Thorax and Ember were walking down the streets of Ponyville on the way to the library, taking in all of the sights as they did so.

“Every year, they never fail to impress me,” Thorax said, sighing peacefully.

“I agree,” Ember responded, taking in all of the decorations on the houses they passed by. “These decorations are beautiful. The Dragonlands have nothing on this!”

“Yeah!” Thorax said. “There’s colorful lights on the houses and I find some of them really cool. It’s crazy how creative the ponies here can be.”

“Right? It’s almost a competition to see who can decorate their houses in the most creative way possible.”

“If that were true, I don’t think Starlight would win that contest,” Thorax said as he and Ember arrived at a large oak tree with a library built into it, devoid of any decoration. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that of course.”

As they approached the front door, it opened to reveal Starlight with Spike standing alongside her. “Hey, so glad you could make it.”

“I mean, we did say we were coming here an hour ago,” Ember stated.

“Oh right,” Starlight said, blushing from embarrassment. “I kinda had a lot on my mind lately about setting everything up, and I didn’t get a whole lot of sleep last night, so my brain isn’t really working today.”

“Holy crap, do you need to go to the hospital? If your brain isn’t working right you need to get to the hospital right now.”

“My brain is fine, Ember,” Starlight said with a slightly exasperated tone. “It’s just an expression.”

“Man you ponies really like your confusing saying don’t you?” Ember replied.

“Anyway, why don’t you two come on in.” Starlight said as she motioned them in with her hoof.

As the group went inside, they gathered around the fireplace which has two dolls on top of it; one that looks exactly like Starlight, and one like Spike.

“Normally I would have dolls of whoever I was really close with came over to celebrate Hearth’s Warming,” Starlight stated, “but since I invited you two last minute, I obviously don’t have any of you two.”

“Oh that’s fine,” Thorax responded. “Being here is enough for me, and I know I haven’t said this earlier, but I can’t thank you two enough for inviting us here.”

“Yeah, if you two haven’t come along, we would’ve spent the holidays alone.” Ember stated.

“Oh it was nothing. We just did what anyone would’ve done,” Spike said.

Ember noticed the dolls of Starlight and Spike sitting above the fireplace. “What are those dolls? They look like you two.”

“Oh, those dolls are usually of somepony who is really close to you or means a lot to you,” Starlight explained. “It’s kinda like when you have photos of your family and friends; it reminds you of who really loves you and cares about you.”

“Well then, it makes sense your dad isn’t up there,” Spike said in a sarcastically joking way.

“It’s not that I don’t care per se, but yeah. Luckily I never told him where I lived, so he won’t be disturbing any—“

Just then, a door suddenly swung open, and in came Starlight’s dad, Firelight. “How’s my silly filly doing this Hearth’s Warming?”

”OH LUNA DAMN IT!” Starlight shouted.

“Oh man, you would not believe the trip I had to take to come find you. It’s really hard when you didn’t get a notice on where your daughter lives, am I right?” Firelight said as he walked in, hugging Starlight.

“There’s a reason I never told you my address,” Starlight quietly grumbled.

“I think my invitation got lost in the mail or something,” Firelight continued.

“Wish I could lose you in the mail,” Starlight said with her still annoyed grumbling.

"Oh I'm sure you're just so happy to see me after so long and--" he paused when he noticed Ember and Thorax in the library with her, and got into a defense stance in front of her daughter. "Starlight, get behind me, I'll deal with this."

"Dad wait, they're my--" Starlight tried to say before being interrupted by Firelight.

"I don't want you two going anywhere near my precious little daughter. If you think you can harm her, you got another thing coming!" he said.

"Hurt her?! We weren't going to do that!" Thorax defended.

"Nice try Changeling! I've heard what your species can do, and I'm not falling for it." Firelight rebutted.

"Uh, what Thorax says is true. We are her friends after all," Ember stated. "My friends are my hoard, and I'll do whatever I can to protect that hoard."

He decided to move back from them after hearing both Ember and Thorax's oath. However, he was a bit skeptical so he asked Starlight, "Starlight, is what they they true? Are they really your friends?"

Starlight groaned in annoyance, "Yes Dad, I've been trying to tell you that, but as always, you wouldn't listen to your oh so precious daughter. How did you even find me anyway?”

“Oh so glad you asked!” Firelight exclaimed.

“I’m probably going to regret asking that…”

“I went to Ponyville because that where you moved to. But since you didn’t send your old man an invitation, I had to ask each of the residents of the town where you lived.”

“Ok, that doesn’t sound as bad as it could’ve been…”

“So I had to do some deep digging, aka asking the mayor if she knew where you lived.”

“And I immediately take that back.”

“So she gave me all of the information and now I’m here!”

Ember whispered to Thorax, “Yeesh, I knew her dad loves Starlight from what she told us, but this is next level.” Thorax nodded in agreement.

Firelight walked over and sat near the fireplace. “So, are we going to start celebrating or what?”

“Dad look, you can’t just walk in here unannounced,” Starlight said in annoyance. “but I’ll let you stay since it’s Hearth’s Warming.”

“Great! Now let’s get some hot cocoa and I’ll read Starlight’s favorite story; Frosty the snowpony.” Firelight beamed, wrapping his hoof around his daughter.

“I’m going to regret this,” Starlight groaned.

Author's Note

Woooooooooooooooooooo. Second chapter done yessirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.