The alarm sounded and danced about on her end table. Sunny awoke with a groan, hurrying to smack it with her hoof. Hitting it after a few misses, she half-fell out of bed and peeked out the window. What she saw both shocked and surprised her, and she found herself grinning from ear to ear.
“Snow!” she shouted, excitedly jumping up and down. She closed her eyes and took a moment to wish her dad could have been here to see it. Opening her eyes once more, she rushed downstairs, hurrying to grab a coat and pull it over her head. She struggled with the strings of the hood, and as she finished tightening it to be just right, she heard a knock on her door.
“Hold on, just a second,” she said, looking at the door and wondering who it might be. It could be anyone. Usually, it would just be Hitch checking in on her, but now, everything was different. Ponies were getting along again, all because of her—and her friends. Sunny's grin was intoxicating to those around her.
She opened the door and was totally not surprised to see the ever familiar figure of Hitch, who was currently giving a stern little lecture to one of his animals.
“Now, what did I tell you? We don’t open the gifts for her. We have to let her open them for herself, it’s part of the fun,” Hitch lectured the crab, who pinched at the bow on top of one of the many presents in a bag beside him. She couldn’t help but also notice Hitch had reindeer ears on his head.
“Ho, Sunny! It is I, Hitch the brave, the noble, the best sheriff in all of Equestria, here to bring you joy on this holiday.”
Sunny giggled. “Hello, Hitch. Holiday? Are you actually saying the ponies started celebrating the old holidays now?”
“We should continue the traditions of your father, like we do every year,” Hitch said, and then paused to look over towards his mischievous animals. “Ahem, trying to talk here, guys. Give us some space, okay?”
The animals moved a few steps back.
“You’ve inspired everypony, Sunny. None of this would’ve been possible without you.”
Sunny tilted her head away from him, hoping he didn’t see the blush rising up on her cheeks. It was a rather chilly day, after all.
“Awww, shucks. Thanks, Hitch, that really means a lot to me.” Sunny smiled, leaning forward to wrap a hoof around Hitch, and pulling him in for a comforting embrace of friendship.
Hitch leaned forward, wrapping his own hooves around her neck and allowing Sunny to lean into his weight. He stood firmly on the ground, keeping an eye on his little misbehaving critters to ensure they didn’t ruin Sunny’s gifts. He held onto her, and under his breath, promised to always keep her safe. After all, it was part of his job, to protect all the citizens of Maretime bay, horns and wings included. Everyone had a place now.
The two found solace in one another for a few more seconds before letting go of the hug. Hitch coughed into his hoof and looked towards his longtime friend.
“I hope you’re ready. Apparently the animals decided it would be nice for us to have our own little Hearth’s Warming together.”
“What about the others?”
“Don’t worry, we’re having the big Hearth’s Warming party… tomorrow,” Hitch paused and booped her nose with his hoof. “Right now, I just want us to be able to truly enjoy one another’s company. You know, like how your dad hosted parties for the three of us when we were small.”
Sunny’s shoulders sagged, her ears drooping ever so slightly. She stood there, looking up towards the clouds. “I wish you could have seen this, Dad, see how you were always right.”
“…Sorry, Sunny, I wasn’t trying to—” Hitch began, but Sunny put a hoof over his mouth.
“It’s okay. A part of me will always miss him, will always wonder, but I know he’s out there and he’s proud of us,” Sunny said, putting a hoof on Hitch’s shoulder and bumping her barrel against his in an attempt to lighten the mood.
“Hey,” Hitch pretended to pout, “what was that for?”
Sunny giggled, taking one of the presents and running ahead of him. “If you don’t hurry up, I’ll start opening them without you.”
Hitch smirked and started trotting after Sunny. There was no way he was gonna let the presents he had spent all year on be unwrapped without him there. He trotted after Sunny as the two of them made their way into town.
This year, they had decided to host the Hearth’s warming present exchange at Hitch’s office, rather than Sunny’s lighthouse. Sunny didn’t mind the change of places; it would just make it more interesting to figure out where the star topper would be.
It was a game they both played; it was practically tradition at this point that Sunny would need to find the missing star topper and add it to the tree. The star was in the shape of Twilight Sparkle’s cutie mark— Twilight had always been one of her favorites from the legend of the Guardians.
It wasn’t hard to find Hitch’s office; it still looked mostly the same. It was still a Sheriff’s office, the outside building was still the same old mostly-blue—with the top half being white—and, last but not least, it still had the giant golden star with a circle around it, representing the badge and honor of a sheriff.
Sunny approached the door with a giddiness in her steps. Her shoulders bunched against the sides of her neck as she jittered excitedly on her hooves, curious to see all the wonderful gifts Hitch had gotten her this year. Hitch always tried to go out of his way to make each year better than the last. It was rather silly, but Sunny admired his dedication.
Opening the door, she paused to admire the sheer beauty of the decorations. All around her, she could see all the colors of the rainbow. Banners hung from every corner, and in the center of the room was the big six-foot tall Hearth’s Warming tree, decorated with hoof-made ornaments. But, as usual, the topper was missing.
There were already a bunch of presents under the tree, each one wrapped uniquely to the point where she often wondered just how much time Hitch spent on this. Sunny rolled her eyes. It didn’t have to be perfect, as long as he did it with care.
Sunny started by walking over to the office desk and began looking for the star. Hitch was always good at finding ways to hide it better each and every year, which made it all the more fun for her when she eventually found it.
Searching the desk, she saw a lot of files on ponies that had recently committed crimes. Most of it was the generic stuff, like littering, or stealing food from the market, and trespassing, but one file in particular stuck out to her. Izzy Moonbow, accused of breaking and entering into a home and scaring a bunch of children.
“Izzy did what?!” Sunny shouted, quickly covering her mouth and questioningly looking over to Hitch for answers.
“I’m still looking into that one. I don’t think Izzy is aware of all our laws. For now, it’s still under investigation, but if she did it on purpose, I’m afraid I’ll have to bring her in. I hope you understand. It’s my solemn duty to uphold the law.”
“So, then why haven’t you arrested me for all those times I broke the law back when earth ponies weren’t friends with unicorns and pegasi?” Sunny asked, a big grin rising up on her lips as she watched him twitch ever so slightly. She had him right where she wanted him.
“Um… I tried to arrest you multiple times, filly,” Hitch said.
“Sure, but anyways, I can’t believe Izzy would do anything bad. She’s the most caring, kind, warm and huggable unicorn I have ever known. She couldn’t do something like that,” Sunny argued, but decided to let the matter drop for now. She still had a star to find, and it was very clear by now, there was nothing on this desk but paperwork.
She thought for a moment. There was something sparkling on the wall next to Hitch’s collection of books. Curiously, she walked over to the bookshelf to get a closer look. When she saw what the item was, she sighed. It was an award given to Hitch for being the noble pony around and donating an entire truck load of books to the public library. She wondered why it was here with his books, rather than in, say, a trophy room.
She wasn’t about to give up, though; Sunny was determined to find that crystal. She searched all throughout Hitch’s office. From the walls, to the floors, even looking up to the ceiling for clues. She hadn’t found any sign of the actual star topper. She was almost ready to let Hitch know he had bested her when she had an idea.
“What if it’s under the tree? It’s the only place I haven’t looked,” she whispered to herself.
Hitch had been watching her from his chair, sipping on a slurpee. “I assure you, Sunny, I hid it rather well this year. You won’t find it.”
Sunny paused in her hunt to give Hitch a stare down. Eyes locked between the two earth ponies, each one waiting for the other to blink. Sunny knew Hitch well, and all she had to do was distract him somehow. She wiggled her flank, just a light jiggle, and she smirked a big grin seeing Hitch lose his focus and blink.
“SUNNY!” he shouted, and his whole face looked as red as Ruldoph’s nose.
Sunny giggled and stuck her tongue out at him, before moving on. She went under the tree, her rump sticking out, and probably giving Hitch a view he either appreciated or tried his damndest to ignore. It wasn’t like Sunny was a mind reader. She only had one objective right now: find the star and win this game, like she did every year.
There were quite a lot of presents under the tree this year, and she saw a few of the tags through her search. Quickly, she realized not all of them were from Hitch. There were quite a few from Izzy marked with lots of glitter that made her blink and try to not be blinded by the sheer amount of colors. There were also presents from each Princess, Zipp and Pipp. It was nice to see they had each gotten her something. Though what was more surprising was there was even a gift from Sprout. She hadn’t really heard much from him, not since that fateful day.
She moved the presents all around, looking for the tree topper. No sign of it under the tree, and she had made quite the mess of Hitch’s wonderful decorations near the bottom of the tree. Sunny decided to fix them so they’d look exactly the way they had been when she started looking. As she was finishing the last of the decorations, she heard Hitch cough against his hoof.
“Ahem,” Hitch interrupted.
Sunny hit her head on the bottom of the branches as she felt a slight jolt of electricity running through her entire body, twitching. She smiled a big grin as she turned to look at Hitch, who was comfortably seated at his desk, clearly looking like he had won with a charismatic grin on his muzzle.
“Face it, Sunny, I’ve beaten you this year. You can look and look all you want, but I hid that star in the last place you’d ever think to look.”
Sunny paused to think. “The last place I’d think to look…” Then her smirk grew three sizes—“Thanks for the hint!”—and she dashed outside of his office to the front of the building, where the giant star symbol of their badges was proudly on display.
She couldn’t fly, but she knew where he kept the ladders. Hurrying over to the shed where the local cruiser was stored, she grabbed the ladder and trotted back to the front of the building to begin climbing. Each rung made her more and more confident with each step she climbed towards the top. It was almost like she was reaching for the stars themselves, which made her giggle as she reached the top.
“Last place I’d ever look, huh?” She stared at the giant star, and very carefully climbed onto the ledge of the building. What she was doing was probably, no… it was very dangerous. She wasn’t a pegasus, and the entire town was primarily earth ponies. Sure, pegasi and unicorns had both come to Maretime bay now, but it wasn’t like they were common. However, none of that mattered when Sunny had a goal in mind. She was driven to succeed, no matter what.
She began looking over the star, looking for some kind of secret door, but the star was just, well, as vanilla as could be.
“Hmm… maybe I was wrong,” Sunny whispered to herself, before she heard Hitch shouting from the ground below.
“Sunny! What on earth are you doing? Don’t you know how dangerous that is? You’ll fall! Get that flank of yours down here this instant!” Hitch demanded.
“Not until I find it!” Sunny retorted before going behind the star. There was a small box sitting there, and Sunny found herself giggling as she picked up the box.
Hurriedly, she opened the box and found the star within. Satisfied with herself, she went back to the ledge to where the ladder was. Carefully, she climbed her way back down, when she realized Hitch had been holding the ladder just in case it had wobbled.
“Hitch, you really did hide it well, just not good enough to stop me from finding it.”
“I never thought you’d be crazy enough to go up there.”
“Um, Hitch, don't you know me by now? There’s nothing that stops me from achieving my goals when I set out to do them. It’s how I brought magic back to our world, after all,” Sunny said, before leaning in and kissing Hitch on the cheek. “I couldn’t have found it without your hint, though, and I certainly couldn’t have saved the world without you either. Hitch, thank you for always being here.”
Hitch flushed slightly at the peck to the cheek and rubbed the spot. Sunny was so sweet, so caring. It was hard not to be inspired by her.
“Happy Hearth’s Warming, Sunny,” he said, and he brought her into a soft, yet warm and comforting embrace. “I’ll never leave you, I’ll always be your friend. No matter what.”
“Happy Hearth’s warming, Hitch,” Sunny said as she leaned into the hug, closing her eyes and allowing herself to just relax. She felt safe within his hooves. There was no pony she trusted more than Hitch. He was entirely loyal and faithful to his virtues, and a great friend, too.
Suddenly, the little crab from earlier was lightly poking at her front foreleg.
“Yes, little one?” she asked the little crab, who looked up at her with the biggest puppy dog eyes. He held a gift that was honestly too big for his small body and handed it to her.
“Oh, a gift for me? How sweet.” She smiled and very delicately leaned down to lightly peck the crab on his shell, making the red crab suddenly get redder, and there was a bit of steam above his head as he fell backwards.
“I think you startled the little guy,” Hitch declared, quickly helping the little crab back up on its pincers.
“I tend to have that effect on ponies and creatures, it seems. Should we call it the ‘Sunny Effect’?” she teased, jabbing Hitch in the side with an elbow.
“Ow,” he pretended to groan, though he couldn’t help laughing. “Yeah, the Sunny Effect, I like it.”
The two of them wrapped a foreleg around the other. Sunny picked up the star topper in the shape of Twilight’s cutie mark, Hitch picked up the crab, and the two of them went inside to enjoy the beauty of spending the rest of the day in unison and harmony.
The End. Happy Hearth’s Warming!
