19th of December 980

Today had been a lovely day in school, we went home early, I had been busy lately with school and just life in general, I knew so much more ultra powerful spells now, but I didn't go over them yet mentally, now I would have time for that and something I have always wanted to check since I obtained it, but I hadn't had time until now, the Item Shop, I hadn't even dared to open it yet, but that was about to change, I was comfy, just showered, polished my scales and oiled them up pretty, instead of going out like a sociable and responsible dragon I went to bed.

I opened up the menus and went mentally over the tabs, inventory, stats, party, map, bestiary, personal objectives, all of this I had already checked, and the personal objectives weren't some mysterious quests given to me, they were objectives I had written to myself mentally that I wanted to complete.

Oh! Here, there's a whole new tab! Let's see, Item Store.
As soon as I opened I was a bit disappointed, there weren't many things in here, but I started to read over the list of products.

Item 1

Spell Book: Ghost Hand/s

Description: this books allows the user to learn the spell Ghost Hand, it can be used by any creature who has a class that allows them to cast magic actively. Creates a ghostly hand that can be controlled mentally by the caster as if they were an extension of their body, they are the same temperature as the owners body, but can be willed to become colder if desired.
Can be multicast to have more than one, if two hands are cast at once, one becomes a left and the other a right hand, the hands can touch and feel objects or creatures, they have no nails like a real hand does, they aren't strong enough to wield other than daggers.

Cost: 1000 gp

Item 2

Talisman of Exhaustion

Description: this mysterious item allows the user to channel their body's stamina and endurance into a healing energy that mends the flesh of living beings, but it can leave the user exhausted to the point of unconsciousness, the stamina used is converted to HP by a proportion of 10 to 1, 10 stamina heals one HP

Cost: 8000 gp

Item 3

Dimensional Coordinates: Earth

Description: this coordinates will allow you to travel to your old world, but the coordinates are set exactly to the south pole, the only available point to enter the dimension.

This coordinates only work with the Plane Shift spell, no regular teleportation can take you across dimensions, once you travel, you will only be able to travel back to the point you left, or any teleportation circles you know the coordinates of (none) within this dimension.

The only way to go back from Earth will be to recast Plane Shift from the South Pole or the North Pole, where the dimensional boundaries are weaker, as Earth has an intense interdimensional barrier that blocks opening interdimensional doors anywhere else.

The portal will appear at a height of 10 meters to prevent any obstacle or the ground to interfere with the spell, as it needs this space to create a zone of neutral inertia to adjust to Earth's own, as it moves across space.

Cost: 10000gp

Item 4

Class Change Book

Description: this book facilitates you to change your class, or multi class, multiclassing as a Mage slows down your growth in magic, as you need to focus on other types of combat, but it doesn't remove anything already learned or weaken any of your attacks or abilities.

This book does not have any magical abilities, it just guides you along the path to become a different class, the same effect can be achieved without it, but the specific guides in this book will make the process much faster as it gives precise explanations of the best methods to get stronger with each class.

Cost: 2000 gp

Item 5

Large Plasma Gemstone

Description: this gemstone contains plasma element within, it can be used to enchant a weapon, or consumed to gain plasma affinity, consume enough of this gemstones and your draconic nature will cause you to evolve to resist and eventually become immune to it, as well as being able to use your breath weapon using this element.
Warning: consuming this will damage you until your body adapts, possibly causing you immense pain, try swallowing whole for a more slow and gradual release of the element, and therefore less initial damage.

Price: 2000

Selling

You can sell gemstones for their full price in exchange for more gold pieces, at the moment the only objects you can sell are gemstones

I had to double check, was this... Yes, I had not read that wrong, I knew that spell, but it was incomplete, if I did not have the coordinates the spell would just send me to a random dimension near this one, either the dream world or the ethereal plane, if I was really unlucky maybe even to the space between them, but this coordinates promised to send me to Earth, and there was a catch of course, right at the south pole, where if I remember correctly no one lives for... Thousands of kilometers or something, but hey the concept of going to vacation to Earth was appealing!

I would not need to pack winter clothes either, perfect for me, I would probably frolicking in the freezing cold weather, now if I wanted to go, the main problem was food, I would need a LOT and I mean a whole lot of food to not starve, I ate about enough food to feed an adult pony by now, probably more, and if I was traveling and spending so much energy I would need extra, water was fine, I could melt the ground and drink it, since I was pretty much immune to disease as a dragon.

I would probably need skiing equipment, which ponies did have, but for hooves, not dragon paws, round holes didn't exactly feet my beautiful feet.

I suppose I could just slide on my scales, and use ski poles to push myself, standing on my hind legs, or maybe just my tail. But... Traveling for such a long distance was going to take months, or longer, I could maybe take a short visit and then come back, check the place out, I honestly wasn't sure what was at the south pole, I imagined a big, empty wasteland with maybe a flag near the very center of whoever country discovered it. Maybe British or American?

I would need to ask mom, if she wanted to go with me, but I worried about her, she didn't have immunity to cold like I did, she probably would be fine but... Hmm I needed to think this thought, would she even let me? Yes, she would, she knew I still held some interest in my old world and now I could at least make a symbolic visit, not like I could get much from the south pole.

I also wasn't about to miss school, so this little trip would have to wait for the next vacation I had.
I closed the store and started fiddling with the inventory instead, there were a few hefty bags of gems that I haven't checked the contents of, I will do that now.

Onyx has opened Bag of Unknown Gemstones and found 10 assorted large polished gemstones!
Jacinth (5000gp), Opal (1000gp), 2 Diamond (5000gp), Star Sapphire (1000gp), 3 Black Pearl (500gp), 2 Emerald (1000gp)

Onyx has opened Bag of Unknown Gemstones and found 10 assorted large polished gemstones!
2 Aquamarine (500gp), Blue Sapphire (1000gp), Ruby (5000gp), Peridot (500gp), 3 Quartz (50gp), Pearl (100gp)

This is definitively a lot more than I was expecting! I may be able to buy everything at the item shop after all, even if I don't sell all of the gems.

6 days later 25 of December year 980

POV shift Sylf

I had been home since yesterday preparing some gifts for everyone, thankfully for the holidays I had free from work and could relax with my family, this Hearts Warming was a joy, I had a coltfriend who often visited, he and Onyx had not gotten to interact much yet, as he usually is at school at the times Coconut is free, but this day we were going to be together, the three of us, enjoying a special day.

I was very happy, I had prepared a special gift for Onyx that he would love! I bought an expensive chest made of gold encrusted with varios gemstones, it has cost me over 2 months salary, but it was worth it for him, and it was not like we were hurting for money, my bank account grew every month, as we didn't even use half of what I earned, all went to the bank, soon I'd have half a million.

The chest was a magnificent piece of art, with very fine craftsponyship, it looked like a box, with curved corners, it had six elegant legs, and it was heavily enchanted, having 10 different magical locks that only the user could unlock by focusing their unique magic, It was still unlocked until he opened the paper wrap, and finished the set up process indicated in the instruction manual, he had to use certain spells to finish the sequence and make the chest only open to his signature.

It was worth about 55k bits, there were only a dozen of them made, I had this one specially engraved.

For my coltfriend I had gone a different route, since he likes making ice cream and experimenting with various desserts that have ice cream on them, I have bought him a blast freezer, that uses a fan and a powerful cooling enchantment to lower the temperature of anything inside very fast, while blowing air through the whole system, it also has a glass window so he can keep mixing the ice cream inside with his telekinesis, allowing him to make ice cream faster, I bet he would find that very useful, it was about 5 thousand bits, usually machines that used magic like this cost a pretty penny, they also need to be recharged with magic.

I relaxed now, every gift was packed, it was early in the morning, both of them were still asleep, Onyx had moved to the other room when Coconut started to stay overnight, he said he wanted us to have our privacy, and, while I miss his cool and refreshing presence, literally, I also appreciate having time for Coconut, he is an adorable stallion and the days he stays overnight are fun, specially during the mornings~

I should not let my thoughts wander to that, everything was in place now, the tree, the lights, the star Onyx had placed last night, a radiant gem, it looked very much like a star.

He and Coconut baked gingerbread cookie figures of ponies, he tried to make a dragon too, but they don't sell the cutters for those, so he improvised, turned out very cute! In the end we have pony and dragon cookies, Onyx also decided to make eggnog, he says he used to really like homemade eggnog before, Coconut was confused at this but we didn't elaborate, it was maybe too early to tell him that Onyx was a reincarnated dragon that used to be another being known as a human, he would think us crazy, and with good reason.

The eggnog required some very rare and strong alcoholic drinks that are imported from other nations like Griffonia, and the distant Minotaur lands, in total it costed a few hundreds of bits to get them, I know they were overpriced but I didn't want to disappoint him, he was really excited.

He also wanted some spices which thankfully were much easier to get, he then proceeded to explain and show how he made it, he toasted the spices, added the milk and let the milk simmer with the spices in, then took it out of the fire and mixed it with heavy cream, after it was well mixed he let it cool and then added half a bottle of rum and half a bottle of whiskey, about two hundred bits worth of them, and once everything was mixed he shook the container and set it in the fridge to cool down, then stored it all in mason jars.

He says the longer the eggnog ages in the fridge the better it will taste, I've yet to taste it but maybe we would probably try it today, it smelled strong.

I went back to bed after preparing my gifts, snuggling with my pony shaped plushie, if only I could cuddle him all day... He slowly woke up, his stallionhood, as always, was the first part of him that stood up, but he still was barely waking up, I just snuggled him tighter and nuzzled his neck lovingly, then started to lick his neck and ear, making him to giggle lightly and wake up faster.

"Mornin' love, did you have a good night? Its already Heart Warming, aren't you going to go with me and help wake up Onyx?" He let out a small yawn and whined softly, he clearly wanted to stay comfy in bed, but I kept kicking him and gently nibbling at his ear.

"Y-yes I did, good morning my lovely wolf! Im just a bit sleepy still, but I'll get up, you're right, it's Heart Warming! I-i just really like staying in bed with you and cuddling, you are warm, fluffy and a very good marefriend." I felt my face warming up at his compliments, if it was any other day I would have just pinned him down to the bed and have my way with him, but I wanted us to share gifts and enjoy this day first.

"Then let's go before I decide I don't wanna get up either and instead get on top of you, because you're tempting me with that!" I say with a playful huff, pointing at his part, he gave me a smirk and a confident look, basically saying come and get it, it would have worked at any other point, but now it was time for gift opening!

I get up from the bed, pulling him with me and he quickly get up when he was about to fall off the bed, he may be a hornhead but he was not gonna just let me pull him out of bed and let himself fall down, he quickly landed on all fours, he hmph'd at me, turning around and stretching his limbs and back while yawning, teasing me further by exposing his behind to me fully, which made me blush like a tomato, he smirked with satisfaction at getting back at me for getting him out of bed early.

"Fine my precious sweetheart, let's go wake the colt up first, and we go and open the gifts then, I'm excited to see what you two got, and what I got too, this is going to be a fine day, I can already tell! I love Heart Warming, it's my favorite pony tradition and I find it admirable because of our history." I had to agree to that, the story was beautiful and made me wish ponies and the other species would come together too.

We head to Onyx's room and open the door, who upon the door opening he starts to stir, he is a light sleeper, at least right now. "Hnhh?" He sleepily mumbles and slowly blinks his eyes awake, me and Coconut come close and nuzzle his face at the same time, which earns us a happy smile from the dragon, who returns the nuzzle and then places his paws on both of our heads and starts to pet us, it works surprisingly well as me and my love close our eyes and start to relax, making happy noises of satisfaction, damn son, your paws are dangerously good at this... Mmmmh

I blink myself fully awake again, he was almost making us both fall back asleep, oh dear nevermind he made my stallion fall asleep fully, while sitting down, okay maybe I did wake him up too early, was I getting too overexcited for this? Probably...

"Let's sleep a few more hours all three of us, I'll go in the middle, I miss having someone to cuddle with, and I wouldn't mind cuddling your boyfriend, he looks pretty cuddly..." Onyx softly said to me, then pulled him up and carried him fully onto the bed with his telekinesis, placing him near the edge of the bed where he hugged him from behind, latching onto the stallion's lower back, he always liked to grab me from there too.

My heart felt like it was melting, this was such an adorable moment! Before I would ruin it but making squeaking noises of how cute they looked I just joined and sandwiched my son between him and Coco, Onyx just looked pleased with himself as he had his eyes closed, I decided to sleep again and let my sleepiness take over fully.

4 hours later, Onyx's room, POV shift Coconut Cream

I was unused to this sensation, this coolness around my lower back, clinging to me, it was not too cold, similar to have an ice pack wrapped in a towel and tied around my hip, but the warmth behind that completely balanced out the cool sensation, huh I suppose my sexy Sylf wasn't lying when she said he was different, no other creature would be this cold naturally, I let out a big yawn, the extra sleep did wonders, huh wait when did I fall asleep again?

As I began to wake up, I had to suppress my body's natural reaction that for some reason was a hard on, this always happened to me since I hit puberty at around 15, but I was told it was normal for stallions, in fact even a sign of good health. Still not the right time now! I focused on the cold sensation behind me, imagining myself in a freezing cold place, my body getting colder and colder, it was not hard to imagine as a dragon as cold as ice was hugging me, that sensation and mental image made me go back to normal quickly, I let out a sigh of relief, disaster averted!

"Hey everypony, I mean everyone, are you awake? I wanna go to the bathroom if neither of you mind, I'll be getting up." My announcement caused both of them to begin stretching and blinking awake, good, now seriously I needed to pee.

Once I was done and washed myself, I got back and I saw them getting out of bed, Onyx went to his bathroom while Sylf went to the other room, I just went out the door and waited for them to get ready, It would be ideal if we went out all together to give each other gifts, it's tradition after all!

After a while they both came out, we finally headed down the stairs, there was a slight excitement in the air, I could feel it. Today was a special day for me, this was the first Heart Warming day in years I will spend with somepony after the death of my father, 4 years ago, he left me his small fortune and ice cream parlor, and I promised to him I would make him proud, in his last moments, he held my muzzle and said to me "I will be proud of you son, just find happiness, will you?"

Those words resonated with me now, in this moment, a stream of tears escaped me, as I went down the stairs, this was hitting me now of all times? The realization I had someone who loved me, and a little dragon who really cared about me too, I stopped them once we reached the bottom, and pulled them both into me with my telekinesis, well tried to pull Onyx but he was slippery, so I physically pulled him gently, upon seeing my face they both hugged me back, if a bit surprised, but quickly they showed me a level of empathy Ievel of empathy I didn't know they had, when they both silently cried with me.

As I held them I started to calm down, they also had cried with me, Onyx specially was specifically affected, I felt a bit guilty over this, nuzzling him more to show him it was all okay.

"S-sorry you two, I should explain why we are even crying, I never told you about my family right?" They shook their heads at this.

"I only remember you saying you inherited the ice cream parlor you have from your dad, right?" Onyx said softly, his voice barely above a whisper.

"You're very observant, and adorable" his smile returned at that, he liked compliments huh?

"But yes, it's my inheritance along with his house right on top of it, and his money, that was a good amount, but not enough to make me rich or something, at least not in Canterlot." I said with a small chuckle, both of them smiled at my joke at the end, but it was not a joke, really, Canterlot was very expensive.

"So... m-maybe we should save my story for after we are done opening the presents, I don't want to ruin the excitement more than I already did..." My ears are lowered as I realize I had messed up Heart Warming opening of presents, oh no! I needed to make up for them somehow now.

"Let's go, in the end all I wanted to say was that I'm glad to be able to spend a Heart Warming with the two of you, I know its probably early to say this, but to me you are a family... I think this is what father meant when he said I should find happiness." They both smiled warmly and tackled me after, Onyx was the first then Sylf joined, she was much bigger but also much gentler than Onyx, who despite looking shorter than a foal weighted about the same as an adult pony, and he liked to pin others down under him, I learned that the hard way.

After a few minutes of receiving affection forcefully, we got up and finally headed towards the living room where the tree stood tall, and beautiful, the decorations were beautiful, painted crystal shapes, mostly balls, shiny pieces of what looked like gold that had odd rectangular shapes, and had dragons stamped on both sides, what were they? I had never seen them, there were also magic multicolor lights wrapped around the tree.
Ponies always loved those, and they weren't very expensive either as they were commonly sold at this time of year.

At the top the star was a large gemstone that radiated a golden light, it was beautiful and large, held by a silvery metal support to the tree.

Underneath the tree there were a large selection of gifts, I knew right away my gifts would be humble compared to theirs, but I was still happy to give them something.

"Well, time to open the presents everyone! Son, you go first since you're the younger one, then you go my stallion, and me at the end, because I'm the oldest, that's how the tradition goes right?" Sylf announced but asked me the last part, she was completely right.

"Right you are my dear, go ahead young drake, time to open em up, in fact you should be handing us our gifts too, but if you find yours first then open them, we will wait for you to open then anyways." He nodded and started reading the name tags out loud.

POV shift Onyx

I was happy to have a new friend, Coconut was very kind with me and he clearly made mom happy, I couldn't have asked for a better Heart Warming's gift than him joining us today.
He had also shared his emotional side with us, a big show of trust that I wasn't about to play down, he clearly cared about her and even me, he also was nice to cuddle with like mom, he really smelled kinda like coconut, ponies were funny in that way, it's like their parents knew the perfect way to name them by magic, which was probably true. Somehow.

He was I guess kind of my dad now, I started to feel that way about him, I honestly wanted him to be, it was good to feel like I had a pony who i could start to trust more and more, I hope he will be okay with my secrets someday.

His presence made this day feel more complete, it felt right.

I grabbed the first gift from the pile, it was a small box, covered in pastel light blue, the ribbon was a small blue piece of some kind of fabric, it said on the name tag "For Onyx" so I opened it, tearing the pretty paper, that was the most satisfying way to open a present after all!

Inside there was a black wooden box that I opened, where inside it, a device that looked like a single wheel with a handle on one side, it was made mostly of steel but on the edge of the wheel there was seemingly abrasive material, like a metal file or something, I quickly recognized what this was, a hand actuated spinning wheel with abrasive, perfect to polish my claws smooth and leave them perfectly shiny and dull!

"Oh thank you! I love this, what's the material on the abrasive?" I asked this because usually I would need diamond to more easily remove material from my claws.

"Oh it's diamond, it's used in gem smoothing, it polish gems, and since you're a dragon I figured you could use it for any gem you have, or something." Coconut answered, he had gotten me this then, how sweet!.

"Thanks a lot! It's actually ideal to smooth my claws since they need to be filed every other day to not become razor sharp, but I'll try polishing some gems too, thank you for this!" I moved and stood in front of him, smiling up at him before petting him along his neck like someone would pet a horse, he just nuzzled me and giggled a bit.

"If that's what you need, then I'm glad my gift is useful, I was worried you would not have something to use it with, but I'm very happy you do, go on, open the other gifts, I'm excited to see what else you get." He encouraged me, I nodded and went back to the pile under the three, there was another gift covered in yellow paper, the name tag read "Sylf"

I handed it to Sylf who opened it, inside there was a pair of clocks made to be hanged on the wall, they were identical and they showed the exact hour, they were beautifully made, the back was made of some kind of wood, the edges of the clock were made of silver patterns, looking like branches and leaves and the hands of the clock were made of thin golden threads twisted into a spiraling pattern that kinda looked like thing and long unicorn horns.

Both of them were similar but there were small barely invisible differences, it was all clearly hand made by some expert artisan pony.

"Wow, they're beautiful! But why there's two of them?" Sylf finally asked what was in my mind as well.

"Well because since we sleep in the same room, but Onyx sleeps in the other room, I figured he would appreciate also having a clock for his room so we all can know what hour it is, without having to go out and look at the sun." He really was thoughtful with his gifts, I hope my gift doesn't disappoint them, it was not exactly high effort after all.

"I hope my gift is good enough for you then, because now I'm slightly worried it may not be enough..."

"Hey now, you didn't have to provide any gifts, you're a colt, I would consider a hug from you gift enough, and you already gave me a few of those today, and even showed me the most empathy ive seen anyone show, you two are the most kind ponies, creatures I have in my life." Mom hugged him tightly as he said that, he clearly was still emotional, I ran over and hugged both again, I would not let a pony go un hugged if I could help it, if they were good of course, and I knew them well enough or the vibe was the right one to offer them one.

"Coconut is right my precious dragon, whatever gift you give us will be enough for us, more than enough, I'm always going to be happy to just have you with me, okay?" I nodded, I suppose I could accept that.

"Hmm okay momma, let's finish opening up the gifts or this day will go on forever, the anticipation is killing me..." I grabbed another gift, this one said Sylf and Coconut, and yeah, it was mine, here goes nothing.

"Here you two, each of you must read only one of them!" I said handling them the poorly wrapped gift, Coconut grabbed it in his tk and opened it, handing one of the small books to Sylf who simply placed it on the ground with her maw.

They both read one of them, the books instantly disappeared after they read the first word, and they stood there, still and unblinking for a few seconds.

"Oh! I know a new spell all of a sudden, what the hay was that?!" He was definitively surprised enough to say a pony 'curse word' I chuckled loudly at that, mom already knew about this, she just smirked, her smile turned mischievous, almost predatory. Oh mom, what have I done? This was going to turn real awkward really fast if I didn't stop her.

"Don't you dare mom, let's finish the gift opening first, THEN you can go play with your new spell on your coltfriend, I can see that look on your eyes, behave young missy!" They looked confused at me when I said that, mom was not expecting me to probably know her intentions, and Coconut was very confused but slowly started to blush as he realized what I said and what the spell did.

"Y-yes sorry I got a bit excited, not going to happen again for now, sorry son, let's go back to it." She said with her ears lowered.

"It's fine mom, don't be all sad now, I suppose after we finish here and have some food you two can go and test your new Heart Warming gifts, seems like this was exactly what you wanted huh?"

"You kidding?! I've ALWAYS wished I could have a way to handle things other than my maw, you know how hard it is to cook with my maw? This spell changes everything! It will not only let me do household activities but also improve my ability to use any everyday objects, I won't feel so useless anymore either. The days of getting dish soap on my tongue are finally over! All thanks to you... I love you my little Onyx!" She eagerly petted me with the new spell, while nuzzling me at the same time, I gotta say, it feels really comforting, those hands... They felt against my scales.

"T-this spell seems definitively very useful and interesting, but why did the book disappear when I tried to read it, and how come I know the spell just by reading one word?" The stallion asked confused, I supposed I could explain it like this.

"It's a magical magic book" he raised an eyebrow, looking doubtful at my answer.

"It's true, it's magical because you instantly learn, and it disappears afterwards, and it's a magic book because it teaches you a spell." He was not satisfied with my answer but he just shrugged slightly and smiled.

"It's fine, maybe you'll tell me someday, I greatly appreciate the spell, it could be really useful, seems better than using telekinesis to do everything, I'm honored that you have given me this knowledge."

"I may tell you a lot someday, maybe sooner than you think, we all have secrets after all, but you're quickly becoming part of this family, I trust you, but with time I'll trust you enough to tell you more about me, that okay to you Coconut?"

"Absolutely, you're within your rights to keep anything you want to a secret, and I will never try to rush you into telling them to anypony." He meant that, I could tell.

"Thank you, you're a really good stallion, glad you and mom are together, now let's finish this, shall we?" Both of them nodded eagerly.

I grabbed a large box, it was heavy, probably heavier than a pony maybe two adult ponies in weight.

I lifted it without much issue, it read Coconut Cream.

I moved it in front of him and gently placed it on the ground, he smiled at me, then looked the box was big as him with awe, slowly breaking the paper into pieces, the box was cardboard and he opened it and inside there was a large machine that had a glass panel to one side, that seems to also be a door, inside there was a rotatory system and what looked like an ice cream making bowl made of ceramic or something. A spatula was in it, I had no idea what this was, but it looked hella expensive.

"Oh my gosh whaaat?? This is amazing! No way! Who would... Sylf?! Was it you, wasn't it? I always wanted one of this! They only have them at the most expensive and modern places like expensive restaurants and hotels! Mostly only in Manehattan, oh Sylf you shouldn't have... this things cost a fortune! Oh I can't believe this, it's so big, fancy and amazing! I think I'm gonna pass out, somepony hold me!" He actually passed out, Sylf dived under to catch his head with her neck, he was on the floor with his legs spread and his tongue out and his eyes were all swirly.

He is the funniest pony I've ever met, he clearly wasn't expecting this gift and got overly excited, poor guy!

He shook his head and blinked awake not a second later, I couldn't tell if he just pranked us or if he had genuinely passed out, probably a very well executed prank, to be honest.

"Thank you so much Sylf... I'll make it up to you somehow!" He said cheerfully, back to normal.

"I'm sure you will, but let's open the last one now, I'm starving!" They agreed before they could get further distracted.

I lifted this one, it was about the same weight as the last one, but it wasn't nearly as big, it was about the size of a coin chest, but very very heavy.

"Huh, odd, it's heavy, I wonder what it is..."

I lifted it and started to tear the paper right out, even the paper looked specially fancy, being all black with small golden symbols on it, the bow adorning the thing looked made of gold thread so I kept that, it was too pretty to just rip off.

I couldn't believe my eyes! This was beautiful, one of the best works of art I had seen, comparable to the artwork and statues in the Canterlot Palace, it feels like it would have fit right in with all of that.

It was a chest, but instead of having a normal base it was held by six golden legs, all beautifully carved and shaped with curved lines, the upper part of the legs has the appearance of talons, or claws, each holding a beautiful gemstone inside, pressed against the walls of the golden box in the middle, each gemstone was a different color, forming a 6 color rainbow, the engraving on the top of the box depicted a dragon, a wolf and a unicorn, the dragon was in the middle and to his left there was the wolf, the unicorn to his right, he quickly realized it was meant to be them, they looked very similar, with some artistic freedom, for example, he was slightly larger than the other two, and he had wings.

Around them nature was depicted, pine trees a river, a few rocks, wildflowers and grass, the level of detail was incredible for a metal engraving, even a few birds were depicted flying above, the sun was represented with an Amber gemstone, it was one of the most beautiful things he had seen, the rest of the chest also had engravings, mostly nature related like vines in symmetrical patterns, different flowers growing out of them, it also had handles on the sides to be lifted, made of the same material but instead of engraving them, they were given a texture similar to bark from a tree, making it easier to hold for him, as his scales wouldn't slip from those textured handles.

Everyone but Sylf was staring wide eyed, lower jaws figuratively on the ground.

"Left speechless hm? Well, I know how you feel, I felt exactly the same when I first saw it, and I knew I had to get it for my only son, my precious Onyx, now... It needs you to cast a few spells and channel your magic in it, the chest is open and the instructions are inside, so please when you want to use it, do that, so it can be locked, okay?" I shook my head, feeling like I had been daydreaming and finally realized mom was talking to me, I nodded and closed my maw, trying to think what to say.

"Uhm... Mom this will take some time to process, mentally, but I have to say it looks very very lovely and pretty, the engraving is my favorite part, I love you so much..." I go and hug her around the neck, standing up on my hind legs and rubbing our snouts together, my eyes slowly tearing up as I'm overwhelmed by emotion, I don't know how to even properly express my thanks to her, so I just hold her and stay like this for a while, silently.

"You two have to tell me how you met while we eat lunch, what do you say?"

"Yes, I'd love to, mom you can tell it from your perspective and I can from my own, now let's go eat, im starving!"

"Let's enjoy this day, we could talk about ourselves more and I'd gladly tell how I met my son."

And that was how my Heart Warming day went, we sat down to eat, and we shared our stories, I told him how I was a small baby hatchling surviving on fish from the river, how I was going to sleep next to a tree and saw a shadow looming over me, how I tried to appear fierce and Sylf just looked unimpressed and then when I was sure she would just eat me, I tried bargaining with the fish I had caught earlier for her to let me live, and then Sylf told him how she was just worried there was a pup all alone and lost next to the river, and she was checking up on him to, trying to see if he was alive at first, or if he needed help, where his parents were.

He seemed amused by the contrasting points of view, pointing out how it may seem from a small dragon's perspective that Sylf would be threatening and huge, scary for me, I agreed to that and even she reluctantly nodded, thinking back on it.

I explained how I had hatched and not found my parents, my nest was abandoned and I had to catch fish to survive since the very start, he hugged me and told me I will never need to do that again, that I'd never be alone or go hungry like that, I agreed, i think he would make a good father.

I told him that, then I admitted I wanted him to be my father, he thought about it, then smiled widely and accepted, then he told me his story.

He had never met his mom, she had died during his birth, as she was the headmare or leader of the herd, it disbanded when she passed away so tragically, his father instead raised him alone, he didn't want to find another mare after his mother had passed, saying he still hurt too much, the old pony stallion was stubborn and didn't want to try again, he just pushed away any mare who wanted to court him, deciding to raise him alone.

This greatly stunted Coconut's ability to talk to mares, making him more introvert and shy around them.

When his father got sick with an unknown disease, I suspect it was cancer but I'm not sure, it sounded like it. He deteriorated rapidly and died, he left his only son all of his belongings, Coconut was only 20 years old when this happened, thankfully he already had experience in running the ice cream parlor so he could stay afloat, during summer he had a lot of costumers every day and his prices were high enough that he made a profit, his prices were not unreasonable, not for Canterlot at least, so he could compete with other fancier more expensive places, catering to the working class.

Sylf spoke about herself too, her live in the tribe, how their heriarchy worked, their rituals when it came to many different parts of life, etc.

The death rituals were extremely interesting, they would have their recently deceased lay at a comfortable seat, then everywolf would come and sit in front of them, one by one and in private, and explaining to this dead wolf what they felt towards them in life, all of the things they wanted to say to them before they died, every regret, every secret, every wish and desire, and just pretend they were confessing this to the living individual, they would also apologize for anything they felt they wronged them with.

Once the whole tribe had said their piece, they would all send them off with a group howl, and then they would dig a hole, fill it with firewood, the dead wolf on top, and then the wolf that were most beloved to the dead would set the funeral pyre alight, allowing the ashes to scatter to the freezing winds of the far north.

They had many other rituals, I honestly wanted to visit Sylf's tribe now, I was really intrigued, we didn't talk about this enough.

They even had mating rituals, but she didn't go into detail to not make the conversation devolve into sex talk, I was only 8 and they both still considered me as such, of course I was more like 28 if you consider my human age when I died, but I liked to just think of myself as a child again, I felt like one, I was much more emotional and had a different mindset, while I was still pansexual, i think, I was missing the 'sexual' in that word.

I think this Heart Warming has been the best one so far, I hope my friends are also doing well and enjoying the time with their families.

Author's Note

When I say I don't know what's at the south pole in the story and that it is an empty wasteland, don't worry, me, the author, knows exactly what's there and what would happen, so don't worry it's not gonna be as boring as him going there and nothing happening, there could be fun interactions to be had there, in the middle of freezing cold winter during -70c blizzards, have any of you seen the movie 'The Thing' ? Just imagine something like that but less body horror, death, etc and much more mischief