Hearth's Warming is Merry in Our Town

by Sketcha-Holic

Cookies and Reunions

The cold, snowy day in the little village nestled near the Crystal Mountains was in stark contrast of the inside of Sugar Belle's home. The heat created by the ovens made her kitchen feel like a summer day, and the sweet aroma wafted around with the warm air. The clanging of utensils and dishes moving about created a strange sort of melody, especially under the teal aura of the pink unicorn's magic. Sugar Belle was entranced in a little dance of her own, humming along with the music she made as she mixed ingredients, set them into pans or cookie sheets, and shoved them into the oven, taking out a freshly baked cake or batch of cookies in the process.

Once such batch of cookies couldn't have been done without certain contributions from her closest friends. The cookies themselves were in the shapes of the members of the families of Double Diamond, Party Favor, and Night Glider, who had provided references by way of their family photos. So, she had found herself carving the faces of ski enthusiasts, magically talented unicorns, and skilled flyers, one of which was a Wonderbolt!

And then there was the cookie of her; just her, no family to be found. Not a mother, for she was deceased; not a sibling, for Sugar Belle was an only child; and not a father, because...

Her brow furrowed, and she set the cookies aside. Everypony in town knew that she was not fond of her father, though they were a little scarce on the details. There was more chance of her forgiving Starlight Glimmer for the whole "equality" thing than there was of her forgiving that pony known as Herb for pushing her into despair, enough for Sugar Belle to wind up in the cult in the first place. While she was thankful for meeting the ponies that she considered true friends, she wished her foalhood could have been better.

She heard a knocking at the door, and after scanning over her goods and supplies to make sure nothing could go wrong while she left the kitchen, she quickly rushed to the door. She opened it to find a light blue stallion, with a bright smile and a twinkle in his eye.

She smiled back at him, and stepped aside to beckon him inside. "What brings you here, Party Favor?"

Party Favor stomped on the porch, and then trotted inside, shaking himself in an attempt to get the cold off his winter coat. Looking up at her, he said, "Oh, I was just here to tell you that the train's coming in soon. Our families are almost here, and I can't wait to catch up over the holidays."

Sugar Belle giggled softly. Hearth's Warming was a holiday that was practically built for families, and what better time of year to invite them over for a little bonding time? It was a time of excitement for the entire town, for not only were the townsfolk going to see their families again after so long, but the town was going to have a grand opening of a ski resort in the mountains. Ever since they got approved for it back in June, they had been working hard to build the resort alongside outsiders that had been sent there specifically to construct it.

The opening was shaping up to be one heck of a party; it was enough for her to wonder if that Cheese guy was going to sense it and show up, hopefully not with a cold this time. Of course, one look at Party Favor told her that the town had it under control. Besides, the Cheese fella most likely had other obligations.

A gust of wind came through the door and gave them the shivers. Closing the door, Party Favor continued, "Anyway, I'm hoping that I'll reconcile with my dad, see if he finally sees me as something other than the dud that's on my forehead." He tapped his horn for emphasis.

Sugar Belle was unsure of how well it'll work out, but she didn't want to put a damper on his hopes. "Oh, I'm sure he'll see just how amazing his son turned out to be."

She lead him to the kitchen, while Party Favor just rolled his eyes and said, "Which son? He's got two of them."

"The one not in jail."

Party Favor stopped and sighed. Looking at the cookie sheet on the counter, he stretched forth his hoof, grabbed the cookie shaped like his brother, and stared at it. "It's been six months since I heard... and I still can't believe it. Silk Shimmer says Mom and Dad are doing okay, but..."

Sugar Belle was pulling out some bags of colored frosting from her fridge. "But what?"

"Oh... I just can't imagine how much guilt they feel, and wonder what they did wrong when raising Kazam. Maybe if I become a father someday, I'd understand." With that, he took a bite out of the Kazam cookie.

Sugar Belle gasped. "Party Favor! Don't eat your brother!"

Party Favor shrugged. "He's not going to be here to eat it himself."

Sugar Belle squirted some frosting on his nose. "I didn't even frost the cookies yet."

Party Favor scraped the frosting off with the remnant of the cookie and ate it. Licking his lips, he said, "Frosting or not, your cookies are delicious!" Kicking at the floor, he asked, "So... do you mind if I help you frost the cookies? It'll go by faster and we could meet our families with Double Diamond and Night Glider on time."

Sugar Belle turned to him with a raised eyebrow and a pout.

Party Favor grinned sheepishly and rubbed his leg. "I promise I won't eat any more of the cookies."

---

When Princess Twilight and her friends had returned home after the town's liberation, they had requested that the railroad be extended to the little village, so that ponies could come and go more easily as they pleased, whether it be for little vacations, commerce, or just moving in or out of town altogether. The project had been started the next spring; by July, the railroad had its extensions, and a train station had been built on the edge of the village. The station had also served as a post office, for them to send letters to any family that might miss them or for any business dealings.

Those letters eventually culminated to most of the townsfolk inviting their families for a Hearth's Warming celebration in conjunction with the ski resort opening. Each of the ponies had each eagerly awaited the arrival of parents and siblings, and some of the families had already arrived. After last year's Hearth's Warming of just the townsfolk, it was nice to see kin again.

With Hearth's Warming a week away, it was now the turn of Mayor Double Diamond, as well as his three closest friends, all bundled up in their hats and scarves, to await the arrival of theirs. As they were waiting, Party Favor had made a pair of "balloonoculars" to spy for the train.

Night Glider tapped her foot impatiently. "Geez, Louise, what's taking so long?"

"Relax, Night, it'll probably be a few more minutes," Double Diamond said. "After all, we can't control the train or anything that delays it."

"Besides, just because they're late doesn't mean your families aren't coming at all," Sugar Belle said.

Night Glider sighed. "I guess. Still, I can't wait to meet the ponies you grew up with, with them being part of all your tragic backstories, mine being that of having my sister being annoying. Seriously, she's got such an ego!" She shook her head. "Especially now that she's a Wonderbolt."

"Psht, don't even get me started on my brothers," Double Diamond said. "I wonder if Black Diamond has stopped being so gloomy, or if Blue Square has stopped babbling long words that I can't understand!" He rubbed his chin. "For that matter... I wonder if my sister has earned her cutie mark yet."

Party Favor glanced away from his balloonoculars and said, "My brother tried to fuse me with the cat, the end."

The other three laughed at that statement, with Night Glider adding, "Gee, sounds like we almost had Kitty Favor!"

Party Favor gave them a goofy smile and replied, "Meow."

Sugar Belle giggled. "Oh, dear, I hope not! Poor me is allergic to cats!" She and the others laughed some more, while Party Favor just rolled his eyes and giggled along. After the chuckles died down, Sugar Belle said, "Of course, you also have a sister."

"Well, yeah, Silk Shimmer was nice to me; she just had a social life, that's all." Party Favor went back to watching for the train.

Night Glider approached Sugar Belle and slung a hoof over her shoulder. "So, what about you, Sugar Belle? You got any of those baker friends from Fillydelphia coming? Or a cousin? Or do you have a secret sibling that you never mentioned for some reason?" She scratched her chin and remarked, "You know, now that I think of it, you look like you could be Starlight Glimmer's sister."

Double Diamond blinked and gave her a funny look. "Uhh..."

Sugar Belle raised an eyebrow. "We're not related."

Suddenly, Party Favor exclaimed, "Hey, there's the train!"

The other three turned to where Party Favor was facing, and sure enough, the chugging of the train was sounding out, growing louder and louder as the train came into view and came ever closer. There was a blow of the whistle, and the chugging slowed in frequency. The sharp screech of the wheels on the rails made the group all cringe, and they continued to do so until the train had stopped. The train let out some steam, and then, after a few long moments, the doors of the cars opened. The four watched the windows, seeing the figures inside the train stroll through their respective cars and walk to the doors.

A tall and muscled stallion with a snow white coat and a pale green beard was the first to emerge from the door in front of the group. The scent of pine trees was strong on his purple flannel shirt, and he wore a stocking cap that matched the shirt. The large stallion took a deep whiff of the air and sighed blissfully. He looked down at the group, and his eyes were fixed on Double Diamond.

While the other three gaped at him, Double Diamond grinned. "Dad, you made it!"

The large stallion gave a deep, throaty laugh, and wrapped Double Diamond in a bear hug. "It's good to see you, son!"

Party Favor blinked. "That's Double Diamond's dad?"

"He's huge!" Night Glider exclaimed.

Sugar Belle still watched the crushing hug take place. "He was big in the picture... but it's different seeing him in real life!"

A blue mare with a short, black-and-blue streaked mane hopped out next. Chuckling at the two white stallions hugging, she said, "Looks like we're in the right town! I was afraid we took a wrong turn. Now, Powder Snow, don't suffocate him, I don't want him dead when we just barely got here."

Powder Snow and Double Diamond broke the hug, and the former rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry, Alta, I just haven't seen him in a long time."

Double Diamond smiled at the mare. "Heeeey, Mom! Lookin' good!"

Alta hugged him, and she felt her son pat her back. "Oh, little buddy, I'm so happy to see you! Goodness, you've gotten stronger."

The hug was broken, and Double Diamond was beaming. "It's just like... wow, I can't believe it's been so long since I've seen you. Letters just aren't enough, huh? So... where are the others?"

Powder Snow and Alta stepped aside, and a dark-haired, grayish-blue stallion that looked barely younger than Double Diamond, a bespectacled teenage colt of varying shades of blue, and a buck-toothed, preteen filly that was the same color as her father's beard all marched out. When she saw her oldest brother, the filly gasped and started to bounce in place, squealing, "Double Diamond! Double Diamond! Double Diamond!"

Double Diamond sat and spread his front legs out, allowing the filly to jump on him and give him a tight squeeze. "Green Circle? Is that really you? Wow, you've gotten so big!"

Green Circle hopped off him, and proudly stated, "I know. I even got my cutie mark." She turned and proudly showed off the mark on her flank, which was a wreath made of leaves and white flowers. "I got it when I was helping make Hearth's Warming wreaths for some of the neighbors."

"Awesoooome." Double Diamond gave her a hoof bump. He looked up at his brothers. "Black Diamond, Blue Square, what's been going on with you?"

Blowing at the hair covering half his face and pulling his green beanie down, Black Diamond replied in a dark tone, "Got trapped in the mine last week." His brown eyes narrowed. "I had to eat rocks to survive, wondering if I would live or die in the darkness."

Double Diamond stood up, and gave him a half-lidded look. "You were only trapped in there for fifteen minutes, weren't you?"

Before Black Diamond could answer, Blue Square interrupted him with, "It was ten minutes, actually! The rock farmers Black Diamond works for have a muscle mass and potent earth pony magic that allows them to pulverize solid stone within a minuscule amount of time, taking about 4.5 seconds to demolish a large boulder with a thickness of four feet. It took several minutes for his co-workers to find his bosses in order to drill through 16.75 feet of the caved in rock in under a minute, the time lag due to them being as careful as they could be to not crush Black Diamond or get themselves injured."

All ponies in the area blinked. Double Diamond scratched his head, and said, "Uh... that's a little more than I needed to know, Blue."

Blue Square shrugged. "Hey, just saying that it was less time than you guessed. Now..." He turned to Double Diamond's friends. "Care to introduce your compatriots?"

"Oh, right!" Double Diamond gestured to his friends. "These three are Sugar Belle, Night Glider, and Party Favor."

Party Favor grinned and waved. "Hi!" Next thing he knew, he was caught in a magical aura and carried off. "Oh, uh, bye!"

They watched as he was being levitated to a pair of white unicorn mares, the one doing the levitating wearing a dark suit and top hat, and having her blue-and-lavender mane in a large braid. The other one had her raven hair in ringlets, and wore a cloak of a fine fabric. Both wore eyeshadow (purple and blue respectively) and rosy cheeks, and they were giving the curly-haired stallion loving looks.

"This looks like the right guy, right, Mom?" the one in the top hat said.

When Party Favor was face to face with the mares, his face broke into a smile as his gasped. "Mama! Silk Shimmer!" He was levitated forward for a hug with the mares. The trio embraced each other for a several moments, drinking the moment in and not wanting to let each other go.

Silk Shimmer set him down and broke the hug, and stepped back as her mother, Merry Maykin, cradled Party Favor's face in her hooves. "Oh, my sweet baby! It's been so long since I've seen your beautiful smile and your bright eyes. My, my, have you gotten taller?"

"Mm-hm," Party Favor replied. He broke out of his mother's grip. "So, where's Dad?"

That was when a blue unicorn stallion came out levitating some suitcases. "All right, ladies, I got the luggage." He stopped when he saw Party Favor, and said in a cool tone, "Oh... hello, Party Favor."

Party Favor looked at him in the same manner. "Hello, Dad."

Things were silent for a few moments, until Merry cleared her throat. "Quasar Rune... would you like to meet our son's friends?"

Quasar looked at his wife, and then his son. "It's only proper that he introduces them to us."

Party Favor nodded, and lead them back to the group, where he told his friends the names of his family members.

Once introductions to the Rune family were done, a group of pegasi flew over them, and landed right next to Night Glider. The trio consisted of a blue stallion with a mustache and teal mane under a cap, a white mare with a mane of hot pink, silver, and dark blue, and a teal mare with snow white hair, wearing purple sunglasses.

Night Glider glanced at them. "Aaaand here's my family. My dad Wingspan, my mom Star Catcher, and my sister... Fleetfoot."

Fleetfoot stepped forward. "So, I hear Night Glider's been hanging out here for the past few years. Not the place I'd expect you to hide after what happened, and I hear this place has a bit of a sketchy past."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, don't remind me," Night Glider said.

Star Catcher rubbed Night Glider's back and said in a soft voice, "Now, now, let's put that behind us. I hear you're building a new life here, sweetheart."

"And you've got yourself a bunch of neat companions!" Wingspan said. "We've got a bunch of unicorns and earth ponies, I see, and quite a good-looking bunch, I see. Let's hear your names!"

One by one, each of the ponies said their names. From Double Diamond's massive father to his newly-marked sister, and from the austere Quasar Rune to the more happy-looking Party Favor, and finally to Sugar Belle, the only pony of the original group of four that did not have any family member show up and introduced.

Party Favor frowned when he heard the train whistle and the locomotive roll out of the station. Looking at Sugar Belle, he asked, "Uh... Sugar Belle? Were you waiting for anypony?"

"Oh, just your families with you guys."

"Wait... you mean you didn't invite anypony from your old life to meet us?" Double Diamond asked.

Sugar Belle shook her head.

"Uh... don't you have anypony?" Night Glider asked.

Sugar Belle thought for a moment. "Well... I'm not exactly friends with my old friends anymore, my mom and grandparents are dead, and my father... ugh, why would I invite him?"

The entire group of three families stared at her, the only sound heard being the train chugging further and further away. Sugar Belle grinned sheepishly at them, silently wishing in vain that they would just drop the subject and get back to being excited about their own families.

Finally, Party Favor asked, "Then... who are you going to spend Hearth's Warming with?"

Author's Note:

Hey, look, another Hearth's Warming fic!

So, I ended up having this idea of Hearth's Warming in Our Town. It takes place before The Cutie Re-Mark, where Starlight Glimmer returns at the end to apologize to them, and they forgive her, though I'm guessing she won't be living with them. That makes one of the lines in this chapter pretty funny.

Nevertheless, let's not get a headache over the timeline I've got here.

So... my headcanon for the families...

Double Diamond
Father: Powder Snow
Mother: Alta
1st Younger Brother: Black Diamond
2nd Younger Brother: Blue Square
Youngest (and only) Sister: Green Circle

Party Favor
Father: Quasar Rune
Mother: Merry Maykin
Older Brother: Kazam Rune (not present because he's in jail... it's a long story covered in Brotherly Bonding Time)
Older Sister: Silk Shimmer

Night Glider
Father: Wingspan
Mother: Star Catcher (yes, that's totally my version of a FIM-ified G3 pony of the same name )
Sister: Fleetfoot (totally accept this headcanon)

Sugar Belle... uh, her father's name is Herb? He be not coming, because well...

Anyway, let's see where this takes us.

Comments

[A Joe in the Bush]

I haven't had the time to read brotherly bonding time yet. Should I wait on this story? (I don't want to wait.)

[Sketcha-Holic]

6693249 No worries, reading Brotherly Bonding Time isn't required. I'm going to try to keep the references to a minimum.

[Jordan179]

Too tired to give you a proper comment here -- I may later on Friday or something -- but I really liked this story, and I like the further development of the families of the Our Town Ponies.

The funny thing is that today I was outlining possible stories for the Moonlight Nights series (my name for stories set in the alternate world where Nightmare Moon won) and one of them is

"Path of the Storm"

When the terrorist group Storm Cell attack Moonlight Castle, Rainbow Dash and the other Shadowbolts must fight to defend their home against a powerful autumn storm!

The membership of Storm Cell?

Storm Front, Cashmere, Echo Fleetfoot, NIght Glider and Night Miner (no relation to Night Glider).

Interesting coincidence, eh?

[scoots2]

D'aawww. SugarFavor. VERY cute. I really need to catch up with Brotherly Bonding Time, but it'll have to wait for the holidays. I have read some of your Party Favor stories, though, so I know who Kazam and Silk Shimmer are and the backstory there.

I caught the Star Catcher thing. Did you come up with the idea that Fleetfoot is Night Glider's sister? I wonder if Night Glider knows about Fleetfoot's embarrassing head-injury induced crush on Big MacIntosh.

1.bp.blogspot.com/-GlZcS1RG59Q/UgBKD94FvgI/AAAAAAABe88/Sso634mO2Vw/s1600/MyLittlePony09-cvrRE-CW.jpg

[SuperPinkBrony12]

This looks interesting, especially the part where we learn Night Glider and Fleetfoot are sisters.

[Jordan179]

Sleeping on it, I think it's going to be essential for you to elucidate in some part of the story just why Sugar Belle does not like her father. Her negative emotion seems pretty strong for someone normally as nice as Sugar Belle, and Ponies would normally have the opposite opinions of their fathers, unless they were very bad fathers indeed.

Stephen King did not like his father: he talks about this in his autobiographical essays and you can see the consequences in several stories he writes in which fathers become insane or evil. His father was a violent and irresponsible drunkard who abandoned his family when Stephen King was just old enough to remember and resent it, and of course said father was no great prize to have around before then. Stephen King never found out what happened to him, either -- presumably, he died before Stephen King became rich and famous, because he never showed up on King's doorstep.

There's more than a little hint in The Cutie Map that Sugar Belle's not all sweetness -- that she has some anger bottled up within. First there's whatever caused her to become desparate enough about her life to go to Our Town in the first place (I like the idea that she had considerable baking talent but little business sense and hence failed at her attempts to make a success of her own cafe back in civilization, though that may have been only part of it). Then, there's the way in which her basement wound up as the meeting place for the dissidents. Finally, she seems to enjoy pelting Starlight Glimmer with snow-cakes entirely too much.

But then she almost has to have a certain intensity to her to have wound up one of the dissident leaders. And I rather like the idea of her being feisty if she's going to be a match for Party Favor, who is (despite his self-doubts) one of the most obviously-Talented Ponies on the show (given what he can do with those balloons).

Sugar and spice, maybe?

[Sketcha-Holic]

6693507 Nah, I'm not the first to use the "Fleetfoot and Night Glider are sisters" thing. I just read a couple of fics where they were, and it ended up getting ingrained into my mind.

[MrAskAPirate]

I totally expected you to throw us for a loop and call Double Diamond's little sister 'Ski-wee' instead,
s6.postimg.org/5pzpmopep/Pirate_Approved2.jpg

[howard035]

A very cute little fic, you're always really good at building families of characters.

I would certainly not mind if this ended up a full-on SugarXFavor holiday romance.

[FanOfMostEverything]

The clanging of utensils and dishes moving about created a strange sort of melody, especially under the teal aura of the pink unicorn's magic. Sugar Belle was entranced in a little dance of her own, humming along with the music she made as she mixed ingredients, set them into pans or cookie sheets, and shoved them into the oven, taking out a freshly baked cake or batch of cookies in the process.

I had this playing as I read this, which made this bit far more hilarious than it should be.

He's a party pony, Sugar Belle. Asking him not to eat sweets is like asking a fish not to swim.

Black Diamond's working for the Pies? Well, not necessarily. They're clearly not the only rock farmers in Equestria. Still, he seems like a potential match for Limestone... though I pity any child of theirs.

Oh. Joy. My least favorite pegasus. With a sister like that, it's no wonder Night Glider joined a cult.

In any case, definitely looking forward to seeing where this goes. The absence of the Romance tag makes me a little sad—you have me convinced that Party Favor and Sugar Belle make an adorable couple—but I'm sure it'll still be a great slice of life.

[rillegas08]

6694629 I think it would've also been clever to call her Bunny Hill.

Sketch, I like what you did for Green Circle's cutie mark. A wreath is still a green circle, after all.

[Jordan179]

When Princess Twilight and her friends had returned home after the town's liberation, they had requested that the railroad be extended to the little village, so that ponies could come and go more easily as they pleased, whether it be for little vacations, commerce, or just moving in or out of town altogether. The project had been started the next spring; by July, the railroad had its extensions, and a train station had been built on the edge of the village. The station had also served as a post office, for them to send letters to any family that might miss them or for any business dealings.

When I did my chronology, I set The Cutie Map in early April YOH 1505, because Our Town is clearly far north of Neigh Yoke -- I decided north even of Kon-Neighda in the Crystal Mountains, just on the safe side of the mountains from the Frozen Wastes -- this was because Starlight Glimmer wanted to put it far from the beaten path, all the scryshields in the world wouldn't do eher any good if every other traveller stumbled across it. Being located so far north, it would naturally be very cold in winter, and early April is the earliest I can see the place being accessible. It's in a dry valley like some of the ones you find in Antarctica; a miserable place for anything save for winter sports in spring through fall, which can be easily found by going up the mountains (they didn't have to go very far up the mountain in the ep to get to snow-choked terrain.

The town may have been even colder and snowier before the Return of the Crystal Empire, whose Crystal Heart is steadily pushing back the Frozen Waste toward the limits it had in the 5th Century, before Sombra betrayed Equestria to the Windigoes in my continuity. (It's a lucky thing in my world that Snowdrop Flakewright Wind was born, but that's another story entirely). The combination in vanilla canon of dry valley and snowy heights just screams "high plains desert," like the Gobi or the drier parts of North Dakota or Washington State.

So if I plug your worldbuilding into my chronology, we get:

Early April 1505 - Twilight Sparkle and her Companions overthrow the warlock Starlight Glimmer and liberate Our Town (The Cutie Map).

Mid April 1505 - Twilight Sparkle and her Companions return to Ponyville and recover from their ordeal; Celestia and Luna teach Twilight Sparkle the strategy and tactics of temporal fighting. Erratic behavior on the part of the Mane Six (Post-Traumatic and "Castle, Sweet Castle")

Mid to Late April 1505 - Twilight Sparkle corresponds with Double Diamond and other leaders of Our Town, makes arrangements to extend the railroad to Our town.

June 1505 - Realm approves extension of railroad to Our Town. Initial work begins; the year will be spent surveying and initially grading the proposed new line.

Summer 1505 - The Sandwich Brothers visit Our Town (Brotherly Bonding Time) If this should actually be in fall, please tell me! At this time, Starlight Glimmer is on the lam, conspiring with various other rebels and amassing the mystic might and erudition to cast a powerful temporal spell.

October 31st 1505 - Starlight Glimmer flakes off numerous variant time lines in attempt to defeat Twilight Sparkle in Time Battle. Twilight talks her into surrendering. (The Cutie Re-Mark).

November 1505 - Starlight Glimmer, as part of her reformation, apologizes to her former followers at Our Town, and is forgiven. She however remains at the Castle of Friendship in Ponyville as Twilight's apprentice and parolee.

Winter 1505-1506 - Starlight Glimmer helps save the Crystal Empire, is reunited with her old friend Sunburst (The Crystalling).

Spring 1506 - Railroad starts driving north toward Our Town; a bridge is built over an intervening river gorge.

July 1506 - Railroad reaches Our Town.

Late December 1506 - Events of Hearth's Warming Is Merry in Our Town.

Am I basically right on this, though you'd probably use a different year-counting system?

[Emperor]

'Mayor' Double Diamond? Well, he's moving up in life, though he was basically Starlight's trusted lieutenant before he turned sides.

Poor Sugar Belle, she just said the words that means nopony else will be leaving her alone throughout the holiday, even as they continue to have family squabbles with one another.

[Godslittleprincess]

It's a little late in the winter but early in the year ro be reading this, but why not?