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                        What if...?                        
                   -by PRlNCESS CADENCE-                   
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                   Hearth's Warming Eve                    
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Hearth's Warming Eve
“Flitter? We’re ready to have you come on back now!”
“Oh, thank goodness.”
The gray-haired teen placed her hand to her knee and pushed herself up to her feet, flopping down one of the less-than interesting magazines that were provided as entertainment in the waiting room. The woman standing at the door while leading the girl in wore a white lab coat over her tan shirt and blue skirt, holding a clipboard to her chest with a shiny, white smile. Once Flitter took one step forward, however, she immediately flinched, instinctively squeezing her eyes shut as her hand moved to her cheek.
“Careful, there!” the woman said, holding out her hand to help guide the younger girl as she limped forward in pain. “There we go. Glad we could squeeze you in today! I gotta tell you, you definitely had the right idea in choosing tooth-hurty for your appointment! Hahaha!”
The teenager looked at the clock to see that ironically, her appointment was at 2:30, which led her straight into the woman’s awful joke. Hopefully she didn’t use that one every day at this time.
“Yeah, I’m glad you guys had time for me at all today,” the girl responded with a soft chuckle before the pain cut her short. “Look, I don’t wanna sound rude or anything, nurse, but could you get the doctor to hurry? My tooth really hurts.”
Just as the woman with the clipboard closed the door behind her, she tilted her head and blinked in curiosity before the bright smile from earlier returned to her face. “Oh! You won’t have to worry about that! I’m the doctor! Or should I say ‘dentist’? I mean, I guess I technically am a doctor, but how often do you call your dentist ‘doctor’? That’s why I always just have my patients call me Minuette. I didn’t go to dental school to get a fancy appendage at the beginning of my name, after al--”
“Doctor, I’m seriously in a massive amount of pain right now.”
“Oops! Sorry!” With the dentist’s hand still leading the younger girl along, the two of them fast-walked down the hall, making a quick left turn into an office with an elevated chair in the center of the room. “Here we go! I’ll have you lay down right here real quick, and I’ll get right to work!”
Flitter nodded her head and slowly pulled herself onto the dentist chair, her hand never leaving the comfort of her jaw. Meanwhile, the doctor--or ‘Minuette’, as her normal patients apparently called her--pulled out a tray with a dozen silver utensils, sifting through and organizing them before pulling out the two that she’d use to excavate through the teen’s aching mouth.
“OK! Could you open your mouth for me?” Flitter nodded her head and lowered her jaw, wincing in pain as soon as her hand moved from her cheek down to her side. Then, Minuette pulled her safety mask over her face and stuck two utensils into the teen’s mouth, moving them throughout her teeth like chopsticks while searching for the cause of her pain. “Wow! You actually floss! Count me impressed.”
“Ah!”
Flitter’s knees jerked, her body inadvertently jumping the moment one of the instruments came in contact with her bad tooth. “There you are!” the doctor cheered, pulling her utensils out of the younger girl’s mouth and immediately beginning to search for her next tool. “What was your name again? Flitter?”
The younger girl raised an eyebrow, wondering how long they could continue a conversation before the doctor stuck something else into her mouth. “Yeah, that’s me.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you at the office before! Are not from around here?”
“No, I’m from Cloudsdale. I would have gone to see someone closer to home, but--”
“Now I’m going to have you swish this in your mouth. Be careful not to swallow it.”
Before the girl could finish her sentence, however, the woman handed her a small paper cup with a translucent, turquoise liquid. Propping herself up slightly, the teen turned towards the doctor and asked, “W-what’ll happen if I accidentally swallow it?”
“You’ll die.”
“WHAT?!”
Immediately, Minuette keeled over in laughter, literally slapping her knee as her arms wrapped around her gut in her ensuing hilarity, despite Flitter shaking in fear. “Oh, jeez. I’m sorry. You’re just the first person who’s ever fallen for that one before. I just tell everybody not to swallow because even though it might taste like mint in your mouth, it tastes like feet going down.”
“...Ew.”
“Weren’t you supposed to be in pain?”
The girl groaned before knocking her head back, tossing the liquid into her mouth and swishing fervently around her gums. The moment the fluid came in contact with her sore tooth, she squeezed her eyes shut to endure the pain, but after only a few moments, the pain had… disappeared? Already?
Flitter turned her face towards the doctor, leaning her head forward just to make sure she didn’t get the taste of foot by accident. Her eyebrows rose as she looked at Minuette with astonishment, but the dentist simply pulled her mask down and returned a warm, motherly grin, grabbing a new cup from her side and quickly placing it into the teen’s hand. “You’re good to spit that out now. Wouldn’t wanna call an ambulance now, would we? Haha!”
Flitter rolled her eyes before pulling her bangs to the side and spitting the liquids into the cup. As annoyed as she was with the doctor’s overzealous personality, though, she couldn’t ignore the borderline miracle she had worked in curing her of her ailment.
“So? How do you feel?”
Flitter rubbed the side of her jaw one more time to make sure, but just as she’d expected, the pain had disappeared entirely. “Wow… That… That’s amazing! How did you do that?”
“Meh. After four years of dental school, you pick up a few tricks here and there. Heehee! Oh, and by the way, you might wanna lay off the hot chocolate for a little while.”
The younger girl cocked her head to the side curiously. “How come?”
“Girl, you have got some seriously sensitive teeth! I don’t know how much of it you’ve been drinking, but it’ll burn a hole in your enamel at this rate! That stuff I gave you basically just washed it all out and brought your pH levels back to normal. Gotta remember to stay above a 5.5!”
“Was all that pain seriously just from too much hot chocolate? Ugh. Now I’m embarrassed.”
Just as Flitter buried her face into her hands, however, Minuette rolled her chair closer and patted her gently on the back. “Don’t be! It happens all the time around the holidays! Speaking of which, didn’t you say you were from Cloudsdale?”
Flitter raised an eyebrow. “Yeah. How come?”
“Well, I was just wondering if I was ever gonna see you again! You were telling me what brought you here earlier, but, well, you can imagine how difficult it is for a dentist to hold a conversation sometimes.”
The younger girl giggled into her hands. “Yeah. Sounds like you might have picked the wrong profession.”
“Oh? Maybe I shouldn’t have helped you with that toothache, then?”
Immediately, Flitter held up her hands defensively and began frantically shaking her head. “N-no! That’s not what I meant!” But as soon as the doctor saw her reaction, she began to bellow with laughter again, making the younger girl sigh in frustration. “Anyway, I just came down here because everywhere in Cloudsdale was closed on account of it being Hearth’s Warming Eve and all. I’m just glad I was able to find someone who could help me today of all days.”
“Of course! Just because it’s a holiday doesn’t mean there aren’t still teeth that need me! Oh, and speaking of Hearth’s Warming, have you got any plans?”
Flitter jerked her head back from the unexpected question. She was sure that this was just a casual conversation that Minuette had with all of her patients, but she’d never exactly been asked by a professional what her evening plans were before.
“In all honesty,” Flitter replied, rubbing the back of her neck, “nothing really. My twin sister is going to a party tonight, but I don’t really feel like going, so I’ll probably just end up staying at home drinking hot choc--Dang it. I forgot I can’t do that anymore.”
While Flitter began to mourn her whole plan for the night basically being ruined, however, Minuette gasped theatrically, placing her hand over her mouth with her eyes growing wide. “You’re kidding! You can’t just do nothing! It’s Hearth’s Warming Eve! I’ll tell you what…”
Before finishing her sentence, Minuette wheeled her chair over to a notepad, pulled a pen out of her coat pocket and quickly began jotting something down. As Flitter squinted her eyes to see what she was writing, however, Minuette violently tore the first page off of the pad, wheeling herself back to Flitter, who immediately sat upright like she wasn’t secretly spying on her two seconds ago.
“Here’s my number,” the doctor said. “I get done at around 6:30 tonight, so why don’t you come by around then and I can show you how we spend Hearth’s Warming Eve here in Canterlot!”
“...So I was right to be hesitant about telling you what my plans were for tonight.”
Rather than take offense, however, Minuette giggled into her hands, making the teen raise her eyebrow higher. “Oh, Flitter. Don’t be silly! If I’m gonna be your dentist from now on, I wanna make sure you’re properly taken care of! It’s up to you, but I can’t just hear that you have no one to spend Hearth’s Warming Eve with without at least offering!”
Flitter looked away, rubbing her hand up and down her arm. “Well…”
“Take some time to think about it,” the doctor replied, finally standing up from her chair. “If you do decide you want someone to celebrate the holiday with, though, you know where to find me.”
Minuette offered her hand out to Flitter, who suspiciously looked the doctor up and down before hesitantly taking her palm and making her way off the dentist’s chair. It was weird that her visit had only taken all of about ten minutes, but what was even weirder was the fact that they’d spent most of that time just talking. Sure, the dentist she’d run into was pretty outgoing and a little eccentric, but the last thing Flitter expected was to walk out with her pain completely gone!
The doctor walked Flitter through the door that led back into the waiting room, looking down at her clipboard and announcing the name of the next person to become subject to one of her terrible jokes. As Flitter began speaking with the receptionist and the door closed again, though, she couldn’t help but look over one last time, catching a quick wink before the dentist disappeared. That woman was way too weird… or maybe Flitter was just too critical? It was honestly hard to tell at this point. Maybe her brain was just frazzled because of all the holiday stress.
Once Flitter had taken care of her bill and walked back out into the cold Canterlot winter, however, she looked down at the paper she was given earlier and sighed. “Great. Now I need to find a garbage can.” Then, crumpling up the paper and putting it into the pocket of her windbreaker, she started making her way back to Cloudsdale. Even if her Hearth’s Warming Eve plans consisted of reading a book alone while her sister had fun without her, it would take getting locked out of her house to bring her back here before her next toothache.
With the sun setting in the background, the blue and white-haired woman wrapped her overcoat around herself even more tightly than it already was, shivering as she fumbled with the keys to her office. Once the doors were locked and she finally turned around, however, she was face to face with a girl sticking her hands into her coat pockets, looking off to the side with her face in a pout. She could barely see the smug grin on the doctor’s face, making her annoyed enough to drop her gaze to the floor, kicking a pile of snow in frustration.
“Heyyy! You’re here!”
Flitter’s eyebrows furrowed, her shoulders scrunching even closer together. “I got locked out of my house,” she mumbled, still avoiding eye contact with the woman in front of her.
“Oh, really? You could use my phone if you need someone to help let you in!”
Finally, the moody teen looked her dentist in the eye, but not without an unnecessary eye roll. “I have a phone. Everyone’s just busy with their own Hearth’s Warming Eve stuff, and I don’t wanna interrupt what they’re doing just because I goofed up.”
The woman giggled, approached Flitter, and gently placed a hand on her shoulder, making her look away again with an annoyed expression plastered on her face. “Well in that case, let’s get you somewhere warm! You must be freezing out here!”
Flitter’s glare softened slightly. “What did you have in mind?”
“Oh! I know of this place that serves great hot choc--Wait… That would be bad, wouldn’t it?”
“...Ya think?”
“Mehhh. I’m sure they’ve got something that you’ll be able to drink there. It’ll be my treat!”
Even though she knew she was getting dragged into something way out of her comfort zone, Flitter knew that she didn’t really have much of an option that wouldn’t include screwing with her sister’s evening plans. She’d just have to go along with whatever this Minuette lady--
Suddenly, Flitter shook her head. “Hang on! Wouldn’t that make this a da--”
“It’s actually really close to here! Come on! Let’s get out of the snow before we both turn into icicles. Heehee!”
Before Flitter could even finish her question, Minuette was already halfway down the street, moving with far more energy than a girl probably ten years her senior should have. The teen breathed out a heavy sigh, seeing the air around her freeze in front of her face. This was probably going to end up being a mistake, but it was her own fault for forgetting her keys on the kitchen counter.
Placing her hands into her coat pockets again, the gray-haired teen marched through the falling snow, walking just fast enough not to get left behind.
Flitter collapsed into her seat with her arm draping over the back of her chair, quickly bringing her drink closer to her face and callously sipping on the straw. Immediately, the flavors of chocolate and caramel cascaded around her taste buds, a sensation that was only drowned out by the sight of all the beautiful lights decorated throughout the streets. She was grateful that she was able to get a view like this without having to actually walk back outside into the harsh winter conditions, but even she knew that she really should have been more thankful to the woman who brought her here in the first place and paid for her milkshake for her!
“Phew. Glad we’re outta that line! I knew it’d be crowded for Hearth’s Warming Eve, but I didn’t know they’d be this packed!”
Finally, Flitter pulled her straw out of her mouth and faced her dentist as she pulled off her coat and draped it over her chair. “Yeah,” she said softly, stirring the straw through her drink. “I can’t imagine what it must be like actually working on a night like this.”
“You know what’s surprising, though? They were even busier last month!”
Flitter raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
“Yeah. Most people here in Canterlot have family elsewhere, so the city is practically barren during the holidays. I guess some folks must have just had their family come here this year. Heehee!” Minuette quickly took a sip of her own drink and sighed, either oblivious or apathetic to the whipped cream that now coated her nose. “Ahhhh! How about you, Flitter?”
The girl cocked her head to the side. “Me?”
“Yeah! What are you doing in your life right now?”
Again, Flitter’s eyes travelled down to her drink, stirring her straw through the contents before taking a quick sip herself. “Well, I just graduated from Cloudsdale High School a couple months ago.”
“Ooooo! Exciting! How does it feel to be an adult?”
“Honestly? It kinda sucks.” Flitter flicked her straw, watching it circle around the lip of her cup while silently criticizing herself for being so negative. “It’s just… I feel like I have to have everything figured out in my life already. Like, ‘Hey, Flitter! I know you’ve been told not to worry about everything up until now, but it’s time to figure it out now! Oh, and here’s a whole bunch of responsibility to make the decision even harder!’”
Even though Flitter groaned in annoyance, however, Minuette giggled into her hands, causing the pent up frustration in the teen’s muscles to suddenly relax from confusion. “I’m sorry,” the dentist said as the hilarity began to die down. “I’m not trying to be rude or anything, but you sound just like I did when I was your age.”
“How old are you, anyway?”
Minuette put her finger to her lip, looking out the corner of her eye as she gathered her thoughts. “Let’s see. After high school, it took me five years to graduate from university, then four years of dental school, and I’ve been working for about a year now. Twenty-eight? Does that sound right? Haha gosh, isn’t it silly that I have to use math to count how old I am now?”
Flitter folded her arms in suspicion, but even that didn’t stop her from inadvertently giggling at Minuette’s unconventional answer. “Well, I guess once you get out into the real world, your age really does just become another number. Still, though, how did you know?”
Minuette tilted her head in confusion. “How old I am?”
“No! How did you know that you wanted to be a dentist?”
Again, the woman tapped a finger against her lip, looking up at the ceiling as she considered how to answer the question. “Weeeeell… I guess I didn’t, really.”
“Wait, what?!”
This time it was Minuette’s turn to giggle at Flitter’s response. “Yeah, I don’t think anyone really knows what they want. Sometimes you just have to take a leap of faith, you know? Because if you don’t do anything, you’ll always be stuck in the same place wondering, ‘What if I had done this or that?’ I was actually really nervous about taking on dentistry in the beginning, but I just didn’t want to spend my whole life wondering ‘What if…?’”
Flitter waited a few moments in silence as she allowed the woman’s answer to sink into her brain, and after a brief pause, she slumped back in her chair, arms still folded and her eyes looking off to the side. “Yeah. Makes sense…”
Minuette waited for the teen to continue, but after the pause became an awkward silence, her shiny smile began to slowly fade. “Flitter? Is something bothering you?”
The normal response would be to tell her no, to make up some excuse just so that she wouldn’t be bringing her dentist of all people into her own personal problems, but honestly, at this point, she might as well just get it off her chest. It’s not like she exactly cared whether or not a lady she met earlier that day ended up judging her, after all.
“Yeah. My sister.”
“You mean the twin you mentioned earlier? I guess that’d explain why you’re with me instead having fun at a party with her.”
Well, it was too late to take it back now. With a sigh, Flitter sat up again and quietly said, “Yeah, that and the fact that I locked myself out of my house.”
Minuette giggled again. “Well, that helps too. What’s her name?”
“Cloudchaser. She’s not a bad sister or anything! I just... I thought we’d always be together, and whatever we chose to do for the rest of our lives, we’d make the same choice, but lately, she’s been acting like a completely different person!”
“You mean different from how she normally is, or just different from you?”
Flitter slowly clenched her fist, her eyebrows furrowing slightly. “Both? I don’t know… It just feels like we’re growing apart.”
The woman allowed a brief moment to pass before taking another sip of her drink, placing her cup down in front of her slowly while her thumb rubbed up and down the side. “Well, you know she’s got her own personality too. Now, about this party she’s at right now. Did you get invited too?”
Flitter groaned quietly. “Yeah… but she’s got new friends now. She’s trying so hard to be her own person. I’d only get in the way.”
“Oh, come on. You don’t really think that, do you?”
“No! Seriously! You should see her hair now! It looks like this!”
The teen then stuffed her fingers into her hair and pointed it up at several angles, a sight which made the woman in front of her laugh so hard that it even attracted the eyes of some of the people around them. Once Flitter saw the stares she was getting, however, she quickly pulled her hand out of her hair, awkwardly combing it back down as her cheeks flushed a light shade of pink.
“Well,” the dentist began once she calmed down from the laughter, “if you’re that worried, maybe you should just try making some friends of your own!”
Suddenly, Flitter sat upright, tilting her head in curiosity. “Huh? What do you mean?”
“I mean if your sister is starting to make her own friends, maybe it’s time for you to do the same! You don’t have to share the same lives to be happy. Try getting out of your comfort zone a little bit!”
The teen brought her cup up to her mouth and scoffed. “You mean like what I’m doing right now?”
“Exactly!”
The sudden, immediate answer caught Flitter slightly off guard, making her freeze right when she was about to take another sip of her drink. Flitter just thought they were spending the night together as a professional and her client. Was she implying that the two of them had become friends at some point during the night?
Flitter rubbed her hand up and down her arm uncomfortably. “Well…”
“Hey! It’s almost time!”
Suddenly, Flitter’s ears perked up in curiosity. “For what?”
“They’re about to light up the Hearth’s Warming tree at town square! It’s single-handedly the biggest event in all of Canterlot! You’ve gotta come see it!”
Then, just as Flitter was about to act on her normal reflex (which would usually consist of politely turning her down), she suddenly stopped, making even herself raise an eyebrow in curiosity. Usually, this would be the time for her to come up with a lazy excuse as to why she couldn’t tag along, but for some reason, even if she did have a valid reason to go home and wait outside her front door in the freezing cold all night, declining the invitation just didn’t seem like the right thing to do. At least, not this time.
The teen shrugged. “Well… I guess it’s not like I have anything else worth doing right now anyway.”
“Perfect! Let’s go!”
Before Flitter had even finished her sentence, however, Minuette grabbed hold of the teen’s wrist and yanked her out of her seat, half-guiding-half-tugging the younger girl back out into the snowy weather. It was surprising that she hadn’t noticed before, but as Flitter looked around at her surroundings, the lights around the city had seemingly gotten even brighter. It may have just been the sun making its final descent beyond the horizon or maybe the aura of all the people suddenly outside celebrating despite the freezing cold temperatures, but there was no doubt that everything looked and felt far livelier than when she’d arrived in Canterlot earlier that day.
Snow continued to pile up at her feet, but Minuette never once slowed down her speed, racing down the street with a loud giggle as Flitter struggled to keep up. What was this woman even laughing about? The air was so thick and Flitter’s heart was beating so fast that breathing itself was a chore… until she realized that Minuette wasn’t the only one laughing, which only confused Flitter even more.
This was so stupid! She was cold and agitated and tired, so what could have possibly been making Flitter laugh at a time like this? The teen grabbed her chest, feeling her heart trying to break out of her ribcage, yet the feeling wasn’t from the arduous task of practically sprinting through the streets with the accumulating snow attempting to pull her back down. Out of pride alone, Flitter tried biting down on her lip to keep herself from smiling, but that was nearly impossible with the people singing around her, the streetlights flashing vivid colors, the warm feeling of Minuette’s fingers slowly locking with her own.
When Minuette turned to face Flitter again, the lights seemed to shine even brighter, but this time, it really was the lights that were illuminating her vision. Once the two of them slowed down to a halt, Flitter put her hand to her gasping chest, trying to catch the air that escaped her lungs once she noticed the dazzling scene in front of her.
“Whoa…”
Standing in the middle of town square was the tallest tree that Flitter had ever seen, decorated all over with lights, ornaments and a Hearth’s Warming star that must have been carved by the Crystal Empire's finest craftsmen. Cloudsdale had never been one of the most ecologically-friendly places in the world, so it wasn’t like she’d ever seen a Hearth’s Warming tree more than seven feet tall, but what she saw in front of her, however, made her yearly celebration look like an office party in comparison to the absolute goliath towering over town square.
Flitter’s jaw fell, but before she had the chance to vocalize her awe, Minuette tugged on her sleeve giddily and exclaimed, “Isn’t it awesome?! I bet you don’t have anything like this in Cloudsdale!”
She took the words right out of Flitter’s mouth.
“Do you guys do this every year for Hearth’s Warming?”
“Yuh-huh! Maybe that means we should hang out again next year too!”
Flitter stood there frozen, both in surprise as well as from the frigid breeze brushing against her body, and suddenly, she was laughing again, bending over with her hands wrapped around her gut. This lady had known her for all of five or six hours, yet she was already planning on them doing something like this again the following year? Flitter was so caught off guard that all she could do was laugh, and apparently she was so surprised that she had a hard time breathing just from all the air leaving her lungs and the exercise from her abdomen muscles.
It was just like before when they were running through the streets. Was Flitter going crazy? What was so funny that she couldn’t even keep it to herself in the middle of public like that? Even Minuette was tilting her head in confusion with her hands on her hips.
“Flitter? You alright, girl?”
“Yeah,” the teen replied, wiping a tear from her eye before it could freeze on her face. “I guess this cold weather is making me a little looney.”
“Oh! I can help with that!”
Just as Flitter was beginning to pull herself back together, however, her mind suddenly went blank again, although now for a completely different reason than the frosty air. In fact, if anything, she felt her cheeks growing warmer, practically steaming in the winter breeze. As she turned her head to the side, she saw Minuette with a large smile on her face, a smile that was just like any other, yet it still somehow made her even more confused.
Finally looking down at what was going on, though, she saw Minuette’s arm wrapped around her own, snuggling closer and giving Flitter some of her own body heat. Was Minuette really this warm? No, the heat was definitely coming from somewhere else. Even though it was only the left half of Flitter’s body that should have been warm, however, the places she felt hottest were inside her chest and cheeks.
The teen held back a smile, just in case it accidentally turned into one of her silly laughing fits again.
“Hey!" Minuette exclaimed, tugging on the sleeve of Flitter's windbreaker. "Everyone’s starting to sing! Can we sing too?!”
Then, turning to face Minuette’s childish grin, Flitter couldn’t help but let out a brief chuckle that she hoped she wouldn’t notice. “Do you really need my permission to sing?” Flitter asked with a smirk.
“Just wanted to make sure I didn’t embarrass you is all.”
The teen couldn’t help but roll her eyes. “A little late for that.”
Despite her remark, however, the younger girl took a step closer, snuggling their shoulders even closer together. Flitter still couldn’t tell what was so funny, what was making her heart bounce around so much or what had made her attitude turn around like it had, but whatever the reason, she didn’t want it to stop. She hadn’t expected to be spending Hearth’s Warming Eve smiling, but she was glad she was.
Out of all the uncertainties in her life, she was glad that this wasn’t going to be one of her many what if’s.
“The chill wind blows, making a show, snowflakes aglow! Hearth's Warming Eve is here once again!”