Take two, Rarity thought.
Another year had passed by, full of incident and adventure, but remarkably light on festive events.
At least, not counting the Summer Sun Celebration, the Best Young Flyers’ Competition, the Manehattan Fashion Week, the Canterlot Garden Party, the Annual Rodeo, Rainbow Dash’s Birthiversary, the Ponyville Days Festival, the Migration of the Breezies, the Trader Exchange at Rainbow Falls, the Sisterhooves Social, the Annual Royal Visit to Ponyville, Nightmare Night, Cider Season, the Appleloosa Day Hoedown, and the Running of the Leaves.
Even that was ignoring the Pinkie Pie parties, which would have shrunk the list of notably non-festive days to a couple of wet weekends.
All the same, Hearth’s Warming was the big one. Hearth’s Warming time! Mistletoe and – fermented grape juice! Fillies singing notably non-denominational rhyme! With logs on the fire, and gifts on the tree! A time to rejoice “in the good that we see”, and all that fine stuff that made customers happy and looked good on an album.
And sold like hotcakes in a cold famine: that was important.
Rarity re-opened the next envelope and smiled. Her shop in Manehattan was doing wonderfully well. She re-opened the next next envelope and smiled even wider. Her shop in Canterlot, if anything, was doing fantastically well. She just wanted to see the numbers again.
And she knew for a fact that her own boutique here in dear old Ponyville was doing marvellously well. Commercialized as Hearth’s Warming might be, it had its upsides.
Rarity had been around town that morning, and the story was the same everywhere. Filthy Rich had beaten last year’s profits at Barnyard Bargains. The Cake family at Sugarcube Corner were hiring extra help to meet the rising demand in sugary treats. Even Applejack – whose farm basically shut down for the winter – managed to shift some hardy stock for a new kind of snow cider.
Oh yes, one could take delight in knowing that other businesses were doing well… provided they weren’t actually rivals to one’s own business, of course.
And now here she was, in Twilight’s castle – Princess Twilight’s castle, she corrected herself – making sure that her schedule for the month was in tip-top shape. Well, making sure Twilight was making sure, to be fair.
In fact, Rarity herself had spent the last few minutes sitting quite comfortably on one of the thrones in the map room, watching her friend sift through papers and calendars and other important-looking documents. Since Twilight’s own political arrangements tended to die down this time of year, she was free to throw herself into other ponies’ schedules, which suited Rarity just fine.
Spike the Dragon stood nearby, writing on his own scroll and occasionally looking over it to watch.
Take two, Rarity thought again.
“This is the second attempt?” said Twilight.
“I held firm. I managed to talk Sweetie Belle down to those few items,” said Rarity.
“Really? So far, I’ve counted one hundred and fifty!” said Twilight. “My goodness. Her Hearth’s Warming lists are… pretty long, aren’t they?”
“Oh, that’s foals all over,” said Rarity breezily. “I remember when I was that age. Mother and Father mistook my list for a novel and accidentally mailed it to a publishing company. Surely, you were the same?”
“Actually, I… wasn’t,” said Twilight, turning pink.
“Really? With all the books you could have asked for –”
“The Canterlot library membership covered that.”
Surprised, Rarity reconsidered. She’d have thought books were a guarantee as far as Twilight was concerned, yet it made a sort of sense now that she thought about it.
“I see.” She tried again. “What about clothes?”
“I wasn’t quite into fashion at that point,” said Twilight, implying that now she would not settle for a simple dress with only one ribbon around the waist.
“How about toys? I remember that Smarty Pants doll you used to have.”
“My brother made that one for me. We liked arts and crafts at school.”
“Chocolates?”
“As a gift?” Twilight screwed her face up doubtfully.
“What? Not even chocolates?”
“I used to get money,” said Twilight helpfully.
“Yes, but not even chocolates? You can’t go wrong with chocolates, provided you go to the right chocolatier!”
“Mom and Dad always gave me money and told me to invest for my education.” Twilight beamed happily, and for a moment her gaze was not on this plane of existence. “I opened my first bank account on Hearth’s Warming…”
“Technically, it was the day after,” said Spike without looking up.
Rarity hummed uncertainly. “My, my. You were a precocious foal, weren’t you? When was this?”
“After my first Summer Sun Celebration,” said Twilight to a distant happy memory only she could see. “Before I applied for Celestia’s School.”
“My word! That young!? What did you do before then, save up for Magic Kindergarten?”
Twilight broke out of her reverie and gave one of her trademarked raised eyebrows, the sort she might – were she a tutor – give to a student who’d spoken out of turn. “Don’t be silly. Mom and Dad always had high hopes for me. They didn’t want to spoil me, or at least that’s what they said.”
Rarity gaped. “They did live in Canterlot, right?”
“Is it really that strange?”
At those words, Rarity’s mind handed her a memory. Of her own parents, who’d lavished her with whatever she’d asked for. Who’d lavished Sweetie Belle with the same. Who’d… never lived anywhere but next to that muddy pond, now that she thought about it. In that rickety old timber house.
“I suppose,” she said weakly, “things are a little different in Canterlot. Especially… Especially when it comes to presents.”
“I never had that problem,” said Spike.
“Oh?”
Spike glanced meaningfully at Twilight. “I got a book every year. I always got one book every year.”
“Huh,” said Twilight, checking her list twice. “Not like Sweetie Belle, then. She’s asked for the Power Ponies: Hearth’s Warming Special Edition… Daring Do and the Hearth’s Warming Quest… The Headless Horse versus the Windigo King, and other Hearth’s Warming Horror Stories… Brutus Force Saves Hearth’s Warming… You notice a pattern here?”
“Oh, that’s quite all right,” said Rarity, waving a hoof idly. “She starts listing clothes further down, and then music albums on vinyl discs. There are some more books on the second page, if you’d like to buy her something more educational.”
“I meant all the Hearth’s Warming specials. Some of them don’t even make sense: Why would the Headless Horse have anything to do with windigoes? The Headless Horse is supposed to haunt the eastern coast of Equestria, after the Walking Soldier died during the War for Manehattan, and the legend started at least a millennium after the defeat of the windigoes. They never would have met in real life!”
Rarity shrugged and picked up a steaming mug from the main table. Putting hot drinks on the map was probably a breach of etiquette, but her aching back and cold, tired hooves reassured her that this sort of thing could be quietly dropped for the sake of personal comfort.
“They never did that kind of special in Canterlot,” said Spike, and he grinned and hastily scrawled something on his list. “OK, I remember every year when they introduced a new winter fashion at the Best of the Best Boutique, but they do stuff like that every season. Haha! Hoity Toity even sold tailored dragon clothing for, you know, the discerning customer.” He waggled his eyebrows, or at least waggled what passed for them on his reptilian face.
“I believe it’s all in good fun,” said Rarity, quietly deciding not to discuss the business sense of capitalizing on a rise in consumer demand. She had a feeling Twilight wouldn’t quite understand.
Somewhat guiltily, she thought of her own line of Hearth’s Warming accoutrements.
Rarity sipped her drink and thought some more. Liquid joy ran down her throat. She was warmed from the inside out.
Well, this sort of commercial interest was harmless, wasn’t it? Everyone grumbled about it a bit, especially – she tried to be diplomatic, but there was no dancing around the obvious – the old folk.
Yet really, it was just more of the same, the same being what everyone bought into the rest of the year anyway: literally bought into, at that.
It wasn’t as if the spirit of the holiday was dying. It just… found new forms of expression. Yes, that sounded respectable.
The true spirit of Hearth’s Warming, after all, was –
Someone knocked on the castle’s grand entrance. Three rapid knocks, jaunty in themselves, which sounded less jaunty after the vast echoes and imperious acoustics of the castle had finished with them.
“Spike?” said Twilight without looking away from the list. “Would you please –?”
“Way ahead of you!” Spike strolled out, still scribbling on his scroll.
“Well, I think you’ve got everything covered.” Twilight lowered the papers onto the table, pausing only to shuffle them more neatly. “You still want to visit Canterlot this year?”
Rarity almost gagged on her hot cocoa. “Want to? Of course I want to! If it wasn’t for my dear, sweet friends here in Ponyville, I’d live in Canterlot! The city’s a winter wonderland on this, the most wonderful time of the year! Why, were the whole place to be ravaged by another changeling attack, I’d still insist on going.”
Twilight made the papers vanish with a flash of a spell. Gingerly, she stepped around the other thrones and the circular table to stand next to Rarity, and for a moment Rarity – lounging on her own royal seat with the mug steaming nearby – thought of a princess and her faithful court mage attending beside her.
“None of the others are coming, then?” Twilight said in a voice pre-emptively disappointed.
“Applejack and Pinkie already made plans to visit the rock farm out of town,” said Rarity. “And Fluttershy told me in the spa that her animals are having a spot of bother this winter. That society she’s a member of –”
“The Equestrian Society for the Preservation of Rare Creatures,” said Twilight, noted for her photographic memory.
“Yes, that,” said Rarity. “They’re calling for all hooves on deck, or so she told me.”
“What about Rainbow Dash? I know for a fact the Wonderbolts are never on-duty during the winter months.”
“The Wonderbolts, maybe. The Weather Team, on the other hoof…”
As one, they both sighed. From what they’d both learned over the years, winter weather in Ponyville demanded round-the-clock management. Freak blizzards and unseasonal warmth were on the schedule, for some reason unfathomable to most ponies but presumably fathomable to someone higher up the weather chain. The system was most unlike other lands. In Equestria, when one complained about the lack of a white Hearth’s Warming, there was an actual desk to send the complaint to.
From the main doorway, Spike called out, “Guess who it is! Go on!”
“You’ll never guess!” said a second voice, much more chipper and sing-song.
Twilight looked round and blinked in surprise. For her part, Rarity cocked an ear and listened to the voices coming in behind her seat. Several ponies stepped into the hall, their hooves echoing around the walls and stained glass windows. A few gasps broke out amid much murmuring.
Let’s see… from sound alone, that’s Minuette, Lyra Heartstrings, Twinkleshine, Lemon Hearts… and a fifth voice. Odd. I don’t recognize that one. Apart from our mystery guest, that’s four Canterlot natives visiting Twilight. What a curious coincidence.
“Hey,” said the fifth voice, somewhat uncertainly.
“We were just in the neighbourhood,” said Minuette’s voice with the ever-familiar burst of good cheer. “Did you get the invitation!? Please say you got the invitation! It’s gonna be a blast if all of us can go!”
“Of course I did,” said Twilight. “Celestia would never leave me out – Er, I mean, because we know each other so well – I mean, because we’re friends who go back a long way – I mean…”
Twilight steamed so much she looked like a smoke monster. Out of pity, Rarity slipped out of her seat and patted her on the withers, absent-mindedly wiping her own hoof off the throne. There was a bit of sweat, after all.
“Fiddle-faddle, Twilight,” she said. “We all know what you mean. No need to be so modest.”
“That’s right!” said Minuette. “You’re a long way away from being a snob or anything like that. We’ve known you for years, remember?”
“H-Hello, Rarity,” said Twinkleshine, blushing slightly under her curls. “W-Wasn’t expecting to see you here.”
“Not that you being drawn to this posh palace like a moth to a street lamp is un-expected,” said Lemon Hearts, who broke off to gulp something out of a bottle. Rarity wondered what was in it, and if it would improve the mare’s mood in the slightest.
“Just checking in, Princess!” Lyra saluted, suddenly all business. “You want anything, just say the word.”
Rarity hummed at the row of unicorn mares, as though she were a drill sergeant surveying a bunch of rookies. Four of them she knew, to varying degrees. The one at the end, though, with the tied-back mane and sweater so prickly and rough that Rarity felt a sympathetic itch on her own torso… Now, that one was from way out of town. Had to be.
“And look!” Spike said, gesturing towards this last specimen. “Even Moondancer came to visit!”
“I’m just visiting,” said Moondancer. She spoke as though regretting the idea. “I’m not staying long.”
“All right, guys! It’s been forever!” Spike raised his clawed hand and strode along the line, passing Moondancer’s confused gape.
Whereas Lyra and Minuette bumped hooves against his claws happily, Twinkleshine hesitated and briefly met her limb with his as though worried about breaking something. Lemon Hearts continued gulping as though she hadn’t noticed a thing; Spike grimaced and gave her a wide berth instead.
Rarity cleared her throat. This little reunion was all very well, but judging from Twilight’s broad smile, there was some history here she wasn’t clear on.
“You’re all going to Canterlot together?” Rarity said. “Did I hear that right?”
“Ooh, yes!” Minuette hopped forwards, and Rarity backed off in the face of that puppy-like eagerness. “Would you like to join us? We’re still looking for plus-ones to bring along, and you’d be more than welcome!”
“Rarity got her own ticket,” said Twilight to Moondancer. “She’s very keen on Canterlot.”
“Mmm,” said Moondancer. If anything, she seemed worried by the news.
“Ah, I do believe we haven’t met.” Rarity sidestepped Minuette’s grin and extended a gracious hoof. “Rarity of Carousel Boutique, at your service.”
“Uh,” said Moondancer, staring at the hoof.
Lyra whispered in her ear, “She’s the one I was telling you about.”
“Oh, right,” said Moondancer. She showed not the slightest sign of recognition. “Uh, Moondancer. Of Canterlot. And Twilight’s school.”
Still, she stared at the extended hoof as though confronting a piece of complicated machinery. After a while, Rarity lowered it.
“Don’t worry.” Lyra nudged Moondancer in the ribs. “She’s kinda new to this whole ‘letting friends into her life’ thing. I’ve been coaching her, of course.”
The gulping stopped for a moment. “Yeah,” said Lemon Hearts. “Imagine what Moondancer’ll be able to do when you stop coaching her.” The gulping resumed.
Lyra glared at her.
For her part, Rarity thought it best to sidestep this particular conversational point. These four mares visited Ponyville often enough to be called honorary Ponyvillians, but Moondancer… Moondancer of Twilight’s school, eh? Now this was interesting. In fact, now she focused, she thought Moondancer looked quite similar to Twilight, especially around the mane.
“Plus-ones, you said?” said Rarity.
Twilight stepped forwards, as though refereeing between Moondancer and Rarity. “For the Solaria Invictus.”
“Beg pardon?”
“The Solaria Invictus. I mentioned it earlier?”
“Did you? I don’t recall –”
“While I was listing the various winter festivals that have occurred throughout history.”
“Ah,” said Rarity. “That would explain it.”
“Huh?”
“So what is this Solari Victus, exactly?” Rarity turned to the assembled unicorns and Spike, in case Twilight decided to get technical.
“Solaria Invictus,” corrected Twinkleshine, and then rubbed a foreleg and looked away at once.
“Oh, just one of those Canterlot things,” said Lyra with a shrug. “You know, the shackles of tradition, the class thing, some random stuff no one really gets anymore. It’s all good fun.”
“Good fun!?” Minuette hopped into view, and Twinkleshine scurried backwards out of her way. “The Solaria Invictus is the best thing about winter!”
The gulping stopped; Lemon Hearts said, “I thought Hearth’s Warming was? Or Winter Wrap-Up?”
“They’re all the best thing about winter!”
“Oh. Right. That’s cleared that up, then.” The gulping resumed.
“Don’t mind the lemon-faced sourpuss over there,” said Minuette cheerfully, and with a flick of her mane. “It really is a lot of fun, but you need a plus-one to take part. At bottom, it’s about taking turns.”
“I beg your pardon?” said Rarity politely. When Twilight breathed in to prepare for a lecture, she hastily added, “Never mind. I’m sure I’ll find out. As for the plus-one: hardly difficult! Why, Sweetie Belle will just leap at the chance to go, I’m sure.”
“Great!” Without warning, Minuette had a grip on her withers and a camera floating before them. “Now for our first group photo! Say ‘All unicorns’!”
“All unicorns,” said half of those assembled, including Spike, who jumped in with clawed thumbs up. Rarity blinked at the flash and felt the leg leave her withers again.
The picture developed instantly. Minuette, under the delusion that ponies enjoy getting ambushed like this, showed everyone. Rarity winced at her own half-terrified smile, and wondered if this was some kind of cunning punishment. Had she been rude to Minuette lately?
But she took in the others’ poses at once, as an art critic might pick out subtle details and meaningful touches on a Daily Saviour absurdist painting. Spike, Minuette, and Lyra held the only genuine grins. Twilight’s mouth smiled but her eyes contemplated escape. Twinkleshine half-hid behind Lyra like a lamb that may have spotted a wolf or may have spotted the friendly local sheepdog. Lemon Hearts was half-choking in her efforts to remove the drink and speak at the same time.
Moondancer wasn’t in it, whether through design or by accident. Hm. A riddle, that one. Definitely someone to watch: Rarity had an eye for ponies much as she had an eye for dresses. New ones were worth keeping said eye on, in case they became fashionable.
Aloud, she said, “Well, it has been a delight, but I simply must be getting on with a few errands. Hearth’s Warming: ‘tis hardly the season to be jolly.”
“I can’t think of a better one!” said Spike.
The gulping stopped. “I can,” muttered Lemon Hearts. The gulping resumed.
“Apart from all the other ones!” said Minuette happily, ignoring her.
Jolly? Ha! Not when there’s this much work to do, thought Rarity, frowning. “I’d be delighted to see you all again sometime. Farewell for now! Enjoy your visit!”
Once again, she judged their goodbyes based on duration, intensity, idiosyncrasy, and whether or not the bottle was removed in time to prevent choking. Once again, nothing from Moondancer. Very interesting.
Rarity stepped out of the hall and made for the stairs. Her hot cocoa was long gone by now. Outside, the storm of ice and snow awaited her.
A few seconds later, she hurried back into the room, somewhat flustered. “Forgot my papers!”
Twilight summoned them again and handed them over. The lot was heavy on Rarity’s back.
Ah, now she could step out of the castle in the right frame of mind. Her hot cocoa was long gone by now. Outside, the storm of ice and snow awaited her…
A few seconds later, she hurried back into the room. “One hot cocoa to go?” she said.
And now she could step out of the castle, armed and ready for the worst. Her hot cocoa the one that was not in the decanter on her back was long gone by now. Outside, the storm of ice and snow –
She changed her mind and decided to stay for tea. And a comfortable seat. And a friendly group chat as cosy as the warmth of a bonfire.
Her schedule could wait. She’d take her time. And Twilight could give her all the meaningful looks she liked.