Starlight Glimmer hummed happily as she trotted through Twilight’s castle. It may be the day after Hearth’s Warming, but the good cheer and happiness she felt seemed to carry over from yesterday to today.
There was only one thing on her agenda today: she wanted to read A Hearth’s Warming Tail for herself. It was nice to have Twilight read the story to her, but at the same time, there’s just something nice about reading a book yourself; something that you can't really get by having it read to you.
Finally making her way to the library (after a few accidental detours into the kitchen, broom closet, and another hallway that looked identical to the one that housed the library), Starlight scanned the alphabetized shelves for the story.
She found herself at the other side of the library than from where she had sworn Twilight had put the book, “Wasn't it just next to the door yesterday?” she asked herself. Shrugging the notion off as her terrible memory when it came to this castle, she finally found the book and pulled it out of the shelf.
“A Hearth’s Warming Tail,” she said aloud. She chuckled a bit at the purposeful misspelling of the title, “Does it really need that to be spelled as 'Tail’? It doesn't even have anything to do with actual tails…”
Smiling to herself and sitting down on the couch, she opened the story to the first page, “Let's see if I remember everything!”
““I hate Hearth's Warming Eve!” Snowfall Frost said in disgust, “All of Equestria would be better off if we just skipped the day altogether!””
Starlight couldn't help but see herself in the place of Snowfall. After all, Hearth's Warming Eve had meant less and less to her every passing year of her life. She may not have had a complete hate for the holiday like Snowfall Frost, but she could at least relate to the feeling that Hearth's Warming seemed a bit pointless.
Though... having friends to have a party with wasn't the worst thing in the world.
She continued reading, and while the text of the next section only read like a poem, for some odd reason, she couldn't help but get the song that Twilight had sang to go with it out of her head. The weirder part was that she didn't hear the song as if Twilight was singing it: it seemed as if it was her own voice that was singing this time.
Starlight paused after reading the first “Happy Hearth's Warming, they say in the streets,” and listened intently. The room suddenly seemed to go silent as soon as she stopped.
“That's so strange,” Starlight muttered to herself, “It was almost like I could actually hear it.”
She continued reading the versed words, and as if a record had started turning again, the song from before returned, with instruments this time, identical to how Twilight had sung it, except it now sounded as if Starlight sang the words. She had to admit, she thought Twilight couldn't quite nail the feeling required to make it convincing, but her own voice seemed to express the brooding emotion almost perfectly. She didn't know if she should feel happy or creeped out by that.
She finished reading/listening to the misguided villain song (what? Starlight was trying to get rid of her past! She could think of her and Snowfall as slightly different, right?) and stopped reading for a moment. Turning to the title page again, she looked for any signs of a spell on the book. A moment later, she found small print that read:
“I would like to thank a good friend for the several sections of this story that are enchanted with song, so when a reader reads the poetic parts of the story, the songs written for these parts will seem to play in your mind. Thank you, good sir, for the offer, and I hope you readers will find his work to your liking!”
Charlegrin Dillkens
“Aha!” Starlight muttered to herself, “I knew it was too real to be just my imagination!” she scanned the page for a mention of who had wrote the song, but no name seemed to be anywhere.
“Ah well, he did a good job anyway,” Starlight said, turning back to the page she had left off on, “It won't freak me out anymore, at least.”
Starlight could feel herself connecting to Snowfall again as she read the song about Snowfall's past. Snowfall's story coincided all too well with her own childhood: shutting out friends in hope of something better. She started the final words of the song, almost feeling a tear come to her eye, but rubbing it away with one hoof.
“”The seeds of the past... We grow up so fast... Some hurts never go away...”
“The seeds as they grow, this we can't let go, all tied to this one holiday...””
Starlight remembered that Hearth's Warming Present came next, and readied herself for the transition. But despite what she remembered from yesterday, it seemed that Applejac- er, the spirit of Hearth's Warming Past, wasn't through with Snowfall yet.
“”Hearth's Warming Eve hasn't always been too rough, though, has it, Snowfall?” the spirit asked with a smile. Within an instant, Snowfall's childhood all but seemed to whisk away, becoming replaced by a house, blanketed in snow. Snowfall recognized the house almost immediately.
“Why... this is... this is Lightburst's house!” Snowfall exclaimed. As if in response to her comment, Snowfall watched in wonder as an only slightly younger version of herself trotted up quickly to the door, hiding from the increasingly powerful snowstorm. The past Snowfall knocked quickly on the door, rubbing her shoulders for warmth.
A few moments later, a stallion opened the door.”
Starlight blinked in surprise, “Sunburst?” she said quietly to herself, for that's who came to mind as soon as soon as the door began to move in her mind. Shaking her head quickly, she felt as if she was no longer reading a book, but as if she and Snowfall were one and the same.
No longer watching on, Snowfall and the Applejack spirit were left behind, forgotten. Starlight could feel the cold snow falling around her, melting lightly into her coat and landing on the tip of her muzzle. She shivered slightly, and opening her mouth in slight hesitation, she said, “Um... hello, Lightburst.”
The bearded stallion blinked in surprise and pushed his glasses up his face slightly, “Snowfall, is that you? It has been far too long! To what do I owe the pleasure?”
Starlight shivered, saying, “Um, well... The storm caught me by surprise. My house is way too far away to get home in time without freezing to death.”
Sunburst chuckled, “So I suppose you're asking for a place to stay in the mean time? Without even asking the question, nonetheless...”
Starlight shuffled a hoof, but didn't say anything.
Sunburst sighed and smiled, stepping back from the doorway, “Well, feel free to come in, Snowfall. That storm isn't going to get any better.”
Starlight felt relief wash over her, and she gave a small smile, muttering, “thank you,” before she trotted in, shaking her head a bit to get the snow out of her mane. Sunburst simply stood and looked on.
Starlight looked at Sunburst quizzically, and this snapped him back into reality, “Oh, I'm so sorry, Snowfall, let me... uh...” he glanced around frantically before raising his ears in realization, “Oh! Do you want some hot cocoa? I was just making some before you knocked.”
Starlight levitated her hat off her head, brushing the snow onto the floor, “Um, if it wouldn't inconvenience you, I suppose, yes...” she moved one of her hooves around uncertainly, “I feel awful for just intruding like this... but you're the only pony I know around here.”
Sunburst laughed, “I suppose that's probably true. You haven't ever been too sociable with ponies who couldn't help you with magic.”
Starlight looked to the side awkwardly. Sunburst, realizing his mistake, said, “Oh, but it is nice to see you again, Snowfall. Please, come sit down in the living room, I've got a fire going. I'll be back with your hot cocoa in a bit!” And with that, Sunburst quickly trotted away and around a corner.
Starlight sighed and looked behind her out the window. It was getting even more intense. Why in Equestria the pegasi wanted to plan a storm this big in the first place was beyond her, especially if they didn't intend on telling everypony else.
Placing her hat on a hat rack, Starlight made her way into Sunburst's candle lit living room. A burning fire washed the room with warmth, but with the sun completely blocked outside by the clouds, the room was actually fairly dim. Sitting down on the one couch in the room, Starlight shivered as the cold from outside seemed to stay in her coat.
Had the storm not come on when she was so far away from home, Starlight would have never considered taking shelter in Sunburst's house. Sure, Sunburst was a good friend to her, and had helped her learn interesting bits of magic, but she no longer had any reason to come and visit him. She suddenly realized that if the storm was just picking up now, it may be a long while before she would be able to leave.
“Oh well,” Starlight said quietly to herself, “Spending time with Lightburst isn't really a waste of time. Who knows, maybe he's learned something new since I last saw him that he could teach me.”
A few moments later, Sunburst entered the room, levitating two cups of steaming hot cocoa with him, “Here you go, Snowfall. Careful, it's hot.”
Starlight took a cup from Sunburst's levitation, blowing on it carefully before trying a sip. “Yowch!” she cried out, her tongue slightly burnt, “Yep, you were right.”
“Aw, come on, Snowy, you didn't believe me? You may be right more often when it comes to magic, but I at least know my stuff about boiling things: if they were boiling a couple minutes ago, then they're gonna be hot.”
Starlight for some reason couldn't help but smile, “Yep, that's a good assumption to make.” Putting a hoof through the cup's handle so she could stop levitating it, Starlight moved the cup close to her and blew on it lightly, so as not to spill any.
“Um, Snowfall,” Sunburst said uncertainly, “Uh... could you move over a bit so I can sit down?”
Realizing she had sat herself in the dead center of the couch, Starlight got up quickly, “Oh! I'm sorry. This is your house. You shouldn't have to ask someone to move off of your own couch.”
Sunburst sat himself down, tilted his head slightly and smiled, “You don't need to stand, though, Snowy. There's enough room for both of us.”
Starlight bit the inside of her lip in hesitation. While Sunburst was right about there being enough room for the both of them, it still wasn't the biggest couch in the world. Even if they wouldn't be touching, she felt like she would still be too close to Sunburst. After all, she was only using his house as a way to escape the cold, and while they may have been friends when they were younger, she had kind of abandoned him one day simply out of neglect.
“Or, if standing is more your cup of tea, I suppose that works too,” Sunburst said with a smile, “I just thought you would be tired after coming all the way out here.”
Starlight stopped biting her lip and gave an awkward, “ah, ha... yeah. I guess I am.” Moving slowly to sit down as carefully as possible, Starlight scooched onto the couch, staring intently at her cocoa.
“Snowfall,” Sunburst said quietly, “You seem like you're overthinking things again. What's going on?”
Starlight couldn't help but feel indignant, “Again?” she asked in a huff.
Sunburst simply smiled, “Come on, Snowy. It has been a while since I've seen you, but don't think I just forgot everything about you just like that,” he looked into the fire, “You aren't the kind of filly I could forget if I tried.”
Starlight didn't know how to feel about that, so instead of answering, she followed Sunburst's example and looked into the fire.
“I just hope you know that you aren't a bother to me, Snowfall. I'm glad you decided to visit, even if you just felt like you needed to.”
“Well, about that...” Starlight hesitated, “I was wondering... You don't happen to know anything new about magic since the last time I saw you, do you?”
Sunburst looked down into his cocoa, “Uh, well... I suppose I'll have to disappoint you there, Snowfall. It's kind of been a while since I studied magic like I used to.”
Starlight bit the inside of her lip again, "Oh, uh... That's all right. I just figured I'd ask, at least."
For a few moments, only the sound of the roaring fire and the wind outside filled the room.
Sunburst took a sip of his cocoa, then asked, "So... what have you been up to, Snowfall?"
Starlight scratched the back of her neck with her free hoof, "Well, you know, same old, same old..." She laughed nervously, "Learning magic, other stuff, you know... the usual."
Sunburst smiled, "You haven't changed much, then, have you?"
Starlight blushed in embarrassment, "I... suppose not, no."
"Well, that's okay," Sunburst said, and then changed his voice to a deeper, yet humorous tone, "I just thought, 'who knows what the great Snowfall Frost has accomplished since you last saw her? How much farther has she gotten to making Equestria a better place?'"
"Heh, yeah..." Starlight looked away, embarrassed, "I haven't done too much recently."
"Well, at the very least, you got out of your comfort zone and came to see me," Sunburst shrugged, adding, "On Hearth's Warming Eve, no less."
"It kind of just worked out that way," Starlight said, "No offense to you, but I don't think I would have even considered coming here without the storm. You were just the only pony that came to mind that lives around here where I could take shelter."
"You could have gone to an inn or something," Sunburst said, "But you came here instead."
Starlight blushed, not answering. She couldn't really tell Sunburst why she had decided to come here. It was too embarrassing! It's not as if he would actually have... feelings for her or anythi--
Starlight blinked in surprise, finding herself back in Twilight's castle, "Wha-What? What's going on here? This was definitely not here yesterday. Why am I still reading this like nothing's wrong?"
Starlight furrowed her eyebrows and blushed at the idea that Sunburst would have feelings for her. For her! Sunburst was just a good friend. Besides, there was no way that he could see anything in her, not after she went out and enslaved a village's worth of people and tried to change time, almost destroying Equestria.
There was just no way that was possible.
Looking back down at the book, though, she realized that maybe she was getting overexcited about this. Sure, maybe it might have been a bad idea to imagine Sunburst in the place of Lightburst in the story, but it's not like this was actually her doing these things. This was Snowfall Frost. Any possible feelings Snowfall could have for Lightburst were unrelated to her and Sunburst.
Right?
No, of course she was right. This story wasn't really about her. She was just imagnining it that way.
Starlight took a deep breath and felt herself slip back into the candle-lit room that was Sunburst's house. Replaying earlier thoughts in her mind, she realized that she was blushing again. It's not as if Sunburst had any feelings for her...
Sunburst sipped his cocoa, “'...and no comment from the mysterious Snowfall Frost!'” he teased.
“Well... If you must know...” Starlight felt herself say the word hesitantly, uncertain, “I... I thought: 'you never know what kind of ponies will be at taverns or inns! Someone might swindle you, or steal your money, or... take your wallet?'”
Sunburst stared at Starlight, “You do realize that those are basically all the same thing, right?”
Starlight huffed in exasperation, “Okay, fine! I wanted to see you again!”
Immediately, she put her free hoof over her mouth in half-shock at what she had just said.
Looking away quickly, Starlight turned her head away from Sunburst in embarrassment. How awkward could she get?
“Um... thanks, Snowy,” Sunburst tilted his head in concern, “Is there something wrong?”
“No, nothing's wrong, of course!” Starlight said in a hurry, “It's not like I'm the worst friend ever who just used my closest foalhood friend to learn magic, and then just abandon him without saying goodbye when I felt like I didn't have any more to learn from him! It's not like I have no idea what to do with my life now that I'm out of school and working in the real world! It's not like I want to go back and do things over so that I don't turn into some nopony who hates being around everypony else!”
Collapsing in sudden emotion over the arm of the couch, Starlight realized that she was suddenly crying. Sunburst quickly jumped up from his seat, levitating his cocoa away, to see what was going on.
“Snowfall, are you...” Sunburst looked down and saw that in her sudden bout of emotion, Starlight had dropped her practically full cup of cocoa all of the floor. Sighing, he levitated the cup away with his own and ignored the stain on the carpet. Putting a foreleg around her shoulders, he lowered his head to Starlight's eye level and said, “Snowfall, it's okay. You seem to think that I hate you or something like that. I want you to know that I still think very highly of you as a pony, and as a friend.”
“But I... I abandoned you!” Starlight tried to gain control of herself, “I only used you selfishly!”
“From an ice-cold eye, that's what all friendships are like: ponies trying to get some sort of reward out of the ponies they're friends with,” Sunburst lightly massaged Starlight's neck in a gesture of comfort, “But friendship is a two way thing, Snowfall. I enjoyed spending time with you when we were younger. Don't think that your sudden dissapearance would make it any less meaningful to me.”
With a sudden shiver, Starlight realized how cold she felt without her cocoa in hoof anymore. Sunburst felt her shiver and asked, “Are you cold?”
“N-no, of c-course not,” Starlight stammered out. Suddenly straightening up into a normal sitting position, she took a few deep breaths to calm herself down again, “I just... let my emotions get the better of me,” she said with a calculated expression, “I'm fine now.”
As if whoever had planned the storm outside wanted to prove her wrong, a cold draft suddenly washed over her whole body, making her teeth chatter involuntarily.
Sunburst shook his head and sighed, “Well, Snowy, you're as evasive as ever. I'll get you a blanket.”
As Sunburst trotted away for a moment, Starlight stammered out, “N-No! I t-told you I-I'm n-not c-cold!”
“Maybe you don't want to be cold,” Sunburst said, levitating a quilted blanket beside him, “But I can see the truth, Snowy. If you're going to be staying here for a little while, I'm not gonna let you freeze to death in here.”
Shivering as Sunburst wrapped the blanket around her, Starlight considered resisting some more. Honestly, though, it was tiring to try and act so tough all the time. And acting tough had an annoying side effect of keeping you cold.
Looking down at the blanket which had been carefully wrapped around her, she felt the cold frost start to dissipate from out of her bones. It was quite comforting, she supposed...
“Thank you, Sunburst,” Starlight said, then realized her mistake, “Um, I mean, Lightburst!”
Sunburst tilted his head in a curious expression, “Sunburst? That name's not so bad,” He chuckled as he sat down again, “It makes me feel like a student of Celestia or something!”
Starlight simply nodded, yawning in the process. This blanket was doing wonders for her. All her worries seemed to just be fading away...
“I think you should have a name to match, though,” Sunburst smiled, “If you're going to call me Sunburst, then you have to have something similar. How about...”
“Starlight?” Starlight leaned back into the couch and closed her eyes.
“Starlight?” Sunburst paused, “Sure, why not, Starry?”
Starlight smiled and felt herself slipping away. The blanket, Sunburst's voice, the fire... it all came together to make a very relaxing setting.
As Starlight started to breath more deeply and slowly, Sunburst moved in closer to see if she was still awake. Starlight, almost unconsciously, moved her head to rest on Sunburst's shoulder. Sunburst felt slight shock at how quickly Starlight seemed to be going back and forth between emotions, but... he had to admit, it didn't feel bad.
Resting his head on top of hers, the tips of the two ponies' tails touched each other, before they wrapped around each other, almost on their own. Sunburst moved his forehoof around Starlight, massaging her lightly, saying, “Happy Hearth's Warming, Starlight.”
Starlight could almost feel herself purring before she finally drifted off to sleep.
“Starlight...” a voice said quietly, “Staaaarliiight... You all right, Starlight?”
Groggily opening her eyes, Starlight moved her head around slowly, waking up. Sitting up and blinking, she asked, “Where'd the blanket go?”
“What?” Twilight asked, “What are you talking about?”
Starlight turned to Twilight and stared at her exhaustedly for a few seconds. Suddenly, reality came crashing into her mind as she sat up completely and shook her head.
“Oh, hi Twilight!” Starlight said nervously, “I must have... dozed off a bit there.”
“Well, that's all right, Starlight,” Twilight smiled, “It looks like you were at least enjoying a good book before you fell asleep. What were you reading?”
Starlight got off the couch and stood up, stretching slightly, “Uh, well, I think I was reading A Hearth's Warming Tail, but it seemed a lot... different then I remember from yesterday.”
Twilight suddenly looked around abashedly, “Oh! Well...” she blushed, “I... kind of like to leave out the more... romancey stuff out for the first time. It certainly is adorable to read about Snowfall Frost's love story with Lightburst, but it isn't completely necessary to understand the moral.”
“Wait, so I'm not crazy?” Starlight gawked in wonder, “You changed the book as you read it to me yesterday?”
Twilight blushed again, “...maybe a little... and skipped a part where the Spirit of Hearth's Warming Present shows Snowfall what's going on in Lightburst's life that year... And changed the ending... just a little bit...”
Starlight stared at Twilight, jaw open in shock.
Twilight looked at Starlight, “What? Spike was there the whole time! Do you think I was going to read it like the original with him around?”
Starlight blinked in confusion, “But I thought he said that it was his favorite Hearth's Warming story?”
“It is,” Twilight said quickly, then added, “Well, the way I always tell it to him, anyways...”
Starlight shook her head and smiled, “I didn't realize you were so sneaky, Twilight. I'm starting to feel like I have a chance of becoming a better pony if you pull this kind of stuff on Spike of all people!”
“Hey, you wouldn't read it like that to a little foal, would you?” Twilight asked increduously.
Starlight smiled sneakily, “I wouldn't before, but I feel like Spike needs to know how the real story goes...”
“Starlight!” Twilight gasped in shock, “You can't tell him! Please! As his parental figure, I don't want him to get confused with such things before he's old enough.”
“Doesn't seem to have a problem with Rarity,” Starlight pointed out.
“This is... This is different!” Twilight huffed, “This is... This is from a book! A book, Starlight! He can't know that there are books like that yet!”
Starlight gave a sigh and smiled, “Fine. But as long as I'm around Ponyville, I'm gonna bug you about it every Hearth's Warming Eve from now on!” Levitating the book next to her, Starlight added, “Oh, and now I'm really interested in how the rest of the story goes, so I'll be taking this in the meantime!”
And with that, Starlight galloped out the door, practically giggling to herself. Twilight ran to the door and yelled down the hall, “But I just finished reorganizing everything!”