To give them respite from the chilly winter air, Sugar Belle brought the three families into her cafe, and set them at some open tables that she had prepared for them. Avoiding the topic of her being alone for the holiday, she kept imploring them to admire the festive tablecloths and asked them what they would like to eat. Naturally, the filly Green Circle was the first to order, piping up that she wanted some gingerbread, and all the others followed suit with their own sweets they wanted to eat. Once she jotted down what each of the ponies wanted, she whipped into the kitchen in order to fill their orders.
Alta tapped on the table, glancing between the door, her family, and the other two families sitting at the other tables. "Well, it seems like we're all a bit peckish! Seriously, Powder? You had to order the chocolate tree cake?" She lightly swatted her husband with her pastern. "Don't work the poor girl to death!"
Powder Snow grinned sheepishly. "I'm sorry I have a big stomach."
Blue Square adjusted his glasses, and started to speak, which brought upon an eye roll from Double Diamond, and groans from his other two siblings. "Well, technically it's not a big stomach that demands him to have a higher food intake than a normal pony--it's the fact that muscles burn more calories. It requires those with more muscle mass to consume more food so that they they could keep their muscle tissue. Of course, chocolate cake could hardly be considered healthy."
Black Diamond groaned. "Blue, you talk too much."
"I do not! I talk as much as I need to, which is to get information out to all ponies in my immediate vicinity who clearly have no idea what they're talkin--"
"Shut up!"
Double Diamond moved his stool and sat in between them. "Good to see that you're as buddy-buddy as always."
At the second table, Quasar Rune was busy wiping his glasses with a cloth. "Well, I surely hope that these sweets are worth the bits."
Party Favor had been staring at the kitchen door. "No worries, she's a great baker! I've lived here for quite some time, and this cafe here has always been one of my favorite places to visit." He leaned in his hoof. "Even when her goods were... not exactly the best... she's still sweet, friendly, and fun to talk to. She's the first friend I made here."
From her table, Night Glider noticed Party Favor's glum expression. "You still bummed out that nopony she knew from her life before the town is coming?"
Party Favor sighed. "Yeah. I'm still shocked that nobody from her past life really cares."
"And that those that did are dead," Night Glider stated.
Double Diamond nodded. "And there's the matter of her not liking her dad..."
Green Circle piped up, "Why doesn't she like her dad?"
Double Diamond turned to his sister. "Well, Greenie, she hasn't really explained much, really. All we know is that, he was... um..." He looked at the kitchen door, hoping that Sugar Belle wasn't listening. "That he was some sort of mean perfectionist."
"Oh, so that's her reason for having her cutie mark removed," Greenie replied.
Double Diamond, Night Glider, and Party Favor shrieked and jumped into standing position on their stools. The whole cafe was silent after that, from all three of the families and the other patrons of the shop staring at them. Glancing in between each other, the three of them all blushed, and then sat down.
Party Favor glanced back at his father quirking an eyebrow. He sighed. "Yeah, you know of the whole Starlight Glimmer thing... you know, when we had our cutie marks... removed..."
"Ah, yes, I was wondering about that," Quasar Rune said. "I have to be impressed that somepony actually developed a magic for removing cutie marks, even though that's clearly the work of a madmare. And it's foolish to have your cutie marks removed like that, no matter whether it's a useful talent, or one that brings about mockery."
Party Favor groaned and rolled his eyes. "I know, Dad. I know. We got them back..." He then narrowed them as he glanced at his father, muttering under his breath, "Then again, why would you want me to keep mine?"
Powder Snow then looked at Double Diamond. "You know, I've been meaning to ask you why you did what you did following that philosophy. You always seemed to be the one with the most pride in his special talent, and every other skier in town envied you."
Black Diamond sneered at the red-nosed reindeer on his tablecloth. "Me included."
Double Diamond sighed. "You forgot about the avalanche, didn't you?"
Powder Snow blinked. "Oh, right. Many of your friends turned against you and jeered at you for not being as perfect as you seemed. I guess I can figure it out from there."
Double Diamond nodded.
Fleetfoot glanced at her sister Night Glider. "And let me guess... you couldn't handle that one of us was talented enough to get into the Wonderbolts, and it wasn't you?"
Night Glider narrowed her eyes at her. "Don't make me punch you."
Star Catcher quickly interjected, "Ah ah ah! No violence on Hearth's Warming, it's not in the spirit. Remember, conflict like that is why the Windigoes were giving the ancient ponies so much trouble!"
"Yeah, so, be nice to each other," Wingspan said, adjusting his cap.
The girls crossed their forelegs and looked away from each other.
Party Favor shook his head. "Look, we've made that mistake, it's past us now, and we're not doing anything like that again. Right now, we're just trying to re-bond with you guys and show you the new life we're building."
"Well, I certainly like the friends you've made so far," Merry Maykin said.
A look of concern was on Silk Shimmer's face. "Shame that Sugar Belle has to be lonely during Hearth's Warming."
Party Favor tapped his chin, and then his face brightened. "You know, she doesn't have to be." He stood on his stool and looked between his own family, Double Diamond's, and Night Glider's. "Why don't we all have her as a temporary sister in each of our families?"
Greenie cheered. "Sweet! I always wanted a sister!"
Silk giggled at Greenie's enthusiasm. "Same here!"
Double Diamond blinked. "Wait, wait, wait... how is it going to work?"
"Yeah, we are going to have our separate family times during the week," Night Glider said.
Party Favor laughed. "Well, each family is going to have her for about one or two days, showing her what our annual holiday traditions are, doing activities with her, and maybe she'll teach all of you some neat things to bake! And we'll do this as we show our families around the town and have them meet our friends and neighbors."
Double Diamond scratched his chin and smiled. "Well, she could help me show my folks the new ski resort, have some snowy fun, and help us choose a nice, big tree to put in the resort's hub."
Night Glider leaned forward in her seat. "Maybe she could spot mistakes in the flight pattern me and Fleetfoot are going to use in the opening, or help us make some ornaments for the tree."
Party Favor grinned. "That's the spirit!" He looked at his own family. "And of course, we could do our annual Hearth's Warming pony tale fight, take her ice skating, and my personal favorite, making the Hearth's Warming dolls out of any material we want!"
"Of course, Kazam always opted to sculpt a figurine from a rock, Silk Shimmer knitted hers, and you... used balloons," Quasar Rune said coolly.
Party Favor raised an eyebrow back. "Yeah, so?"
"Oh, not to worry, as long as you made something, it was all right," Merry said. "Remember, you kids used to draw pictures instead."
Party Favor smiled and nodded. "Now, the question is that of who's going first?"
Before anypony could answer, Sugar Belle returned with three trays being held in her magic, balancing the treats on top of them. Party Favor noticed, and quickly sat down before she could scold him on that.
Quasar Rune nodded. "My, my, I'm impressed with her dexterity."
Sugar Belle trotted to the table of Double Diamond's six family members, and placed each treat in front of each family member. "Okey-dokey, we have the minty chocolate cake shaped like a pine tree, frosted with mint frosting and sprinkled with sprinkles and powdered sugar for Powder Snow. And then we have the snowpony-shaped fudge for Alta and Blue Square, the mini gingerbread houses for little Greenie and Black Diamond, and the cheesecake for Double Diamond."
Double Diamond laughed. "Sweet!"
Sugar Belle trotted to the pegasi's table next. "And we've got simple tortes for Wingspan and Star Catcher, powdered scones for Fleetfoot, and a meringue shell with custard for Night Glider."
Night Glider downed her meringue shell in a millisecond. Licking her lips, she exclaimed, "De-lish!"
Sugar Belle giggled, and finally went to the Rune family. "And let's not forget Quasar Rune's same order of meringue shells with custard, Merry Maykin's chocolate strawberries, Silk Shimmer's minty fudge balls, and of course, Party Favor's chocolate cupcakes." She winked at him when she said that last one.
She walked to the space between the tables, and said, "Also, there are cookies shaped like each of you beside them." She levitated the cookie shaped like her own face right beside her and grinned. "I know, it must be weird to eat your own face, but it was the best welcome I could think of."
Greenie stared at Sugar Belle's cookie and tilted her head. "Uh... your cookie looks sad."
Sugar Belle frowned, and looked at her cookie, which indeed did look sad. "Oh... oops! I don't know what came over me when carving my own face." She took a bite out of her cookie, her eyes looking away so that she didn't have to see their pity for her. "Go ahead and eat up, I worked hard on those."
As the families were eating, Party Favor turned to her and asked, "Hey, Sugar Belle?"
Sugar Belle swallowed her bite and gazed into Party Favor's eyes. "Yes?"
Party Favor cleared his throat. "I was, uh, thinking..."
"About what?"
He slowly exhaled, and then smiled. "Me and the others are going to make sure you're not lonely this Hearth's Warming."
Sugar Belle's eyes widened. "Really? How so?"
Before Party Favor could answer, he was interrupted by Blue Square saying, "Excuse me, Miss Sugar Belle."
Sugar Belle turned to the blue earth pony at the other table, much to Party Favor's chagrin. Keeping himself from glaring at Double Diamond's brother, he turned as well, wondering what the bespectacled teenager had to say.
Blue Square cleared his throat. "I fear that your fudge is too chocolately for my taste, and I can just barely taste the bitterness of the baking chocolate you used to make it. There's also a little too much salt, too little sugar, and I can still sense bits and pieces of flour scattered within it. It's not a perfect blend of the ingredients to the point where I taste only fudge, instead of individual ingredients. I apologize for my complaint, but I'm afraid that your friends may have overpraised you just a teensy bit."
All members of each family sat there and stared at him with the most flabbergasted expression, trying to process the complaint. The collective gaze didn't seem to affect the self-righteousness of Blue Square, who seemed to be unaware of everypony else's disbelief. The only movement was that of blinking, and of Sugar Belle's once smiling face falling into a face with wide, twitching eyes, and a quivering lip.
Party Favor glanced at Sugar Belle, who seemed to be less looking at Blue Square, and more staring off into space.
Finally, the silence was broken when Fleetfoot said, "I think you might have burnt my scones a little." She was elbowed by Night Glider for that.
Sugar Belle gasped, and said, "Excuse me, I... I... I have something in the oven, let me go get it!"
With that, she dashed into the kitchen, and all the flabbergasted stares toward Blue Square turned into glares. Double Diamond especially bopped him on the head, and shouted, "What was that for, you knucklehead?! You just nitpicked at her cooking!"
Rubbing his head, Blue Square replied, "It's not my fault there wasn't enough sugar to counterbalance the salt and baking chocolate."
Double Diamond swiped a fudge snowpony, took a bite, and then waved it in Blue's face, growling, "This. Tastes. Just. Fine!"
Silk Shimmer popped a minty fudge ball into her mouth. "Tastes like fudge to me. I don't detect 'too much' or 'too little' of anything. You're just overreacting, buddy."
Blue Square rolled his eyes. "Oh, I'm overreacting? She can't take a complaint."
Quasar Rune took a bite of his custard-filled meringue shell. "The dessert I have is adequate. I don't see why you're so upset about minor things when they overall don't affect your dining experience."
"But they do affect it! The bitterness and the salt distract from the sweet taste that the sugar provides, and the flour makes it feel dusty."
Double Diamond groaned. "I didn't taste any of that!"
Black Diamond leaned into his hoof. "Sheesh, I'm witnessing the sequel of 'There's Too Much Pulp in this Orange Juice'."
As Double Diamond and Blue Square argued, Party Favor looked at the door dolefully. Her receiving a complaint about some treat being overcooked or undercooked or missing a crucial ingredient was one thing, as she would just go "oops" and remind herself to be more careful next time. But the minor things that normally nopony (except apparently Blue Square) would notice... what kept her from just rolling her eyes and telling him to just deal with it? Wondering why Sugar Belle reacted the way she did, he hopped off his stool. "I'm going to check on her."
His sister and mother nodded, and he walked to the kitchen door. Taking a deep breath, he went into the kitchen, and found Sugar Belle at the counter, levitating some sugar. She was counting the grains as she dropped them into a measuring cup.
"...23... 24... 25... 26..."
Party Favor blinked. "Uh... Sugar Belle?"
She sprang up and gasped, and then looked at the sugar. With a groan, she muttered, "You made me lose count."
Party Favor rubbed the back of his head. "I'm sorry, but I wanted to see if you were okay."
Sugar Belle dumped the sugar from the cup, and began counting again. "I'm fine, Party Favor."
"Are you sure? You looked ready to panic out there."
She didn't even look at him. "We put his expectations too high, making him think he'd receive perfection, but ultimately disappointing him because I forget a few grains of sugar and didn't stir enough. Geez, I can't believe how I neglected that."
Party Favor waved a hoof. "Psht, who cares what he thinks? Double Diamond doesn't taste anything wrong."
"He's my friend, he doesn't want to hurt my feelings."
He clicked his tongue as he thought up another to make her feel better. "Well... my sister didn't taste anything wrong."
"You get along with her, of course she'd try to alleviate your worries."
Party Favor sighed. "Look... most of us are okay with your treats being 'imperfect.' As long as they taste good to most of us, who cares?"
Sugar Belle didn't answer, and continued counting the grains of sugar. Leaning against the wall and tapping his chin, he wondered what else he could try to do to cheer her up. Finally, he smiled as he got an idea, and then pulled out some balloons, inflated them, and started to twist and tie them to the shape he wanted.
Finally, he tapped Sugar Belle on the shoulder, and she turned to find that he had made a balloon flower for her. Blinking, she giggled and took the flower from him, and asked, "What did you do that for?"
"Because I know you like flowers. After all, when May Flowers planted you that flower garden for your birthday, you were really happy. And seeing as I can't get actual flowers this time of year... I thought a balloon one would do. It probably won't do much to solve your problem... but I could at least give you something sweet to counterbalance that moment of bitterness you got out there."
Sugar Belle stared at the flower, and stroked it, feeling the smooth latex on her hoof, wishing that she could smell a sweet scent from it. In any case, Party Favor was trying to make her smile, being the party pony friend that she was lucky to have. She looked at him again, and muttered, "Maybe I am overreacting... sorry, some old habits from even before we met Starlight still crop up from time to time."
Party Favor wondered what it was that made her do that, but he wasn't sure if it was okay to ask. That made him remember the plan that he and the other two had for the week leading up to Hearth's Warming. "Oh, I almost forgot, I've been meaning to ask you..."
Sugar Belle blinked. "Yes?"
Party Favor exhaled. "You know how we said that me and the others didn't want you lonely on Hearth's Warming? Well... we decided that for the next week, you'll spend time with each of our families for a day or two. You'd get to do activities with Double Diamond's family, and Night Glider's family, and mine!"
Sugar Belle tilted her head. "Really?"
"Yeah! Don't worry about the Square guy, I'm sure he doesn't know what he's talking about. You're the baker, not him." His expression softened. "Nopony should spend the holidays alone, especially not somepony as sweet as you. So, what do you say? Ready to be somepony's temporary sister?"
Sugar Belle thought for a moment. "Well... I've never had a sibling, so I could try it."
Party Favor jumped in excitement. "All right! I better go tell the others the good news!" And thus, he trotted out the kitchen door, with Sugar Belle following close behind.
He stopped at the sight of more arguing between the families, the only one not caring being Greenie, who was happily running around and stealing everypony's treats from their plates. Double Diamond was still in an argument with Blue Square, while Night Glider had apparently started one with her sister. The fathers had all started to argue between each other, Alta and Star Catcher were arguing, Merry and Silk were wrapped up in a debate of their own, and Black Diamond had pulled his hat over his head and was grumbling to himself.
Party Favor and Sugar Belle blinked and glanced at each other. The former muttered, "I don't know how half of these started."
Sugar Belle grimaced. "You might want to pop a balloon."
Party Favor nodded, pulled out a balloon, and inflated it. Once he had blown it to about the size of a watermelon, he signaled to Sugar Belle to cover her ears. Once she had done so, he threw the balloon onto his horn.
POP!
The ponies flinched and stopped their arguing, and then turned to Party Favor. Tapping his hoof, he cleared his throat. "Okay, now that I've got your attention, it's time for me to talk. I've talked it over with Sugar Belle, and she's agreed to try out taking turns in spending part of the week in one of our families. She'll do stuff with one family first, then the next, and then the last one--we'll decide the order sometime later. And I expect you all to be on your best behavior." He glared at them and swept his eyes over the three families. "That was not your best behavior I saw there. Don't do that."
Some ponies murmured to themselves, while Greenie just sat on the floor munching on some meringue shells.
"This is the happiest time of the year for all of us," Party Favor continued. "Especially when you're making a friend happy. So, can Sugar Belle count on all of you to give her a good holiday?"
Double Diamond and Night Glider jumped and exclaimed, "Yeah!", Greenie threw some of her goodies into the air, while everypony else just nodded and murmured in assent.
Sugar Belle smiled. "Let me just prepare some things first, okay?"
Party Favor nodded. "Gotcha."