Today was Hearth's Warming Eve, and Pinkie was standing on the Ponyville train station's train platform with Spike on her back. They were waiting for the Pies to arrive from Rockville for Hearth's Warming. Spike was looking in both directions, he hadn't seen his aunts and grandparents since he was 2 days old, but he did talk to them through his letters. But a bad sign that all of this was a fruitless effort came in the form of All Aboard walking to his office with a cup of coffee to help him wake up. He noticed Spike and Pinkie, and against his better judgment he walked over to them. "Spike, Pinkie, why are you here so early?"
Pinkie smiled widely and Spike copied her reaction. "We're here to greet my family. They said they would be arriving on the first train of the day."
All Aboard rubbed his eyes. "Pinkie, it's Hearts Warming Eve, the first train will not arrive until 8 in the morning." Pinkie nodded, and All Aboard sighed. "Meaning that showing up at 5:30 is a wasted effort."
Pinkie and Spike looked at All Aboard, they then looked up to the early morning sky, the sun wasn't even over the horizon. With that new piece of information, Spike decided to get cozy in his Mama's mane and go back to bed. Pinkie sighed as she may have been a little too eager to greet her family. She yawned as she took one more look down the tracks, and nothing was coming. "I'm going back to my house." Said Pinkie a little upset that she woke Spike up so early for nothing.
All Aboard sighed. "Come on, I was going to go over some papers in my office, and I have a cot in there for those long nights when I have to wait for a train. You can use that until the train comes."
Pinkie smiled at seeing that it wasn't a total waste. "Thanks All Aboard." Pinkie then gave the stallion a hug.
All Aboard smiled at the little pink ball of energy. "Happy Hearth's Warming."
So after taking a morning nap, All Aboard was ready to wake up the little pair and inform them that the first train from Rockville was arriving in 3 minutes. Which prompted Pinkie to wake up, jump up from the cot, which woke Spike, and rush to the train platform to meet her family.
Soon the train arrived and once it was clear, groups of ponies started to walk out of the train, Pinkie ran over to a group of 5, with Spike still in her mane, and she wrapped them into a big hug. "Oh, I missed you all so much." Said Pinkie.
Spike looked at the group his Mama was hugging. "Mama, I think you have the wrong group." It was true, Pinkie was hugging a completely random family who was here to visit some elders in the local nursing home.
Pinkie looked to see that Spike was right, she giggled. "Sorry, I was expecting someone else." Pinkie removed herself from the group and they promptly ran away from the crazy filly that hugged them out of nowhere. "Where are they?" Asked Pinkie as she and Spike looked around for the Pies.
"Where are whom, Pinkie?" Asked Maud, she was standing right by the group.
"You, Marble, Limestone, Ma, and Pa, that's who." Said Pinkie as she was still looking for her family.
Spike looked at the fact that Maud was right there. "Hi Aunt Maud."
Maud gave a small smile at seeing her nephew. "Hi Spike, I missed you very much." Maud walked over to Spike and nuzzled his head. "Have you been a good drake for Pinkie?"
Spike nodded. "I have, where are Aunt Marble, Aunt Limestone, Grandma, and Grandpa?"
"They are getting the luggage right now." Said Maud.
Pinkie then gasped as she spotted her family coming out of the luggage cart. "There they are!" Cheered Pinkie as she ran to see her family, taking Spike with her down the station. Maud sighed as she started to follow her sister and nephew.
Igneous was looking around for his daughter and her dragon son, Cloudy was doing the same with their daughters. When they were suddenly wrapped into a Pinkie approved hug. "FOUND YOU!" Cheered Pinkie.
The Pies looked at their second youngest daughter and smiled at seeing her. Cloudy nuzzled her little girl with a smile. "Pinkamena, how wonderful to see you."
Igneous nodded as he started looking for Maud. "Where has thine sister gone to, we tasked her to greet thee upon our arrival."
Spike popped out of Pinkie's mane. "She's coming, Mama was more focused on finding you that she didn't notice that Aunt Maud found us."
Maud then arrived and nodded at her nephew's words. "That's right."
Igneous sighed at the attention span of his daughter. "Pinkamena, please do be more careful not to get too focused on a task?"
Pinkie sheepishly giggled. "Sorry Dad."
He sighed as he looked into the town. "So, this is Ponyville?"
Spike nodded as he jumped out of his mother's mane. "Yep, home sweet home." All the Pies looked at the little dragon that they hadn't seen in 5 months, now he was walking, talking perfectly and oddly enough he was wearing a coat
Limestone leaned over to Pinkie. "Pinkie, are you sure that's Spike?"
Pinkie giggled as she nodded. "Yep, that's Spike. Oh, there's so much that's happened since you last saw him, but let's head to the farm and see the others." Pinkie ran over to Spike and scooped him up on her hooves. "Spike, let's head home."
When the Pie's reached the farm, they quickly entered the farm house. "AJ, Ms. Buttercup, we're back." Said Pinkie. Soon AJ and Pear walked out of the kitchen, both of them covered in flour, but they both waved at the family.
"Igneous, Cloudy, Marble, Limestone, Maud, it's great to see you all." Said Pear as she gave Cloudy a hug, which was returned. "Happy Hearth's Warming."
Cloudy smiled at her friend. "And too you as well."
AJ walked over to the little fillies and wrapped all three into an Apple family hug. "Howdy, it's been too long."
"It's been 5 months, 2 weeks, 1day, 19 hours, and 24 minutes since we last saw you." Said Maud.
AJ blinked as she contemplated the fact that she knew that. "Shoot, it really has been too long."
Pinkie giggled as she was partly to blame for that, but she wanted to catch up with her family. "So, let me get Spike out of his clothes and we can all catch up, how does that sound?"
"Allow me Pinkie, you spend some time with your family." Said Rarity as she placed Spike on her back, in the haste Pinkie left the door open and standing in the frame was Rarity with her family. Rarity nuzzled Spike's head. "Hello, my little Spikey Wikey."
Spike giggled. "Hi Mother, we found Mama's family."
Rarity giggled as she started talking with Spike and taking him to his room. "I can see, did Pinkie realize that it was way too early to head to the train station?"
Spike nodded. "She did, but Mr. All Aboard let us take a nap in his office." Soon the conversation petered out as they headed upstairs.
Pinkie looked at her family. "So, how are you?"
"Oh, I'm sorry, I'll just wait until you're finished." Said Fluttershy, she and Angel were walking into the home to see Pinkie's family, but now she wasn't sure if that was ok.
Zephyr on the other hoof was perfectly fine with interrupting especially since there were three cute fillies in his sight. He walked over to Marble. "Hey cutie, you seem so familiar, maybe you're the reason I'm back from heaven?"
The cheesy pickup line was so bad that it made Marble hide behind her sister, who was growling. "Hey, where do you..."
But Zephyr smirked at her. "Well, where do you go to find someone like you?"
Limestone was about to clock the little punk, but she was stopped by Maud. "Limestone, no hitting." She looked at Zephyr. "Who are you?"
Zephyr smiled at Maud. "I am Zephyr Breeze, and I wouldn't mind a filly who's a little older."
Maud sighed as she lowered her hoof to let Limestone go, but Limestone was stopped by Fluttershy. "Stop, please forgive him, he's an idiot." She turned around to glare at her little brother. "Zephyr apologized right this instant, that is no way to talk to Pinkie's sisters."
Zephyr sighed, he didn't know they were related. "Sorry."
Fluttershy huffed as she went back to her happy self. "So, where is Spike?"
"MOMMY!" Cheered Spike as he ran down stairs and right into the legs of his mommy.
Fluttershy smiled at seeing her son. "Spike, there you are, where were you?"
Rarity came walking down the stairs. "That's on me Shy, I was just getting him out of his little suit. That darn tail sleeve is harder than it looks."
Fluttershy smiled as she nuzzled her son's head. "Happy Hearth's warming Sweetie."
"Happy Hearth's warming." Said Spike. "Uncle Zephyr!" Spike let go of his mommy and ran to his uncle.
Zephyr smiled at seeing his cool little nephew. "Sup Spike, look at you, so big and strong."
Fluttershy smiled, Zephyr was horrible at many things, but he was actually a great uncle. "Well, Pinkie was about to catch up with her family, So..."
"Sup everypony." Said Rainbow as she and her family along with Fluttershy's parents arrived at the house. Rainbow walked into the room and noticed that Zephyr was doing a great job. "Zephyr, you know chicks dig a guy that can take care of a kid."
Zephyr shrugged. "Don't care, taking care of my awesome nephew."
Spike looked at Rainbow. "Hi Mom."
Rainbow smiled at her son. "Hi Spike."
Ok, with all the family here, it was time for Pinkie to catch up with her family, and due to her not being able to talk to me she cant stop me from making it a jump.
So, after the whole family was gathered, and introduced to each other, it was time for lunch. Spike had been given a special dish, gem soup, something that was adapted from the Pie's rock soup, while everyone else just had a nice salad. Cloudy and Igneous looked at Spike, it was still hard to believe that in only 5 months, the little newborn that joined their family was so grown up. But now wasn't the time to dwell on that, it was time for the yearly hearth's warming traditions.
The first tradition was placing dolls on the fireplace. All the girls had brought their dolls from home, since tonight they were going to stay with Spike for his first Hearth's Warming. But that left the real problem, they didn't think of getting one for Spike, which started a freak out. "We forgot about Spike's doll." Yelled AJ.
Rarity was trying to sew a quick little doll for him, she'd be heart broken if she let her son spend his first Hearth's warming without one. Rainbow, who wasn't thinking, tried to fly to the toy store for a doll and Fluttershy was just holding Spike, and telling him it was going to be ok. But Pinkie, did a Pinkie, and changed him out with Gummy, but Fluttershy was too upset to notice.
Pear leaned over to Bright Mac. "Remind you of the year we found out about AJ?" Bright Mac nodded.
Pinkie on the other hoof had an idea, her family always made their dolls out of stone, and since Spike was a Pie, why not let him try that. Pinkie placed Spike on the floor and slid him a stone. "Spike, why not make a doll yourself?" Asked Pinkie, she then pulled out her own doll and showed it to Spike. "Here, look at mine to get the idea."
Spike looked at the stone that was sorta in the shape of a pony, he then looked at the rock Pinkie gave him. He shrugged as he used his claws to chip away at the stone.
It was about half way through Spike's work did the girls take notice of his actions. Fluttershy walked over to Spike to see what he was doing, and he was working on his head, it was a little off, but she could definitely see a resemblance of it's maker.
After another 30 minutes of him working on his doll, Spike was finished. He turned to his Mama to get her ok. "Is this good enough?" Asked Spike.
Pinkie and all the girls looked at the newborn sized Spike made from a hunk of stone, and short of painting it to match his colors, it could pass as him. Pinkie smiled as she nuzzled Spike's head. "It's perfect Spike, I had no idea that you could sculpt?"
Spike looked at his doll and he didn't see why it was such a big deal, all he did was use his claws to cut stone, rubies were harder, and he could cut through them with ease, so he shrugged as he looked at his Mama. "I don't see what's so different, it's softer than my gems."
Everyone looked at Spike, but Cookie was the one to blow pass this whole thing and move onto one of her family's traditions. "Well, I think it looks wonderful Spike." She used her magic to place the doll onto the fireplace for later. "But now it's time for me to tell everyone the story of Hearth's Warming." Cookie moved Spike, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle together, the latter two latching onto their nephew as all the girls gathered around them to hear Cookie's story. "Long ago, before Equestria was founded..."
"And thanks to the power of the 3's love, they were able to fend off the Wendigos, and come together to unite the tribes, the end." Said Cookie as she finished her version of the origins of Heart's Warming, granted there were a few changes, like no freezing to death, no starving to death, no wars. 'Wow, ponies back then were kinda jerks.' Thought Cookie as she thought about how much things have changed. She looked to the audience, and she was a little upset to see that the youngest trio were out like lights, but then she giggled. "Well, I guess this is a great version of how it works, earth pony, unicorn, and dragon, three different races enjoying each other's company." She looked at Pear. "I think it's nap time?" Pear nodded as she picked up Spike and Bloom, while Cookie grabbed Sweetie Belle, and the 2 mothers took the trio for their nap.
For the rest of the day each of the families showed Spike a different tradition, Fluttershy's family, while being shy, loved to bake cookies and go around delivering them...well, ringing the bell and chickening out before the door was opened, but they left the cookies on the porch. Rainbow Dash and her family roasted chestnuts and drank hot chocolate so the whole house would smell like that for the night, and AJ's family had a special tradition, every year, as the sun was setting, they would go into town and carol until it was time for bed.
(Yes I know, but it still works.)
And as the night came to an end, so too came the beginning of Spike's first Hearth's Warming with his mamas.