My First Hearth's Warming Eve
I woke up this morning with a thick blanket of freshly fallen snow. I ran past my parents, my mother Windigo, and my father Aspen.
"Whoa there Snowflake you need your breakfast, the snow won't melt that soon, the weather team of Pegasus made sure of that."
I sat down and began munching on an apple. For a threstral, I was smaller than the others in our clan. We lived in the caves just due north of Ponyville. When I finished breakfast, my mother gently wrapped a scarf around y neck, and my father put on earmuffs on my head.
I joined a few of the other foals in the snow. We built snowmen and we went sledding. I had fun all day, and I mention that Hearth's Warming Eve is two weeks away.
Fully exhausted I trudged home. I walked in fell on the couch almost asleep from the fun. I awoke to the smell of fresh peach cobbler; for fruit-loving threstrals, we loved baked goods.
Hearth's Warming Eve is here and everyone is buying or making a gift for their friends and family. I had finished my shopping ad, my folks were still doing theirs.
I stopped at Sugarcube Corner and bought a cupcake, the pink earth pony mare along with the Cake family served customers non-stop since I there.
I bought my mother a gold necklace with the birthstone of August, I purchased for my father a brand new gold watch chain for his pocket watch.
My First Violin
My parents loved their gifts, what they got for me took me by surprise; a brand new violin! They managed to convince Octavia Philharmonica to teach me the basics two weeks after Hearth's Warming Eve.
Octavia arrived right on time with her cello, we began by tuning our respect of instruments and practiced chords and proper technique for using the bow. Octavia was patient; she played for royalty so she has to be a good musician.
Her lesson fees were reasonable, fair even. Imagine being taught by a well-known musician.
Lessons we're going well, I was advancing quickly and Octavia arranged a recital for me to be performed at a music conservatory.
"Now Snowflake, this recital will have music critics and may recommend you to the university in Canterlot. As my student, I expect that you will be on time exactly fifteen minutes early to tune-up."
"Yes, ma'am" as she left for the day I felt nervous if I made into the university I'd be the youngest in history to attend.
My family and I were waiting at the station when we glanced over to a white unicorn with purple shades head bobbing to whatever music she was listening to, then to my surprise, my teacher Octavia trotted up. I was feeling nervous.
The recital went off without a hitch and the critics were very positive but said that I needed to wait till I was a little older.
A Unusual Surprise
One night I woke to a small sound coming from outside, I silently crept across our home and I opened the front door and caught the sound of ruffling at my hoofs. I glanced down and saw a small figure with a blanket.
When I pulled the blanket back I yelped, there was a unicorn filly. I telekinetically lifted her into the cave home in which we lived and woke up my parents. They were shocked who leave a fillie on a doorstep when it's below freezing?
Upon further examination, we realized that the fillie was blind. For a fillie being blind, we all stood still as trying to figure out what to do, father silently glided to the hearth and got the fire going again.
Mother took to note that even though my father made no sound but the little unicorn could track him.
The fillie was cyan-blue with dark blue and purple mane and tail. Mother stayed up all night taking care of her, father flew near and far hoping to find a trace of where the parents had gone too. Father returned with no luck.
"What shall we name her? "
It was then I found a note tucked in the blanket and it read:
Hello, if you're reading this my husband and I are dead. You can thank my brother for leaving his debt to us when he vanished. Our daughter has no name. We never could name her. Please for Celestia's sake name her and take care of her."
I asked if we could name her Emerald, and my parents agreed on the name. When Emerald awoke the next morning hungrily shifting her weight, and I woke to movements and I mumbled "Emerald, go back to sleep".
Nothing doing, she rolled out of bed and taking the covers with her, and strolled to the kitchen. Mother had breakfast cooking and father had his newspaper, as usual, I heard a loud bump on the door.
I leaped up and I felt horrid because I forgot Emerald was blind!
She rubbed her nose and gently tapped the floor and next thing ink now she's bounding into the kitchen.
What was that? She's a unicorn not a threstral and yet she uses echolocation to get around! Mother and Father were surprised as well.
After breakfast, we took her to the doctor's office to have Nurse Redheart look her over. The visit had gone well and emerald and I were permitted to explore the town.
The Present
I was off to the university to study music, Emerald was going to be coming with me to as well as mother and father.
They found a surgeon who can restore my sister's sight enough for her to see albeit it will be shades of gray, so she'll be color blind. For being blind for the past ten years she's thrown us some crazy surprises. She had a natural bent for playing music by ear. Mother had just played a piece on our piano and Emerald played it by ear the next morning flawlessly.
Whilst at the train station Emerald paced around nervously and mumbling about the what-ifs. The train arrived and we boarded and it was about noon now, it took the train five hours to get to Canterlot. I went to get my classes all lined up and my folks and Emerald went to meet the doctor.