It was near midwinter in Canterlot and the weather pegasus were busy covering the city with a thick white blanket like a smooth layer of icing on an inhabited cake. Snow coated every building and the night was cold enough that only the most pressing of missions would rouse the ponies safely ensconced within their warm nests into venturing out into the frigid night.
Within one such home, two ponies lay cuddled together by a roaring fire. The house was perched on the second tier of the city not to far below the imposing presence of Canterlot castle itself, indicating that it must be owned by one of the cities nobility, because only they had the wealth and influence to purchase such expensive real estate. Indeed the owner of the house was the Viscount Prince Blueblood, whose pedigree was amongst the highest in all of Equestria (if he did say so himself) even if his family's current standing and titles were not.
Wrapped securely in his embrace was his mare friend Pinkie Pie, third best baker in Ponyville (if she did say so herself), bringer of happiness, destroyer of frowns. She had no pedigree to speak of and no title, but Blueblood loved her dearly, for she saw the best in him even when he could not, and tried her hardest to make everypony happy even when they did not want to be.
Due to their respective careers, the two could not spend as much time together as either of them wished. Thus, they made the most out of the time they did have. Today had been spent in Canterlot. After (mostly) sleeping in until the late morning, they had ventured out into the city and wandered its vast shopping district. While Pinkie had happily bounced from stall to stall admiring each shiny bauble until another had caught her attention, Blueblood had followed on behind at a more leisurely pace, admiring the goods on offer and occasionally purchasing small treats for his date.
After a light lunch, the two of them had gone skating on a small frozen lake. Early in their relationship Blueblood had worried about the publicity their relationship might draw, but to both his shame and joy, they attracted little tabloid attention. Pinkie had proven surprisingly apt at the moving on the ice, spinning and flashing round the rink while Blueblood found that he had four left feet, spending more time on his frozen rump or clutching desperately onto fence at the side of the frozen area rather than gliding over it. Eventually after some teasing, Pinkie had taken pity on her stallion and took one of his hooves in hers, leading him across the ice and wheeling him about until the rest of the crowd became a blew and all he could see was her smiling face . As evening had moved in, the two of them had run back to his town house and spent the remainder of the night together with large steaming mugs of hot chocolate (Blueblood’s personal trainer would not approve, but he could go fly a kite, or even better, go jump in the frozen lake).
Blueblood hugged Pinkie close, using both her and the fire’s heat to drive the last of the cold out of his bones. He had never considered himself much of a hugger; he had generally tried to keep most of his previous lovers at arm’s length, literally and figuratively. But Pinkie was different; she was just so plush and soft and well, huggable. He enjoyed the feeling of her giggling softly within his grip while she snuggled up against him. She was never entirely motionless even when she was sleeping. He had found it a distraction to start with, but now he found it hard to sleep unless she was twitching gently next to him. It was quite paradoxical.
Pinkie twisted in her lover’s grasp and turned to face him, the firelight glowing through her curly pink mane. The ring of fire light around her head only served to make her look even more beautiful. The broad grin that covered that face was directed at him, which made his heart skip a beat to think that she seemed to, against all odds love him for who he was. It somehow raised her ranking above anything quantifiable.
“Hey Bluie,” she said, “I almost forgot. I’ve got us tickets for the greatest thing ever.”
“Oh, really? And what would that be?" asked Blueblood, unable to resist giving his mare a quick peck on the lips.
“It’s the Ponyville school Hearth’s Warming play!” she squealed, “All the foals will be working together to show the story of how Equestria was made. And Trixie will be helping with the special effects. I’m sure the windigo’s will be really windy and all the actors extra acty. Oh, I wonder who’s playing Pudding Head? She was a great leader, she could really think inside the chimney. I hope the story has a happy ending and the windigo don’t win.”
A brief look of discomfort flashed over Blueblood’s face as he thought of the tickets he had purchased at great expense to the Royal Canterlot theatre production of the Hearth’s Warming story. The production would be lavish with the best actors from all the land present, as would Princess Luna herself. True, the tickets were not the best seats in the house, but they were quite a coup as they would allow him free access to some of the highest members of the court for the night, giving his position quite a boost.
Pinkie noticed the look of irritation, “Or do you have other plans?” she asked, her ears drooping slightly. “We could do something else instead if you want.”
He considered his options for a moment. Pinkie would enjoy the Canterlot production, but she could get stressed about embarrassing him in noble company, she tried to hide it but it was there. Besides he was sure she would enjoy the foal’s version of the founding of Equestria more. “No,” he smiled, he couldn’t bear to see her unhappy, “I’m sure the foals will be very,” he searched for a word, “Interesting, to see on stage.” Oh, well. He could probably sell the tickets or give them to a fellow member of the Night Court in exchange for a future favour.
“Bluie, what shall we do for Hearth’s Warming?” she asked a little shyly.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“Well it’s our first together, so are we going to spend it... you know... together?”
Blueblood considered for a moment, then grinned. “Of course, we can go to the Ponyville play, catch the train back here, spend the day together, just the two of us. You can get the first train back to Ponyville if the Cakes need you the next day.”
“That sounds great!” she infused, “We can tear open presents and sing hearth’s warming songs and drink Eggnog. What is nog anyway? I know what eggs are but not Nog. Nog’s a funny word, Nog, Nog, Noggy, Nog.”
Blueblood tuned out his lover while she continued to sing the praises of Nog (a very important skill to retain your sanity around Pinkie). He thought further about his spur of the moment decision. His parents would be expecting him to return to the estate for the holiday, but staying here with Pinkie would be so much better than their icy silence, or worse the traditional screaming arguments between them.. His brother Marshal would be on duty for the holiday so there wouldn’t even be him to keep Blueblood company.
“But don’t you want to spend your day with your family?” asked Pinkie.
Startled that she seemed to have read his mind (he wasn’t certain that wasn’t impossible for her) Blueblood stared at Pinkie for a moment. “No, I’m sure they will be fine by themselves. I’m not very close with my parents. They will be happy enough without me, they will probably host a grand party for local dignitaries.” Which the local dignitaries will desperately try to avoid, he thought. “What about your parents?” he asked trying to change the subject, “Don’t you want to spend the day with them?”
“Oh, they’ll be fine,” said Pinkie, looking away from him nervously. “I’m sure they won’t miss me at all.”
Blueblood frowned “Are you sure? We can visit them if you want.”
“Oh, no. That wouldn’t do at all.” There was a note of incipient panic in her voice that worried him somewhat, and piqued his curiosity.
“Why?”
“Oh, umm...” Pinkie frowned, an expression that did not fit well on her normally round and joyous face. "They don't celebrate Hearth’s Warming you see, well not really.”
“That certainly is odd.” Blueblood was aware of a few groups of ponies who didn’t celebrate the founding of Equestria but they were certainly a rarity. Was Pinkie lying to him? She didn’t seem very convincing but it could be hard to read her emotions, it was much like trying to pick out one butterfly in a wind-tossed flock, or whatever they called big groups of butterflies.
“My family are a bit odd, not normal ponies like me. I’m sure they wouldn’t want me around getting in the way. It would be super-duper nice if we did have a Hearth’s Warming with them, but that wouldn’t happen.” She sagged slightly before brightening again. “Hey why don’t we visit your parents? I’m sure they’re extra normal and fun to be with. I’d really like to meet them, and I might have a surprise for them.”
“A surprise for them... For my parents...”
“Yep.”
I chill ran down Blueblood’s back. “Pinkie, you’re not expecting are you?” He’d tried to be careful but Pinkie could be very... spontaneous sometimes. He didn’t think he could look the guard outside Luna’s chambers in the eye again after he had interrupted them when Pinkie decided to surprise him while he was waiting for an audience. He was just lucky the audience chamber had such tall tables and that Luna had been delayed so that they’d finished before the meeting started.
“Oh, I'm expecting lots of things, more hugs and kisses from you, tomorrow to turn up, it's funny how it always does."
He kicked himself mentally. He should have learned by now that euphemisms didn’t work well around Pinkie. “No I mean, you’re not pregnant are you?” He wasn’t entirely sure how he felt about the idea. His immediate reaction had been horror, but now he felt sort of excited.
“Nope, no bun in this oven,” she patted her stomach. “Well apart from the starter from supper.” She giggled.
He relaxed. “That’s good,” then tensed again, “Not that I don’t want children, just not yet.”
“I understand, I’d be really fun to raise our own little Blood-Pie’s but not for a while. Yuck! A blood-pie doesn't sound very tasty, but are foals meant to be tasty? I’ve been told fillies are made of sugar and spice and that’s really tasty...”
Blueblood relaxed again, letting Pinkie’s avalanche of words wash away his worries. Pinkie certainly seemed upset by her family not celebrating Hearth’s Warming. He was somewhat intrigued by the idea. Pinkie didn’t talk much about her family. She seemed closer to her employers, the Cakes, than her own kin. Maybe he should look into the matter further. It would probably mean a lot to her if he would convince them to visit. Still, that would be something for another night, for the moment he could just relax in his marefriend’s presence. With a sigh he put a leg over Pinkie’s body and pulled her closer, stopping her babbling with a deep kiss.