• Published 9th Feb 2024
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Source Code - Nugget27



Source Code, once an indie game developer is transported to Equestria by unknown means.

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Hearth's Warming

So, as it turns out, nothing of importance actually happens in December besides the Grand Galloping Gala. After October, which ended on Running of the Leaves, halfway through November, exactly when Americans typically would be celebrating Thanksgiving, marks the first day of winter. Then at the end of the month, Hearth’s Warming happens. Since it was Hearth’s Warming, and Twilight’s perfectly ratioed group of friends who were national heroes at this point, were going to be performing in a play the day after Hearth’s Warming. This was great, since the immediate families of every one of Twilight’s friends were going to be joining me, Celly, and Luna during a small dinner after we had our own, smaller scale celebration.

I had already written up a special version of the textbook to Python for Button. I planned on giving Luna a rewrite of Star Wars upon hearing her interests in it when I described it to her. No, I didn’t ponify it, I literally rewrote Star Wars, and filled in the blanks of my stupid memory, and planned on giving it to Luna. Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, and Sweetie Belle were receiving copies of Where the Red Fern Grows that I originally rewrote for personal enjoyment, since that was one of the few stories I remembered by heart.

I bought Solar Strike a fancy bottle of whisky.

Now, I’m saying all of this because… I don’t know what to get Celly. She said that just my company was enough, but I want to give her something. I wanted to do something for her, but I don’t know what to do, or what to give her. She’s the Princess, and I wanted her gift to be unique. She’s borrowed my first copy of Where the Red Fern Grows and had already read it and subsequently banned me from letting her read any of the more depressing stories of humanity. She enjoyed it, she loved every moment she read it even if it didn’t take her very long. I could get her a dog, but that wouldn’t be a good idea.

Like me, dogs are stupid, and annoying. Dogs also tend to not live too long past a decade, on Earth at least. Equus dogs apparently have longer life spans, but that doesn’t matter when Celly literally has been alive for thousands of years. Maybe I can somehow get her a timber wolf. I’d have to get a puppy and teach it not to- no, no, no. It might eat Button, and if it ate Button, I think I might burn down the entirety of Canterlot before promptly throwing myself off the mountain. I could… no. Actually, why am I getting her a pet? Philomena was the perfect pet for Celly, eternal life, mischievous, and just as sweet and loving as her owner.

Plus Philomena was sitting on my shoulder, watching me grasp the sides of my head while I stared at a list of scrapped present ideas.

“Philomena, you’ve known Celly for almost as long as Luna, what would you give Celly?” I asked.

“Chirp!” She started preening her ears.

“Thank you for nothing, you useless avian,” I sighed. “Fuck me, mate, how do I give something to the mare that has everything… I paused. I can make ice cream cake. I can make Celly cake… I don’t know how to make ice cream cake, and ice cream isn’t something kept on standby in the royal kitchens- who the heck am I kidding? I’ve seen Celly and Luna pack away tubs upon tubs, upon tubs of ice cream before, so they clearly had a source. With that in mind, I decided to make two types of cake, namely, cupcakes for the party, and then a princess sized ice cream cake for Celly… okay, maybe I’ll make a third cake in-case Luna gets jealous and wants to try out some ice cream cake.

“Philomena, I know what we’re gonna do today-” she was gone. Dammit. SHE BETTER NOT TELL CELLY MY IDEA, I SWEAR TO GOD!

Anyways, I will have to wait until the party to present Celly with the present. I think Celly may actually just be happy to snuggle up with me, maybe hangout under some mistletoe, and maybe, maybe have some sexy times. Celly doesn’t seem like a very materialistic mare, and seems to care more about being able to spend time with the ponies she loved rather than receiving gifts. That doesn’t mean I won’t give Celly an ice cream cake. Mmm… I am not used to Christmas shopping. Yes, Christmas shopping, despite them both being celebrated for very, very different reasons, Hearth’s Warming and Christmas were basically the same.

Same colors of green and red, candy canes were a thing and were handed out more often during both, gifts were given out, and it was an excuse for everypony to take off work, get together with their families, and have some good food. With that said… I dunno how to actually feel about celebrating it. On one hand, I couldn’t bring my human family. On one hoof, I had my pony family consisting of Celly, Lulu, and Button… mmm… I dunno. Anywho, one thing that was different about Christmas and Hearth’s Warming was mistletoe.

Mistletoe was just a thing you hung on your door. I wanted to start the human side of it, and smooch Celly in front of everypony. That would be really funny, and I just want an excuse to kiss Celly. I don’t need one, but kissing Celly sounded fun, and introducing some silly human customs sounds like an awesome idea. So that was what I was going to do. I already bought some mistletoe, unreefed, and had the ingredients needed to make the ice cream cake. Now all I needed to do…

Actually, I was going to spend tonight with Solar Strike, my guard friend. I don’t often get to spend a full day with him, since he has an actual job that requires him to be on the clock most of the time. It was a pre-Hearth’s Warming Eve party at a bar with the rest of his guard friends. I’ll get to baking the cake, after I get over my hangover, tomorrow. I put my last present down, the one for Button, after I wrapped it. I did end up just rewriting, with a lot of minor redubbing due to my stupid memory, How to Train Your Dragon, not the novel version. No, I tried my best to rewrite the movie version into a novel… so I guess it was a novelized version of the movie.

I don’t know, but it was at least something, and a story from another world that I loved. I even took the time to squeeze the whole trilogy into it… No, I wasn’t working on it for a while now and decided to just give it to Celly for the sake of giving her something on Hearth’s Warming… You know, if I were dating Luna and published what I rewrote, I probably would’ve sprouted bat wings.

Unfortunately, I am dating the better princess, if you like heated pillows, and rewrite a lot of human stories just for personal enjoyment of having something from home, as inaccurate as it is to the original. If I knew how to write music, I’d be doing the same with my favorite songs.

Anyway, I was already walking out of the castle, having met up with Solar Strike and his buddies. They were talking about having a drinking contest with bets… Free bits are free bits, I guess. I was once the Drift King in college and usually only won games of Mario Kart after drinking copious amounts of booze. I was just kinda tagging along and hanging with Solar while the rest of his buddies bumped into each other and laughed.

“So,” one of the guards, Shield Basher, I think. He’s a big, brown earth pony that probably gets by via bashing a shield into ponies’, or various other creatures’ skulls. “Why are we bringing the princess’s consort? Isn’t he supposed to… y’know, smile and wave next to Celly on Hearth’s Warming during the play?” Basher asked.

“Hey now,” I said. “I’m not officially her consort yet, just her coltfriend… mmm, I already did propose to her, and I was going to publicly do it at the Gala. Anywho, I’m here because Solar invited me along, and I get along fine with most of the guards for some reason, even if I don’t know the reason why.”

“Well,” Basher hummed. “You are pretty scary,” I blinked at that and raised an eyebrow. “Prince Blueblood is a known duelist and can even bat around earth ponies with some of his spells. If he were in the guard, he would genuinely rank up in somewhere in the top twenty of the strongest unicorns… and you hoof handled him. You beat him so badly that he actively avoids you and even asks for twenty four hour surveillance to make sure you aren’t a threat to anypony.”

“Weird. All I do is hangout with Celly in the morning and evenings, and sometimes bother Luna. Sometimes I come by and get some combat training, and then the rest of my time is spent with Button or teaching my students down in Ponyville. I’m not that much of a threat as long as nopony harms the ponies I care about. It just so happens that Blueblood struck first, and while I don’t care much about myself, Celly does, and she would be pretty distraught if I ended up in the hospital, so I kicked Blueblood’s shit in. He’s an asshat, and had it coming anyways.”

“I know, but still, you can easily, easily manhandle actually trained unicorns with your fancy-spancy spell system. You’re not only the Princess’s consort, but also her student, so it makes sense. You’re just bucking scary, dude. And then some guards were watching you test out that fire thingy you do, and watched you scorch the rock and almost turn said rock into obsidian with how hot the flames were.” Basher hummed. “Though right now, you seem… overly docile. You don’t seem to care.”


“I’m with guards, who likely won’t hurt me, or let me get hurt. One of said guards is one of my closest friends, and I’m gonna get some whisky. Of course I’m gonna be docile. Just don’t threaten to kick my kid’s head in, and I won’t shove your head up your ass. Sounds fair?”

Basher shrugged. “I guess…”

“I watched as a griffin almost shot him and Button with a crossbow,” Solar chimed in. “Apparently whatever he was getting ready to do, was so bucked up, that he summoned the princess to take care of the problem for him.”

“...You were there?!” I asked.

“I saw you get angry, dude. I ain’t getting in between an angry Source Code and whatever he’s mad at.”

“...Fair enough. You coulda swiped my kid and booked it for the palace though.”

“I… also wanted to watch you beat the snot out of that griffin. Damn featherbrained idiot, if most of the guard hadn’t lost you, he would’ve had at least sixteen of us piling on him.” Solar grumbled.

“That was racist, but whatever. Important thing is, Celly took care of it, so nopony really got hurt. Dunno what happened to the griffin, but whatever.” I hummed. “Where are we going, anyways?”

“Somewhere called the Fire Phoenix, it’s a bar run by a retired guard, and usually stays open extra late during the holiday weeks; it’s so we guards can calm down and unwind.” Solar explained. He then started grinning like an idiot. “You and I are gonna have a drinking competition, I will make so many bits off of you.”

“...Alright. Just gonna say, I’ve outdrank Luna, so… have fun with that.”

“So the princesses are lightweight drinkers-”


“Alcohol is a weak poison, my man. Alicorns are pretty resistant to poison. Do the math.”

“...Could you, and would you, outdrink Princess Celestia?”

“I’ve been having whisky with me food since I was ten, mate, I can handle my booze. Dunno about you, though.”

“Solar, kick his ass in that competition,” Basher said. “I may have a gander and join in too. Loser pays for the drinks.

The party was pretty kickass, we had drinks, I won the drinking contest, and Basher started spooning Solar at some point during the night. Luckily, I was still mostly sober, not really, so I ended up dragging Basher, since he had an iron grip on his chosen cuddle buddy, and dragged them back to the castle. In the morning they would be shipped off to their families for the holidays, and I have a Celestia and a Button to wake up with in the morning. I may not be the best coltfriend in the world, or the best father, but am I really gonna deny those two waking up on Christmas Eve without me?

Or Hearth’s Warming if you want to be more technical. I left Solar and Basher in a bed together, I couldn’t get Basher off of my poor unicorn friend to save my life, no matter how hard I tried, Basher wanted his snuggle buddy. He may have been a cuddler back when he was a foal, and I wouldn’t blame him for enjoying snuggles. I’m just not sure if drunkenly spooning Solar was welcomed by a sober Solar or not. Since I couldn’t do much else, I teleported to Celly’s bedchambers where she and Button had just settled down for bed.

“Hey Sunshine,” I said, teleporting my toothbrush, with some toothpaste on it. I started brushing my teeth as I teleported a cup to me, full of water, and rinsed my mouth. I yawned and laid down now that my mouth didn’t reek of whisky.

“Good evening, Source. I see you got home early from your night with your friends?”

“Yeah, we had a drinking competition as soon as we sat down and I figured leaving them in a bar, even if it’s run by, and is for, guards wouldn’t be a good idea. So I took them home early before I got too drunk.”

“Dad, your accent is really thick. The last time it was this thick, you outdrank Auntie Luna.”

“That is correct, Button. Source, how much did you drink?”

“Four liters! I may have lost count after my drinking buddies passed out around their first pint.” I grinned like an idiot. “I won fifteen bits, eh?” Celestia shook her head, before nuzzling me.

“Please stop exploiting your friends for bits; you knew that those bits were yours as soon as they placed bets on a drinking competition.”

“Yeah… I didn’t take the bits because… my friends were blackout drunk. With that said, though, I’ll act like we just did it for fun. I don’t need the bits, and seeing Solar getting spooned was worth winning. Button, when you grow up and get drunk with your friends, don’t take advantage of the fact that they’re drunk to do things to them. Trust me.”

“Okay Dad…” Button got up from Celly’s belly, to make room for me, before he climbed up on top of my back after I laid down, and nuzzled his face into my mane, while being almost squished between Celly and me.

“G’night, Dad, g’night, Mom.” With that, he was out like a lion.

“I am so, so gonna tease him for snoring like a kitten.” Celly giggled.


The next day, I thought we were gonna unwrap and open our presents, but it turns out that that was supposed to be a thing that happened during dinner on Hearth’s Warming, after everypony ate of course. I’ve never celebrated Hearth’s Warming, so I guess that’s something different than Christmas, since usually as soon as Christmas Eve, the presents were fair game in my house, and you can open them whenever. Then again, ponies have some weirdly strong self control when it comes to this, but then have horrible self control when it comes to something random like cake.

I’m looking at you, Celly, you ate my cupcake when I wasn’t looking once. I love you, but I was looking forward to that.

We all ended up piling into the kitchen, because I tried sneaking off in order to make a bunch of baked goods, and a bunch of human foods for dinner. Just because the Apples were bringing more than enough food for everypony, doesn’t mean they were the only ones bringing food. We were all supposed to bring at least one dish, and then treat it like an all you can eat buffet. I wanted to let most of my friends experience some human stuff, even if it was a bootlegged, vegetarian version of what I would’ve experienced as a lad. I know Celly and Luna were definitely trying to steal any table scraps, especially if some of those table scraps were cake.

Button was just happy to sit on my head while watching me bake, and even got to sample a cupcake. Since he was behaving, he did get to sample another cheese stick, since he might or might not be addicted to them.

“So, why are you doing this?” Celestia asked. “The Apples agreed to cater our giant, family dinner this evening. I’m sure nopony would miss some cake-HEY!” I sprayed her again because I saw her get ready to eat the cake I made for Luna, after I already got done with Celestia’s cake. Luckily, ponies are similar to cats in a way, they sit like cats, groom themselves like cats in private, and react very similarly to a cat, except ponies can actually talk so they can curse you out for spraying them.

“Well, I wanted to at least provide desert, along with a few, quick and easy human snacks. Namely nachos, my dad’s lasagna and potato fries.” Along with various other snacks. “I realized that I can’t make ice cream cake very well, let alone know how to make it. So I made the next best thing. Stop eating your sister’s cake, you see the bigger one with vanilla and chocolate ice cream, that I enchanted, to not melt, next to it?

“I made that one for you, and the other one’s for Luna. I made a metric assload of cupcakes that look like smaller versions of Luna’s cake? Those are for everypony else during dinner tonight. So maybe don’t eat your sister’s cake.”

“Oh…”

“So can I sample this one?” Luna asked, pointing at her cake. She behaved herself, so I agreed to letting her sample a small bite of her cake. At my nod, she took a very, very small bite. Her cake was topped with strawberries, since I know she loves those. Celly’s had blueberries and raspberries topping it. Luna’s eyes slowly widened as her pupils grew to match her eyes’ new size. She stared at it, before slowly looking up at me, and replacing her shocked eyes with puppy eyes.

“Please, please become my personal chef! A lot of your human snacks are tasty and you haven’t shown anypony to make them besides Chef Beet!”

“...Mmm.” I hummed. “Nah.”

“You’re lucky that I said I wouldn’t assault you during the holidays, you ungrateful whelp. Does the time I groomed you while you were sleeping fly over your head? Or my loving hugs? How could you forget those!? All I ask in return for my loving hugs are those cheese sticks…” Button was just watching the three oldest ponies in the room be bumfuck retarded, and I think he finds it amusing, or thinks it’s funny. He could also just think we’re nuts and is wondering what the buck he got into when I adopted him…

Or he’s shocked that his adoptive mother and aunt are fucking weird. There’s no way that Button would think I’m weird, right? I’m his Dad!

“Mmm… that’s a shame. I’ll make you them whenever I’m able and you want some, Luna. I, and Chef Beet stopped trusting you with cooking anything after you somehow burnt the inside of the oven so badly that it had to be replaced. So I won’t be showing you how to cook those little snacks.”

“Fine. You get one less loving hug during Hearth’s Warming, though.”

“Then I guess I’ll just have to massage Celly and Button tomorrow. Ah man.” Luna’s ears shot up.

“You. Wouldn’t. Dare. Deny. Me. A. Massage.”

“Lulu, with how you talk about this stuff in front of me, I would assume you were taking my coltfriend away from me for no reason.” Celestia pointed out.

“But he said he would try to massage all of us! He promised!”

“Celly, your sister is a psycho,” I was now wrapped in a ‘loving lunar love from Luna hug’ as Luna started giving me reasons to not take her massage away. Button had vacated my head in the process and now was sitting on Celly’s back while I was desperately trying to break free from my in-law’s vice-like loving hug.


Everypony started funneling into the dining hall that we were going to be using for all the festivities of dinner tonight. The dining hall was dressed up in various things, a Hearth’s Warming tree was in the corner, a huge one that almost touched the ceiling of the room, with presents littered underneath it, boxes covered in reds and blues and yellows and greens. The crusaders were running around, sadly they couldn’t bring Dinky along, since this was a dinner for the Elements of Harmony Bearer’s families. So I couldn’t somehow get a message out to Trixie, or invite anypony else to it.

I wanted to finally, and actually, talk to Derpy, Dinky’s mother. Apparently everypony around Ponyville loves Derpy, despite her clumsiness may or may not be a little destructive.

Everypony was seated around the room, at various tables placed throughout the rooms. Most of the parents of the Bearers were chatting, since go figure, most of them lived in Ponyville and happily got along; it was like talking to that one neighbor you actually would invite over for dinner. The Bearers were happily spending time with their parents and family, especially Twilight due to both of her parents obviously being from Canterlot. Cadance and Shiny were here, Cadance was snuggled up under Luna’s wing while the two were seemingly geeking out over a Daring Do book, something that surprised me; Luna didn’t seem like the mare that would enjoy such a simple book.

Shining was currently noogying Twilight, much to his sister’s chagrin of being babied in front of all her friends. Fluttershy’s brother, I didn’t know she had one, looked like one of the most sad looking ponies I’ve ever seen. Skinny, tall, and was lazing about in the corner of the room after removing some of the decorations in that corner so he could ‘have somewhere comfy to lay down’. His eyes were also locked on Rainbow’s backside while she was simply laying down and animatedly chatting with Apple Jack.

I was fortunate in the fact that I… was also just sitting in my own corner of the room. Celly was chatting with Twilight Velvet, Twilight’s mother, Button was being distracted by his little friends. Everypony else was off enjoying themselves, and… I couldn’t find it in myself to actually enjoy what was happening. Sure, there was a bit of pride when Apple Jack decided to sample some nachos that I made, and proceeded to snatch a decent chunk of them for herself. I was… just an observer. Really, an outsider.

It felt bad to say, but I kinda just showed up one day and inserted myself into everypony’s life. I’m sure everypony would be just a little better off if I never showed up… save Button, growing up in an orphanage is not good for your mental health. I would give anything to be able to introduce Celly to my Mum, or to see my sister squeal and subsequently pull Luna into a loving hug. I hummed, before shaking those thoughts away. I should probably just quit being a sad, little bitch and go enjoy the dinner.

I would’ve if a pink blur didn’t land beside me.

“Hey, Source, what’s with the sad look on your face? You should be happy!” Pinkie said, wrapping me in a hug.

“I’m just having an episode, Pinks, trust me, I was just about to get up and go kiss Celly under some mistletoe…” I chuckled. “I was remembering what I’ve lost with my…”

“Not so sudden appearance here?” Pinkie asked. I nodded. “Well… I did some research and realized that you only really started existing in Equestria around the start of this year, and you said some weird things and had a weird dictionary. Obviously the look of hurt in your eyes when Rarity mentioned your siblings means that…” Pinkie looked left and right. “Another world. With that said, go, go enjoy the party, Source. I know, I know what leaving your family behind feels like.” I looked around to note that none of Pinkie’s relatives were spread around the room. Pinkie soon adopted a very serious look on her face.

“Go be happy, Source. There’s a reason why I spend so much energy on trying to make everypony smile, after all. Just smile, go kiss your marefriend, and have some whisky; I know that’ll raise your mood a lot!” Her usual Pinkie self smiled brightly when she noticed that I was getting ready to go do just that. “Make sure to open my present, Cody! I’m sure you’ll be super, duper happy about it!” I nodded. Pinkie soon dashed off to the otherside of the room, where Luna was, before promptly snatching her away.

…Pinkie and Luna get along way too well, judging by those mischievous grins.

I meandered around the room, before sneaking up on Celly. “Celly,” I said, levitating the mistletoe over our heads. The mare in question, lacking her regalia, spun around from her conversation with Twilight Sparkle. Not the mother, the Mom was currently showing baby pictures of Shiny off to Rainbow Dash who was laughing her ass off at the poor stallion’s expense. Cadance was also with them, snickering at the picture of Shining Armor with a literal mouthful of dirt because he heard that that’s where plants got their food from once.

“Source! I thought you walked out on dinner, I was trying to find you!” I raised an eyebrow at that.

“You were?”

“Of course. I wanted nothing more than to spend today and tomorrow with my special somepony, I know this holiday… might’ve brought up some unpleasant memories. Button was also hoping you could put on a little show for everypony with your magic…” She looked overhead, when she realized my horn was glowing. “Oh. I thought you were preparing a prank for me.”

“No, I wouldn’t dump ice water on you today of all days. I’d do that during court though on a hot day, that’d be hilarious.” I shook my head. “So, there’s a thing I wanna do with you, Sun Butt,” everypony in hearing distance, that wasn’t one of Twilight’s friends, snapped to me. The Apples didn’t bat an eye either; they were already aware of my relationship to Celly. Twilight Velvet in particular looked shocked at that.

“Now, young colt, that is no way to speak with the princess. Are you perhaps her servant…?”

“Ah, Celly, you didn’t say anything about me?”

“No, we were both embarrassing Twilight with some silly retellings of her misadventures as a filly,” oh, that would explain Twilight’s blush. I teleported a thing of whisky to me before taking a sip. “Source, what are you planning?”

“Remember my homeland?” Celestia nodded. “We have a tradition involving mistletoe on a holiday very similar to Hearth’s Warming… long story short, mistletoe is above both our heads. That means we kiss.” I levitated myself with my own magic, something that shocked the unicorns, that weren’t Rarity, Twilight, or Shining who were used to my bullshit. “So c’mere,” I kissed Celly right on the lips. At first Celly ‘oh’d at my sudden advancement, before giggling and kissing back full throttle(if you know what I mean). We were there for a solid minute, before we pulled apart.

“I think I like that tradition if that is the result of you sharing it with me,” Celly giggled, and… she’s blushing. She took my whisky and took a swig. “I believe the two of us may be busy later tonight… Cadance,” the alicorn was only a few meters away from us, watching with a huge smile on her face. “Would you be a dear and watch Button tonight? I don’t think he would want to be around for some of the things I have planned for my coltfriend.”

“Of course, Auntie!” Cadance said.

We both turned back to Twilight Velvet sputtering while her daughter was rubbing her back and smirking.

“Twilight, you were equally ready to lose your shit after you watched me and Sunny kiss for the first time.”


“I know, but it’s just funny seeing you shock my mom like that. Usually she’s a lot more collected than this.” Night Light was chuckling, watching his wife. I think I know who Celly told who she was dating, Night Light was the only parent present that wasn’t shocked at the sight of Princess Celestia, being called Sun Butt and being kissed in an almost public event like this.

Celly and I ended up sharing that bottle of whisky throughout the dinner, and I ended up showing off a few spells for everypony at Button’s requests… then Celly ended up dragging me off in the middle of one of the spells and out of the dining hall. Up to our bedchambers. We hadn’t even gotten to opening the presents yet! Celly might be a little… excited after drinking enough whisky to get her tipsy. No, she wasn’t exactly drunk, it took way more to get her to that point, but she was clearly a little addled by the booze. I was too, but only because I had three more bottles than Celly did.

Oh my god, Celly owns thigh high stockings, what the fuck. What the actual fuck. Why am I excited?

I guess Hearth’s Warming is gonna be pretty damn awesome!

Author's Note:

So I was going to combine the Grand Galloping Gala and Hearth's Warming Eve together, but then I made the first scene... two thousand words long. Yeah at that point I knew I couldn't get away with combining the two events.