The Family Hearth

by BlackWater


The Family Hearth

Sunset Shimmer. She wasn’t old. Twilight agreed so that made it true, right? It was not as if she looked any different. Perhaps a tad more mature. Maybe not as thin. She checked her weight obsessively and the doctor still told her that her BMI was a bit below average. Maybe the weight had been going somewhere else. She looked down to her chest.
Just in time to see two familiar hands come around from her back and shamelessly grab her breasts.
Sunset’s expression turned flat. “Seriously?”
Twilight Shimmer purred like a kitten behind her. “Soooo soft and warm. Like two marshmallows in my hot cocoa.”
“My fist is going to be in your hot cocoa if you don’t stop harnessing them,” Sunset deadpanned in jest.
“Oh,” Twilight perked up. “Now there’s-”
Seeing Sunlight pass by their open bedroom door from the hallway, Sunset spun in place and plugged up her wife’s mouth with a hand. She then sighed when she heard Sunlight now far enough away to talk again.
“We agreed no inappropriate foolery around Lighty,” she frowned at Twilight.
Removing her wife’s hand, the slightly shorter woman rolled her eyes and huffed. “He’s in high school. He’s not a little kid anymore.”
“That still doesn’t mean we do stuff in front of him,” Sunset argued. “Most kids don’t care to see that with their parents even when they’re adults.”
“He said he didn’t mind, though.”
“You asked?!” Sunset’s eyes widened comically.
Twilight put her hands up in defense. “Hey, Sunny. He was the one to bring it up. It’s not like some secret. Apparently, we were never as stealthy as we thought.”
Sunset paled. “How long has he...been aware?”
Twilight hopped back onto their bed and kicked her legs up and down as if she hadn’t a care in the world. Perhaps their reduced role as parents had lightened her spirits up. Sunlight’s increased independence since late middle school and now high school had meant the two women had less chores and cares.
“Only recently,” Twilight shrugged. “He said he could remember things as far back as early middle school, but he didn’t know it meant anything special.”
Sunset facepalmed. “Parental responsibility: failed.”
“Yeah,” Twilight giggled. “He turned into a real criminal.”
Sunset glared back.
In return, the scientist tried a serious look to counter. She hoped a more level approach would get her wife back into a good mood for this special day. “Calm down, honey. He’s very mature for his age. More so than we were back at CHS. We had a talk and everything is okay. He knows that parental figures have intimate interests with each other so as to reduce the stress of daily maintenance and reinforce relational bonding.”
“He said that?”
“In those words.”
Finally, Sunset lightened back up with her own giggle. “He really has become a lot like you.”
Twilight stuck out her tongue playfully.
It was then that they both heard their son call to them from the kitchen.
“What’s with the waffles?”
The bookworm was first into the kitchen. Sunset was behind her and embarrassingly peered around the corner into the kitchen. There she saw Sunlight with brows furrowed. He was looking at the plate of waffles that Sunset had finished making just a short while ago. They had been set out with plates, vegan butter, and maple syrup. Other additions were set out at the table as well.
Twilight almost snorted a laugh when she came up behind him and hugged him from behind. “They’re shaped like ponies.”
Sunset blushed and came out from behind the corner. She started putting some waffles on a trio of plates and carried them to the table without a word.
Twilight, meanwhile, pushed Sunlight to go on to eating while she paused to observe her wife at the table on the other side of the counter. The Christmas lights they had hung throughout the house had also crossed back and forth over the table and shone with a rainbow of colors upon the surface and people below. The redhead’s yellow accents were lit by mismatching colors from the festive lights.
The woman crossed her arms and looked back to Twilight. They were wearing the long-sleeved flannel shirts given to them by the Apple family. Each had festive patterns of Christmas themes but were colored as their opposing partner. Applejack had taken the idea from seeing their swimsuits some time ago. Twilight’s with warm sunset colors and Sunset’s with cool twilight colors.
Since they would be going to the Apple farm later that day, it was a given that they’d wear the shirts and match them to some appropriate skirts and leggings. But Sunset had a thought that her wife’s gaze had less to do with their day’s schedule and more to do with the waffles. She had meant it as a pleasant surprise but, as usual, it merely resulted in Twilight worrying. She should have anticipated that since it was such a pattern.
Twilight came around the counter and pulled her chair next to Sunset’s at the table. Before Sunset could gather the frame of mind to breach the topic, Twilight sat down, put her hand on Sunset’s lap, and spoke. “Honey, do you miss Equestria?”
Sunset swallowed and it was hard for her to ignore Sunlight’s curious gaze from the other side of the small table. She took another bite of warm pony-shaped waffle before answering. “Of course not. This is my home. I’ve lived here more than in Equestria, you know.”
The loving caress of Twilight’s hand on her lap was a welcome reassurance for her, though. The scientist made only a weak smile in reply and then gave her a kiss on the cheek. “I’m always open to visiting there if you ever wish to. We are,” she corrected herself with a glance to Sunlight. “We’re a family, Sunny, and we love you.”
Sunset tried not to let her eyes water and she took another bite of breakfast to try to distract her from it. She truly couldn’t have asked for a more loving wife and child if she could even imagine such a thing. One of her hands moved onto Twilight’s in her lap and gave it a gentle squeeze.
Sunlight was one to break the next silence that overtook breakfast as they all continued eating. “Am I a pony?”
Sunset nearly choked while Twilight stopped the fork with the bit of waffle on it from entering her mouth. She pursed her lips with an amusing thought and looked to Sunset instead. “We never decided which he would be if we crossed the portal. If I were not a unicorn then he may not be either.”
The redhead steadied herself and cleared her throat. “As far as I’m concerned,” she beamed with her own amusing idea, “you two are both alicorns.”
“Aw,” Sunlight groaned. “I wouldn’t want to be. Aren’t alicorns really powerful? I’d probably turn myself into an onion or something else weird with all that magic.”
The crackle of the hot fireplace in the nearby living room prompted Twilight’s next suggestion. Or perhaps it was the sleepy Spike who was still dozing happily in front of that same fireplace. “Maybe you’d be a ferocious fire-breathing dragon!”
“No,” both Sunset and Sunlight said at the same time.
“Aw,” Twilight pretended to pout.
“I’d want to help people,” Sunlight said matter-of-fact, “not burn down villages.”
“Not all dragons do that,” Sunset reminded.
“Just Spike,” Twilight smirked.
“Oh you,” the pony-turned-human shook her head and didn’t hide the grin. Poor Spike the Dog had so much less to claim in ferociousness that it was secretly amusing to consider. Though she knew well enough of the other Spike to know he was anything but a village-burner.
“Would our Spike be a dragon if he went, though?” Sunlight had to ask as he finished off his waffles.
Both his mothers open and closed their mouths. They looked to each other and shrugged.
“Probably,” Sunset said.
Taking off on another subject, Sunlight grew a devious smile. “I saw the presents under the tree.”
“Oh?” Twilight rested her face on her hands, cropped up by her elbows on the table. Her plate was pushed back, also having finished.
“I think I know what you got me,” Sunlight’s knowing gaze penetrated her very soul.
“No way!” she stuck her bottom lip out.
The other woman just shook her head with a sigh. She knew what she had gotten him and...how could he not know what she would get him after all these years?
“It’s shaped like a book,” Sunlight wagged his finger. “You should have wrapped it inside a box.”
“It’s not a book!” Twilight insisted, a panicked swirl coming into her eyes. She wanted his present from her to be a surprise but was having a hard time thinking of some excuse.
“Speaking of books,” Sunset brought up to her full height and started towards the living room, “I got that copy from Pony Twi.”
Sunlight got up as well and followed his mother into the slightly warmer room. The orange glow of the fire was visible in the shady winter morning. The Christmas lights were stronger here as well with much thanks being given to the pine cone tree adorned with more lights and ornaments at one end. Some of those ornaments had been ones that they themselves made out of their own tradition.
Sunset picked up a book on the end table next to the sofa. She showed it to her son, who held it once given to him. The wonder in his eyes and care of his grip warmed her heart. He had been told some time ago what she had requested through the portal. The book was obviously different. Far heavier than ones of this world. Hardcover with some unusual fiber and cloth-like covering. The pages were somewhat uneven in cut and darkened with age.
The boy gently opened the cover with much anticipation. He was enjoying this so much that Sunset then wondered if perhaps she should have wrapped it up as a present instead. It was a storybook to Twilight and perhaps to him as well. But to Sunset, it was a piece of what felt like another life.
The cover opened with an audible crinkle of the old paper. The title was inked there on the first page in a language that was as strange-looking to Sunlight as it was incomprehensible. Thus, Sunset came up beside him and trailed her finger along beneath the markings that must have been letters.
“A Hearth’s Warming Tale,” she read in that soft story-telling voice she once used with him when he was just a baby.
“Can you teach me sometime to read Equestrian?” he asked her with a spark in his eyes. The same spark Twilight had when she found out about something she had not yet learned about.
Being in a more motherly mood, Sunset rubbed his shoulder with a nod and motioned for them to go back to Twilight. His other mother had started on the dishes, which by rule she was never allowed to do alone. Especially on such a day as Christmas.
The book was now in Sunset’s hands as Sunlight hurried to help Twilight. She was about to help as well but paused in the warmly lit living room. She turned to the last page in the book and rested her slender hand across the Equestrian words and old-fashioned drawings of Earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi exchanging gifts and merriment around a hearth.
She looked back up to the fireplace Spike was laying in front of. The dog yawned and lazily gazed up to the three stockings hanging there, each full with yet untouched presents. A few joke presents within, no doubt. She breathed out, not from pain or relief. Here was her hearth. On it were the stockings labeled: Sunset Shimmer, Twilight Shimmer, and Sunlight Shimmer.
Spike waddled over to her and nuzzled her leg, to which she pet him in return.
“Come on, Spike,” she told him. “After we dry the dishes, we’re going to meet some old friends.”

The Shimmer car came to a gentle stop. The piled-up snow might have made it quite difficult to get close enough to the Apple family house in the middle of their farm. But it was no trouble, as much of the white powder had been cleared away by the ever strong members of said family. In fact, Big Mac was just shoveling some last bits of snowfall from the driveway as they came to a halt there.
Sunlight hopped out of the car in his warm and bright-colored winter jacket and cap. The patterns upon his clothes were of sunny beaches and tropical paradise, as if to arrogantly defy the reality of the season and nature around them. Twilight came out of the passenger side of the car while holding Spike. She called out to the boy as he gave Mac a simple greeting and raced to the front door.
“Don’t leave your cap on the floor!” Twilight shouted out.
“Geez,” Sunset blurted in jest as she stepped up to Big Mac as he put the shovel against the shack beside the driveway. “Don’t tell me you started shoveling snow at five in the morning.”
He responded as he usually did, though with a cheer befitting of the holiday. “Eeyup.”
The man and the couple followed far behind the teenager into the Apple house. If past memory served her well, the house had been smaller before Pastry. Every time the Apples had some new member of the family, the place got bigger in proportion. So it was little wonder that the young lady that had been added to their number resulted in an even larger residence, and that was not only in regards to the additional bedroom.
“Good mornin’!” Apple Bloom greeted them when they came in the door.
Sounds of the others could be heard farther in. It sounded like Sunlight and Apple Pastry were raiding a cookie plate just to get Applejack to chase them and Rarity to complain about the fuss. Apple Bloom proceeded to scratch behind Spike’s ears once Twilight sat him down. Granny Smith was probably asleep through it all on her rocking chair.
Sunset confirmed her suspicion once they all had hung up their extra layers and walked into the living area. Sunlight and Pastry just high-fived each other over something while Applejack was pulled back into the kitchen by Rarity. Indeed Granny was asleep in her chair.
However, there was someone else entirely that now took all of the couple’s attention. Specifically, a rainbow blur that nearly tackled them to the floor in the warmest embrace imaginable. Twilight corrected her lop-sided glasses as they were pulled towards the large sofa, pillows and blankets everywhere.
“I should have known you guys would dawdle!” Rainbow Dash grumbled. “I already had to give Lighty the Late Toss. You were supposed to be here earlier! You missed the epic pillow fight! It was us against the Apples and we would have won if you were here.”
Before Twilight could explain or Sunset roll her eyes at the silliness, a pink mane of hair popped up from a pile of blankets and pillows at the foot of one of the sofas that formed the bracket of them facing the fireplace. A piece of paper was folded like a soldier’s hat and was on lop-sided upon her head.
“Pinkie!” Sunset exclaimed, ready to be pounced upon once more.
“General Pinkie!” the party girl corrected sternly. “And I will have you court marshaled for going AWOL.”
“But-” Twilight tried.
“No butts!” Pinkie interrupted and tossed a plush toy of a pink pony at her. “We tried butts already. They’re ineffective!”
“I told you that if you made one more remark about my assets, Pinkie...” an entirely different voice sounded in a groan from the opposing sofa.
Sunset looked over to the person laying there, who looked as if she were recovering from an injury. “Merry Christmas, Adagio.”
The old Dazzling opened an eye to peer at the other woman, a faint smile on her face replacing the previous scowl. “Happy Hearth’s Warming,” the siren responded.
It was such an odd thing, but Adagio was one of the very few people in the world that came from the same place Sunset did. It was a rare trait in common between them and thus fostered a sort of camaraderie. An odd one for sure, but one nonetheless.
“Do any of you care for refreshments before lunch?” Rarity piped in from the kitchen. She took off her needlessly elaborate apron and gave it to Applejack to hang up, which made the farmgirl gag at the frilly design of it. It was one thing between them that even all of these years did nothing to resolve and, indeed, would have been strange if found missing.
“Yes!” Rainbow put in, trying to get some attention directed back to her since it was being pulled away by the multitude of others already present at the holiday reunion. “I’ve been waiting for weeks to taste those famous Pastry cookies!”
The teenage girl walked into the living area again as if called to it by a bell. Her dress may very well have been a bell for that matter. If Apple Pastry took after either parent in dress then it was most certainly Rarity. However, if she took after either in baking then it was most certainly Applejack. To that, Rainbow Dash’s mouth watered.
Sunlight was quick behind her and was first to pluck one of the expertly decorated butter cookies from the tray Pastry sat upon the low table nearest the fireplace. He ate slow only after a knowing glance from Twilight made him remember to. He hummed happily, though, the taste savored much longer than the reckless speed to which Rainbow Dash was determined to deplete the supply.
To her destruction of the cookies, Rainbow defended herself with a shrug. “Somebody has to decrease the surplus population of Christmas cookies.”
“Aren’t we missing some people?” Sunset noted as she relaxed onto the middle sofa, where there remained enough room for her immediate family to sit with her.
“Fluttershy will be back soon,” Apple Bloom answered while walking by and taking a cookie on her way. Her stride was that of a full adult now, which she was. Her figure had filled out similar to Applejack’s, though perhaps with less muscle and more sleekness. “She went out to walk Winona earlier.”
“That should be everyone,” Twilight remarked while pulling Rainbow Dash back to the sofa with Sunset so that she wouldn’t choke on too many cookies.
“Like you guys were early,” Rainbow kidded between bites and flopped down carelessly between Sunset and Twilight on the sofa. She put her arms around the shoulders of each and gave a haughty look of supremacy. “Hey. Check it out, Dagi. Double dames. Jealous?”
Adagio, who had taken pains to lift her head to see, groaned in embarrassed annoyance and dropped her head back against the sofa pillow. “I swear I don’t know you.”
Sunset chuckled and then thought to ask. “Where’s the twins?”
“Surviving natural selection somewhere,” Adagio grouched.
Twilight facepalmed but Rainbow answered in truth. “Prism went with Shy, and Trance was helping Big Mac,” she then reconsidered upon seeing Big Mac walk by. “Don’t know now.”
Twilight, however, was not one to press the matter because Rainbow was already getting back up and beginning her search for the child. Both of her and Adagio’s children were quite old now and responsible enough. However, Rainbow had definitely become the more watchful and concerned parent in no small part due to her persistent use of the Shimmers’ parental advice. Her title of Aunt Dash in regards to Sunlight was not mere happenstance. She had, in fact, dashed to his aid on quite the number of occasions in his earlier years.
With Rainbow’s leaving, Pinkie decided to take her place on the sofa. She had failed to drag Pastry and Sunlight into a continued pillow trench war and thus switched tactics. As if denying physics, she disappeared under the blankets on the floor and then popped back out of the sofa cushions between Sunset and Twilight, momentarily scaring them both.
“Now I’ve got the ladies,” she made a cheesy growl.
Adagio looked to Sunset. “You see what I’ve been dealing with all morning?”
The redhead stifled a laugh and then let it out after a familiar argument from the kitchen reached their ears. Applejack and Rarity were fussing with each other over salad forks and whether they were necessary or not. The farmgirl insisted salads were “finger-food” to which Rarity may very well have fainted. The years between them had amusingly solved little in their differences of opinion.
The front door opened with several voices now adding to the mix of conversations going on in the warm house. Spike went to greet one of the additions to the occupants. He was seen by the Shimmers again when Fluttershy walked into the living room with the dog cradled in her arms, his face one of a mortal in a heavenly realm. Two kids a few years younger than Pastry entered as well, one a boy and one a girl.
The boy, Prism Cloud, was close to Fluttershy and had obviously been engrossed in a conversation with her up until this point. He now detached to go to one of his mothers, Adagio. Meanwhile, Trance walked back in with Rainbow Dash. The young girl had a scowl on her face, as if she had been caught doing something she had been told not to and then been pulled inside by one of her mothers. Of course, that had indeed been the case.
“I told you earlier that pranks were off limits on Christmas while visiting at someone else’s house,” Rainbow repeated a line she had apparently given more than once.
Trance insisted on some justification, but it was the other twin that was successful in his goals. He was the quiet and more emotionally gentle of the two, deciding to attempt cheering up his gloomy-looking mother, Adagio, since it was Christmas. Being without a care when it came to expressing his love of family and close friends, he climbed right on top of Adagio on the couch and hugged her, as if cuddling against his mother on a scary night filled with thunderstorms.
Adagio knew her soft side was well established with this crowd but still loathed to be so obvious about it. Perhaps, in some small way, she still thought it was a special secret she shared only with her wife, Rainbow. In any case, considering the unique nature of the day, she embraced him back lovingly and let the ghost of a smile tick at the edge of her mouth. Prism was quite happy upon seeing it.
The scene prompted Sunset to hold Twilight’s hand across Pinkie, who then placed her hand on top of theirs and laughed.
“I win!” the pink-haired party girl declared.

Various discussions and games had been played throughout the day and then a few all over again. Presents were exchanged and broken into. The Apple family house, as large as it was, had its limits tested by such a plentiful gathering. Not only were the people plenty in number but also in spirit. Sunlight’s bright and energetic disposition got even the reasonably reserved Pastry in a rambunctious mood that was only heightened by the younger Trance. Spike joined in the more rowdy games to give a proper level of chaos to the festivities.
Lunch, snacks, and even dinner passed. Now with desserts being finished, one last suggestion was made to the packed living room. Sofas were full as well as the pillow and blanket-populated floor below with those drained of energy by a happy reunion and restive holiday with fellows known for well over a decade.
The last suggestion was made by Sunlight before all were quite done preparing their sleeping bags and sofas for sleep. It had been planned by the old group of CHS friends that they’d end the Christmas night with the most nostalgic part of their past: a group sleepover. But it was Sunlight’s suggestion that would become a treasured tradition for the rest of their lives yet to come.
He asked in his best pleading voice and expression to his mother Sunset if she would read to them the story from Equestria. A Hearth’s Warming Tale.
And so she did. She had brought the book with them and kept it in the car, knowing her son well enough to anticipate such a request. Twilight was all too happy to enjoy as well, cuddled up to her wife. Sunlight was laid atop and between them, as he often did in his younger years. They were warm by the Apple family fireplace, which bathed the room not only in warmth but also primitive light in the dark winter night.
There she read to them the ancient story from Equestria.
In front of a different hearth, but still with her family and her friends all around.
It was a hearth she would trade for no other and treasure throughout her life.
Her family hearth.