Marcus let out a long, pronounced groan as he signed his name on yet another paper, his signature reduced to nothing more than an illegible scribble from the countless papers he had already signed. He stood up from his suave, luxurious office chair, stretching his arms. He glanced at his desk, reading over the plaque on the corner of his mahogany desk.
While he enjoyed the new role Celestia had given him—her ‘secretary’ as she called it—it was not an entirely real job. He knew she had created it just for him, but he did not mind. If anything, he enjoyed it because it meant he got to spend most of his work day at her side—even if that time was spent organizing her schedule and greeting foreign diplomats on the regular—and the rest of his day and night with her. He also got to stay in Canterlot Castle, which definitely came with its glorious benefits, but that did not mean he enjoyed the endless hours spent on the drudge work she called paperwork. It was not uncommon for the guards to hear Marcus shouting various profanities throughout the workday, especially when one of Celestia’s assistants delivered a freshly prepared stack of papers to his desk.
He still regretted telling Celestia that he had a degree in public policy because she thought it would be a “good idea” for him to help out with some of her paperwork. At first, he did not object and gladly helped her, but the workload had multiplied exponentially since then. He knew some of that was because he got the job only a couple of months before Christmas—or Hearth’s Warming, as the ponies called it—but he almost swore her stacks were getting smaller while his kept growing.
He finished his routine stretching, about to get back to the still somewhat thick stack of papers before him, when he heard a gentle knock at his door.
“I don’t remember having any upcoming appointments,” he whispered to himself, smoothing down his black dress shirt and black velvet blazer. He went around his spinning chair and ornate desk, crossing his rather large and lavish office room as he made his way to the door. He cleared his throat and ran his fingers through his curly hair, looking in the mirror on the door to try and make his hair look nice. He turned the doorknob and pulled open the door, surprised to find Celestia standing outside his door.
“I wasn’t expecting you so early,” he said, letting her in. “Did I forget we were supposed to have lunch or something?”
“No,” she tittered, her horseshoes elegantly tapping on the wooden floorboards as she went over to his desk. “I just thought I’d pop by.”
“Well, as you can see, I’ve still got a lot of paperwork to do. I know you wanted them done by the end of the week, so I’ve been trying to get them done as quickly as possible.”
“Don’t worry about it,” she said. “I’ll have one of my assistants take care of it. Besides, they could use the practice since you’ve been handling a lot of it lately.”
Marcus stood there, mouth agape, trying to process what she had just said. “You’re telling me I didn’t have to do all this?”
She put up a smile in defense.
He put a hand on his forehead, taking a long, deep breath. “I’ve been staying up late at night while you were sleeping to get this done, and now you’re telling me I’ve been doing all this work on my own?”
“Yes?” she slowly answered. He almost fell to the floor, letting out an even longer groan than before.
“Why do you do this to me, cruel cute pony princess?”
Celestia chuckled. “In my defense, I told you we were supposed to be clearing our schedules.”
“I thought that meant I had to get enough of it done where I could take Hearth’s Warming off. If only I had known I could have pawned it off to someone else…”
She put a hoof under his chin, lifting his face so she could look into his eyes. “I appreciate the effort, truly. You have a way of thinking that none of my other assistants match. You can solve problems unlike anypony I’ve ever met before—and considering I’m millennia old, that’s saying a lot.”
“Well, when you put it that way…” Marcus replied, standing back up and brushing the dust off his knees.
“I love everything you’ve been doing the past few months to help me. It’s taken a lot of the stress away from my job so I can be a better marefriend outside of work.”
Marcus blushed, scratching the back of his head. “T-thanks, Celly.”
“I mean it. You’re the best.”
Marcus smiled, putting a hand on her cheek and pulling her into a kiss. Celestia begrudgingly pulled away after a moment.
“Save that for later, you little deviant,” she coyishly said, trotting toward the door. “I’m your boss, remember?”
“Does that mean I get a promotion?” he teased, walking with her out the door, locking it behind them.
“I’ll think about it,” she playfully answered. She started trotting down the hall, Marcus walking at her side.
No matter how many times he walked through the castle, he still could not believe that he actually lived in it. All the ceilings were obnoxiously high, the window panes were made of stained glass made by some of the best glassworkers in Equestria, and the furniture all looked so expensive. The dining rooms were massive, and there was even a whole kitchen staff in the castle, something he had abused many times since taking up residence in the castle. All in all, he felt he almost did not deserve to be in the castle, let alone live in it. Whenever he thought such things, however, Celestia reaffirmed that he deserved to live there and that she would be aimlessly bored if he did not.
“So,” he started, “where are we going?”
“I already cleared my schedule for the rest of the day, so we’re going to do all the things we planned for Hearth’s Warming.”
“I’m up for that,” he said, eager to spend some quality time with his marefriend. “What’s first on the list?”
“‘Ugly Christmas sweaters,’ I think is what you called it,” she replied, not entirely sure if she remembered it correctly.
“Oh yeah,” he mouthed, “I forgot I brought that up for us to do—I still got a sweater, though.”
“Good,” she told him, “‘cause I got one too.” She turned her head to look up at him as they went down another hall. “I still don’t get what the aim of the event is. It can’t actually be finding the worst sweater… can it?”
“That’s exactly what it is,” he answered, sounding overly chipper. “I don’t know who thought it’d be a good idea back on Earth, but a lot of my kind do it for some reason. There’s just something entertaining about seeing someone you love wearing an absolutely ridiculous holiday sweater, and the worse the sweater is, the better!”
“Well, I’m interested in trying one of your hu-human traditions,” she returned, still struggling to say ‘human.’
“Human,” he slowly said.
“Human,” she repeated back, a smile rising on her face as she said it correctly.
“There ya go,” Marcus cheered. “And I’m looking forward to seeing you in an ugly Hearth’s Warming sweater.”
Celestia chuckled, taking him around a final bend and bringing him to her office. Marcus rarely came here, but he remembered it quite well. It was obviously much larger than his office, but she also had a lot more decoration. There were paintings and portraits of her and the other princesses all along the walls. Some of the more recent additions, she told him, were the pictures from Twilight and her friends. He also knew there was a chandelier on the ceiling in the shape of the sun with small arrow-shaped sunrays coming off of it. It illuminated the whole room in what looked like natural sunlight, powered by some kind of magic he did not understand.
“I had one of the maids bring both of our sweaters here and put them each in their own box.” Her horn lit up as she pulled two small boxes from behind her desk, putting them down in front of them. “You can change in the bathroom since you’re so picky about it.”
“Yeah, it’s just a human thing. I’ll be out in a sec.” He totally forgot she had a bathroom attached to her office. He opened the door and went inside, closing the door behind him. He marveled at just how large the bathroom was. He scrunched his eyebrows, realizing it was slightly larger than his office.
“I see how it is,” he whispered to himself. He opened up his box and pulled out his sweater. He took off his dress clothes and put the sweater on, pulling the pair of matching sweatpants out from the box and putting those on as well. He popped his shoes off and put the slippers that were also in the box on. He snuggled his toes into the things, feeling their comfortable warmth on his feet.
He put his old clothes into the box and closed it back up. He cracked the door open enough for him to speak.
“Are you ready?” he asked.
“Yes!” she called to him.
“Alright, now close your eyes, and I’ll come out. Don’t open your eyes till I tell you to.”
“Okay…”
Marcus closed his eyes and opened the door, carefully walking toward her. Thinking he was close enough, he put the box on the ground and slid it away from them.
“Three,” he started counting down. “Two. One. Aaaaand, open your eyes!”
Celestia finally opened her eyes, laughing at what she saw. Marcus was wearing a black and red sweater with a wonky-looking reindeer on it. The reindeer had shades on, and red cups were all along its antlers. She realized the reindeer was also wearing a sweater, and it said “Deer Pong” on it. She put a hoof over her mouth to try and contain her laughing.
Marcus gasped, seeing a printed-out picture of his face cropped onto an elf’s body on her sweater. He was bald! The elf was holding its red Santa hat in its hand, but he had no hair! To make it even worse, the elf was sitting on a wooden shelf over a fireplace with Celestia looking up at it with comically big eyes while clapping her hooves together and smiling oafishly at the elf with his face. His jaw dropped, even more so as he spotted the pegasi surrounding the scene that looked like they were drawn by foals.
Celestia flashed her horn, a camera appearing in front of her. He did not even have time to react before she snapped a picture of him with his jaw about three feet below his face.
“Hey!” he said, trying to take the camera from her magical grip. “Gimme that!”
“No, no, no,” she tittered, the camera disappearing in a flash. “I’m saving this for next year’s sweater.”
“Next year’s?”
She nodded. “This was worth it. I’d like doing it again next year.”
“I guess we will then.”
“Soooo,” she hummed, rubbing one of her hooves on her legs. “Who won?”
Marcus simply huffed. “I’ll get you next year, just you wait!”
They both chuckled, still enjoying seeing each other in a ridiculous holiday sweater.
“Next on the list is having some hot cacao, and then we’ll open presents.”
“Alright, to the kitchen!” Marcus shouted, gallivanting down the hall in the direction of the kitchen.
“I can just teleport us!” she shouted while chasing after him.
“Where’s the fun in that?” he asked, sliding in his slippers as he made a sharp turn. Celestia skidded to a stop, the guards afraid she was going to ram into them.
“Sorry!” she hollered as she went down the hall in pursuit of Marcus.
She finally caught up to him after a minute, entering the kitchen. He had already gotten two cups and filled them with milk. She had no idea how he had done that so fast, but she smiled nonetheless. She pulled the cacao from the pantry with her magic, pouring some into their cups. Marcus was going to put them in the microwave, but she stopped him, using her magic to heat the milk.
“Thank you,” he said, getting two spoons and stirring their hot chocolate up.
“Can’t forget the marshmallows,” she hummed, magically plopping five into each of their cups.
“Very true,” he added, holding one of the cups out to her. “Sorry,” he apologized, realizing he had tried to hand it to her.
She chuckled, taking the cup in her magic. They both took a sip, pleasant grins appearing on their faces.
“So good,” Celestia commented, enjoying the warmth and chocolatey taste.
“Reminds me of back home,” Marcus said. “My family would get together before we opened our presents, just like us, and we’d all drink some hot cacao. It tastes just as good as it did back then.”
After seeing the faint flash of sadness appear on his face, she put a hoof on his shoulder. “Don’t worry, I’m going to find a way for you to see them again soon. I promise.”
“I hope they’re not worried sick about me.”
“If they’re as strong as you are, they’ll be alright. You’ll be reunited, and you can laugh about all that you missed while you were stuck here.” He smiled, taking another sip.
“I’ll understand if you can’t find a way for me to visit my family. I’ve accepted that I won’t see them again.”
“I’m going to try everything I can first because I know how much they mean to you.”
“Thanks,” he gratefully said, happy that she understood him so well.
“Well,” he said, finishing his cup, “we should get to opening presents.”
She nodded, finishing off her cup as well. “I’ll teleport us back to our chambers.”
Marcus braced himself, everything flashing golden as he felt the floor slip out from beneath him. In an instant, he found his feet back on the ground, only this time he was in Celestia’s bedroom—well, it was technically their chamber since Marcus had moved into her room. Some of his stuff was in his office, but the rest was there.
The Hearth’s Warming tree was in front of him, towering over him and almost reaching the ceiling. Beneath it was two presents. They agreed to get each other only one gift, but it had to show what the other meant to them.
“Why don’t you open yours first?” Celestia said, sitting down on the floor, eager for him to open his gift.
“Sure,” Marcus replied, sitting down to get the present. He turned around to face her, putting the small, square, wrapped box in his lap. He peeled off the wrapping paper, discovering a white box inside. He lifted the box to his ear and shook it, surprised not to hear anything rattling. He slowly opened the top of the box, finding a small metal card in it. He carefully picked it up so he could read it.
“‘Choose Your Own Adventure Gift Card,’” he read aloud. “What’s that?”
“Ever since you showed up in my life, Marcus, you’ve made me realize that I’m in control of my life. You made me realize that I’m the only one who can choose how my life goes, so I chose to let myself be happy and be with you.”
“That’s so nice of you to say,” Marcus gleefully told her, his cheeks bright red. “I’m glad I could help you out.”
“The actual card will work at any Equestrian theme park and lets you choose anything you want to do.”
“Why thank you,” he said with a smile. “It’s your turn now.”
Celestia brought her present over with her magic, even more excited to open it after seeing how happy he was to open his gift. She carefully removed the wrapping paper and took the small, red, heart-shaped box out of the larger box it was in. She lifted the lid off, revealing a necklace inside.
She picked it up with her magic, a smile instantly appearing on her face. The necklace was made of gold in the shape of a flat sun with rays coming off of it. There were even small diamonds on the sun that made it sparkle in the light. She spun the necklace, seeing the back and feeling her eyes get wet.
For my Sunshine
—Love, Marcus
“You shouldn’t have. This probably cost a fortune.”
“Celestia,” Marcus started with a warm smile, scooting closer to her, “you have been nothing but amazing to me since we first met. You brought light back into my life when I was feeling darkness all around me. You took me out of that dark place and helped me become the man I am today. Just like the sun you embody, you make me feel warm and cozy. You make me feel at home and loved—like I belong—and there is no pony I’d rather spend my Hearth’s Warming with than you, my beautiful Sunshine.”
“I-I don’t know what to say,” she uttered, a tear rolling down her cheek as she wore the biggest smile in the world. “T-thank you so much, Marcus.”
“I mean it, all of it,” he replied, getting up. “Can I put it on you?”
“Of course,” she answered, placing the necklace in his hands. He walked over to her and put the necklace around her neck, clicking it in place and letting it gently rest on her.
“I have an idea,” Marcus said, going over to the fireplace and lighting it. The wood inside started to burn, sending warmth throughout the room. “Much better.”
“Very,” Celestia added, wrapping Marcus in her loving wings and jumping onto the bed. Marcus laughed, prying his arms from her feathery appendages so he could hug her tight.
“One more thing,” she said, her horn lighting up as she teleported something above them. Marcus looked up, seeing mistletoe hanging from the ceiling above them. He looked back at Celestia with a knowing look. Grinning, she pulled him into a kiss, which he gladly returned. They kissed for a moment, holding each other close as the fire warmed them. After a moment, they finally pulled away, catching their breath.
“This was the best Christmas slash Hearth’s Warming ever—” he told her with a smile that shifted to a grin, “—Sunbutt.”
“Where did you get that ridiculous nickname anyway?” Celestia asked with a chuckle.
“That’s what it looks like, though.”
“So you have been ogling me all this time!”
“I-I didn’t say that!” he stammered, realizing after seeing her laugh that she was messing with him. “You’re evil, you know that?” he said, turning away from her.
She turned him back around with her magic, snuggling into him.
“You love it,” she whispered into his ear with a grin.
The two lay on the bed holding each other, watching the fire as both their favorite Hearth’s Warming came to an end.