I flailed around, attempting to silence the blaring ringing that had hauled me from dreamland. My hand hit the nightstand and I felt nothing. I poked my head out from the warmth of the blanket and squinted in the sunlight shining in from the blinds.
Right, I thought. Alarm is on his side,
I rolled over slightly. “Lighty, get the…”
The bed was empty save for me. Giving the void next to me a glare, I shifted across and silenced the shrieking clock. Sliding out of the bed, settling my glasses over my eyes and padding my way down the hall of our apartment, I found him in the small second bedroom, hunched over a book and flipping through it’s pages with his feet up on his desk.
I walked up behind him and wrapped my arms around his neck.
“You know,” I whispered in his ear. “I’m ok waking up next to an empty bed on the days you work. Doing it on your vacation, however, can be hazardous to your health.”
He set the book down on his desk and turned the chair around, pulling me down into his lap.
“Ah, but the thing is, did you notice the time on the clock?” Sunlight Shimmer gave me a smirk that might have been equally at home on my face or either of our mothers.
I blinked and realized that he was fully dressed save for shoes. I glanced at the wall clock and gasped as I struggled to get up from his embrace.
“We are going to be late!” I cried, trying to squirm free. “Let me go!”
“We are fine,” Lighty said, releasing me. “Your mom called an hour ago saying that we could take our time. She got called through to help mediate a settlement between Yakyakistan and the Dragonlands. it’d just be us, Rory, and your mom there right now.”
“So you let me sleep in, then,” I finished.
“Someone had to,” he said with a grin, picking his novel back up. “Celestia knows you don’t.”
I shifted slightly in the seat, propping my feet on the dash of the car, adjusting the sleeves of a leather coat that had seen more milage than the sedan we were in.
“And I got to tell you,” my husband continued. “I’m looking forward to this week in Rainbow Falls. If I have to stare at that lab for one more minute, I might scream.”
I turned to look at him. “You scream like Aunt Fluttershy,” I teased.
“It’s still a scream,” he said, sticking his tongue out at me.
“I’m just glad to take a break from teaching,” I said. “Some of this bunch of Unicorns don’t know which end of the horn to use. One actually managed to fry his own coat trying to cast a light spell.”
“Whoa,” Lighty said. “I can at least do that much.”
“You can do more than that, Light,” I said, reaching over and squeezing his thigh. “It just took a bit of practice. Which you’re behind on, by the way.”
“Yes, Professor Sky,” he said with a grin as he eased onto the off ramp for Canterlot City.
“Oh, you two!” Aurora squealed as we came through the door, wrapping my husband in a tight hug. “Happy Thanksgiving!”
I held up the pair of grocery bags I had brought in. “I got the stuffing and berries.”
I heard Mother’s voice call out from the kitchen. “And I got the main course going. Get your butt in here and hug your mother.”
I looked at Lighty. “Well, I got my orders,” I said with a smile.
“Does that include me as well?” he asked.
“It’d better,” Mother called out.
I turned the corner to the kitchen of the old rancher and saw my mother covered in flour and rolling out dough on the counter. I went over and hugged her, nuzzling her on the cheek.
“How was the drive, honey?” she asked as she repeated the actions with Sunlight, the kneading of the dough never stopping as she nuzzled the young man.
“Oh, uneventful as usual,” Lighty said. “Better than our usual commute to tell the truth. Middy only got angry once.”
“It’s called a turn signal,” I muttered under my breath.
“Mom going to make it back before you finish rolling out the dumplings?” Rory asked,
“She’d better if she knows what’s good for her,” Mother said with the impish smile that indicated good-natured jest. “She said it shouldn’t take too long to take care of the border dispute.”
“Anyone else of the family going to be here?” I asked.
The door opened again, the cry of an excited Pinkie preceding her entrance to the kitchen with a large cake box in her grip. “Happy Thanksgiving!” she said, hugging us all in turn.
“Hey,” Aria said as she trailed in. The singer had on a simple tunic and jeans, a similarly dressed Rhapsody, her wavy hair bound up in a high tail, followed behind her.
“There's half the guests,” Mother said.
“Dagi and Sandal pulled in behind us,” Aria said, grabbing Pinkie by the ear and pulling her away from the cake, protecting it from her wife.
The racing footsteps of an eleven-year-old boy sounded on the porch. I turned and crouched, catching my cousin Beach in a hug as he leaped through the door.
“Midnight!” he spoke quickly. “I lost another tooth, look!”
I put my hand over his mouth. “Better be careful, kiddo,” I said. “They might all fall out right here.”
He clamped his hands over his mouth with a look of shock on his face.
“Middy,” Adagio said as she came the rest of the way into the house, her youngest child Concertina against her hip as Sandalwood carried in the case of cider stamped with the Sweet Apple Acres emblem.
I raised my hands. “Hey, I haven’t seen the tyke in a few moons,” I said.
“Your point?” Rory said, taking Concertina from Adagio so the woman could return to the vehicle and grab the rest of their donation to the family dinner.
“She’s an imp,” Sunlight said as he exchanged hugs with the Sirens and a firm handshake with Sandalwood.
“Traitor,” I said to him with a glare as I ruffled Beach’s hair.