//------------------------------//
// Act II (Ghost of Christmas Past) Pt I 
// Story: Hearths Warming: Scrooge 
// by Daxisle 
//------------------------------//


Act II Pt I



Scrooge sat upon his chair, gazing blankly to the now broken table before him with only a few flickering candles fighting to give light and warmth to the decrepit building while his mind attempted to process what he'd just experienced. 

'Was that really Marley? Was that truly his deceased partner in the banking game? How could such a thing be? If ghost were real, why wait so long to expose themselves and seek assistance? And if it was true, if ghosts were real and did take up such a cursed existence as his own, why? Who could bestow such pain? What gave them the right or authority?

His thoughts were broken with a start by the dinging of his grandfather clock. 

Taking a breath to calm his mind, the stallion pressed his lips. One o'clock. Time to see if the threat was real or if the carrot really was just laced with drugs.

The candles to this right went out, drawing the stallion's attention.

He studied the fire holders carefully before the farthest on on the left suddenly came to life once again, but the flame was different this time, brighter than before. Not long after another relight, and another then the final two. But their light was different this time, brighter, more inviting. Gingerly, the stallion lifted his hoof and moved it closer to the flames. 

His hoof was immersed in a tranquil bliss as it sat a mere inch from the candle. The dull ache he'd had in it for years was all but gone, banished by the light of the fire. 

'What a comforting light.' Scrooge smiled, placing his other hoof up to it as well. Something so soothing couldn't possibly be dangerous. Well, that was the thought he had right before a crash from his fire place.

"Ah man," The figure complained, rubbing her head and getting to her hooves. "The guy who owns this place needs to clean out his chimney. Ugh, I hate soot!"

"Then perhaps you should have used the door." Sin stated matter of factly, his nerves calmed from the light of the candle. He should have been scared, after all, there was someone else in his house again and down his chimney no less, but dammit if the candle light wasn't just the greatest thing he'd ever felt!

Cleaning the blackening taint from her form, Scrooge took in the translucent, rainbow maned, cyan coated pony before him. Unlike Marley, she didn't bare any chains or a look of sorrow, instead she held a field of arrogance, annoyance and superiority. 

"Bite me." She growled, dusting off her foreleg. "So anyway-" the mare continued, her lips twisting into a confident smirk, "I'm the ghost of Hearth's Warming's past, and I'm here to show you your past." She said, placing a hoof upon her puffed out chest.

After a few awkward moments of silence, the specter opened her eyes scoffed. "Hey! I'm talking to you!"

"Huh?" Scrooge tore his attention from the candles, "oh, maybe later." Sweet Celestia, these candles were better than sex! 

To his dismay, however, the light and soothing warmth were quickly blown out by the ghost who had, in that moment, become his sworn enemy for all time.

"No, we're doing this now!" She griped his hoof tightly in hers, "right now."

Attempting to pull his hoof away and smack her silly for her crime, Scrooge lost all sense of balance as the world around him suddenly began to spin. 

Fighting off the sickly feeling in his stomach, the stallion shook his head and immediately reached for where the spirit was. Failing to hit home, he took a moment to regain his barrings and lost is anger to shock. Some how, he was now outside!

"The demon king?" He gasped, looking around to the new, snow covered surroundings. At first he thought he was outside his home, but the pony quickly found out that not to be the case. But, he was somewhere familiar. 

Though the surroundings may have changed, the dull and grey tint the wold had did not. He looked in awe of the large and imposing building in front of him, then to the mediocre court yard to his left, holding naught but a single statue of a standing mare with a content and loving face to any who passed by and finally behind him to the lonely and winding snow covered road that lead back to the only town for miles... How long had it been since he'd been here?

'I know this place.' He thought, walking to the court yard to find the entrance to the building. 'This was my old boarding school that I was sent to.' The place he was banished to when his father had thrown him out of the family home. Gemini never told his son why he had forsaken him but Scrooge knew. His sister, Fanny, had told him that their mother had died in childbirth and father held an underlying resentment for him ever since.

"But why did she bring me here?"

"I brought you here so that you could see." Said the ghost, apparently right beside him now. Her eyes betraying none of her emotion. "To see the past that made you the stallion you are tod- OUCH!" She rubbed her now throbbing scalp. "What the hay?!"

Sin rubbed his stinging, yet satisfied hoof. "That was for blowing out my candles."

Her eyes narrowed, "why you little-" The specter growled.

"Anyway, why did you bring me here?" Scrooge cut her off, his attention returning to the front door.

"As I was saying," she seethed, a grudge quickly forming, "we're here to see what made you the stallion you've become today."

The pony pondered for a bit, he didn't really remember too much of the school. Yea, he'd gone here for a few years, didn't have many friends, pretty good scores on grades and hated the dorm rooms, but nothing all that significant or different from the other colts.

The ghost phased through the door and beckoned the stallion to follow. Uncertain about passing through a solid frame, Scrooge hesitated for a moment before the rainbow maned apparition reached out and forcefully pulled him in.

After a few choice words of her assertiveness, she lead the way through the empty white halls until the two came to a classroom. Sin was shocked at what he saw... There, sitting by the window with a far off stare, sat himself, just himself. Younger, much younger, but still him. School uniform and everything.

The oaken pony held his stone face, but that didn't stop the small bits of his passed from forcing themselves to the forefront of his mind. Memories that he'd repressed after they'd served to fuel his endeavors in years past put a terrifying weight into Scrooge's stomach, and sent his nerves into a freezing buzz. He didn't want to remember what happened here, the the time and reasons for his stay were all linked to the feelings of rejection and pain.

"You remember, right?" Asked the ghost, her attitude turned sage again. "How alone you used to feel here during Hearth's Warming?"

Scrooge nodded, his past memories moving from small doses to washing over him like a tidal wave. "Yes, the other colts all had families to go home to over the holiday while I was stuck here. Alone." He took a breath to calm his nerves. "I already know this."

"Think it might have an some impact on why you're such a miserable old mule?" She asked with complete sincerity. It was almost amazing that such a question could be asked without a trace of smug sarcasm, actually. 

All the same, the stallion had to refrain from the emotions trying to consume him with a shrug. "Gee, I don't know. My family disowned me and left me to a boarding school for an event that I had no control over; thus sentencing me to a loveless existence from the age of five to fourteen where I had spent Hearth's Warming Eve and day alone while the entire school had vacated to be with families who wanted them." His words dripped with both venom and sarcasm. "It's a freaking mystery if this might have impacted who I am today."

Holding back the urge to shout, the Ghost of Hearth's Warming Past forced herself to smile. "Yes." She said through clenched teeth. "But don't you also remember? This is the Hearth's Warming you got to return home."

As if she controlled the landscape, a lavender mare walked right through both of them. "Sin?" She called. The stallion at the window looked back at her with a mask of sadness, until he saw who it was. Suddenly his eyes lit up and his mouth bore one of the happiness and most genuine smile of his time.

"Fanny?" The memory scrooge asked.

The mare nodded, her dark purple bangs bobbing over he kind and compassionate eyes for just a moment. "Yes, brother. I-" Tears began to form as she took forth hand embraced him. "I've come to bring you home, at last."

Scrooge scoffed and shook his head at his youth's extacy. His self righteousness in knowledge overpowering his emotions.

He remembered this day, the day he was finally allowed to return home. Finally get to see that piece of work father of his again. Back then, he was full of joy and happiness about the fact. After all, a child being tossed from his home was one of the most traumatic and painful things they could ever experience, yet at that moment, it was like he didn't even care about the crime.

Foolish child.

"Wait, father wants me home?" The memory continued.

Fanny broke the embrace and nodded, her smile never faltering. "Yes, Sin, he's come to see the error of disowning you and demands you home at once!" She beamed.

Now it was his turn for tears. "He... he wants me back? You mean it?" 

'Oh yea, he wants you back. Those nine years of him not giving a flying feather about you, where you could have rotted in the street for all he cared? Yea, we'll pretend those never happened. Dumbass.'

And with that, the two walked out of the room. Joy and redemption radiating off them until they were out of sight, leaving only the specter and the present day in time.

For some reason, Scrooge felt a deep warmth inside himself. A kind of warmth that rivaled the candle light from before, with just as much mystery. Though this one he wasn't as fond of. 

The memory, the memory was what made him feel this way. His innocence, the joy in his eyes, the nostalgia, his sister. All of it, and none had a right.

He was foolish and ignorant back then, that was no cause for good feelings. Nor the nostalgia of being kept in that cold and loveless hell, nor the joy he felt for finally gaining the privilege of going home. His father bucking abandon him! Why was he so happy to go back? Ignorance and lack of logical comprehension, that's why. The same reason he felt the warmth inside he did now.

A swing of extreme emotional appeals, that was the specter's game.

"By the look on your face, I'm guessing this didn't have the effect I was hoping for." Said the ghost mare, placing a hoof to her chin. "Whatever, I've got something more awesome in mind!"

"What effect were you hoping for?" Scrooge asked calmly. As annoyed as he was with his past's self's foolishness, he was becoming very curious as to why he was being put through all of this.

"Well, you know. Warming your heart and letting your guard down through seeing one of the most bitter sweet moments of your past."

Scrooge furrowed his brow again, attempting to process the logic. "So wait, let me get this straight. You want me to 'open up' by exploiting my emotions and showing my past self being an idiot by going back to a stallion who'd thrown me out of my home for nine impressionable years, and having my sister come and retrieve me on his demand and convenience?"

The specter pressed her lips and shuffled from side to side nervously. "Well, when you put it like that... But that isn't all that happened, after that nine years, this was the first time you were really happy. Look, I'm not good with all this mushy stuff, but it looks to me like you were happy to leave with a mare who cared about you. Besides, you'd have to forgive your father at some point, right?"

"Fanny was a good sister." Scrooge agreed. "A truly kind and compassionate mare, I'll give you that. But my father will never have my forgiveness. What kind of monster throws his own child out when they aren't even old enough to figure out how to make money to survive?"

The ghost sighed. "The only one you're hurting with this grudge is yourself."

"And that's my choice." Sin countered.

Accepting the failure this memory turned out to be, the apparition sighed and waved her hoof, causing the world to spin once more.

Once Scrooge found his baring he immediately took in his surroundings. Though shocking, he felt an uncomfortable sense of ease and uplift from the warm and lively and well lit oaken tavern around him. He looked around and marveled at the familiarity of the many decorations and the faces he hadn't seen for years. There, Thornberry was having a drink with Vonderbuilt! Two of his apprentice predecessors under his master (figuratively speaking) the ever jolly, Fezzwig.

Ahh, a happy memory that even he couldn't deny. But the stallion kept on his guard, he knew the spirit's game now and did his best to psychologically solidify himself. This was the celebration of Hearths warming many years ago when Scrooge was just about to finish his merchant apprenticeship. Everypony was here, Thornberry, Windmane, Fezzwig, Valentine, and even Marley.

"This was your first moment of true happiness after you left the school." The spirit proclaimed, now standing next to him again.

Scrooge nodded, eyeing her skeptically. "Quite." 

After a few moments without a word, Fezzwig called for a toast, the joyous laughter and smiling atmosphere dying down to hear what the portly stallion had to say. Clearing his throat, the merchant pushed back his graying main to reveal purple eyes that contrasted heavily to his yellow coat.

"May I have tension please?" The old pony stuttered. 

Both Scrooges, past and present, snickered to the jolly and foppish nature. What could he say? Sin always admired his mentor's business ethic and light hearted mannerisms, and time hadn't made such feelings any less genuine. Sure he may have lost out on profit due to his affection and love for his staff, but he'd never met a pony so happy and honest as the master he'd once received tootalige from.

After a few rude, though friendly, cheers from the tavern, the merchant proposed his toast. "To my apprentices Scrooge and Marley." He looked down at the pony and drake with pride. "One with the greatest talent for the art of talk I've ever born witness to and the other for his attention to detail and efficiency."

The tavern went into an uproar of congratulations and agreement. Of course it would, there were all friends and family of Fezzwig; the kindest merchant to ever grace Canterlot.

"When I first met Scrooge, he was but a young colt..." As the pony went into a few more details and accomplishments of his apprentices, Sin's heart began to grow heavy as he took in his former self and the life he once had.

The kind and gentle smile he used to have, his open and friendly demeanor, the plans of marriage, children and a happy life he once held so close to his heart. All of the memories from his past came back again, quickly linked with the guilt that he never wanted to admit to. 

Sin's eyes soon found the ground as he contemplated how it was that he became the angry and cynical husk he was today when in his youth he was so full of warmth and potential.

Perhaps his past was something worth reconsidering afterall.

"There we go." The cyan mare smiled triumphantly. "That's what I was hoping to see."

Despite her, Scrooge didn't reply, instead he tried to rationalize what turned him from the path he was on so many years ago. Was it a certain and fixed point? Or was it a slow and gradual process? He can't remember anything he honestly regretted, save a few bad loans and extensions.

"And to my apprentices, I wish a very long and happy life." Concluded Fezzwig, smiling down at the two young stallions. "To Marley and Scrooge!" He cried.

"MARLEY AND SCROOGE!" Replied the tavern taking a drink.

"To Marley and Scrooge." Said a single griffin as the rest of the patrons drank. His smooth and calm mannerisms were a quiet contrast to the rest of the ponies inside.

As the present Scrooge looked to the single griffin who spoke last, it all clicked. He knew exactly where his life had hit the turning point. And just as if on cue, the surroundings once again began to spin.

This time, however, they appeared to be in a white and brown room room full of ponies crowding to get to the front. Past Scrooge and Marley stood behind two desks, each attending to ponies at the front of the lines.

"Wow. You guys were busy." The cyan mare commented and chuckled. "Remember this?"

Again, Sin took a moment to regain himself. 

'This method of travel is going to be the death of me.' he thought before he recovered with a breath. He took in his surroundings and smirked. "Yea, this is the bank where Jorkin hired Marley and myself onto after..." His smile dropped and his eyes once again found the hard wooden floor. "After Fezzwig's charity for his employees caused his business to go under."

Why was he feeling so bad about this? It wasn't his fault that the money game was becoming more cut throat. Scrooge rationalized. Yes, what happened to his former mentor was sad, and he took no pleasure in watching the good stallion's world cave in around him, but it wasn't like it was his doing.

"Mistah Scrooge, please." Cried the azure pony standing before his station. "I'm beggin' ya. I just need another extension and I can pay you back the money, I swear!"

The past Sin, who hadn't aged but a bit, stood and regarded the older stallion for a moment with pressed lips. "Alright." He conceded. "I'll give you one more weeks extension, but that's it."

As the patron repeatedly chanted his thanks, the present day Sin scoffed. "How foolish of a decision it was to give Butterbean the extension." Sin said aloud. "He did exactly as Jorkin said and pissed it away on some scam on gold mining."

"Well, do you know why he did it?" The ghost replied, her face showing concern. 

"Simply put, I don't really care." Scrooge turned away and walked away from the registers to think, but apparently his guide wouldn't have it. He didn't know how it happened, but one second she was behind him, the next they were face to face, nose to nose almost.

"It was because the catal-" she paused." cala- collotro- collator-" She stuttered, the mood shifting a from slightly intense to almost painfully awkward. "You were going to take his house!"

Scrooge quirked a brow. "I'd imagine that's why I gave him the extensions." And just as the words left his mouth, he beheld Butterbean pass by, his grateful smile still plastered over his face. 

Another warm and fuzzy feeling entered the stallions form from the event, and quickly, Sin began to rationalize how said event didn't have the right to make him feel said warmth. Fact of the matter was that he may have helped the stallion keep his house for another week, but he had no right to make that extension. 

In one of his few moments of dishonesty, he gave Jorkin his word that he would inform Butterbean of his denied request for more time, and broke it. It wasn't right, Scrooge had no right to play with his boss's money like he did, even if it did make him feel more humane at the time. Jorkin had given two delays already, a third was simply too much.

It didn't matter in the end anyway. Butterbean failed to produce the needed funds and his house was seized a week later as par for the contractual agreement. Scrooge remembered the stallion became a broken husk after that and sent his family away with a letter to one of his kin to give them provision before committing suicide.

It was sad, and whatever power the specter had over his emotions let him know quite well as the warmth he felt quickly turned into crushing guilt the more he thought, still his logic was sound.

"All the same," Sin growled while suppressing the emotional turmoil in his mind, continuing as if the conversation never stopped. "Butterbean didn't need to take the loans, he was caught up in his greed for gold and it, in turn caught up with him. What happened to him was his own fault."

"Oh, really?" Asked the specter, her eye quirking a bit. "And what do you think Fezzwig would say about such a cut throat attitude?"

Another pang of emotion, only this time it wasn't a warm happiness or a cold fear or depression, but a hot rage. 

"You think you know what he'd say?!" Sin barked stepping to his guide with hostility. His rational mind was almost frozen in shock over the emotional outburst, he wasn't ready for that. "Fezzwig was a great pony, a good and kind stallion who honest to Celestia made the world a better place and taught me most everything I know. What makes you think you have any right to-"

"If you think that he's so great," She interrupted, pressing her forehead to his and looking him in the eye. "Then why don't you act more like him?"

Sin's emotional manipulation quickly swung from rage to guilt again. Though, it wasn't a particularly pleasant feeling to have, it was one he could control much more efficiently.

"Because, his way of doing business has become far less lucrative than it was in years past." He replied through clenched teeth. "Why do you think he went out of business?"

"Because you and many others lost your love for the world, and your compassion for others." The rainbow maned ghost quipped.

Sin scoffed. "We only followed the desires of the market. The market demanded more in order for our businesses to thrive, and prosper!" He roared, his voice growing in both anger and volume the more he spoke. "Do you know what the market is? It is a reflection of the will of the consumer, the consumer is everypony who buys things. We are the supply, they are the demand. If you're so interested in seeing the world be more compassionate, how about you go after those who make the harsh demands instead of we who work to supply them?!"

A few tense moments passed with no sound to be heard save the heavy breaths of a tired old stallion unleashing a rage that would make a hydra second guess it's ferocity. 

But the shocked look on his guides face, Scrooge figured he finally had her. No amount of emotional magic or psychological manipulation could get her out of it. What? Did she think he'd never thought of the 'why is this banking business so cut throat' thing before? Did she think him an unwitting pawn who just followed his love of gold and made his decisions of frugality because he liked to see his employees and constituents suffer?

"Oooookay then." The translucent mare said awkwardly. "So, this didn't work out as I hoped either."

"Obviously not." Sin scoffed.

"Right, well one more stop, I guess."

"Oh joy,"

And yet again, the world faded began to spin again.

Quickly going through the steps of regaining himself, the stallion looked around carefully. There wasn't any loud noises or cluttering ponies looking to get a loan or have fun this time. Matter of fact, there was only one other pony in the room besides the present day spirit. 

Sin's jaw almost dropped from where he stood. His younger self, sitting in the after hours lobby of a restaurant he knew all too well. The cloths he was wearing, the nervous look on his face, he knew what this memory entailed. 

Figures that wench would throw this in his face.

The clock struck 11 and the door to the business quietly opened, revealing one of the most stunning mares the world had ever been graced to see. Her cherry blossom mane hung loosely, reaching almost to the ground and holding the slightest of curls. Her kind turquoise eyes could warm the heart of even the most hateful of cynics and her cream colored coat was as pristine and lovely as the most beautiful gold coin he could imagine.

His former fience', Belle.



Oh how he loved her in his youth. Her sincere kindness and mild mannered enthusiasm. He remembered the times they shared, taking pony ridden carriage rides through the park, eating and laughing about her family tales and jokes, and the one special night he'd gained her father's permission and proposed to her. Little did his past self know about the heart break and pain that would soon come.

"Sin? Are you here?" She called out meekly. Had it been to anypony else, he call may have been mistaken for a whisper.

"Belle?" The memory called. "What was it you wanted to talk to me about?" He said leaning in for a nuzzle, only to have the mare shy away from his advance.

"I-" She paused, summoning her fortitude. "I'm here to g-g-give you an ultimatum." 

The stallion looked at her with shock. An ultimatum? Her? One would find being hit by lighting more believable than this. "Belle, what's going on?"

"Your love of money, Sin. It's changed you from the stallion you were." 

"What?" The memory tilted his head. "What do you mean?"

The present day Scrooge smirked. 'Don't try to deny it, you know you've worked longer hours and become more frustrated with your work. Such stress will cause some alteration of one's personality if continued for long enough.' Maybe that's where he went wrong here. He tried to play it off as if nothing had changed, but with him working longer and completely halting any semblance of emotion to his business ethic, fact was he had changed. But not for the reason's Belle had come to believe.

"You are not the stallion I love anymore." Belle proclaimed with a dejected cringe. "You work from dawn until dusk, spend more time going over your business plans than ever before and seem much more distant than you were."

The memory furrowed his brow. "I've been working longer and harder to secure a financial future for us, surly you understand that."

Present Sin smirked. Wow, he really was under a lot of stress to reply like that. Well, no denying it here, he was a jerk. Well starting out, anyway.

Belle nodded. "I do, and it's changed you. You're not the kind and considerate pony you used to be. When you asked me to merry you, I thought we'd spend more time together, not less."

"We will be, I've just need more time to secure the proper insurance capital."

"And how much is enough?" Belle quipped, small amounts of anger starting to crack her otherwise typically calm form. "How many more nights am I to sleep alone because you're too busy in your study? How much longer will I have to sit and wait until you finally have time for me?"

"I've made time for us." 

"When?" The mare demanded. "The last time we even at dinner together was two weeks ago."

Present Sin pressed his lips and nodded his head. It was nice looking back at this memory without the random emotional enhancements. Looking at this memory with objective clarity, he could see that his former self was being quite the workaholic jerk. The money he had at the time would have bought some sound investments and a nice house out in the country or the city, but it was still no gerentee. Especially since it was at the beginning of a recession.

"Belle, look around. Properties are being foreclosed on like mad, businesses are falling under every day and the citizens of Trottingham are slowly becoming poverty stricken." He gently placed his hooves into her shoulders. "I don't want that to happen to us." He took a shaky breath. "I don't want us to live in poverty."

The present day Scrooge sighed and nodded. Financial security for her, that's what it was all about. Ensuring that they would be well off with money and never have to worry about where food came from, or if they'd have a warm place to sleep for the night. It was a fear, almost a phobia to him back them. Ironic, looking at his living conditions now.

Softly, Belle smiled at him before taking a step back and retrieving a small necklace from her neck and placing it on the floor. "I'm sorry, Sin Scrooge." She said, tears rolling down her face. "But I'd rather live in poverty if it was with you than to live in the warmest mansion by myself. I can't keep waiting for you."

"Belle, please, everything I'm doing is for us!" The memory pleaded, but it was no use. How blind could he have been to run expunge the patience of the most patient mare in the world? How inattentive would anypony have to be to achieve such a terrible feat?

"Good bye, Mr. Scrooge." The young mare bid before slowly walking out and leaving the heart broken stallion to himself.

With a shake of his head, the present day Scrooge could only smirk. Wow, how selfish. He works all this time to secure a financial future for her and their children and she just walks out like that? "Wow, what a piece of work."

"I know." Sin's eyes shifted left to find the spirit standing next to him. "You used your desire to keep her financially secure to indulge in your greed. A sad piece of work, indeed."

"Hmmmm, maybe."

"Maybe?"

"When I said I wanted a financial future secured for us, I meant it." Scrooge nodded. "Though, perhaps I did start really caring for money more than I should have at this time." His head turned to look at her more properly. "But when you see stallions and mares groveling at your hooves, begging for even the smallest of copper shackles to buy food, you'd be pretty paranoid about making sure you were never one of them too."

The spirits face dropped to a flat stare. "Really? That's all you got out of this?"

Sin quirked a brow. "What? That I was working myself silly so that we could have a comfortable family upbringing and she walked out on me because I wasn't paying enough attention to her due to my paranoia of poverty and slowly growing love of money?"

In a flash, the spirit's hoof smacked against her face and dragged down her muzzle. "Why are you making it sound like she's the bad guy here? The point was that you were becoming a money hungry jerk who was so concerned with it that you let all of your relationships suffer."

"Yea, I said that." 

"No, you justified it."

Sin tilted his head. "And why shouldn't I? I had reasons for what I did." He proclaimed proudly. "And though you may not like to hear it, good spirit, yes I did hate poverty more than I loved her. She obviously couldn't handle that fact and we went out seperate ways."

The spirit rolled her eyes. "Yea, and you threw away the only chance you had at real happiness."

"What? Spirit, I don't know how things work in your world, but here, you can't 'make another pony happy', one can only make themselves happy."

"Okay, you know what? It's obvious you're not going to get it. So, I'm just going to show you one last vision and send you home. After that, you're the Ghost of Hearth warming Present's problem."

With a slam of her hoof, the world began to spin again, this time resulting in the two standing outside the window of a house. Inside they saw three ponies sitting by a warm fire. The first was a growing filly, who played happily on her father's back. The second was the father, an orange stallion with a quaffed man and playful demeanor. 

The third was his ex, sitting contently watching her husband and child play.

"There's you're former fiancee with a stallion who knows how to treat a mare right." The ghost spat triumphantly, her smug smile proclaiming a perceived victory.

To her utter shock, Sin merely shrugged. "Alright, glad things worked out for her."

The ghost of Hearth's Warming eve's eye twitched, and jaw clenched. Muttering through closed teeth the only words she could say. "I hate you."