Chapter 26 - Heart's Warming Night
Hearth's Warming Night
Dusk Shine and Spike walked through the streets of Ponyville. Throughout the town, there was the festive spirit of the holidays. Hearth’s Warming Eve, one of the most important celebrations in Equestria, had all the ponies of the town decorated their houses with various garlands, bells and flags. All harmonizing perfectly with the winter snow that had fallen and that generated a beautiful postcard-perfect image throughout the town.
This year, Dusk and Spike had promised to spend the holidays with Pinkie Pie and her family. Something that the pink pony had planned months ago, asking not only Dusk, but all her friends, to spend the festivities together. However, for some reason, all of Dusk's friends canceled at the last minute, deciding to spend the holidays with their respective families. With Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash out of town, the only one who didn't need to travel out of town was Applejack, whose family lived in Ponyville. But even though Pinkie Pie invited the entire Apple family to her family's rock farm, Applejack decided to stay in Ponyville.
'We spent the holidays with Pinkie's family a year ago and… well… they’re quite a special bunch when it comes to celebrating Heart’s Warming Eve.' Dusk remembered what Applejack had told him when she apologized for not going. 'Besides… there's another reason why I can't go.' She had added almost in a whisper just before saying goodbye to Dusk.
“Is there a reason to cancel the trip at the last minute?” Dusk thought curiously as he walked and remembered what happened that morning. “Besides, why did Applejack have that nervous smile? Pinkie's family can't be that weird, can they?” Dusk imagined Pinkie Pie's sisters as happy and crazy as his quirky marefriend.
Finally, Dusk and Spike arrived at Sugarcube Corner. There, Dusk had a hard time opening the door for some reason. Upon entering, Dusk saw that what was blocking the door were hundreds of small colored stones. In fact, they weren't just at the door, the entire main hall of the bakery was filled with thousands of stones of different colors!
"What is all this?" Dusk asked, looking confused at all those colored stones.
"Dusk!?" Pinkie Pie said suddenly, raising her head from a pile of colored stones. Dusk looked carefully and saw that Pinkie had big dark circles under her eyes, as if she hadn't slept all night.
"Pinkie, are you okay?" Dusk asked with worry.
"Yeah! It's just… Yaaawwn… I stayed up all night making rock candy necklaces.” Pinkie replied with a big yawn.
"Rock candy?" Spike asked, picking up one of the small colored stones, sniffing at it, then popping it into his mouth. "Mmm! They’re sweet!"
"It's a recipe that Maud invented with a special kind of rock." Pinkie Pie said. She joined several rocks of different colors with a thread, to make a necklace, passing it to Dusk. “Maud and I have a tradition of giving each other rock candy necklaces whenever we see each other. But this year, I wanted it to be perfect, because this year will be the best ever!” Pinkie Pie cheered with a big smile.
“Your sister came up with this?” Dusk looked at the rock candy necklace carefully, while glancing sideways at Spike. Who had begun to devour with pleasure all the sweet rocks that he saw next to him. “I had never heard of rock candy. It’s awesome."
"Yeah, Maud is the best!" Pinkie Pie said, very excited. "I love all my sisters so much, but Maud is super-duper special!" Her eyes twinkling at the memory of her beloved older sister. “She's funny and talkative like me, she would get along great with all my friends! She likes fashion like Rarity; she reads a lot of books like you; she loves pets like Fluttershy; she’s a great cook like Applejack; and she loves to joke around just like Rainbow Dash."
"Wow... she sounds like the perfect mare." Dusk said with a nervous smile, thinking that his marefriend must be overreacting.
“That's why I've spent the whole night making rock candy. I really, REALLY, want this trip to be perfect.” Pinkie Pie said, passing a hoof over her tired eyes, which looked like they would close at any second. "Besides, I've been so excited to know that you're going to meet my family that I haven't been able to sleep all night."
"Huh... Pinkie... You know it's daylight already, right?" Dusk asked, raising an eyebrow. “Did you even pack your suitcase? The train leaves in less than an hour.”
Pinkie Pie gave a confused look and remained silent for a few seconds, as if she had a hard time understanding what Dusk had told her. Until suddenly she gave a great leap and a startled cry.
“IS IT DAY ALREADY!?” Pinkie Pie yelled in fright, running to her room to pack her suitcase, leaving only a trail of dust, and her worried coltfriend.
"Will she be okay?" Dusk muttered with concern and looked at the clock. As square and organized as ever, he was nervous about being late for the train. "She didn't sleep all night... Maybe I should help her pack."
"Nah, it's Pinkie Pie. She'll be back in just a few seconds with everything ready.” Spike replied. Who kept enjoying rock candy. "Mmm! They're not like gems, but they're definitely my second favorite food now." Spike added, savoring a necklace of red rock candy.
While Dusk and Spike talked in the main hall, Pinkie Pie hurried to quickly pack her suitcase. With only the essentials.
“Balloons, streamers, cupcakes, party cannon… Ready!” Pinkie Pie said, finishing packing her suitcase in record time. So she sat down for a second on her suitcase to rest. Sitting up, Pinkie Pie's head began to slowly droop, as her eyes closed.
"No!" The mare announced and slapped herself awake. Then she shook her head and put on a very serious look. "Everything must be perfect."
"Luckily, the other girls will be far away, so I'll be able to be alone with Dusk, now is my time to give my all as his marefriend!" Pinkie Pie thought. She remembered that her plan was already in action, and that the board was set. Now it was up to her to achieve her goal. "And most importantly, I managed to convince Dusk to give me a Pinkie-Promise that I choose instead of a gift. And I know very well what I want him to promise."
Dusk, Pinkie, and Spike arrived to board the train just in time. Once inside, they proceeded to the first car, where they placed their bags and then sat down. As soon as Pinkie Pie settled her flanks on the seat cushion, she immediately fell asleep. That was a clear indication for Dusk that his marefriend was indeed still very tired, after not sleeping all night.
Unfortunately, she barely managed to sleep for a few seconds. The train whistle blew, announcing its departure, and the pink pony jumped at the sharp sound.
“Oops! I almost fell asleep before the surprise, hehe.” Pinkie Pie said with a big smile. Even with tremendous dark circles under her eyes.
In that instant, Pinkie raised her head high and began to look around one by one at all the ponies that were there. The train car was almost full, since many ponies were traveling for the holidays.
"Hmm... I don't see her..." Pinkie Pie whispered nervously. After checking for the third time that ‘whom she was looking for’ was not in that car. "I think I'll go find the other cars."
"What are you going to look for?" Dusk asked.
"It's a surprise! Yaawwn… ” Pinkie Pie said with a loud yawn.
“Dusk couldn’t help be worry. “Pinkie, you really should take a few hours to sleep.”
“Don’t worry, I'll be fine. I’m the most energetic pony in all of Equestria!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed and did a high jump and somersault down the hall, to show that she still had energy to spare. Then she approached the colt and gave him a little kiss. "Wait for me here, I'll be back soon with the biggest surprise you can imagine!" The mare gave him a wink and hopped into the next car.
Once Pinkie Pie left, Dusk dropped into his seat and sighed. He adored the mare’s love for making others smile. He just wished that she didn’t do it at the expense of her health.
"I wonder if the entire Pie family will be like her..." Dusk said, thinking aloud. He remembered that Pinkie had told him that she had grown up on a rock farm. He imagined a crazy farm full of slides and fireworks. With dozens of ponies identical to Pinkie Pie. Her entire family smiling and joking as they worked on the funniest rock farm on the planet.
"I can imagine..." Spike said. The dragon imagined the same thing as Dusk, only instead of a dozen Pinkies, there were hundreds of Pinkies, and then thousands. All jumping up and down and yelling 'Fun!' as they lunged at Spike. Then the baby dragon shuddered at the thought of such a thing. "I think ONE Pinkie Pie is enough."
After laughing at his little brother's comment, Dusk looked thoughtful and began to imagine more seriously what Pinkie Pie's family should be like.
"The truth is that I don't know much about her family… But the one she always talks about a lot is her sister, Maud." Dusk thought, remembering how excited Pinkie Pie was that morning, and all the virtues she mentioned that her older sister had. "Funny, intellectual, likes fashion and cooking, good with animals… She can't be that perfect." Dusk thought, imagining a mare that had the best of her dear friends.
In Dusk's mind, the image of his five friends spun and they mixed in a whirlwind, until the mix of all of them finally appeared, a mare that Dusk could consider almost perfect and that had a bit of all his friends... a mare that once met, called Golden Feather.
It had been a long time since Dusk had remembered the friendly pegasus with white fur and blonde mane, that she had shared with him one afternoon when Cadance visited Ponyville. A beautiful mare that he had realized had a lot in common with his friends, and with whom he might have fallen in love, if his heart hadn't already been occupied by other mares. A mare that Dusk never thought about how much she resembled his teacher. Something obvious, since without Dusk knowing it, Golden Feather had been none other than Celestia herself in disguise.
With the image of the white pegasus in his mind, Dusk kept remembering his image for a long time. However, although for him, that mare was closer to what he could consider as an almost perfect mare, his heart was still unable to look at her with the same eyes that he looked at his other friends.
“You better stop looking at her!” Said the image of Rainbow Dash in Dusk's imagination, appearing suddenly from behind the image of Golden Feather.
Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Luna, Applejack and Rarity also appeared. And among the six mares, they rushed to push Golden Feather from Dusk's imaginary space until they got her out of his mind.
“We are already in your heart, don't even think about falling in love again!” The six annoyed mares shouted in Dusk's imagination. Something that made the lavender stallion close his eyes and smile.
"Heh! I already know that..." Dusk smiled, while the cloud of his imagination disappeared. Dusk suddenly opened his eyes in surprise when he realized something. "Did I also imagine Luna?" Dusk thought. Realizing that when he imagined the mares that were in his heart, he had imagined not only her five friends from Ponyville, but also the clumsy, but tender, Princess of the Night. "I… I shouldn't imagine Princess Luna! I can’t complicate things more!"
Finally, Dusk was distracted from his thoughts when the driver's carriage door opened. From there, a mare with gray fur and smooth violet mane appeared. She wore a bluish gray full body dress with a black belt. But what caught Dusk's attention the most was the cold and emotionless look she showed. The same look that kept looking at Dusk intensely, and that had made the lavender unicorn look at her uneasily.
That mare remained standing in the corridor in front of Dusk's seat, staring at him with an emotionless gaze for several seconds. While Dusk couldn't help but look away when he felt uncomfortable because of how much that mare stared at him, without saying a single word.
"C-can I help you?" Dusk finally said, with a nervous smile. Maybe the mare was mute, since she continued without saying anything.
For several seconds, the mare remained silent and blinked very slowly.
"Hey." That mare finally said. With a voice just as impassive as her gaze.
"H-Hi..." Dusk replied to the strange mare.
Once again, an awkward silence hung in the air after the mare didn't continue the conversation. Instead, she kept looking at Dusk.
Finally, the gray mare moved slowly and sat next to Dusk, to his complete surprise. Then he glanced at Spike sitting in front of him, and the baby dragon simply shrugged.
“I was in the engine room, looking at the coal they use on the train.” The gray mare said suddenly, always maintaining the equanimity of her voice and gaze. “Most of the coal they use here is sub-bituminous lignite. It would be better if they used more anthracite in the boiler.”
After that information came out of nowhere, an uncomfortable silence filled the air again... Why would someone start a conversation talking about types of coal? Was the mare trying to be friendly? Or was she just thinking out loud? It was something Dusk wasn't sure about.
"Uh... Yeah... T-That’s…interesting..." Dusk finally stuttered, thinking that maybe he should give that mare the benefit of the doubt, and that maybe she was just clumsy at starting a conversation.
The strange mare took out a small rock and placed it on the seat in front of her, which was next to Spike.
"Uh... That seat is taken." Dusk said, confused by the mare's action with Pinkie’s seat.
"I know... He's just reserving the seat." The gray mare responded, looking at Dusk. Then she turned slowly to face the stone and pointed her hoof at it. "Stand still there and be obedient."
Spike raised his head in confusion and looked carefully at the small stone. Maybe he had seen wrong and that wasn’t a rock, but some small animal. But was definitely a rock. That made Dusk shiver a little, realizing that he was sitting next to a crazy mare who was talking to the rocks.
“Next year I’ll finish my 'rocktorate' in rock science.” The mare said suddenly, again pulling a new topic of conversation out of nowhere.
“Oh…! Uhm… I… I am a librarian in Ponyville.” Dusk tried to banter back.
"Yes, I know. You’ve lived in the Ponyville Library for a little over a year.” The gray mare answered with a cold stare. "I know everything about you."
"She's not just crazy… She's a stalker!!" Dusk thought in terror. The fear of this mare kidnapping him and tying him up in a basement began to grow. Dusk subtly scooched away from the mare and continued to give her a nervous smile He didn’t want to offend the mare and make her pull out a weapon of sorts.
As if the mare had read Dusk's mind, she slowly bent down and opened the suitcase she had brought with her, looking for something.
"Do you want some?" The mare finally asked. Taking a small bag out of her bag, which she opened and brought Dusk closer.
The colt carefully approached the bag, slowly put his hoof in, and was surprised to see that it was just a bag of rocks. Then Dusk looked up in confusion, while the mare also took out one of the rocks and put it in her mouth.
“It’s a rock snack.” The gray mare said and noisily chewed on the crunchy rocks.
"Oh… I see. They're like Pinkie Pie's rock candy." Dusk finally understood with relief.
"Can I have one?!" Spike asked and jumped to get some rocks out of the back.
Both Dusk and Spike put a rock in their mouths and bit down. As soon as Dusk did, his teeth almost broke, while he almost spit out the rock. Those rocks weren't like Pinkie Pie's candy rocks at all. In fact, he wasn't even sure if it was edible since the rock tasted almost the same as a real rock.
Despite the hardness of the rock, Spike's strong teeth finished grinding it and swallowed it easily. It was impossible for the lavender pony to break that rock with his teeth, and he simply put on a goofy smile while the crazy mare looked at him attentively, calmly eating her rock snacks.
"What's that over there?!" Dusk pointed towards the other end of the train.
The strange gray mare turned slowly towards where Dusk had pointed, which gave the lavender stallion enough time to spit out the hard rock and throw it back out of the wagon.
"Ouch!" A colt yelled from behind the wagon, to whom Dusk's snack rock fell.
As soon as the gray mare turned around again to continue looking at Dusk, he kept smiling, rubbing his stomach as if he were satisfied.
"Mmm! Delicious, hehe.” Dusk smiled nervously, pretending to have eaten the snack rock.
For several seconds, the gray mare simply stared at Dusk in silence. While he just kept trying to play it cool.
"Do you want more?" The gray mare asked. Offering Dusk snack rocks again.
“I… I would love to, hehe. B-But..." Dusk stuttered, thinking of various excuses to reject the offer without offending that mare. Then Dusk looked askance at the boulder sitting on Pinkie's seat, and an idea finally occurred to him. Dusk approached the small rock and spoke to it, just as that crazy gray mare had done. “You wouldn't want me to eat another snack rock, would you? I mean, you’re a rock, and that... would be like cannibalism, hehehe... hehe..." Dusk laughed nervously, feeling silly talking to a rock, but thinking that at least he wouldn't make the crazy mare angry.
The mare simply stared at Dusk, without smiling or showing any expression on her face from his attempt at a joke.
"I-I think I'd better eat a fruit." Dusk said with an awkward smile, scratching his head, realizing that the gray mare was not thankful for his joke.
Dusk opened his travel bag and took out a juicy apple from Sweet Apple Acres. All while the gray mare kept watching him at all times.
"You prefer fruits..." The gray mare said suddenly, just when Dusk had opened his mouth to eat the apple. “Did you know that fruits are the developed and mature ovaries of plants?”
An uncomfortable silence remained in the air, in which Dusk stood frozen with his mouth open, unable to bite the apple. Then he looked at the apple, and the only thing he could think of was the word 'mature ovaries'. Thus, he slowly lowered the apple, looking at it strangely, and put it back in his saddlebag. There goes his appetite.
After that awkward moment, Dusk decided not to pay any more attention to the gray mare. So he stuck as close as possible to the window and stared at the landscape while the train continued on its way. However, from time to time, Dusk looked askance at the reflection in the window. Noticing that despite remaining silent, and that he was clearly trying to avoid her, the gray mare kept sitting next to him, staring at him.
"Do you want me to read you a poem? In my free time, I write my own poetry." She said suddenly.
"Uh... I... I guess so..." Dusk said with a nervous smile. This was easily the most uncomfortable ride he'd ever had in his life.
The gray mare cleared her throat, looked at Dusk, and began to recite her poem.
"Rock. You are a rock. Gray. You are gray. Like a rock. Which you are. Rock." The gray mare recited monotonously.
When she finished, Dusk gave a confused look and opened his mouth to speak. He wasn't sure if that could be called poetry. Dusk knew that taste in poetry was very subjective, but what was clear was that if it was a poem, it was the most boring poem he had ever heard. But of course, that was something that a gentlecolt like Dusk couldn't say, so despite opening his mouth, he wasn't able to speak, and he only gave a confused look.
"I see you're speechless." The gray mare said, misunderstanding Dusk's confused look out of astonishment. "I have written thousands. The next one is about rocks… They’re all about rocks.”
For the next hour, Dusk forced himself to listen to dozens of poems, and, as the gray mare said, all about rocks. All the poems were about the color, hardness or type of rock, all equally monotonous, all equally boring. As much as Dusk wanted to stop listening to those poems, it became impossible for him to tell that mare that he no longer wanted to hear her poetry. Dusk wasn’t capable of hurting her feelings, and with Spike asleep, and he trapped between the window and the gray mare. Thus, Dusk remained with a dull look, listening to each slow phrase of that mare, feeling that his brain was slowly shutting down upon hearing such boring and emotionless phrases.
Finally, Dusk's brain seemed to wake up again when the train whistle was heard, announcing that they were arriving at the next station, which was the stop for Dusk, Spike, and Pinkie Pie.
"Wait… Where's Pinkie Pie!?" Dusk thought, still somewhat stunned. So dizzy had he been listening all the way to the monotonous poetry of the gray mare, that he had lost track of time and completely forgot that his marefriend had disappeared since the train started on its way.
“S-Sorry, I have to go. This is my stop.” Dusk said quickly, glad to finally get off that train and get away from the mare. "Come on Spike." Dusk added, getting up from his seat and quickly taking Spike, who was still sleeping, to quickly get off the train.
While Dusk took Spike and his saddle bag, the gray mare simply stared at him attentively. Just as it had been throughout the entire trip.
"Phew! Finally, I’m free!" Dusk said with a big smile. Once he managed to get out of the train and onto the ground of the station. "If I listened to one more rock poem, my brain was going to turn into a rock." Dusk said, taking a big sigh.
Dusk looked around him and his smile slowly began to fade. As if fate wanted to make fun of him, Dusk realized that ironically that entire station was completely made of rocks. From the floor to the same signs that were there.
In addition to the fact that everything there was made of rocks, Dusk realized that that train station was quite rustic. It seemed that it wasn't a very popular station, since apart from Dusk and Spike, no other pony was coming out of the train.
"Where's Pinkie Pie?" The colt got nervous when he saw the train was about to leave without the pink mare leaving.
"Sorry." A monotonous voice suddenly said behind Dusk. A voice that made Dusk shudder.
Turning around almost in a jump from fright, Dusk saw that the gray mare that had harassed him throughout the trip was now behind him. It seemed that this was her stop.
“You… Are you really a stalker!?” Dusk slowly backed away from the mare with growing fear outweighing his chivalry.
The train whistle blew again, and it slowly started to run, continuing on its route.
“No… Wait!” Dusk yelled, seeing that someone very important was missing by his side. "Pinkie Pie! Pinkie Pie!” Dusk yelled, starting to run next to the train as it advanced.
Dusk suddenly stopped when from the last carriage, a postpony leaned out of a window. He lifted a huge mail bag with great effort, and threw it from his window, falling right on the edge of the station,in the area designated for mail. Dusk had to brake suddenly to avoid colliding with the postal bag, and when he looked up, he saw that the train had already accelerated enough to completely leave the station.
"It can't be..." Dusk said in panic, looking back and seeing that only he, Spike, and more worryingly... the crazy mare were at the station! "What do I do now!?"
Dusk was suddenly distracted and looked down when he heard a snore coming from the postal bag. Then he slowly opened the huge bag and saw that inside it was his marefriend sleeping peacefully on the mail.
"Pinkie Pie?" Dusk said, with a mixture of astonishment and surprise.
“Hmm? Yaawwn… What a nice nap. Just what I needed." Pinkie Pie woke up and stretched out her limbs.
“Pinkie… What are you doing asleep in the postal bag!?” Dusk asked, very confused.
"Say what…? Oh! It's true!" Pinkie Pie replied, looking down in surprise, at the letters that had served as a mattress. “I was looking for Maud on the train, until I got to the last car. I looked in the postal bag, and… well, I think I was so tired, I fell asleep, hehe.” Pinkie Pie laughed, a little embarrassed.
“Maud? Were you looking for your sister?" Dusk asked.
"Yes, she-" Pinkie Pie managed to say, until her gaze diverted to see who was behind Dusk. Then she jumped up with a huge smile. "There you are!!" she yelled and ran past her coltfriend.
Turning around, Dusk widened his eyes in shock to see that Pinkie Pie was hugging the strange and crazy stalker gray mare.
"Pinkie Pie! Be careful!" Dusk yelled and ran to the pair. "That... That mare..." He said, looking at the gray mare with concern, not knowing how to warn Pinkie Pie that that mare was crazy, without offending the gray mare in front of her.
"This is my sister Maud!" Pinkie Pie said with a huge smile while hugging the gray mare. "I wanted to surprise you that she was travelling with us."
"Oh, now I see. You..." Dusk answered automatically before his brain finally caught up with this body. "She... She is your sister?"
"Yep!" Pinkie replied, followed by a long silence, in which Dusk froze, staring at the smiling Pinkie Pie, and then at the gray mare, who kept her gaze without any emotion.
"Your sister?" Dusk repeated, as if those words couldn’t enter his mind.
"Yeppers!" Pinkie Pie repeated again. Followed by another long silence. One in which Dusk tried to make his mind understand what Pinkie Pie was saying to him, but seeing that those two mares were as different as night and day, it was impossible for his mind to understand.
"Pinkie… She… She can't be Maud." Dusk managed to babble out.
"Of course she is!" Pinkie Pie confirmed for the third time.
"Your sister... Maud?" Dusk asked again, fighting his disbelief. “Your perfect sister Maud!?”
"Yepperoni!" Pinkie Pie repeated, still smiling.
For the fifth time, Dusk was going to ask the same thing, but this time Spike hastened to put a claw in his brother's mouth to shut him up. “Dusk. She IS Pinkie's sister." Spike repeated this time. So that Dusk would finally assimilate the truth.
Maintaining a face of utter confusion. Dusk looked at the gray mare one last time, swallowed, and then looked at Pinkie Pie. One was a gray, cold-eyed and emotionless, and probably the dullest mare he had ever met. The other was a pink with vibrant eyes and a big smile, who was always laughing and talking to more than she could.
“B-But….It's impossible for her to be your sister!! You’re complete opposites!” Dusk yelled almost hysterically.
"What are you talking about? We’re like two drops of water!” Pinkie Pie smiled, bringing her face closer to her sister's. Who for her part, kept looking at Dusk with a look without emotion.
In Dusk's mind, the image of the perfect mare that Pinkie Pie had described shattered like glass, seeing that Pinkie Pie's idea of perfection was that crazy and boring gray mare. It was then that Dusk, in his nervousness and confusion, remembered all the virtues that Pinkie Pie had said about her sister Maud before the trip. “You… You said that your sister was just as funny and talkative as you are.”
"She is!" Pinkie replied, looking at her sister. “Didn't you chat on the train? We were supposed to have bought seats together.”
“I did chat with him… In fact, I spent the entire trip trying to chat with him.” Maud responded slowly, looking at Dusk. "But it seems like he didn't really feel like chatting with me."
At that moment, Dusk opened his mouth to say that this was not true. However, only then did he realize that although Maud spoke slowly and with long silences; it was always she who sought to strike up a conversation with him. "Y-You said that she liked fashion..."
"Well, yeah, she makes her own dresses." Pinkie Pie replied, pointing her hoof at Maud's dress.
Dusk opened his mouth again to reply. For in his opinion, and probably in that of any fashion specialist, such as Rarity, Maud's dress was too simple and drab to be considered 'taste in fashion'. "You…You said she liked pets, like Fluttershy."
"Yeah, she always carries him with her." Pinkie Pie replied. Then Maud took from her pocket the same small rock that she had put on Pinkie Pie's seat on the train.
“His name is 'Boulder'.” Maud added, showing the little pet rock on her hoof.
"That rock is her pet!? Can a rock be a pet!?" Dusk thought incredulously.
"Y-You said your sister liked to read!" Dusk said, getting a little desperate. Thinking that a mare that read a lot would have many topics of conversation. Contrary to what Maud really was.
"I love reading about rocks... I always read about rocks..." Maud replied monotonously. An answer that left Dusk stunned, since in effect she fulfilled the premise of being someone who read a lot, but who in their right mind would only read about rocks!?
"You said she was a great cook..." Dusk said, with a weaker voice. Realizing that everything he said, was returned against him.
"She is! Remember I told you that she invented the rock candy recipe." Pinkie Pie took the opportunity to put several rock candy necklaces around her sister's neck.
“Personally, I prefer my rock snacks. Since I'm not as much a fan of candy as Pinkie Pie." Maud added, pulling out her little snack bag and eating another one of her 'extra crunchy' snacks.
“You said that your sister liked to joke around! And she never joked or smiled the entire trip!” Dusk yelled desperatel, using his last letter to make Pinkie realize that it wasn't his mistake that he couldn't recognize Maud.
“Hmm… Now that's weird. She has always liked my jokes.” Pinkie Pie said, looking at her sister in confusion.
"Dusk made a joke about not eating my rock snacks, because 'Boulder' could get scared by doing cannibalism." Maud said nonchalantly. "That seemed funny to me."
"Hahaha! You see? She did find it funny!” Pinkie Pie laughed, looking at Dusk and pointing her hoof at Maud's face.
Dusk narrowed his eyes to better see Maud's face. But no matter how hard he tried, there was no change in Maud's cold expression.
"After his joke, I told him my fruit joke." Maud added, looking at Pinkie and then at Dusk. "But he didn't laugh and started ignoring me."
"Uh!?" Dusk said, remembering that indeed that happened, but it was due to a misunderstanding. "I... I didn't know that was a joke!"
“It wasn't just with the joke. He tried to ignore me during the whole trip, although I tried to chat with him.” Maud said, looking at Pinkie Pie.
"That... That's not..." Dusk said nervously. Was he really that rude to Maud?
“He also lied to me when he pretended to eat my rock snacks. I saw by the reflection in the window that he spat it out and threw it away." Maud added, speaking to Pinkie but looking at Dusk at all times. "I just wanted to be nice, and he ignored me and lied to me."
"I-It's just a misunderstanding!" Dusk stuttered. "I didn't know you were Pinkie Pie's sister. I thought you were a crazy pony or something."
Both Pie sisters stared at Dusk in silence. Maud looked at him with an indifferent gaze, and Pinkie Pie gave him with an annoyed look. It was then that Dusk opened his eyes wide and put a hoof in his mouth when he remembered Pinkie Pie's uncle, and that she didn't like the word 'crazy'.
"I recognized you right away because Pinkie Pie always talks about you in her letters." Maud broke the awkward silence. Then she turned around to face Pinkie Pie. "He’s not the kind, chivalrous and sincere stallion that you described to me... I'm sorry, but I can't approve of your coltfriend."
Pinkie Pie opened her mouth in horror, putting on a look of astonishment and fear, unable to say a word. Dusk was shocked to see that Pinkie Pie's older sister told him up front that she didn’t approve of his courtship with Pinkie. Spike kept eating candy rocks he had brought from Ponyville like popcorn, watching drama like it was a soap opera.
"I'll go ahead to the farm." Maud finally said, after a long and uncomfortable silence. She left Pinkie Pie frozen with a terrified face.
After Maud left the station, Dusk slowly approached Pinkie Pie, seeing that his marefriend still didn't react.
"Pinkie… I… I'm sorry." Dusk said with a sad look.
"I... I've never seen Maud so upset." The mare said with worry.
"How can you know if she doesn't even change the expression on her face!?" Dusk yelled in his mind. Getting annoyed with Maud for making their trip unpleasant. But soon that anger turned to guilt. “No… Maud is not to blame. I was the one who didn’t act well with her...”
Although it would have been very easy for Dusk and company to catch up with her, since Maud actually walked quite slowly, even when she was supposed to be in a hurry. However, Dusk couldn't catch up with Maud, since next to him, Pinkie Pie walked even slower than her older sister.
"I ruined everything…" the party mare sulked with a downcast look. "I wanted everything to be perfect, but instead I fell asleep and ruined your first meeting with Maud."
After seeing his marefriend, Dusk focused on Pinkie's mane instead of her sad look, because it had lost its characteristic floofiness, and was completely smooth.
"This is serious, this really depressed her a lot!" Dusk thought and instantly recognized how sometimes Pinkie’s hair reflected her mood.
"It wasn't your fault Pinkie; I ruined everything." Dusk said, remembering everything that happened on the train and how rude he was to Maud. He had been the one who ruined all his marefriend's happy plans, and he had accidentally said ‘crazy’ to the pony that Pinkie Pie most admired in the world. Dozens of ideas that made Dusk's gaze get lost in his own sad thoughts.
"Uh... Dusk, what's up with your mane?" Spike looked curiously at his brother.
"HUh?" Dusk tilted his head at Spike. A movement that made him notice that his eyes were now covered by his mane.
"This..." The colt realized that he had gotten so lost in guilt and depression, that empathetically and unconsciously his mane had had the same effect Pinkie Pie's mane had when she was sad. Then Dusk looked at Pinkie Pie, who kept walking looking at the ground with her sad look. "No! We can’t go on like this!” He said, shaking his head so that his mane would return to normal, and not only that, but also, literally, all the guilt and depression out of his head.
After returning to normal, Dusk stood in front of Pinkie Pie and looked into her eyes firmly.
The colt gave his beloved the best smile that he could muster to the mare. "Pinkie, it's not too late yet. We can still have the best Hearth's Warming Eve we've ever had!” He then sealed the deal by using a hoof to cross his chest and point at his eye. “I Pinkie Promise! Cross my heart, hope to fly. Stick a cupcake in my eye!”
For a couple of seconds, Pinkie Pie seemed not to react when she saw Dusk's eyes. But after a few seconds, seeing her lover's eyes looking at her with such passion and determination made her mane explode with a little Puff! And Pinkie Pie had a sparkle in her eyes again.
"You're right! We can't give up!" Pinkie Pie said, full of determination.
"Good! Now the first thing is to settle things with Maud.” Dusk said and noticed that Maud had gained a bit of distance on them. He then started to hurry to catch up with her, but before even taking a step, he stopped and looked at Pinkie Pie uncertainly. “Maybe I should think of a plan before I go anywhere near Maud again. I don't want to ruin it again… Hmm… What do you think I should do to make her change her opinion of me?”
“I don't think you should do anything. Maud is very sweet and understanding. She’ll forgive you when she knows you better." Pinkie Pie said with a big smile.
At Pinkie Pie's words, Dusk narrowed one eye and gave an insecure look.
"I know that I must believe Pinkie's words. But I doubt that her sister is tender and understanding." Dusk thought, remembering the cold look that Maud Pie had at all times on the train. "I doubt that she can even express any emotion..."
At that moment, Dusk's eyes were distracted to see that Pinkie Pie had led them to a fence, from which a large barren field extended, full of various rocks of different sizes. A small wooden house was in its center, which was next to a small mill and a large metal silo. This was the Pie family's rock farm.
"I wanted you to get along with Maud from the start, because she’s really important to me." Pinkie Pie said with a sad look as they entered the family farm. "But I also wanted her to have someone to talk to while we’re here."
"What are you talking about?" Dusk asked. "Won't your parents and your other sisters be there too?"
"Well, the whole family will be together, but... my parents' relationship with Maud is somewhat tense." Pinkie Pie said sadly. "Mum and Dad never liked the idea of Maud running away from the farm so young."
“She ran away!?” Dusk asked exclaimed.
“Yeah, that's why she only visits us for the holidays. She became independent from a very young age.” Pinkie Pie answered with her head down. “Marble and Limestone also didn’t forgive her for leaving them either. I was upset too, but I know that we’ll always be sisters no matter the distance. That’s why we constantly write letters to each other. But the rest of the family… They barely say a word to Maud at the holidays, and the rest of the year, they never see each other.”
Dusk never imagined that Maud was so problematic, nor that her relationship with her family was so fractured. Now he understood better why it was so important to Pinkie that he get along with her.
“Wow… Maud is only a little older than you. So she left the farm before she was an adult mare.” Dusk said, surprised by Maud's independence. "But then, if she ran away from the farm so young, how did she pay for her rocktorate in rock science?"
"It was thanks to Uncle Fuzzy's inheritance." Pinkie said with a sad little smile at the mention of her late uncle. “The inheritance that he left us helped Maud to become independent. It also helped me move to Ponyville years later. Every month, money comes to us from his inheritance.”
The lavender colt remained silent since he knew that the pink mare’s uncle was a touchy subject. Fortunately for Dusk, he didn't need to change the subject. Since Dusk's, Pinkie's, and Spike's ears suddenly went up when they heard a scream from inside the house. Wasting no time, the three ran to find out what had happened.
Opening the door, Dusk was surprised to see that all of Pinkie Pie's family was there, or at least, he guessed, since apart from Maud, there were two other young mares of Pinkie Pie's age, as well as a stallion and an older mare. Those must be Pinkie Pie's other two sisters and their parents. And in just an instant, all the preconceived ideas that Dusk had of Pinkie Pie's family collapsed.
Instead of happy ponies with crazy manes and colorful fur; these ponies were more like Maud than Pinkie Pie. In fact, even Maud looked more colorful than her other sisters thanks to her dress.
One of the sisters had whitish gray fur and dark gray mane. The only thing of color on her was her cutie mark, which was three lilac-gray stone marbles; and her purple eyes, which had a shy look. Something that reminded Dusk a lot of Fluttershy... She was Marble Pie.
The other mare next to her had a darker, greyish-violet coat. Her mane was light gray in color, and her cutie mark was two light gray rocks and a lemon green color. The same color as her eyes, which held an angry, unfriendly look... She was Limestone Pie.
Finally there was the older couple, who Dusk already knew were called Cloudy Quartz and Igneous Rock, Pinkie Pie's mother and father. A mare with light gray fur and dark gray mane, with light blue eyes, and wore small glasses and an old-fashioned checkered scarf around her neck. And the other was a stallion with brown fur and a gray mane; who also had long sideburns and a large black hat. It was the latter who had the indignant look and, apparently, had been the one who had shouted.
“After a year of silence, and the first thing thou tells thine kin is that you have a coltfriend!?” Pinkie's father yelled angrily.
"Yes." Maud replied monotonously.
"Do not speak to me in that tone!" Igneous yelled furiously. “Why must thou always be so rebellious…!? Who is this stallion? Where do thine know him from? Is he even baptized under the Big Rock!?”
After a long pause, in which Maud seemed to think, she finally spoke.
“His name is Mudbriar… I met him at school… And he is not baptized under the Big Rock.” Maud replied, giving a brief but exact answer to what her father asked.
"Thou can't fall in love just like that." Pinkie's mother said sternly at her eldest daughter. “Tradition has guided this family for generations. You must consult the Pairing Stone. This is how it is decided who we should spend the rest of our lives with, not our simple worldly desires!”
"What’s the pairing stone?" Dusk whispered curiously next to Pinkie. Who along with Spike and Pinkie, seemed like they hadn't been noticed yet, despite going into the house thanks to the big argument that Pinkie's parents had with Maud.
"Oopsie!” Pinkie Pie whispered with a scared look on her face. “It’s a local town tradition. All the singles in town gather where families agree which son or daughter marries whom from another family.”
“Arranged marriages still exist!?” The colt was shocked at the very, very old custom.
At that moment, Dusk looked around and saw that the house didn’t have any luxury or excessive decoration. It was a simple cabin, drab colors and nothing fancy. Only some old tools and a few crystals on the walls, which Dusk guessed, must have illuminated the house at night.
"This house would be Rarity's nightmare..." Dusk thought as he looked at the house that seemed trapped in time. "Everything here should be in a museum."
"Gosh, they're making a scandal about your sister's coltfriend." Spike said, looking at Pinkie Pie and pointing at her parents, who were still arguing with Maud. "Imagine what they'll say when they find out that you and Dusk are-HMMPF!" Spike added, until Pinkie Pie and Dusk rushed to cover his mouth before he said the word 'couple'.
Spike was right. If Pinkie's parents found out that she also had a coltfriend who wasn't of their 'traditions', it would cause quite a disaster. Dusk had already ruined his first meeting with Maud, and now, he had to do everything possible so that at least his meeting with his in-laws wouldn't be ruined either.
"Wait… Maud knows that Pinkie Pie and I are dating!" Dusk panicked in thought. "If she tells them before I do, Pinkie Pie's entire plan to have a big celebration together will be ruined. Maybe I should say something first.”
Dusk kept looking at Maud expectantly while her parents continued to yell at her. However, Maud remained stoic and silent, receiving a reprimand from her parents. Seeing her so calm made Dusk breathe a little easier, seeing that she wasn’t intimidated by the pressure from her parents.
"Maybe we should come back later." Dusk whispered to Pinkie and Spike, taking advantage of the fact that they hadn't been noticed yet, to get out of that awkward discussion without being seen.
Dusk used his magic to slowly and silently open the door behind him. However, he didn't even manage to take a step back, because as soon as he used his magic, Pinkie Pie's entire family fell silent and turned to look at him with huge and terrifying eyes.
“How dare you sully my family home with thine dirty magic!?” Pinkie's father said with great offense.
"I'm sorry! I forgot to tell you!" Pinkie Pie said quickly, rushing to get between her father and Dusk, before they also began to argue with him. "I'm sorry, Dusk, you can't use magic here."
"What? Why?" Dusk asked.
"My parents, like everyone in the village, respect the old ways of earth ponies from the ancient era." Maud said, also approaching Dusk. "Everything here is worked and earned with the sweat of the hooves, not with magic."
At that moment, Dusk opened his eyes in surprise for two reasons. The first was the surprise of knowing that there were still ponies so outdated that they lived with traditions used since before the three tribes united. But that surprise faded to the background, when he saw that it only took him to use his magic for Maud and her parents to completely forget about their heated argument.
"It's not the first time that my parents don't agree with my decisions..." Maud said, guessing what Dusk was thinking. “This always happens when we see each other… It's like a holiday tradition.”
"Hmph!" Pinkie's mother snorted indignantly, looking away in annoyance.
"Our conversation is not over yet." Pinkie's father scolded his eldest daughter, but deciding they should continue their discussion another time.
Finally, Pinkie Pie took advantage of the calm to introduce her family. As Dusk guessed before, Pinkie's parents were very outdated, so much so that they even spoke with outdated jargon. With Pinkie Pie's sisters, Dusk couldn't even hear their voices, since Limestone limited to grunting when Pinkie Pie introduced her, while Marble was so shy that she couldn't even open her mouth, and she just made a little noise of greeting as she hid herself behind her mane.
After the introduction of Pinkie Pie's family, she introduced Dusk and Spike. The brothers used their manners learned in Canterlot to give a little bow and greet in the most courteous way possible. Everything to try to fix the bad first impression that Dusk had left when he entered. Despite the chivalry shown by the colt, for some reason Pinkie's family looked rather puzzled.
"What's wrong?" Pinkie Pie asked, seeing her parents' uncomfortable faces.
"Well, Pinkamena... When thou said you would invite a friend to our humble homestead, we thought that friend would be... a mare." Pinkie's mother mumbled. "It’s not appropriate for an innocent young lady to invite a stallion to thine parents' house."
"Oh! But Dusk is... is... a very, VERY, dear friend." Pinkie Pie responded embarrassedly, looking at Dusk out of the corner of her eye with a sad smile.
"I understand..." Dusk thought when he saw Pinkie Pie's look. "They must not know about us yet." Now, in addition to making a bad first impression, he would be lying to his marefriend's family during all the festivities.
After the initial hubbub and introductions, the Pie family set out to begin the traditions for Hearth's Warming Eve. Something that raised Spike's spirits a lot, since this was one of his favorite holidays, where he loved to eat delicious cinnamon buns next to the fireplace and wait impatiently to open his gift at night.
Unfortunately for Spike, his smile faded by lunch time. Instead of serving the usual cinnamon buns that Dusk's mother always prepared for them, the Pie family's menu consisted of rock soup.
“This… is what you have for Hearth’s Warming?” Dusk said while he cringed at the watery soup with one rock in the middle.
"Yeah, it's tradition." Pinkie Pie smiled and quickly sipped her rock soup, and with difficulty crushing the rock that it had. “Although, to be honest, we have rock soup almost all year round.”
After trying the rock soup and verifying that it was essentially tasteless water, Dusk looked at Spike, wanting to apologize for having such bland traditional food. However, to his surprise, Spike had finished his soup and was happily munching on the rock that was left on his plate.
"Can I get a second helping, please?!" Spike smiled, pushing his plate towards the center of the table. "This rock is not like gems, but it tastes pretty good."
“Heh, I guess you're right. That rock is an edible corundum, rich in chromium. That's why their taste must be similar." Limestone chuckled at Spike’s enthusiasm. Something that surprised Dusk a lot, who had seen her with a frown ever since he saw her. "I'll get you some more." Limestone added, taking Spike's plate.
It turned out that Spike’s ability to eat rocks with ease and recognize subtle differences in flavors made the Pie family very interested in the little baby dragon. Pinkie's sisters and parents began to chat animatedly with Spike, becoming very interested in everything the dragon knew about gems.
Seeing Spike happily sharing with his marefriend's family made Dusk feel very happy for him. When he saw how….conservative Pinkie’s family was, he was admittedly a little worried that they would be be a little cautious of a dragon. He was grateful that the opposite seemed to be true and that his little brother was fitting right in. However, he quickly realized that Pinkie's family only focused on Spike, leaving him out of the conversation entirely. Even in the few times that Dusk tried to join the conversation, using his basic knowledge of rocks, the Pie family simply looked at their plate of food, which Dusk hadn’t been able to finish, and they ignored him again.
Finally, the lavender colt plucked up his courage and ended up completely drinking the tasteless soup, and barely swallowing the rock that almost broke his teeth. Unfortunately, that was useless, since Dusk had barely finished eating, he saw that everyone at the table, except for him, Pinkie and Maud, left the house excitedly to show their star guest, Spike, their next tradition.
After Dusk, Pinkie, and Maud left the house, they saw that the rest of the family and Spike had gathered in front of a huge rock that was in front of the house. There, Marble Pie had finally gotten her voice out, and was animatedly showing Spike a small piece of rock, which was the material for the following lore.
On Hearth's Warming Eve, it was a tradition to leave dolls by the fireplace so that they would know who would get each gift the next day. Those dolls were usually made of cotton and cloth. However, the Pie family had a tradition of carving stone figures.
In silence, Dusk, Spike, and the Pie family began to carve their stone figures. A task that was routine for the entire Pie family, who had been accustomed to carving their dolls since they were little. They managed to make beautiful figures of ponies in stone, which were quite similar to themselves. Even Pinkie Pie, who was less neat than her sisters, managed to carve a stone worthy of a sculptor. As Dusk Shine, he had wasted almost all his time starting with his figure's eyes, making holes in it. Resulting in just an ugly amorphous rock with several attempted holes in it.
"Wow... It turned out really good for your first try!" Marble Pie's voice said, with a cheerful tone.
Hearing that, Dusk turned around smiling, grateful for the compliment. However, his smile disappeared instantly when he saw that it wasn't him they were flattering, but his little brother Spike.
The little dragon had been just as clumsy as Dusk to sculpt his rock figure with the tools he had been given. However, the dragon used his own teeth to shape his stone in such a way that he managed to create a small bipedal figure of stone, which, as Marble Pie said, was something very remarkable for someone who had never carved a stone before.
While Spike smiled proudly after receiving compliments, Marble Pie looked askance at Dusk's doll attempt, and couldn't help but giggle, quickly hiding her face behind her long mane, so that Dusk wouldn't see her laugh. She didn’t achieve this in time, since Dusk clearly saw how she and Limestone made fun of his stone sculpture.
"If only I could use magic, I could do something better..." Dusk thought, red with embarrassment. His jealousy only grew when Pinkie’s seemingly stern parents went up to congratulate the young drake for his efforts.
“Tis be a wonderous figure worthy of standing alongside 'Holder's Boulder'.” Pinkie Pie's father said, looking satisfied at the Spike figurine.
"What’s Holder's Boulder?" Spike asked.
"This, my dear drake, is Holder's Boulder." Igneous replied, touching his hoof to the huge oval rock in front of which his stone figurines had been carved. “Our great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, Holder Cobblestone, found this boulder in a dragon's nest, older than time itself! He built the family farm around it, and it has stood here, bringing luck to our family since time immemorial.”
"Who knows, maybe you'll bring us luck too, little guy." Limestone smirked and affectionately patted Spike on the head.
After receiving Limestone's affection, Spike smiled and looked excitedly at the huge Holder's Boulder.
"Wow... This came from a dragon's nest..." Spike whispered in astonishment.
For some reason, imagining a dragon's nest made Spike wonder something he'd wondered since he was little, but almost never wondered anymore.
"My egg… How did it get to Canterlot…? What was my real family like?" Spike thought, putting on a sad look. "Dusk is my family and always will be, but... sometimes I forget that I'm really a dragon." Spike thought, putting the sadness aside, but still keeping a reflective look.
After Spike mentioned 'dragon's nest' and made a sad look, Pinkie's family looked worriedly at Spike. Then they turned and looked at Dusk with angry looks.
"What's with those faces…!? I didn't steal Spike from a dragon nest!!" Dusk thought hysterically, understanding from the looks, perfectly what Pinkie Pie's parents and sisters must be thinking.
At that moment, Maud also walked over to Holder's Boulder to place her perfect little stone figure there. As soon as Limestone and Marble saw their older sister approaching, they both looked away indignantly and backed away from Maud. Something to which Maud seemed not to care.
"Pinkie said that her sisters hadn't forgiven Maud for leaving the farm, but how much longer can they resent her?" Dusk thought worried, empathizing with Maud seeing that she, like him, seemed not to be entirely welcome on that farm. He also realized that the Pie family seemed rock hard when making decisions, and that if he failed to sympathize with Pinkie's family, he might suffer the same fate Maud suffered, being treated with indifference.
Finally the next tradition arrived: opening the presents. Something that again went against the tradition of most Equestria ponies, who opened their gifts the next day. However, this time neither Dusk nor Spike found it completely strange, since they, along with their family, also had that tradition of opening gifts earlier. Ever since Spike was a baby, he could never stand waiting all night to open his presents.
"I'll go get Spike's present." Dusk whispered to Pinkie Pie so that his little brother wouldn't hear. Though the keen ear of the dragon did catch a glimpse of his brother mentioning the word 'gift', and he was immediately excited.
"I brought presents too!" Spike said excitedly, turning around to go find the gifts they brought in their suitcases.
"Oh, don’t worry about that." Pinkie Pie said, smiling and stopping them both. “First we have to find the hidden gifts!”
"What?" The pair asked.
It was then that Pinkie Pie explained another Pie family tradition of finding gifts that they hid away. That filled little Spike with impatience, who was only eager to open his gift soon and find out if Dusk had bought him the Power Ponies comics that he wanted so much. However, Dusk finally managed to convince his little brother that it would be more exciting to search and find their gifts by surprise, just like the Pie family did.
"They can be hiding anywhere on the farm, so you can search anywhere!" Pinkie Pie said with a big smile., happy that her coltfriend wanted to join her family's tradition.
Dusk, Spike, and the Pie family began looking for their gifts throughout the rock farm. From the plow field, where the rocks were dragged to enrich them with minerals; to the quarry next to Holder's Boulder, which was where most of the farm's rocks were mined.
Fortunately for Dusk and Pinkie Pie, it was Pie tradition for the whole family to search for gifts together. So Pinkie Pie took the opportunity to try to make her family see all of Dusk's virtues, especially Maud, who must still have had a bad first impression of her coltfriend.
"Do you know why Dusk is the coolest pony in Equestria?" Pinkie Pie said as they all walked around the farm. "Do ya!? Do ya!?" Pinkie Pie yelled excitedly in her sisters’ faces.
"Who’s Dusk Shine?" Marble Pie asked in confusion while Pinkie Pie had her face glued to hers.
"HIM, silly!" Pinkie Pie pointed at the lavender colt.
"They don't even remember my name..." Dusk thought, red with shame.
"We don't know, Pinkie... Why is Dusk Shine so special?" Maud entertained her sister’s question.
"Well, I'll tell you!" Pinkie Pie responded excitedly. "Dusk Shine is super cute, he's kind, he likes to read, he's funny, he saved Equestria like a dozen times, he's good at magic, he likes cakes, he always thinks of his friends, he's friends with a zebra, he smells good, he can say ten tongue twisters in a minute, he’s very innocent, he makes funny faces when embarrassed…"
The minutes passed and Pinkie Pie didn’t stop naming even the most insignificant of the things that she liked about Dusk. That made the colt blush at first. However, as time went by, his shame began to give way to concern when he saw that his marefriend wouldn't stop talking. And after almost an hour since they had started looking for the gifts, Dusk saw the faces of Pinkie's family, who began to make angry faces after Pinkie Pie didn't stop talking about him. In her efforts to improve his reputation, Pinkie’s family seemed to only get more annoyed by Dusk’s presence.
"...he has good dental hygiene, when he coughs, he covers his mouth, he likes to see the stars..." Pinkie Pie continued with her speech, until Limestone finally exploded.
"Stop talking about that Dusk Shine guy!" She yelled, looking annoyed at her pink sister and growling at Dusk. Who for his part, hit his face with his hoof out of shame.
“Oops! Looks like my plan didn't work out." Pinkie Pie whispered to Dusk, hot understanding why her sister had yelled at her.
"I found one!" Spike suddenly exclaimed.
They all turned to see Spike, who had apparently tripped over a small rock sticking out of the ground. The drake dug quickly and everyone could see that what was buried wasn’t a rock, but a small gift package with a pink bow. Spike was excited to find his first gift and quickly tore the wrapper. There he saw that inside a box there was a rock with googly eyes attached to it.
"This is my present?" Spike asked, disappointed and confused.
"Oh! That must be mine!" Pinkie Pie said excitedly, taking the boulder with googly eyes and smiling excitedly at Maud. "You remembered! You remembered that ten years ago I wanted this rock with googly eyes.” Pinkie cheered and hugged her gray sister.
"Yes." Maud replied in a dull tone.
"Wow... It's kind that you remembered a present that Pinkie Pie wanted when she was a filly." Dusk complimented the mare.
"Actually, I had forgotten." Maud said without emotion. "I hid that gift ten years ago."
"What?" Dusk asked, looking around and seeing that no one had a gift after searching for over an hour. Only then was it that Dusk understood. “Are you telling me that you all hide your gifts… and sometimes you never find them!?”
"Yes... It's more fun that way." Maud replied, not even smiling.
“By the way, daughters, it’s already getting dark. I think it's time to go home." Pinkie's dad said. “A very pleasant gift hunt this year.”
After the words of the family patriarch, his wife and daughters accompanied him to start his way back home. While Dusk and Spike were paralyzed, unable to believe that this was the way to 'give gifts' in the Pie family.
After returning to the house, Dusk and Spike were surprised to see that Pinkie Pie's parents were taking Dusk and Spike's suitcases out of the house.
"W-What's going on?" Dusk asked with concern.
"Sorry... My parents say it's better if you sleep in the barn, there's more room." Pinkie Pie said with an embarrassed blush.
"I-I see..." Dusk said with a resigned sigh, then looking at Pinkie Pie with a small smile. "I'll do it in order to improve my image in front of your parents!"
Pinkie Pie stared at Dusk carefully, her cheeks blushing. She was just so gosh darn lucky to have a coltfriend who kept smiling at her despite having a bad day. She looked everywhere, to make sure that no one was watching, and then she gave Dusk a quick but intense kiss.
"Thank you." Pinkie Pie blushed with a big smile. "I promise I'll make it up to you!" It was a very cute gesture that couldn’t help but give Dusk a big, dopey smile.
"Ahem!" Spike coughed for Dusk and Pinkie to come out of their reverie, since Pinkie's parents were coming back. The pair separated quickly and looked in opposite directions, so as not to raise suspicions about their relationship.
It being late at night, they all dined together at the traditional Hearth's Warming Eve dinner. Which was of course, rock soup.
After dinner, Pinkie’s sisters went quietly to their room, a room with two cabins, where the four Pie sisters slept. For her part, Pinkie called for Spike to come with her to give him some candy rocks she had brought with her, so the baby dragon would have some extra snacks. Finally, Dusk stayed at the table for a while longer, since he couldn't eat the rock soup so quickly, both because of its tasteless taste and because of biting into the hard, edible rock. Still, he strove to finish his rock, even though his teeth ached. All so that his in-laws could see that he too was capable of being part of that family.
After finally finishing his dinner, Dusk got up, thanked Pinkie's parents for dinner, and prepared to leave the house to go to the barn to sleep. As he walked, he realized that Pinkie Pie's parents followed him.
“Uh… I know where the barn is. You don't need to escort me." Dusk said with a nervous smile, seeing that Pinkie's parents were following him closely.
“Thou are our guest. We will ensure you arrive at thine bed safely." Igneous said with a serious look.
"Besides, a mother of four mares canst be too careful." Cloudy Quartz added, looking suspiciously at Dusk.
“Oh! So that’s what this is about...They think I'll escape to their daughters' room..." Dusk thought, realizing that they weren't really watching that nothing happens to him, but that HE wasn't a danger to the 'purity' of their daughters.
The three fianlly arrived at the silo used as a barn. It was a tall but not very wide structure, in which there was a hayloft on one side where the bed was; and the other side kept various old rocks and trinkets.
Pinkie Pie's parents showed Dusk his bed. They didn’t continue accompanying Dusk into the barn, but they stared at him from the door, waiting for him to lie down on his bed.
Resigned to Pinkie's parents thinking that he was some kind of pervert, Dusk sighed and walked slowly to the haystack where his bed was. Sitting down on the bed, he tiredly rested his head on his hoof. He opened his eyes with surprise when he thought he heard a small murmur next to him. Dusk looked to his side and saw that the sheet that was on his bed was somewhat bulging, so he slowly lifted it up. To his surprise, he saw two big cerulean eyes, looking at him carefully... It was Pinkie Pie!
"Is something wrong?" Pinkie's father asked, noticing that Dusk had put on a surprised look. Then he and his wife walked towards Dusk's bed.
“N-NOPE! No problem here!" Dusk yelled, quickly opening the sheets to lie down so they wouldn't see that Pinkie Pie was there.
"If they see Pinkie Pie here… THEY’LL KILL ME!" Dusk yelled terrified in his mind.
Listening to her parents' hoofsteps, Pinkie Pie hugged Dusk's body tightly under the sheet, so the bed wouldn't look so bulky.
"Tell them Spike is asleep." Pinkie Pie whispered, also scared to hear her parents approaching.
“E-Everything is fine. I-It's just that Spike was already sleeping here, and... and I was surprised, hehe..." Dusk said, holding the sheets tightly over his body so that no one would take them off. He was sweating like hell, both from the heat of Pinkie's body and from the nerves he felt at that moment.
As they got closer, Pinkie's parents saw that Dusk was completely lying down, with a small bundle next to him. For a second they thought about uncovering Dusk to find out about his sudden suspicious attitude. However, they both felt sorry to wake up the little dragon that they had liked so much. Then they both turned around and started to leave the barn.
Reaching the barn door, Igneous turned off an ancient lamp that illuminated the barn, leaving everything in near darkness. The only light to be seen was the light of the starry night that showed through the barn door.
"Good night." Pinkie Pie's parents said in unison, leaving the barn and closing the door behind them. The barn in complete darkness. A darkness so thick that Dusk couldn't even see his own nose.
"Phew… That was close!" Dusk thought, relieved, but still afraid to speak, since Pinkie's parents may still hear him. "Now I have to think of a way to get Pinkie Pie out without her parents-" Dusk thought, until he heard several padlocks closing behind the barn door. “They padlocked the barn!? How much do they mistrust me!?”
After hearing the locks close, Dusk froze as he listened to the hoofsteps of Pinkie Pie's parents walking away, araid to make any movement or noise that might give him away.
"Pinkie... I think they’re gone." Dusk whispered in the darkness. A long silence followed Dusk's words. One where Pinkie Pie didn't even move. She simply hugged the colt, listening to the rapid and agitated beating of her coltfriend's heart, while in her mind she began to make certain decisions. Decisions that had led her to risk disobeying her parents and ending up in a secret embrace with her coltfriend.
"Pinkie?" Dusk said, confused at not hearing a response from the mare.
Suddenly Pinkie Pie settled in better, raising her body a little more to get closer to Dusk's face. Lying completely on her coltfriend's body.
Dusk was taken by surprise again when he felt his marefriend's sweet lips in the dark.
"Hearth's Warming night." Said the sweet and tender voice of Pinkie Pie in the dark.
End of chapter 26
As always, many thanks to 'Scribe of the Nightwings' for his great help 
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So where is Spike slepping then?
That bucking picture of Pinkie under the sheets with the most innocent pair of eyes ever, yo!
Dang it mate, you made me even more sad that Spike never interacted with the Pie family in any way in the show.
Great chapter! Having the Pie family both being distrustful of both Dusk & Maud while having that "Innocent" scene with Dusk & Pinkie can lead to some trouble & A LOT shenanigans.
...If Spike comes back to this community when he's a teenager, he's going to be so popular with the mares.
11629267
good question, we'll have to wait for the next chapter to find out
11629271
I'm glad you liked it
11629297
yeah, it would have been entertaining if Spike shared a little more in the show, even if it was with Maud
11629572
soon we'll find out what problems this prank will bring with it 
I'm glad you liked the chapter
thanks for comment
11629808
haha I guess that's a great possibility
I was laughing the whole chapter, it was just great.
Maud, Spike's interaction with Pinkie's parents and Pinkie's got out of bed I think we know what that means right big SNU SNU?
and apparently dusk doesn't want to accept his feelings for luna, poor luna that could cause problems
11629271
The only thing that could make it worse were a pair of Maud's eyes peaking from the nearby haystack. I won't make it pass her to spy on her younger sister's date. Although author might think that joke was too much to pack into the already-comedy-packed comic.
11630315
I'm glad you liked the chapter
about Pinkie and Dusk, who knows what will happen that night
And about Luna, she'll soon have more appearances, and we'll see if Dusk manages to realize her feelings
thanks for comment
11631054
I will believe! Come on, girls. Don't give up!!
Let's open the morning they don't bring the pitchforks and torches
Oh my, your writing is hilarious as ever
I don't think I even stopped laughing (maybe except when poor Dusk suffers, it seems he's always being through all kinds of trouble
well, that's the cost of falling in love with six(seven) mares!)
And Pinkie SO cunning! Can't wait for what happened afterwards
Pretty sure Limestone was stated to be the oldest somewhere.
11632671
haha I didn't find anything about it
really? I don't remember
11632417
I'm glad you liked the chapter
Thank you very much for commenting
My thoughts:
- Neat! It’s a holiday chapter! And Dusk will be meeting Pinkie’s family.
- Oh! We get a Mud Briar reference. That’s interesting.
- Where’s Gummy? It’s something I just realized after reading this chapter.
- Dusk forced to sleep in a barn reminds me of when he first met the Apple family.
- Whoa! Pinkie wanting to snuggle with Dusk while in bed. This will be a Hearth’s Warming Dusk will not forget.
This chapter is also great! Keep up the great work!
11633133
I just checked the wiki and yep, the writer of the episode did say that Limestone is the oldest.
I would link to the tweet in question but Twitter's having a Twitter Moment.
11632417
* eight you forgot cadence
11633594
Oh Dusk's childish love
11633249
I'm glad you liked the chapter
and thanks for commenting
11633365
... well, we'll say that in this universe that changed 
haha since it's only a small change 
Personally, I always thought that Maud was the eldest because of her more mature attitude and also for being more independent
oh, it was something I didn't know
Pinkie seems to have trouble communicating and working with another pony. Makes sense given that she plans parties from start to finish by herself all the time. And she’s definitely pushing that boundary in the barn! Woo~!
***
Dear Princess Celestia,
Today I learned all about sisters and the benefits of barns.
-Dusk Shine
***
Celestia: I’m going to need you to start giving me more context, Dusk.
Cadence: Sweet Celestia! Is that colt at it again!?
11637944
yeah, I know that Gilda appeared in the first season, but for now we'll have to wait and see if she comes out
11643231
All the letters from Dusk to Celestia have been funny
Thanks for those mini stories haha
Oh no I caught up
Let's hope nobody finds out what Pinkie is doing.
11663795
very soon more chapters
11670335
Ahh had not thought of that. Thanks!