Things Not Going as Planned Isn’t Always Bad
Everypony and creature knew that pegasus had a reputation of being the most bold and roughed of the 3 pony tribes. And while a stereotype, it was easy to see where it had come from.
PegasI had a mandatory duty to contribute to weather activities. A good example being helping to create the tornadoes to lift water up to Cloudsdale. True, the other ponies contributed to weather control, such as in Winter Wrap Up, but in general pegasus had the obligatory to do most of the heavy lifting when it came to local weather. Making them the only pony tribe with what was basically mandatory civic service.
There was also the long military history of the tribe. Centuries before and after the first Hearth’s Warming and the foundation of Equestria, Cloudsdale was a militaristic city-state. Conceived as a Flying Fortress capable of travelling to repel or invade the enemies of the pegasi whenever they might be; described by its architects as: “The ultimate siege-engine, a siege-citadel”. With some thinking that had Cloudsdale continued expanding as a military citadel, rather than transitioning to a civilian metropolis during the 1000 year peace. The city could have basically “swallowed” King Storm’s entire airship fleet in one of the greatest aerial battles in pony history.
Is also important to remember that most of the traditions of the branches of the Equestrian guards, as well as the Wonderbolts and even the small Equestrian navy; had been borrowed from pegasi military practices that predated Equestria. It could even be said that while earth ponies are agrarians at heart, the same way unicorns are scholars, pegasus are warriors.
Not to mention the inherent dangers of flight itself. From the mortal vertigo-inducing heights, to the ridiculous speeds flight unlocked, to how despite being masters of the weather they could still perish in a violent climate. Although many of these dangers were blown out of proportion by flightless ponies and creatures.
And while a reductive idea of her character, it could be said that Night Glider fit that idea of the bold and roughed pegasus. As her namesake indicated she had a talent for flying at night that matched the abilities of bat-ponies, not to mention her knack for flying in unknown, and rather unexplored places. Night Glider had also become one of the de facto leaders of the village after Starlight’s secret was revealed, making sure things went smoothly for the little town.
However, as Night Glider stood on top of one of the extra snowy rock peaks overlooking the valley and village. She didn’t feel any of that “natural pegasi bravado”.
“You had to go over the top playing the ‘awesome marefriend’, didn’t you Night Glider?” She reprimanded herself while nervously looking down. Feeling vertigo for the first time in her adult life as she couldn’t tell where the peak ended and the flat ground began thanks to the snowy cover.
This was Night Glider’s second date with Double Diamond. The dork had given her the chance to choose what they were going to do, a decent tactic that had worked wonders on their first date. However instead of choosing to do something she wanted, or was good at so she could impress Diamond. Night decided to join him in his love for skiing. And while that had been a thoughtful thing, and could be a memorable date no doubt. Night had to go and lie about her experience in skiing, wanting to follow Diamond’s description of her being an “awesome marefriend”.
To be fair with Night Glider she had put quite a lot of attention to Diamond whenever he started neerding-out about skiing, even way before they started dating. What she had picked up during his rambles would have been enough to perform better than most beginners. The problem was where they would be skiing, as while not an extremely dangerous peak, it also wasn’t the sort of gentle hill beginners like Night Glider belong to, being more in the middle but definitely above her skill level.
“It’s a beautiful view, isn’t it?” Double Diamond asked. His enamourment with the white cover valley distracting him of his marefriend’s nervousness.
Night turned to look at her coltfriend before returning her sight to the snowy valley. Now that Diamond had mentioned it the view was lovely, so much so she could work past her nervousness and the familiarity with the high viewpoint her wings gave her to admire the landscape. It also helped that seeing Diamond’s eyes all stary and full of wonder, like those of a puppy, had distracted Night of her fears.
“Anyway, let me make sure everything is ready and we can be on our way.” Diamond explained as he adjusted his ski goggles, before moving to make sure the hoof binders on his and Night’s skis were properly secured.
Upon hearing that, Night involuntarily swallowed saliva quite loudly, getting the attention of Diamond. “If you are worried about making a fool of yourself, the first time I went skiing I slammed into a tree. You can’t really do much worse than that.” Diamond said, trying to cheer her up, misinterpreting Night’s fear of going down the slope for fear of making herself look bad.
And to his credit it did work. Making Night chuckle as she imagined her coltfriend ramming into the tree in a cartoony fashion. Ending up hugging the tree before being covered in the snow, the impact shook off the branches.
“Besides,” Diamont added as he triple checked her hoof binders. “You have wings, if you lose control or something you can simply fly out of it”.
“G-good point.” Night answered, resisting the urge to facehoof after forgetting that she could use her wings to get out of trouble. She then experimentally raised her legs a bit, trying to get an idea of how much the skis would weigh her down.
As Night got an idea of the skis' weight, Diamond moved towards the edge of the slope. He was about to launch himself down the peak when he remembered something important. “Do you want me to lead or follow you? I’m asking because, you know, ladies first and all that; but you also seem a bit rusty so it might be a good idea for me to be in front in case there's something in the way.”
Night waddell to the edge and next to Diamond. Looking down the slope she didn’t feel as intimidated as before, flapping her wings experimentally. However, while Night didn’t feel as much trepidation as before, now that Diamond had reminded her of the security wings represented; she still knew it was a bad idea to go all in, plus he could probably learn a few things watching Diamond. “Nah, I think I’ll follow you. Think of it as a chance to show me what you can do.”
“Alright then!” Diamond exclaimed, excited for a chance to impress his ‘awesome marefriend’. With a single push of his ski poles he launched himself down the slope, shouting “COWABUNGA!”
Night took a deep breath, flapping her wings one more time to remind herself that they were there in case something happened. With a small smile on her face she followed Diamond, shouting “GERONIMO!” As she pushed herself forwards with the ski poles.
After almost a minute of going down the slope, Night had to admit that she had been over concerned. True there were a few bumps on the way that almost made her lose balance, but other than that she was having a blast; and she wasn’t the only one. Diamond was clearly having fun, as he rapidly zigzagged from one side of the slope to the other.
Diamond straightened his posture and impaled the ski poles on the snow, slowing down to get next to Night’s side. “Dear Celestia! You are rusty.” He shouted, as the air rushing against their faces made it difficult to hear, confusing her lack of experience for a lack of practice.
“G-guilty as charged! That’s why you shouldn't slow down for me.” Night shouted back.
“Very well, see you at the bottom! And remember to use the ski poles to slow down.” He then sped up again, quickly gaining ground over her to continue showing off.
The two continued going down the slope, with Diamond doing a few extra tricks and even some jumps from small snow ramps set along the way. All while Night followed him from behind, keeping her balance and moving as far away from the ramps or anything that related to tricks.
Soon Night could see the end of the slope approached, for a moment she thought she had made it. That wasn’t the case, as after a bit of flat ground there was another, much bigger ramp. Turns out that as an intermediate skill slope, rather than just end in completely flat ground there was a final snow ramp to make a last jump. In theory there was enough flat ground to slow down, if you had experience skiing that is.
Diamond arrived at the ramp with quite a bit of speed, doing some flips in mid air trying to impress his marefriend, who was right behind him panicking. Night tried to slow down, impaling the snow with her ski poles like Diamond had told her; however, it wasn’t enough to come to a complete stop, launching her from the ramp, though at a very dangerous low speed.
Night’s trajectory quickly turned into a dangerous dive. Seeing the ground rapidly approach, she opened her wings trying to use her momentum to do as her namesake and glide out of the dive. For a second it seemed she succeeded, however her trajectory began to overshot, gaining height faster than she expected; it seemed that the real danger of the skis when flying wasn’t their weight, but the extra lift they provided, serving as small extra wings that Night had no control over.
Neither Night Glider or Double Diamond saw each other getting in the way of the other, but they felt it. The two collided in midair, falling and rolling onto the snow in what could only be described as a white and dark blue ball with 8 legs, 2 wings and mismatched ski gear. Their roll finally stopped when they slammed into a tree, the force of the impact shaking the snow off its branches and burying the new couple.
“Ouch!” Diamond groaned as his head emerged from the snow. “Oh no! Night where are you!? Are you alright!?” He called out desperately, trying to find his marefriend.
“I’m here. I think I’m ok.” Night answered as she awkwardly pushed herself out of the snow pile. She was about to walk towards Diamond when a sharp pain shot from her rear left leg and through her body, making her collapse with a yelp of pain. Seeing this, Diamond was about to approach to help her, only to collapse on the floor as a similar pain shot through his body.
The clinic in what some continued to call “Starlight’s Village”, but had recently adopted the name of “Our Town” or “Ourton*” if they wanted to be playful, had grown quite a bit since it was first open. It was no longer a carbon copy of every other building in the village, becoming bigger in size to offer all the emergency services and medical care the villages’ growing small population required. For Double Diamond and Night Glider, that care meant treating a minor fracture in the right rear leg, the case of the earth pony and fractures in the rear left leg and wing of the pegasi.
“You two are very lucky.” Doctor Mare -not to be confused with her Ponyville base twice-removed cousin, Doctor Horse- noted as she helped Night Glider with the wheelchair. “Not only did you avoid getting any sort of concussion; but all your fractures are minor. A bit over two moons and the both of you will be back in action, eh! You don’t even have to stay here at the clinic”.
“Thanks doc,” Diamond said as he continued adjusting his wheelchair. Having rejected the help of the doctor so that she could take care of Night first.
“Here’s the thing,” Doctor Mare added with a sigh. “Miss Night Glider, I know that you were planning to go to Cloudsdale. However in your current condition, neither the trip, or trying to stand in a cloud for that matter, are recommended. I’m afraid you’ll have to stay in town for Hearth’s Warming and New Year.”
The news was devastating for Night, even though she knew that would be the case the moment she saw Doctor Mare bring in 2 wheel chairs, she still hoped that wasn’t the case. What made the news worse was that this was supposed to be the first time she would visit her family in Hearth's Warming after 2 years; as she had missed one by joining the village during it’s “equality-cult” face and then next year when she stayed to help organise the town’s own festivities for the season.
“As for you Double Diamond. You seem to have practice with falls, don’t you?” Doctor Mare asked in a sassy tone as she looked at Diamond’s x-ray with the old healed fractures and the new one in the pony’s leg. “Well, it seems the practice paid off. While you also need the chair, with only a fracture you should be able to travel to Baltimare”.
Diamond would have celebrated had he not noticed that the doctor giving him the clear to travel seemed to hit Night like a bag of bricks to the chess. He knew how important the trip was for her, part of the reason they confessed their feelings for the other was because both wanted to give it a try before going away for the holidays. For Celestia’s sake! They had their second date the day before going away, the day before Hearth's Warming Eve.
Diamond watched Doctor Mare finish signing their paperwork and move to open the door for him and Night. He knew he had to do something, and that's when he got an idea.
“Hey doc! Remember what you told me about minor pains becoming more apparent as the adrenaline wears off?” Diamond asked, getting the attention of the unicorn. “Well, my knee is starting to hurt a lot.” He then raised his right foreleg, it hanging loosely from the knee down, clearly dislocated.
Night and Diamond walked out of the clinic. Both of them were still trying to get used to the sensation of having two immobilised limbs while using the rest to move around with the chair; or chairs in the case of Diamond as he now had two pairs of wheels strapped to his sides, having to push his body around with his left legs.
“I-I can’t believe I’m going to miss another Hearts Warming!” Night exclaimed in desperation, though she didn’t know if it was directed at the wheelchair, her fractured bones, the whole situation or just herself for lying about her skiing experience.
Night found it very hard to hold back her tears, she would have started to sob had she not felt a very awkward attempt at a hug. It was Double Diamond, who while impaired by the wheels fastened around his body’s forend, managed to get his left leg around her neck.
“I know it is a bit early for it, but, what do you say if for our third date we spent Hearth’s Warming together?” Diamond asked. Hoping the question would be more effective at comforting her than just saying, “is alright”.
“I-I, well… I mean-” the question did seem to distract Night from both her sadness, and in general. “Since I thought I would be gone I barely decorated. I don’t even have a tree!”
“Neither do I!” Diamond exclaimed with joy not even he knew where it had come from. “But I can ask either Party Favor or Feather Bangs to get us one”.
“But, w-what about the food and everything else? I mean we only have one day, maybe one and a half at best. How are we supposed to get everything ready?” Night continued asking, though as she did so her practice as “town leader” began to kick in, trying to think of solutions.
“Well Sugar Belle's visit won't end until tomorrow. Knowing her, she'll be more than happy to help you prepare something for dinner.” Diamond replied with a calm tone. “As for everything else, we can’t improvise, I mean we have done it before”.
“Uh… Alright, it seems like a plan,” Night said as she started to walk towards the village to look for Sugar Belle. “Though, there’s still one very important thing we haven’t decided yet.”
Diamond began to walk too, unlike Night he had a decent idea of where Party Favor and Feather Bangs would be, although he was a bit slower than her due to only having two healthy legs. “And that is?”
“Your house or mine?” Night asked as they continued walking.
It was the afternoon of Hearth's Warming Eve, and while far from midnight the activity in the village was starting to slow down. Many ponies and other creatures were making their way to their homes or the train station to go visit their families, with the youngsters playing outside on the snow excited to open presents.
Night Glider knocked on Double Diamond’s door, with Sugar Belle standing right behind her, holding a rectangular glass baking tray with hot lasagna and a large bowl of soup. With Night holding a paper bag of baked goods fresh out of the oven.
“Coming!” A feminine voice called from inside the house, confusing both Night and Sugar. Before they could check if they had knocked on the wrong house the door opened to reveal Fond Feather, one of “Feather Bangs’ admires”.
“Night Glider, Sugar Belle! Please come in, we are almost done.” The light-purple pegasus said as she moved aside, letting the two mares come inside while they returned Fond Feather’s greeting.
Despite Starlight’s “reign of equality” being long over, Diamond, unlike the rest of the village, hadn’t done a lot of changes to his home. Only installing an interior window and counter in said window (basically a rectangular hole with a blank of wood in the base of it) on the wall that separated the kitchen from the rest of the house.
Meaning that when Night and Sugar stepped inside they were welcomed by the sight of: Party Favor finishing decorating the tree, Dear Darling putting Hearth’s Warming themed blankets on the sofas, Feather Bangs trying to ignite a fire in the chimney, and Swoon Song in the kitchen preparing a bit of homemade eggnog. All while Double Diamond stood both dejected and bemused in the middle of the living-dinning room.
The two mares were welcomed by a collection of exclaimed greetings as each pony continued with their self assigned task. With the exception of Diamond who excitedly walked up to them to say hello, greeting his marefriend with an awkward hug and kiss on the cheek.
After leaving the containers she was caring on the table, Sugar Belle moved to the corner where Party Favor was decorating the tree. “Hey Party! Remember that our train leaves in 15 minutes”.
“I know,” the blue unicorn replied. “My bags are next to the door, I’m just putting the finishing touches.” He added before hanging a decoration of a small plush bear with a wheelchair from the tree.
“Very well then. Big Mac is waiting for me at the station, I better get going before he freezes.” Sugar then moved back to where Night and Diamond were standing, giving each a hug. “Happy Hearth’s Warming you two, and remember if you need help Doctor Mare is at the hospital”.
Sugar then moved to open the door, turning to look behind her to see if Party Favor was coming with her. With the unicorn giving Diamond and Night goodbye hugs before picking his bags; as they left the house both shouted: “See you after New Years!” With the rest of the remaining ponies in the house shouting back: “See you!” and “Have fun!”.
“Yeah! There it is!” Feather Bangs exclaimed with excitement less than a second after saying goodbye to Sugar and Party. He had finally managed to get the fire on the chimney started. The flames engulfed one of the logs, as the temperature of the entire building began to increase.
Fond Feather, Swoon Song and Dear Darling seem to take the news that the fire was ready as their cue to leave the couple alone. They quickly finish whatever they were doing and basically piled in front of Night and Diamond to tell them what they have done and where it was, say goodbye, and wish them a happy Heart’s Warming.
“Feather Bangs! Come on dear!” The tree mares called, wanting to leave Diamond and Night alone so as to not get in their way.
“One seco-” Before Feather Bangs could say a thing the 3 mares had jumped him and began to drag him out of the house. “Okay okay! Remember to toss a long in the chimney every now and then to keep the fire burning. We’ll be at Dear Darling’s house, if you need anything you know where to find us. Happy Hearth’s Warming and good luck!” He basically had to hold onto the door frame to finish, the door closing behind him.
“Why is he wishing us good luck?” Diamond asked. Confused at what he saw and how fast every pony had left his home.
“Yeah, if anything with those 3 mares HE needs all the luck he can get.” Night added.
The two turned to look at each other before chuckling.
“Anyway, so what did you two cook?” Diamond asked as he walked towards the table to examine the bowl and glass baking tray.
“Honestly, I have no idea. Sugar Belle didn’t let me help her at all. She didn’t even let me into my own kitchen.” Night answer, remembering how Belle insisted on cooking every meal she had eaten since getting out of the hospital.
“Same,” Diamond said as he removed the tops from both containers to get a better look at the food. “Party didn’t even let me put the tree’s decorations!”
“No kidding! I basically had to fight Sugar to carry this bag.” Night added as she put the paper bag that no one had miraculously taken off her hoof on the table.
“What’s in it?” Diamond asked.
“Bread… I think. I mean Sugar could have cooked a wendigo in my kitchen and I wouldn't have known.” While it was supposed to be a joke, it generated enough curiosity in both Night and Diamond to open the bag; with the two being greeted by a collection of miniature loaves of bread, cupcakes and muffins.
With the mystery of the bag solved the two moved to the sofas, with neither of them having much success getting on them on account of the wheelchairs. The two had decided to eat dinner at midnight, with the idea of playing a few games, as well as telling stories and singing songs to pass the time; though somepony else had also contributed something for their amusement.
“What are these?” Night asked as she graved a tube with 2 smaller tubes attached to it. All decorated in colourful paper making it look like an oversized candy.
“Dear Darling brought them, apparently they are a tradition in her home city.” Diamond answered, having given up with the idea of getting on the sofa and moving closer to Night. “I think she called them Hearth’s crackers? Two ponies are supposed to grave onto each end and pull. Whoever ends with the bigger piece wins the little prize inside it.”
“Oh! Honestly it sounds fun, wanna try?” Night asked as she grabbed one of the crackers. Offering Diamond the other end.
“Sure!” To her surprise, rather than using his healthy frontal hoof, Diamond graved onto the end with his mouth. Thinking that was part of the tradition, Night did the same, with quite the silly smile appearing in her boyfriend's face, although the both of them also began to blush.
The sweet moment was interrupted when the cracker broke, the pop scarring both the earth pony and pegasi; although they managed to keep the pieces on their mouth, showing that Night had won. Checking inside the large tube she found a paper replica of Princess Celestia’s crown. “Hey! This is actually pretty fun!” She exclaimed as she put on the paper crown .
“Yep, I honestly thought it would be silly… I mean you do look silly but this is kind of fun.” Diamond replayed with a small smile on his face as he found her paper crown quote ridiculous.
“You are just jealous!” Night proclaimed raising her nose and closing her eyes like an outraged monarch; only for the both of them to start laughing. “Anyway, want to try again?” Night asked as she picked up another cracker.
“Oh you know it!” Was the only thing Diamond said before grabbing the other end and pulling. The pop of the cracker bringing the score 2 to 0.
The clock on the wall rang, signalling midnight and with it the end of the Eve and beginning of Hearth’s Warming proper. This took both Diamond and Night by surprise, as they had lost track of time playing cards, betting the trinkkets they had won from the 10 crackers. With Night trying to get the paper copy of Princess Luna’s crown that Diamond had won on the third cracker, as it was the only one she needed to complete the set, already wearing Celestia, Cadence and Twilight’s crowns.
“Wait, it’s midnight already?” Diamond asked, failing to turn around to look at the clock on the wall behind him.
Night simply whistled, less as an answer and more expressing her amazement, as she realised they had been playing for almost 5 hours. “That seems to be the case. Should we finish our game or do you want to eat?”
Before Diamond could say a thing, his stomach answered for him as it growled. Night chuckled at this, only for her stomach to also protest.
With the message clear the 2 moved to the table, that’s when they realised they had mistakenly left both containers open. The food inside them got cold despite the heat of the fireplace keeping the room warm; fire that almost died twice had Night had not reminded Diamond about adding wood to it.
“Don’t worry about it, we can reheat it on your stove,” Night said as she put the bowl of soup on the interior window’s counter. However when Diamond tried to get in the kitchen to heat the food, he discovered a problem.
“Eh… Night you are not going to believe this.” Diamond’s worrisome tone got the attention of his marefriend.
“What? What happened?” She asked moving towards him. That’s when she noticed that the wheelchairs the both of them were using, were too wide to fit inside the narrow door frame.
“Let me try,” While Night was able to get deeper in the kitchen, as she lacked a frontal wheelchair Diamond had, she still wasn’t able to reach the stove. On the bright side she was able to reach the cabinet with the dishes.
With quite a bit of difficulty Night managed to get two bowls, two flat dishes and four glasses -a pair for water and the other for the eggnog- out of the cabinet. Having to walk backwards to give each pair to Diamond before getting back in the kitchen to fish out the next pair.
“Well, at least we can eat on our own dishes rather than out of the bowl and tray.” Diamond noted, trying to be positive about the whole situation.
“Yeah, shame we can’t heat the food. That lasagna looks delicious.” Night said with a sad tone.
If Diamond had fingers he would have snapped them. “The chimney! That’s it! We can heat the food in it!”
Excited, the two moved to the fireplace, with Night putting the food in front of it. While Diamond set up the “table” on an appropriately themed Hearth’s Warming blanket one of the girls had brought.
“Wait, we are going to eat on the floor?” Nigh ask, even though she was helping him set everything up.
“Yeah, why not? I mean the girls cleaned up, plus we’ll be eating on the blanket, not the floor itself.” Diamond asked, not understanding the stigma against eating on the floor. Especially because as a foal he would eat his school lunch on the grassy floor.
Finding no issue in his logic. Plus also lacking the stigma as she herself would eat her school lunch on the cloudy floor of Cloudsdale, Night didn’t see anything bad with the idea.
The two then spent the following 10 to 15 minutes mixing the soup in the bowl in the case of Diamond, while Night slowly spinned the lasagna tray as if it was in a microwave oven -not that Equestria had those. All in an attempt to evenly warm up the food.
“I think it is ready,” Night said after checking the temperature by touching the food with her hoof. The two then served the food on the plates, with Diamond taking care of the soup with his single working frontal hoof while Night cut a piece of the lasagna.
However once the food was on the plates they took notice of another issue.
“So… how are we going to get on the floor?” Night asked. Realising that while strapped to the wheelchair neither of them could lie on the blanked.
Diamond, exasperated by the chair getting in the way, took both of them off. In a quite honestly ridiculous spectacle as he wiggled out of the harness of the frontal and then real chairs, all while being extremely careful with his hurt legs as he laid on the blanket. “I mean, it's not like we can’t take them off,” Diamond noted as he tapped the space next to him, inviting Night to join him.
Night imitated him, with her movements being more graceful thanks to her having 3 working legs instead of just 2.
Once the two were next to each other they started to eat, the diner being quite delicious though some parts were a bit colder and hotter than others. Despite that the two continued eating for a few minutes, that is until a realisation hit the both of them like if they had slammed onto a tree, again.
“Diamond… Why didn’t I think of taking off my wheelchair and getting in the kitchen?” Night asked. And although the question was directed at her coltfriend, in reality the question was for the both of them.
“I… well I didn’t think of that until now…” The stallion answered, his cheeks turning a red colour out of embarrassment.
Night also began to blush at the realisation of such an obvious mistake. “If anypony or creature asks, we choose to heat the food at the fireplace rather than because we couldn't get in the kitchen. Deal?”
“Deal!” Diamond answered. “I don’t want us to turn into the village’s fool couple. I mean we could at least wait for Nightmare Night and go out dressed as clowns.”
Both held back laughter at that last comment. Afterwards the two continued to eat, and they ate quite a lot. By the time both felt satisfied both the tray and bow were below the half line, with the eggnog ceasing to exist.
They were planning to open the gifts they had gotten for the other, however the warm food on their stomachs, the late hour, the eggnog, and the fact they were now coddling the other, began to take its toll on their ability to remain awake. In the end they decided to open the gifts after waking up, with the two remaining on the floor on top of the blanket. But not before tossing quite a lot of logs in the fireplace to keep the fire alive for the rest of the night, and putting another blanket on top of themselves.
The following morning Night was the first of the two to wake up, with her burying her face on Diamond's chest. This woke up the earth pony, who simply rested his heat on top of her’s.
“Morning,” he said with a yawn.
“Happy Hearth’s Warming,” Night greeted back, still keeping her eyes closed.
“So how did my awesome marefriend sleep?” Diamond asked, in one hand he expected her to be sleeping quite well being next to him and the fire that while weakened, was still burning in the chimney. While at the same time being worried that sleeping on the floor had caused her any sort of pain.
However, hearing Diamond call her an “awesome marefriend” reminded Night of the lie she had told him. And how that ended up putting the both of them in those wheelchairs for months.
Wanting to say sorry, Night moved away from Diamond, so that they could be face to face. “Diamond, I want to apologise. I-I’m not an awesome marefriend. I lied to you about my skiing skill and that, well, caused the accident. I just-”
Before she could finish Diamond silenced her with a kiss on the lips, the first time they had ever kissed there.
“Wow!” The two whispered once they broke their kiss, almost making Diamond forget what he wanted to say to her, almost. “You don’t have to apologise Night. Once we were going down the slope I realised it was your first time. I should have tried to stop you but I didn’t, all because I wanted to show off; if anything I should be the one apologising to you.”
Night resisted the urge to launch herself and hug Diamond, but not for long as he continued talking. “Also, what I meant with you being an ‘awesome marefriend’ had nothing with you being radical or epic or extreme or anything like that. what I meant is that you are a kind, smart and overall amazing mare, and that I’m extremely lucky such an amazing mare decided to start a relationship with me.”
Night then launched herself at Diamond, exclaiming: “Oh Diamond you dork!” Before giving him a long kiss.
After breaking the kiss the two returned to coddling the other in silence, their eyes closed as they enjoyed the moment. That is until Diamond spoke again. “To be honest, I did also lie about something.”
Confused, Night turned to look at him. “Remember how I told you that the first time I went skiing I ended up slamming onto a tree.” She simply nodded, trying to figure out where he was going with this. “Well, when that happened I dislocated a bone, and ever since it healed I have been able to pop my left frontal knee out of it’s joint without any pain.”
Night’s eyes widened like plates as she realised what that meant. “Thank you,” was all she said before hugging and kissing him again. The two going back to coddling the other with a happy sigh.
…
“Should I also mention we were supposed to open the crackers with our hoofs, but I thought doing it with our mouths was more intimate?” This time, however, Night gave him a playful poke at his ribs.
“I will forgive that, if you give me that crown.” Night said with a grin on her face. Diamond immediately lowered his head so that she could take the paper replica of Luna’s crown that somehow had remained on top of his head.
“Thanks,” was all she said as he helped her get it on her mane, before adding with a playful tone. “Now I Night Glider, as the ultimate princess, declare you, Double Diamond, as an awesome coltfriend.
The two laugh at her exaggerated tone, before kissing once again.
THE END
Updated: 10 of january 2024
I get this out on the 24/25 but don’t edit it after until the 10 of the next month 
Anyway, I’m gonna be honest, Jinglemas was both stressful and fun. In one hand I was worried I wouldn't be able to get this out in time, first because it took me some time to come up with a premise; and after because if you know my work, you’ll know I’m a slow writer, meaning I was still working on this before and after christmas dinner with my family. Still it was definitely fun and I’ll probably participate in this year’s Jinglemas, plus other events or contests.
For my followers (the few that are still active / check my stuff), if you are wondering if that means more stable updates. IDK, I’m still working following the line of: “I write what I want when I can”… But I definitely want to try to get something out more often.
Anyway, regarding some inspiration in this fic:
Last year, or well 2022 I had a bad fall and fractured my left wrist. I think I only mentioned it on the FiM Fiction discord server. Anyway that was close to my mom’s birthday and it of course changed how I celebrate it. I ended up giving my sister money so she could buy a gift.
The experience of how an injury of that kind changes how we celebrate things didn’t stay long in the front of my mind. However, at the start of December while thinking of ideas for the fic one of my pet dogs began to walk funny, she was fine after a day. However, while worrying that she might need a cast and extra cara during the holidays, I ended up remembering that experience and gave me the idea for this fic.
Important(?) aclaration:
Regarding the “Ourton joke”, the one I marked with an asterisk ( * ) I got it from this Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/mylittlepony/comments/3vammk/thoughts_on_the_name_of_starlight_glimmers_town/, with the credit going to u/DaBismuth.
I’m bringing attention to this because recently you have all probably seen a big discussion regarding plagiarism online. Considering this my first fic in a while, plus it is likely that few don’t know my style. I would like to make it clear that I like to rescue interesting ideas I see in fan media and put them in my fics, be fan art, comics, jokes, etc. A good example of this can be seen in my other fic “A Love Beyond Worlds”.
And whenever I do that, I like to give credit to whomever came with the idea in the first place, or at least where I got it from. The only reason why I didn’t mention it in the original author’s note was because I wrote that at 5am and I wanted to go to sleep.
Random explanations:
Dr Mare: I originally didn’t think of naming the doctor, however after coming across Dr Horse’s wiki page I knew I had to give him a female equivalent, even if it was just for the sake of something funny I thought of.
Feather Bangs and the girls: If you don’t remember this 4 by name I don’t blame you. They appeared in the episode where the CMC helped Big Mac confess to Sugar Belle. Here’s an image to refresh your memory:
I thought it would be fun to have all 3 with him. And before you ask, I still don’t know who is who, not even after checking their tags in derpibooru.
The Hearth’s crackers: Apparently a UK thing, the only reason I put them in the fic was because I got recommended a video about them by YouTube. They seem fun plus I was able to use them to give Diamond and Night an intimate moment, plus do some cute and playful stuff.
And that would be all, sorry it took me so long to edit this fic, but after Christmas I was all over the place. Things finally have slowed down enough for me to finish editing, I do hope I didn’t miss any obvious mistakes. Anyway, now I’m finally going to read the Celestia X Gabby fic I got for jinglemas, as I didn’t want to read it until I was done “fixing” my own jinglemas fic.
Original author’s note (edited):
It took way longer than expected, but I was able to get this out on the 24... On a technicality since I finish writing this at 5 am on the 25, but on the 24 never the least.
I will probably edit this on the following days, specially the author's note since there's a few small things I want to explain, Until then: MERRY CHRISTMAS FiMFiction, and I hope you enjoy this little gift, Blueninetails 
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This was pretty cute! There are a couple of errors I noted here and there, but it didn't really bother me as I read through the story. I very much enjoyed how Night Glider and Double Diamond interacted, it was rather cute. I also did like the bit of creativity with some concepts such as the thing with the crackers (heard about them, just never seen one in real life) and the thing about Cloudsdale potentially being a flying/mobile fortress in the initial intent of its design.
All in all, I really liked it. Very cool work! Thank you!
Poor them, getting hurt like that.
11783693
Yep, is definitely not something pleasant to get injured in such a way, specially close to such an important holiday
11783624
Thank you, I’m glad to know you enjoy it
Regarding the mistakes, I just finished going trough the fic, most of them should be gone (sorry it took me this long). Hopefully that means re-reading this is more pleasant (I also added a bit more of info in the author’s note)
Honestly both the crackers and the whole “Cloudsdale was originally a fortress” were some random ideas / things that popped out of nowhere. I decided to implement in the story as a bit of “world building”; basically trying to make the world seem bigger by adding details, fun facts and distinctive stuff that gets mentioned in passing.
Anyway, again I’m glad to know you enjoy the gift. And again sorry for taking so long to answer, I had been very busy since Christmas
Got to love the cartoon logic funny moments
Aww so cute 😍
Man feather bang is a lucky dude
Night
Awww this was a pretty nice story of these two ponies I've always liked them together so it looks like they were having a fun time skiing and this is night gliders first time and when they got down to the hills they accidentally bump into each other and crash causing them to get injured luckily it wasn't too major but unfortunately night had to stay grounded because of the wheelchair and Double Diamond felt bad for that so he decided to invite her for the holiday and it was nice that everybody tripped into get them ready for the holidays before they go to their separate ways and despite their disabilities it looks like they were having fun with each other and even having a loving moments with each other as well and I really like that this was a pretty good one keep up the good work