted help with?”
The moment now being past, Luna recomposed herself as well.
“Yes. It is a matter of great importance as well. Something that you, Sunset Shimmer, and you alone can aide me with.”
“Well, alright,” said Sunset, nodding along, “But I haven’t cast a lot of magic for… well, a long time. My specialty was in evocation, but I’m not sure what you’d need my help for anyway…”
“Ah,” Luna clucked her tongue, “I… did not need magical assistance, actually. Or, not that sort of magic.”
Luna leaned down, and met Sunset’s eyes at her own level.
“Sunset, what should I get Celestia for Hearth’s Warming?”
Sunset’s face didn’t move. Not even to breathe. She almost resembled a statue, actually, the way her whole body went rigid. The similarities broke down, however, as her one eye began to twitch.
“Sunset…?”
“You have got to be kidding me,” Sunset growled, and let her brow crease into a competition-grade scowl, “You… you hopped dimensions, and invaded my dreams to ask me that!?”
Luna winced as Sunset’s voice pitched up, rattling the dream-windows in their frames.
“It does sound frivolous, yes,” she admitted, sitting back down and tapping her forehooves nervously against one another, “But I have a very good reason for asking it.”
“Oh, I bet!” Sunset rolled her eyes. “What? You couldn’t just ask her what she wanted?”
Luna blushed. “I was under the assumption that Hearth’s Warming gifts were meant to be surprises. Otherwise, I would have asked!”
“She’s your sister!” Sunset jabbed one hoof into the Princess’s chest. “What do you need my help for?”
Luna lowered her head, ears drooping. She looked away from the annoyed amber unicorn, and said in an almost-whisper, “Because you’ve known her longer.”
Sunset stopped. Her whole head quirked to the side, and her eyes narrowed.
“What?” she asked.
Luna shrugged. “You have known my sister longer than I,” she answered, though in a tone of shame and apprehension, “And I am quite… poor at this gift-giving thing.”
Watching the Princess shrink as she was doing, Sunset sat in silence. Her mind, however, was racing a mile a minute, wracking itself for anything that might make sense of what she just heard.
“But, you two are like…” She spun a hoof in front of her, an attempt at reeling in the right words for what she meant. “… ten-thousand years old. How do you not know everything about each other by now?”
“I’m only eleven-hundred-and-twenty-six, thank you very much!” Luna managed a huff amid her self-pity, “And we barely were in charge of Equestria for a century or so before I… well, you know the story.
“A century and change,” she finished, “Considering how long I’ve been back from the moon.”
Sunset shook her head. “Celestia raised me, and you still have about eighty years on how long I knew her. There’s no way…”
Luna raised her head sharply, a cross look in her eyes.
“Sunset?” she asked, clicking her tongue, “If you didn’t see, say, Rainbow Dash for ten years, would you expect her to be precisely the same when you met up once again?”
That gave Sunset pause. The idea of missing one of her friends for any length of time…
“No, I guess I wouldn’t.”
“And Celestia has lived over one-thousand years without me,” Luna sighed, and looked to the side, where one of the stain-glass windows had shifted to a dark mix of midnight hues. A fanged black alicorn stared back at her. “Life is change, Sunset. One cannot avoid it. When I was banished, Celestia was… a spoiled brat, I thought. A preening foal who loved herself more than anything or anypony else. An airhead, to be blunt.”
She looked back to Sunset.
“But now? She’s an accomplished diplomat. A legendary administrator. A wise teacher, and Mother to her whole nation! She’s been and experienced so much that… that the sister I remember is only a glimmer in her mane, at times. The way she sips her tea, or the tone of her laugh when she tells a joke…”
“The way she eats cake?” Sunset laughed; through a wince it must be said.
“Hm?” Luna blinked. “Oh. She used to hate the stuff. Total health nut, in fact. I think she picked up some bad habits to cope with my absence.”
Luna pressed on, hardly noticing how Sunset collapsed to the floor in an existential heap.
“We also didn’t celebrate Hearth’s Warming with gifts, back when we were young,” she said, “When we first ruled, the whole Windigo event was in living recall. Nopony needed gifts and songs and such to remember how important friendship was to Equestria’s survival.”
“You didn’t give gifts?” Sunset was back up on her hooves. “What did you do for Hearth’s Warming?”
“Bonfires and feasting, mostly,” Luna said and shrugged, “Though among the nobility of each tribe we would also exchange tokens of earth, water, and fire. Symbolizing the unity of earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns, you see? And, as Alicorns, Celestia and I would give out all three.
“It made things… awkward, my first year back,” Luna bit her lip, and looked askance, “I don’t think Celestia quite realized she hadn’t explained all the differences and new advancements to me yet. She got me some lovely painting supplies. And I got her…”
“Fried mud?”
“Indeed.”
Sunset stepped closer to the Princess, and placed a comforting hoof on her shoulder.
“Well, knowing her, she probably laughed the whole thing off, right?”
“Yes, she did,” Luna’s downcast look did not change as she said, “That year.”
Sunset winced. “Oh… no…”
“Oh, yes,” Luna sighed anew, “The next year, I got my sister a full set of exercise equipment. Dear Applejack seemed to think a practical, straightforward gift would be best.”
“Oh, no…” Sunset covered her eyes with one hoof. Luna did not notice the way the unicorn’s mouth slightly turned up at the edges.
“As I said, yes.” Luna turned away from Sunset, and walked nearer to the stain-glass windows, causing moments of questionable Hearth’s Warming memories to play out across their faces.
“I went to each of the Element Bearers,” she said as she walked, “And each one gave me such good advice on what I should get my sister. But, every year…”
One window displayed the moment Luna presented her sister with a lovely, tailored dress… that was several centuries out of date, which caused a scandal in the papers as Equestrian psychologists began questioning if Celestia’s sanity and sense of time were slipping. The next was filled with the image of Celestia, bloated and swollen after suffering an allergic reaction to Luna’s baked goods.
Another showed the hospital room Celestia was confined to for three days after Luna’s gift – an adorable critter she assumed was a winterchilla – mauled her. The next was a red-ink-stained copy of “A Guide to Equestrian History”, which, though it came highly recommended by Twilight Sparkle, contained more than a few blatant errors in its documentation of Celestia’s rule, to the point where Celestia had worked herself half-to-death making corrections.
“I asked Rainbow Dash for help last year,” she finished, groaning at the memory, “Apparently, the Tax Office looks rather poorly upon exchanging bits from one Princess to another without the proper forms. We were tied up in revenue investigations for six months…”
Sunset, who had been following along with alternating expressions of horror and awe-struck laughter at Luna’s past gift ideas, frowned deeply.
“Hey! What’s wrong with cash?”
Luna shrugged. “I thought it eminently practical, myself. But… I could tell right away that Celestia was less than thrilled. I suppose she found it a touch impersonal.”
“Yeah, I can see that.” Sunset’s mouth clenched at the thought. “Still. I’d never say no to money for Hearth’s Warming. Especially after the time I’ve had in this dimension. Let no one laugh at cash if they haven’t had to pull a Hearth’s Warming shift at a burger joint.”
Luna bit her tongue before she could ask, jokingly, if the human Twilight Sparkle also kept the local burger place in business during Hearth’s Warming.
“Regardless,” she said instead, “I have taken this golden opportunity to ask your opinion of what gift to give this year.”
“And, again,” Sunset replied, looking away once more, “While I might have… lived with Celestia, I’m no expert on her. Ever since I took a face full of friendship lasers, I’ve been re-thinking and re-analyzing my old life. I’m…
“I’m not sure I ever knew the Princess, really,” Sunset sighed, her ears flattening against her mane, “I was so self-absorbed for so long, what if what I remember of Celestia is just… just the bad impression of her I played up in my mind, to justify to myself what I’d done?”
She looked back to Luna.
“I know she’s forgiven me. I know that. But I don’t think I had any right to…”
“A moment,” Luna said, suddenly, calling for silence with a sharp movement of her hoof, “I wonder if you recall this particular hallway from the palace in Canterlot? I was told you were quite fond of the East Wing in general.”
Sunset glanced around. The marble floor was the same. The purple pillars were the same. Even the windows seemed just like she remembered them. Aside from some slight irregularity in the exact dimensions of the room, which Sunset owed to either her faulty memory or the imperfections of the Dreamrealm, it appeared to be the exact same hallway from her foalhood.
She nodded, affirmatively.
“Ah, but is it? Is it truly the same?” Luna’s face split into an almost evil, eager grin. “I think you’ll find that this dream-construct of the Palace is quite accurate to its current appearance.
“Have you not noticed the windows, Sunset?”
Sunset frowned, but turned to look at the windows, all the same. As before, they appeared just as they did when she…
Wait. No. There was Tumble Dry, and Bauble, right where she remembered them. But Signal Fire, June Bug, and Starbeard the Swirled were shifted over to the wrong side from what she remembered. They were supposed to be next to Rook Kingme and Lavender Bright, over on the righthoof side.
Room had been made. A space opened up right in the center of the hall.
Sunset recognized the mare that stared back from that window.
An amber-coated unicorn mare. One with a brazenly colored red-and-gold mane, and bright blue eyes. She stood in the center of a blazing sun, whose arms wreathed around a paintbrush in one corner, a compass, a book of spells, and a crown in the others. Flanking the laughing pony on either side were small, colorful creatures. They were no more detailed than the figures on a restroom sign or a crosswalk light, but there was no hiding the six humans smiling right along with the window’s occupant.
And across the bottom of the window, a single blue teardrop beneath a scroll bearing her name.
“Princess Sunset Shimmer,” Sunset said, despite her suddenly quivering lip. She almost couldn’t see the window, as tears filled her eyes, and her throat tightened.
A dark wing settled onto her shoulder.
“I have seen my sister’s dreams, my dear niece,” Luna whispered, and set her head atop Sunset’s mane, “Though it hurt her so much to talk to anypony about you, in her dreams she does little else but dwell in the memories and moments spent with you.”
Sunset said nothing. She was too preoccupied with breathing.
Luna continued. “You are so important to Celestia, how can you say you never knew her?”
A choking sob sent a shiver through Sunset’s body. Then, she leaned into Luna’s hug, planting her face into the soft fluff of the elder pony’s chest. Luna, for her part, merely tightened her embrace, and allowed Sunset her moment to let out the years and years of pent-up frustrations and anxieties she’d held within her heart.
Still. It was good this was a dream. Luna knew, firsthoof, how hard it was to wash tears and snot out of a fur coat.
After a few minutes, Sunset’s muffled cries ebbed away, and she was able to pull herself off her… her Aunt Luna.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
“Happy Hearth’s Warming,” Luna said with a smile, “Celestia would have shown you herself, but she seemed awfully reluctant to call you back to Equestria.”
Sunset was silent another moment. She simply stared past the Princess, and took in the stain-glass again. A smile touched her own lips, and she turned a curious, coy look back at Luna.
“Can you tell me something?” she asked, rhetorically, “Was Celestia sentimental when you two were growing up?”
“Celestia? Sentimental?” Luna barked a laugh at the very notion. “Hardly! She was always too engrossed in her visions and her inventors and ‘thinking-forward’ to care about being sentimental…”
She paused. Her eyes widened, slightly, and she tapped her forehoof to her lip in thought.
Sunset nodded, slowly, and said, “I think I see the problem now. One thousand years without the pony you love more than any other? I can’t imagine what sort of a toll that would have on somepony.”
Luna licked her lips, and refocused on the pony before her. “You think I overlooked something?”
Sunset smiled. She closed her eyes, and began to remember. Luna noted the stain-glass windows had shifted once more.
“When I was a filly,” Sunset spoke wistfully, the windows reflecting herself as a foal within their frames, “I craved Celestia’s attention. And the one thing I knew she couldn’t resist from me was my art.”
Portraits, sketches, and paintings flew past the two ponies, a lifetime’s catalogue of work. And with each one, the windows reflected a moment of time. Each memory held Celestia’s smiling face, and the raw, warm feelings of love and affection that radiated out from her.
“Celestia doesn’t care about practical gifts,” Sunset continued, a smile matching the single tear still sliding down her cheek, “She doesn’t care about how much it costs, or even what you had to do to get it. Celestia loves gifts because it’s from you. A pony she loves.”
An image of Sunset, wrapped in a loving hug from the only mother she ever knew drifted by. Luna could see the happiness in her sister’s face, and she knew, right away, that it was not gained from the rather beautiful oil-painting of Canterlot, laying forlorn beside the two ponies. It was a happiness she hadn’t seen since…
A hoof touched her chest, drawing Luna’s attention back. Sunset stood before her, one foreleg out, gingerly passing along that same happiness, both through direct contact, as well as in the warm, and open smile she wore.
“If it’s from you,” said Sunset, eyes shining bright, “And it’s something only you can give her, then she’ll love whatever it is.”
Luna smiled back, and warmly as well. There were no tears from the Alicorn, however.
Her mind was suddenly too full to accommodate sadness, just now.
“Thank you, Sunset Shimmer,” she whispered, “You have made this Hearth’s Warming, the most important of all, a very special one. I know now what I must do.”
Sunset laughed, softly. “Glad to hear it! Gonna give me a hint?”
“No,” Luna said, her horn aglow, “I think you shall have to ask her yourself, after the holiday.”
“Spoilsport…” Sunset groaned, but her smiling face belied any hurt feelings. She looked about in wonder as the dream spun, and melted again. Marble fell away, leaving red-bricks and music posters. Cold glass and stone became warm wood and carpeting.
Her couch returned, with a certain blue-haired colt snoozing under a checkered blanket.
“Earth pony?” Sunset tittered, raising a curious eyebrow.
“Would you rather you both dream in human, as it were?” Luna asked as she walked slowly towards the door.
“No!” Sunset snorted, “I’m good! I’m good!”
“Then,” the Princess said, a twinkle in her eye, “I shall take my leave of you. Sweet dreams, Sunset.”
“Thanks, and same to…” Sunset began to say, before her nose scrunched up in confusion.
Luna noticed. “Is something wrong?”
“No,” Sunset said, pawing at the carpet beneath her, “It’s just… what did you mean? About this being the ‘most important Hearth’s Warming’?”
Hearing the question, Luna laughed to herself.
“Oh,” she said, waving one hoof nonchalantly before her, “It’s just our last one as Princesses, since Celestia and I are retiring.”
Luna’s eyes widened, slightly. She drew her lips into a thin line, and shot a glance at Sunset.
Sunset’s jaw, free to defy all manner of logic and biological impossibility, cracked the apartment floor, and her eyes nearly leapt from her skull.
“Please forget you heard that,” Luna squeaked, “It was meant as a surprise…”
“Was that why the Palace staff had to re-pave your balcony?” Celestia giggled underneath the heavy blanket she shared with her little sister.
Luna, wrapped deep in her half of the blanket, properly insulated against the winter-chilled air, huffed. “Well, I didn’t expect Sunset’s shock to actually wake her up! Do you know how rare it is for me to be forcibly ejected from a dream? And at such velocity…”
There was no response. Only a louder, fuller laugh. But this one, Luna felt, she could allow at her expense. It was, after all, filled with love.
The Royal Sisters sat beneath their blanket, giggling and enjoying each other’s company atop the high tower outside the throne room. Despite the bitter cold, it was an almost windless night, and not a single cloud could be seen anywhere in the starry, starry sky.
“So,” Luna leaned in for an affectionate nuzzle, “Do you really like it? My gift?”
Celestia returned the nuzzle readily, and held her sister close in a tight hug. She then turned her gaze skyward.
Above the world, where only the timeless stars and moon held sway, a new constellation took its place amid the eternal firmament. A pair of ponies, it seemed, frozen together in a playful, joyous dance.
Alicorns both, if Celestia did not miss her guess.
Sisters.
“It’s perfect, Lulu,” Celestia sighed, “Absolutely perfect.”
“You’re welcome, Tia.”
Celestia’s eyebrows raised a little. “And… did Sunset like her gift?”
“Of course, she did,” Luna said, “It was also perfect.”
She paused. And then, with a small smirk dancing in her eyes…
“Though, from what I’m told, cash would also be appreciated.”
Author's Note
Through the years,
We all will be together,
If the fates allow,
So hang a shining star upon the highest bough,
And have yourself a Happy Hearth's Warming now...
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone and everypony out there.
