> Hearth's Warming is Merry in Our Town
>  by Sketcha-Holic
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Cookies and Reunions
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"The one not in jail."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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





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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"He's huge!" Night Glider exclaimed. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Oh, just your families with you guys."

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

Sugar Belle shook her head. 

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

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

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

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

To give them respite from the chilly winter air, Sugar Belle brought the three families into her cafe, and set them at some open tables that she had prepared for them. Avoiding the topic of her being alone for the holiday, she kept imploring them to admire the festive tablecloths and asked them what they would like to eat. Naturally, the filly Green Circle was the first to order, piping up that she wanted some gingerbread, and all the others followed suit with their own sweets they wanted to eat. Once she jotted down what each of the ponies wanted, she whipped into the kitchen in order to fill their orders.

Alta tapped on the table, glancing between the door, her family, and the other two families sitting at the other tables. "Well, it seems like we're all a bit peckish! Seriously, Powder? You had to order the chocolate tree cake?" She lightly swatted her husband with her pastern. "Don't work the poor girl to death!"

Powder Snow grinned sheepishly. "I'm sorry I have a big stomach."

Blue Square adjusted his glasses, and started to speak, which brought upon an eye roll from Double Diamond, and groans from his other two siblings. "Well, technically it's not a big stomach that demands him to have a higher food intake than a normal pony--it's the fact that muscles burn more calories. It requires those with more muscle mass to consume more food so that they they could keep their muscle tissue. Of course, chocolate cake could hardly be considered healthy."

Black Diamond groaned. "Blue, you talk too much."

"I do not! I talk as much as I need to, which is to get information out to all ponies in my immediate vicinity who clearly have no idea what they're talkin--"

"Shut up!"

Double Diamond moved his stool and sat in between them. "Good to see that you're as buddy-buddy as always."

At the second table, Quasar Rune was busy wiping his glasses with a cloth. "Well, I surely hope that these sweets are worth the bits."

Party Favor had been staring at the kitchen door. "No worries, she's a great baker! I've lived here for quite some time, and this cafe here has always been one of my favorite places to visit." He leaned in his hoof. "Even when her goods were... not exactly the best... she's still sweet, friendly, and fun to talk to. She's the first friend I made here."

From her table, Night Glider noticed Party Favor's glum expression. "You still bummed out that nopony she knew from her life before the town is coming?"

Party Favor sighed. "Yeah. I'm still shocked that nobody from her past life really cares."

"And that those that did are dead," Night Glider stated.

Double Diamond nodded. "And there's the matter of her not liking her dad..."

Green Circle piped up, "Why doesn't she like her dad?"

Double Diamond turned to his sister. "Well, Greenie, she hasn't really explained much, really. All we know is that, he was... um..." He looked at the kitchen door, hoping that Sugar Belle wasn't listening. "That he was some sort of mean perfectionist."

"Oh, so that's her reason for having her cutie mark removed," Greenie replied.

Double Diamond, Night Glider, and Party Favor shrieked and jumped into standing position on their stools. The whole cafe was silent after that, from all three of the families and the other patrons of the shop staring at them. Glancing in between each other, the three of them all blushed, and then sat down. 

Party Favor glanced back at his father quirking an eyebrow. He sighed. "Yeah, you know of the whole Starlight Glimmer thing... you know, when we had our cutie marks... removed..."

"Ah, yes, I was wondering about that," Quasar Rune said. "I have to be impressed that somepony actually developed a magic for removing cutie marks, even though that's clearly the work of a madmare. And it's foolish to have your cutie marks removed like that, no matter whether it's a useful talent, or one that brings about mockery."

Party Favor groaned and rolled his eyes. "I know, Dad. I know. We got them back..." He then narrowed them as he glanced at his father, muttering under his breath, "Then again, why would you want me to keep mine?"

Powder Snow then looked at Double Diamond. "You know, I've been meaning to ask you why you did what you did following that philosophy. You always seemed to be the one with the most pride in his special talent, and every other skier in town envied you."

Black Diamond sneered at the red-nosed reindeer on his tablecloth. "Me included."

Double Diamond sighed. "You forgot about the avalanche, didn't you?"

Powder Snow blinked. "Oh, right. Many of your friends turned against you and jeered at you for not being as perfect as you seemed. I guess I can figure it out from there."

Double Diamond nodded. 

Fleetfoot glanced at her sister Night Glider. "And let me guess... you couldn't handle that one of us was talented enough to get into the Wonderbolts, and it wasn't you?"

Night Glider narrowed her eyes at her. "Don't make me punch you."

Star Catcher quickly interjected, "Ah ah ah! No violence on Hearth's Warming, it's not in the spirit. Remember, conflict like that is why the Windigoes were giving the ancient ponies so much trouble!"

"Yeah, so, be nice to each other," Wingspan said, adjusting his cap. 

The girls crossed their forelegs and looked away from each other. 

Party Favor shook his head. "Look, we've made that mistake, it's past us now, and we're not doing anything like that again. Right now, we're just trying to re-bond with you guys and show you the new life we're building."

"Well, I certainly like the friends you've made so far," Merry Maykin said. 

A look of concern was on Silk Shimmer's face. "Shame that Sugar Belle has to be lonely during Hearth's Warming." 

Party Favor tapped his chin, and then his face brightened. "You know, she doesn't have to be." He stood on his stool and looked between his own family, Double Diamond's, and Night Glider's. "Why don't we all have her as a temporary sister in each of our families?"

Greenie cheered. "Sweet! I always wanted a sister!"

Silk giggled at Greenie's enthusiasm. "Same here!"

Double Diamond blinked. "Wait, wait, wait... how is it going to work?"

"Yeah, we are going to have our separate family times during the week," Night Glider said. 

Party Favor laughed. "Well, each family is going to have her for about one or two days, showing her what our annual holiday traditions are, doing activities with her, and maybe she'll teach all of you some neat things to bake! And we'll do this as we show our families around the town and have them meet our friends and neighbors."

Double Diamond scratched his chin and smiled. "Well, she could help me show my folks the new ski resort, have some snowy fun, and help us choose a nice, big tree to put in the resort's hub."

Night Glider leaned forward in her seat. "Maybe she could spot mistakes in the flight pattern me and Fleetfoot are going to use in the opening, or help us make some ornaments for the tree."

Party Favor grinned. "That's the spirit!" He looked at his own family. "And of course, we could do our annual Hearth's Warming pony tale fight, take her ice skating, and my personal favorite, making the Hearth's Warming dolls out of any material we want!"

"Of course, Kazam always opted to sculpt a figurine from a rock, Silk Shimmer knitted hers, and you... used balloons," Quasar Rune said coolly.

Party Favor raised an eyebrow back. "Yeah, so?"

"Oh, not to worry, as long as you made something, it was all right," Merry said. "Remember, you kids used to draw pictures instead."

Party Favor smiled and nodded. "Now, the question is that of who's going first?"

Before anypony could answer, Sugar Belle returned with three trays being held in her magic, balancing the treats on top of them. Party Favor noticed, and quickly sat down before she could scold him on that. 

Quasar Rune nodded. "My, my, I'm impressed with her dexterity."

Sugar Belle trotted to the table of Double Diamond's six family members, and placed each treat in front of each family member. "Okey-dokey, we have the minty chocolate cake shaped like a pine tree, frosted with mint frosting and sprinkled with sprinkles and powdered sugar for Powder Snow. And then we have the snowpony-shaped fudge for Alta and Blue Square, the mini gingerbread houses for little Greenie and Black Diamond, and the cheesecake for Double Diamond."

Double Diamond laughed. "Sweet!"

Sugar Belle trotted to the pegasi's table next. "And we've got simple tortes for Wingspan and Star Catcher, powdered scones for Fleetfoot, and a meringue shell with custard for Night Glider."

Night Glider downed her meringue shell in a millisecond. Licking her lips, she exclaimed, "De-lish!"

Sugar Belle giggled, and finally went to the Rune family. "And let's not forget Quasar Rune's same order of meringue shells with custard, Merry Maykin's chocolate strawberries, Silk Shimmer's minty fudge balls, and of course, Party Favor's chocolate cupcakes." She winked at him when she said that last one. 

She walked to the space between the tables, and said, "Also, there are cookies shaped like each of you beside them." She levitated the cookie shaped like her own face right beside her and grinned. "I know, it must be weird to eat your own face, but it was the best welcome I could think of."

Greenie stared at Sugar Belle's cookie and tilted her head. "Uh... your cookie looks sad."

Sugar Belle frowned, and looked at her cookie, which indeed did look sad. "Oh... oops! I don't know what came over me when carving my own face." She took a bite out of her cookie, her eyes looking away so that she didn't have to see their pity for her. "Go ahead and eat up, I worked hard on those."

As the families were eating, Party Favor turned to her and asked, "Hey, Sugar Belle?"

Sugar Belle swallowed her bite and gazed into Party Favor's eyes. "Yes?"

Party Favor cleared his throat. "I was, uh, thinking..."

"About what?"

He slowly exhaled, and then smiled. "Me and the others are going to make sure you're not lonely this Hearth's Warming."

Sugar Belle's eyes widened. "Really? How so?"

Before Party Favor could answer, he was interrupted by Blue Square saying, "Excuse me, Miss Sugar Belle."

Sugar Belle turned to the blue earth pony at the other table, much to Party Favor's chagrin. Keeping himself from glaring at Double Diamond's brother, he turned as well, wondering what the bespectacled teenager had to say.

Blue Square cleared his throat. "I fear that your fudge is too chocolately for my taste, and I can just barely taste the bitterness of the baking chocolate you used to make it. There's also a little too much salt, too little sugar, and I can still sense bits and pieces of flour scattered within it. It's not a perfect blend of the ingredients to the point where I taste only fudge, instead of individual ingredients. I apologize for my complaint, but I'm afraid that your friends may have overpraised you just a teensy bit."

All members of each family sat there and stared at him with the most flabbergasted expression, trying to process the complaint. The collective gaze didn't seem to affect the self-righteousness of Blue Square, who seemed to be unaware of everypony else's disbelief. The only movement was that of blinking, and of Sugar Belle's once smiling face falling into a face with wide, twitching eyes, and a quivering lip. 

Party Favor glanced at Sugar Belle, who seemed to be less looking at Blue Square, and more staring off into space. 

Finally, the silence was broken when Fleetfoot said, "I think you might have burnt my scones a little." She was elbowed by Night Glider for that. 

Sugar Belle gasped, and said, "Excuse me, I... I... I have something in the oven, let me go get it!"

With that, she dashed into the kitchen, and all the flabbergasted stares toward Blue Square turned into glares. Double Diamond especially bopped him on the head, and shouted, "What was that for, you knucklehead?! You just nitpicked at her cooking!"

Rubbing his head, Blue Square replied, "It's not my fault there wasn't enough sugar to counterbalance the salt and baking chocolate."

Double Diamond swiped a fudge snowpony, took a bite, and then waved it in Blue's face, growling, "This. Tastes. Just. Fine!"

Silk Shimmer popped a minty fudge ball into her mouth. "Tastes like fudge to me. I don't detect 'too much' or 'too little' of anything. You're just overreacting, buddy."

Blue Square rolled his eyes. "Oh, I'm overreacting? She can't take a complaint."

Quasar Rune took a bite of his custard-filled meringue shell. "The dessert I have is adequate. I don't see why you're so upset about minor things when they overall don't affect your dining experience."

"But they do affect it! The bitterness and the salt distract from the sweet taste that the sugar provides, and the flour makes it feel dusty."

Double Diamond groaned. "I didn't taste any of that!"

Black Diamond leaned into his hoof. "Sheesh, I'm witnessing the sequel of 'There's Too Much Pulp in this Orange Juice'."

As Double Diamond and Blue Square argued, Party Favor looked at the door dolefully. Her receiving a complaint about some treat being overcooked or undercooked or missing a crucial ingredient was one thing, as she would just go "oops" and remind herself to be more careful next time. But the minor things that normally nopony (except apparently Blue Square) would notice... what kept her from just rolling her eyes and telling him to just deal with it? Wondering why Sugar Belle reacted the way she did, he hopped off his stool. "I'm going to check on her."

His sister and mother nodded, and he walked to the kitchen door. Taking a deep breath, he went into the kitchen, and found Sugar Belle at the counter, levitating some sugar. She was counting the grains as she dropped them into a measuring cup. 

"...23... 24... 25... 26..."

Party Favor blinked. "Uh... Sugar Belle?"

She sprang up and gasped, and then looked at the sugar. With a groan, she muttered, "You made me lose count."

Party Favor rubbed the back of his head. "I'm sorry, but I wanted to see if you were okay."

Sugar Belle dumped the sugar from the cup, and began counting again. "I'm fine, Party Favor."

"Are you sure? You looked ready to panic out there."

She didn't even look at him. "We put his expectations too high, making him think he'd receive perfection, but ultimately disappointing him because I forget a few grains of sugar and didn't stir enough. Geez, I can't believe how I neglected that."

Party Favor waved a hoof. "Psht, who cares what he thinks? Double Diamond doesn't taste anything wrong."

"He's my friend, he doesn't want to hurt my feelings."

He clicked his tongue as he thought up another to make her feel better. "Well... my sister didn't taste anything wrong."

"You get along with her, of course she'd try to alleviate your worries."

Party Favor sighed. "Look... most of us are okay with your treats being 'imperfect.' As long as they taste good to most of us, who cares?"

Sugar Belle didn't answer, and continued counting the grains of sugar. Leaning against the wall and tapping his chin, he wondered what else he could try to do to cheer her up. Finally, he smiled as he got an idea, and then pulled out some balloons, inflated them, and started to twist and tie them to the shape he wanted. 

Finally, he tapped Sugar Belle on the shoulder, and she turned to find that he had made a balloon flower for her. Blinking, she giggled and took the flower from him, and asked, "What did you do that for?"

"Because I know you like flowers. After all, when May Flowers planted you that flower garden for your birthday, you were really happy. And seeing as I can't get actual flowers this time of year... I thought a balloon one would do. It probably won't do much to solve your problem... but I could at least give you something sweet to counterbalance that moment of bitterness you got out there."

Sugar Belle stared at the flower, and stroked it, feeling the smooth latex on her hoof, wishing that she could smell a sweet scent from it. In any case, Party Favor was trying to make her smile, being the party pony friend that she was lucky to have. She looked at him again, and muttered, "Maybe I am overreacting... sorry, some old habits from even before we met Starlight still crop up from time to time."

Party Favor wondered what it was that made her do that, but he wasn't sure if it was okay to ask. That made him remember the plan that he and the other two had for the week leading up to Hearth's Warming. "Oh, I almost forgot, I've been meaning to ask you..."

Sugar Belle blinked. "Yes?"

Party Favor exhaled. "You know how we said that me and the others didn't want you lonely on Hearth's Warming? Well... we decided that for the next week, you'll spend time with each of our families for a day or two. You'd get to do activities with Double Diamond's family, and Night Glider's family, and mine!"

Sugar Belle tilted her head. "Really?"

"Yeah! Don't worry about the Square guy, I'm sure he doesn't know what he's talking about. You're the baker, not him." His expression softened. "Nopony should spend the holidays alone, especially not somepony as sweet as you. So, what do you say? Ready to be somepony's temporary sister?"

Sugar Belle thought for a moment. "Well... I've never had a sibling, so I could try it."

Party Favor jumped in excitement. "All right! I better go tell the others the good news!" And thus, he trotted out the kitchen door, with Sugar Belle following close behind. 

He stopped at the sight of more arguing between the families, the only one not caring being Greenie, who was happily running around and stealing everypony's treats from their plates. Double Diamond was still in an argument with Blue Square, while Night Glider had apparently started one with her sister. The fathers had all started to argue between each other, Alta and Star Catcher were arguing, Merry and Silk were wrapped up in a debate of their own, and Black Diamond had pulled his hat over his head and was grumbling to himself. 

Party Favor and Sugar Belle blinked and glanced at each other. The former muttered, "I don't know how half of these started."

Sugar Belle grimaced. "You might want to pop a balloon."

Party Favor nodded, pulled out a balloon, and inflated it. Once he had blown it to about the size of a watermelon, he signaled to Sugar Belle to  cover her ears. Once she had done so, he threw the balloon onto his horn. 

POP!

The ponies flinched and stopped their arguing, and then turned to Party Favor. Tapping his hoof, he cleared his throat. "Okay, now that I've got your attention, it's time for me to talk. I've talked it over with Sugar Belle, and she's agreed to try out taking turns in spending part of the week in one of our families. She'll do stuff with one family first, then the next, and then the last one--we'll decide the order sometime later. And I expect you all to be on your best behavior." He glared at them and swept his eyes over the three families. "That was not your best behavior I saw there. Don't do that."

Some ponies murmured to themselves, while Greenie just sat on the floor munching on some meringue shells. 

"This is the happiest time of the year for all of us," Party Favor continued. "Especially when you're making a friend happy. So, can Sugar Belle count on all of you to give her a good holiday?"

Double Diamond and Night Glider jumped and exclaimed, "Yeah!", Greenie threw some of her goodies into the air, while everypony else just nodded and murmured in assent. 

Sugar Belle smiled. "Let me just prepare some things first, okay?"

Party Favor nodded. "Gotcha."
> The Snow Family, Part 1: The Hearth's Warming Tree
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sugar Belle sat on her bed, watching the snowflakes outside her window drift down to the street below. It was surely and steadily getting dark, and everypony in town was returning home to retire for the night. She could see them trotting through the streets, with some carrying home presents or goodies, a group going around singing Hearth's Warming carols, and a few couples strolling down the street, singing about how they were walking in a winter wonderland. 

At one point, she spotted Double Diamond and his father carrying some mattresses, which she knew were the ones he had commissioned the town tailors Dashing Cape and Garter Stitch to make. She giggled upon thinking of their reactions to having to make one mattress rather large, and then upon meeting the massive Powder Snow. 

Of course, her thoughts then wandered to how Party Favor's family must have reacted to the balloon mattresses that he made for them. And the thought of balloons made her cast her gaze at her dresser, with balloon flower that Party Favor had made for her earlier resting atop it.  

She felt warm upon thinking of Party Favor's never-ending desire to make her, as well as others, happy. It was something that equalization could not suppress, even when he couldn't remember how to make balloon sculptures, or access his own magic for that matter. When Sugar Belle thought she had been alone in being dissatisfied with the so-called equality in the town, Party Favor proved her wrong by admitting to her his lack of satisfaction as well, and they had started a real friendship in the process. They soon learned of Night Glider's doubts and brought her into their little fold. Their meetings brought genuine happiness to the three of them, momentarily freeing them from the dreary forced smiles of Starlight Glimmer's reign over the town. 

Of course, thinking of the days of Starlight, she frowned when her thoughts drifted to the reason she had come to the town in the first place, and she looked at her cutie mark. That purple cupcake once represented the standards that she could not meet, and the unpleasable father which had demanded them. What was supposed to be her greatest joy in life had been a nightmare, and intense pressure and fear killed any enthusiasm for her special talent. Hence why she listened to Starlight, who had seemed like the mother figure that she had desperately needed at the time.

How unfortunate it was that she had traded one hell for another. 

She exhaled, reminding herself that her current friendships were the great joy that came out of her sorrow, and that she loved her special talent now more than ever, and that sharing it with this town was one of the best things that ever happened to her. The satisfaction of seeing ponies happily munching on her treats often lifted her spirits, and the opportunities to give lessons to her friends or letting them help out with some little things were always fun. 

Her eyes went back to the snowy street. It was dark now, and the snowflakes were only seen in the light of the lanterns on each house. She could only wonder what kind of conversations her friends were having with their families as they settled them in. 

To think she was going to be a part of each family, if only for a day or two! Tomorrow, she was going to start things off with Double Diamond's family, since Party Favor and Night Glider wanted some time to smooth things out with certain family members before they had their turns to have her. It was fine by her, since she already considered Double Diamond a cool big brother.  The only thing she dreaded was that annoying brother of his that had made a fuss over minor mistakes in her fudge. 

She hopped off the bed and stretched. She trotted out of her room and down the stairs, planning to take inventory before she retired for the night herself. 





The next morning, she trotted down to Double Diamond's house, and knocked upon the green door. The white stallion answered the door, yawning and rubbing his eye. He smacked his lips before seeing his friend in front of him, and his face broke into a smile. 

"Didn't expect you this early, Sugar Belle," he said. "I thought you had some baking to do in the morning."

"Oh, Pumpkin Spice and Cuppa Joe are watching the cafe for me." Sugar Belle stamped on the porch to shake some snow off. "Plus, I thought having breakfast with you guys would be a good way to start the day."

Double Diamond was about to reply when he was interrupted by the shout of "This orange juice has too much pulp!" from Blue Square inside the kitchen. 

"Don't make me dump it on your head!" Black Diamond growled.

Double Diamond rolled his eyes, and shook his head. "Excuse my brothers, they always annoy each other."

Green Circle suddenly popped up from under her eldest brother, holding a stuffed bunny in one of her forelegs. "Ugh, don't get me started on what knuckleheads they are! Black Diamond always has to be such a grump, and Blue Square is a know-it-all doofus. Double Diamond's cool, but I do wish I had a sister."

Sugar Belle nodded. "Well, no worries, I'll be your sister for the next couple of days."

Greenie jumped and threw her bunny upward. As she caught the bunny, she exclaimed, "Sweet! Aside from Doofus 1 and Doofus 2, you're going to love spending these two days with us! We're gonna go out to get a Hearth's Warming tree, and go sledding, and have snowball fights, and explore that ski resort thing that you guys are gonna open soon! We'll have buckets of fun!"

Sugar Belle beamed. "By the way, that's a cute bunny."

Greenie blinked, looked at the bunny, and then slung it on her back. "Uh, thanks. Her name's just... Bunny. I've, uh, had her since I was five."

"Oh, I had a stuffed moose once. He was a birthday present from Grandma when I was four," Sugar Belle replied. She smiled as the memory came back to her. "Oh, I remember when I'd play tea party with Mr. Chocolate, taking him to the park, and baking with him! He had a little apron and everything!"

Greenie glanced back at Bunny, and mumbled, "Well... I take Bunny sledding."

Sugar Belle giggled. "Oh, there's no shame in still having a stuffed animal after you earn your cutie mark. I still had Mr. Chocolate when I was fifteen. He was one of my best friends..." She frowned and then sighed. "At least until he was shredded by the blender."

Double Diamond winced. "Ouch. I'm sorry to hear that."

Sugar Belle just replied numbly. "Oh, don't worry. I was too old for him anyway."

Double Diamond and Greenie looked at each other uncomfortably, with the latter taking Bunny off her back and squeezing it protectively. Then the former said, "Well, why don't you come inside and have some breakfast? We've gotta eat to have enough energy for tree hunting!"





After a hearty breakfast, Sugar Belle and the family first went down to the resort itself, which was down in the little valley that dipped lower than the town, and was accessed by a gondola not far from the main town. With cabins and lodges built both out of trees that once inhabited that valley and wood imported from elsewhere by the train, the resort promised comfort for the visitors that were to come upon the opening. Outside of that little village, the snowy mountains were promising fun times for all, from the nearby bunny hills for beginners, to the double black diamond trails for experts further up. 

As they were there, Powder Snow, his two eldest sons, and Sugar Belle just stood in their spot and looked around the hub, while Alta, Greenie, and Blue were exploring the hub, with Greenie prancing around in the snow, and Blue fussing over the cleanliness of the cabin windows and the smoothness of the wood. He seemed to have stashed sandpaper in one of his coat pockets, which he was using to sand the cabin walls. 

Powder Snow took a whiff of the frigid air. "Ah, nothing like the smell of pine to evoke that cozy mountain feel. Smells less dusty than the village up there."

"Oh, come on, Dad, our landscapers and gardeners have been at work making our town less of a desert," Double Diamond said. 

"Wait, it was a desert?" Powder laughed. "Sorry, couldn't tell with all the snow!"

Alta was walking in a circle in the center of the hub, staring at a patch of ground cleared of snow. "So... is the tree supposed to be right here?"

Double Diamond turned to his mother and nodded. "Yep! It's gonna be the centerpiece of this resort."

Black Diamond stood by Double Diamond, raising an eyebrow as he stared at the spot Alta trotted around. "The ground looks as if it was disturbed, as if somepony was digging there, filled with dirt that doesn't match the rest of the soil, and the unevenness is wide enough for a tree to have already been there." He paused for a moment to turn to face his older brother. "Why didn't you keep that tree?"

Double Diamond rubbed the back of his head. "We were gonna keep it, but the wood was rotten, so it wasn't going to last long anyway."

Black Diamond nodded. "Makes sense."

Sugar Belle blinked, and glanced at Powder. "How could he tell? We removed that tree a few months ago."

Powder chuckled. "Well, all my kiddos have been blessed with keen eyes and talents for observation and quick thinking. They just manifested in different ways, and are used for different things. Like you saw with Black Diamond, he can spot irregularities in the earth in any place. He also has good night vision. Helps him when he's working in the mines." 

Black Diamond turned to his father. "I appreciate you complimented my eyesight, but Blue Square's glasses aren't just for aesthetic."

Powder blinked, and then glanced at a glaring Blue Square pushing up the glasses on his muzzle. With a snort, the blue teenager continued to sand the cabin, and his father grinned sheepishly. Powder cleared his throat. "Okay, my bad there. So... where'd your sister go?"

Greenie suddenly popped out of a snow pile behind them, and they whirled around to face her. Brushing snow out of her mane, she asked, "Are we gonna look for a tree, or what?"

Then, Blue Square shouted, "But this wood on the cabin isn't smooth! Somepony could get a splinter!"

The two Diamonds replied in unison, "Nopony cares!"





Soon enough, the group was out in the woods, scanning each tree to see which one would fit the best with the ski resort. They were coming across plenty of pine trees, but none were quite the tree they were looking for. Some were missing branches, some had holes in the trunk, and some were completely bare. Some were too short, and some were too tall, and there were plenty that were a little too crooked. They kept walking deeper and deeper, and the temperature wasn't getting any warmer. Only Sugar Belle seemed to notice, and was amazed at how Double Diamond's family stood it. It was a good thing she decided to bring her jacket and beanie. 

Powder Snow was pulling a large sled through the snow, which held a two pony saw, a couple of axes, and some branch trimmers. Greenie was hopping around, pretending that the snow was lava, though she looked out for ice. The rest of the family and Sugar Belle trudged through the snow, waves of powder whipping away with every step. All the while, the ponies talked among themselves, whether it be telling stories, talking about events that had happened during the town's isolation, or just telling Sugar Belle about their hometown of Paddock City and how the kids grew up. 

"...and you should've seen the stars in Double Diamond's eyes when it turned out that Salt Lick City was hosting the Winter Equestria Games that year," Alta said, ducking under a snowy branch. "He was more than happy to witness the skiing events that were taking place in Paddock City's resorts, and, when doing a junior snow sport activity with his class later that month, he earned his cutie mark."

"Double Diamond's told us the story a few times, about how he was racing his friends down a hill with skis and sleds and he won," Sugar Belle said, telekinetically moving the branch out of her way. She turned to Double Diamond, who unfortunately was smacked in the face with a snowy branch. "Didn't that one colt break his leg, and another end up in a giant snowball? Who ended up in what again?"

"Pinewood Derby broke his leg, and Ever Onward was in the snowball," Double Diamond replied, wiping the snow off his muzzle. Biting his lip and looking away, he muttered, "I was a bit of a jerk for not really caring about those accidents, and instead focusing on my new cutie mark."

"Yeah, he had an ego," Black Diamond muttered. "Picked on me for being a late bloomer."

Blue Square huffed. "And me for needing glasses. It's not my fault for developing astigmatism! My poor forsaken cornea, being the shape of a hoofball instead of a sphere and messing up the way my eye takes in light, and breaking our family tradition of having perfect sigh--"

Black Diamond shoved a hoof onto his younger brother's mouth, his brown eyes looking almost red. "We get the picture, you chatterbox."

Double Diamond groaned. "Please don't remind me. I already had my wake up call years ago."

Green Circle hopped from rock to rock, and balanced herself on a fallen log. "Yeah, let's just think of the good stuff! Like how every mare we knew in Paddock City thought that Double Diamond was a dreamboat!"

Double Diamond flushed, turning redder as Black Diamond and Blue Square started laughing. "Greenie!"

"What? I saw them giggling and talking about you. You're clearly very handsome!" She turned to Sugar Belle and waggled her eyebrows at her. "Don't you think so, Sugar Belle?"

Sugar Belle glanced at the embarrassed Double Diamond, and replied, "Oh, he is. I'm just not interested in him in that way. I'm perfectly fine with the two of us being friends." 

Double Diamond sighed in relief. "Thank you, Sugar Belle!"

"...of course, that doesn't mean there aren't a lot of options for him in town anyway. I've heard plenty of ponies talk about him being a 'dreamboat' in my cafe." She held a teasing smirk and winked as she said this, and the three siblings of Double Diamond laughed again.

Double Diamond was blushing again, with a little scowl on his face. "I take back my gratitude."

"Ah, don't do that just because she's teasing you!" Alta said, backing up to Double Diamond's side and patting his back. "You're a big boy, you can take it."

"Hey, didn't you like the attention back then?" Blue Square asked. 

"Oh, I did..." Double Diamond ran a hoof through his mane. "I'm, just, uh... well, I don't think romance is an option for me right now. I've got other things to worry about."

"Well, whatever works for you," Alta said, tousling his mane. "Don't want to pressure you, little buddy."

Suddenly, Powder Snow boomed, "Ah! Now there's a nice tree for the resort!" 

The others were quick to catch up to Powder, and they beheld a tall, majestic tree, which seemed to reach about fifty feet high, with a fine point that was just begging for a star. It bristled with blue and green needles, all arranged perfectly so that there was not an inch of any branch uncovered, and appeared strong enough to hold up tinsel, candy canes, and all sorts of ornaments. The heavens opened up, and the snow glistened under the sunny spotlight, as if it was a sign that this was the right tree. 

All eyes were wide as the group gazed upon it, and they all simultaneously let out an "Oooooooh".

Powder looked back at the group with a smile. "Black Diamond, mind testing the sturdiness of this tree?"

Black Diamond blinked with his usual serious demeanor, dug through the snow, and then plucked a rock from the ground. Popping his neck and walking forward, and tossing the rock in and out of his hoof repeatedly, he narrowed his eyes at the tree. Then, in a flash, he chucked the rock at the trunk. 

The impact reverberated through the tree, shaking the snow off and scaring whatever birds were roosting in the tree, and the thud echoed through the range. They stood there and stared for a moment, half expecting the tree to fall. 

Powder unhitched himself from the sled, and then turned to it to grab one of the tools. "Well, dare I say, it's a perfect--OW!"

He was nailed on the back of the head with some sort of projectile. Rubbing the sore spot, he turned and stared at the thing that had hit him, which was now lying in the snow: a pine cone. 

He looked behind him, seeing as only Black Diamond was closer to the tree, and even then, he wasn't close enough to be within reach of any pine cones. Blinking, he muttered, "What the hay...?"

Another pine cone launched from the tree, this time hitting Black Diamond's ear. With a pained shout, he glared at the tree and growled. "Hey!" 

A third pine cone flew out, this time heading for Double Diamond. He jumped out of the way, only for Blue Square to get nailed on the forehead. With a yelp of pain, he snapped, "Okay, who's up there ejecting pine cones with enough force to launch it at speeds of 25 miles per hour?" He groaned. "Gravity makes it worse!"

And then, they saw the culprit. It was perched halfway up the perfect tree, glaring down at them with dark eyes. It was covered in coarse, brown fur, matted with dirt, tree sap, and snow crystals. Its claws were sharp enough to rip open skin and draw blood, and the teeth that were bared could tear the flesh off a pony. Its ears resembled the horns of a devil, and it's thick tail whipped back and forth violently, showing that it was ready for a fight. It was a true beast, one that clearly had great strength, and it had issued a challenge for the ponies who had dared to disturb it. 

It was a squirrel.

Alta wrinkled her nose. "Looks like Good Ol' Chipparooney has a cousin equally as vicious."

Sugar Belle turned to Double Diamond with a confused look on her face. "Who's 'Good Ol' Chipparooney'?"

"Vicious squirrel that threw acorns at us," Double Diamond said. "And the occasional rock--I still have a scar from when he chucked a rock at me."

The cousin of Chipparooney let out a high-pitched, squeaky battle cry, and squirrels ranging from brown to gray to red all popped out of the branches of the tree, chattering and holding up pine cones of every shape and size. They glared at the ponies with utmost intensity, and then proceeded to rain pine cones upon the group. 

Powder snow got pelted with a few before scooping up Black Diamond, and then they and the rest of the family all galloped to the nearest log, where they all crouched behind. The raining pine cones pittered and pattered on the log for a few moments, though the screeches of the squirrels did not cease. 

Double Diamond peeked out from behind the log, only to get nailed on the forehead by a pine cone. He yelped, went back to ducking, and rubbed his head. "Ow... those little buggers are strong! Why are squirrels so strong?"

Blue Square peeked from behind the log. "Judging by their size, muscle mass, and the fact that we're now several feet further than we intially were--" He ducked to avoid another pine cone. "They shouldn't be able to hit us at all!"

"Magic," Greenie said. "I bet those squirrels are chuck full of magic."

Sugar Belle pursed her lips. "That, or they have some sort of killer workout routine."

"Well, looks like our 'perfect tree' was their home," Powder huffed. "Guess we better leave and look elsewhere."

"Our equipment's still back there," Black Diamond stated. 

"Well, maybe the squirrels will stop when we tell them we're leaving!"

Black Diamond glanced at his older brother. "Hey, Mr. Mayor, surely you know a thing or two about diplomacy."

Double Diamond peeked at the squirrels, and ducked under pine cones. "Well, yeah, I do, but--"

"Put it to work!"

Double Diamond snorted, and then climbed up onto the log. Clearing his throat, he called out, "Squirrels! We ask that you put down your pine cones and listen. We mean you squirrels no harm, and we realize now that we shouldn't cut down your home. We were wrong to intrude upon your territory, and all we ask is that we can get our equipment, and then we will go look for a Hearth's Warming Tree elsewhere."

The squirrels all glanced at each other, and then let loose a barrage of pine cones on Double Diamond. 

Jumping off the log and bearing a few bruises from the bombardment, he glared at Black Diamond and growled, "I was going to tell you that I don't speak squirrel!"

Black Diamond pursed his lips and looked away, spitting, "Sor-ry."

Alta peeked over the log again and grimaced. "Dang it, they're scurrying to the sled! I think they're planning to take the axes and kill us."

"That's worse than Chipparooney!" Greenie complained.

Sugar Belle sighed, and then picked up some snow with her telekinesis. "Well, I guess since diplomacy didn't work... we might have to fight them to get our equipment back." As she said this, she compressed the snow into the shape of a pie. Then, popping up from behind the log, she yelled, "Eat snow pie!" and chucked it at the tree. 

It hit some of the branches, and shook the squirrels on them enough for them to fall. They snagged some lower branches in their fall, and cried in dismay, along with their brethren that hadn't been hit. Looking at Sugar Belle, they prepared some more pine cones to throw. 

Green Circle popped up as well and chucked a snowball at the squirrels approaching the sled. "We declare WAR!" 

The squirrels chirped in fright at the sudden snowball, and then looked up to find more snowballs coming their way. With a shriek, they scurried back up the tree, grabbing any pine cones and rocks to throw at their pony attackers. Soon enough, the exchange of pine cones, rocks, snowballs, and mudballs was under way. 

From both sides, it was raining the various dirty projectiles, with the squirrels being shaken out of their perches by Sugar Belle's various snow creations and startled by the snow covered rocks that Black Diamond had thrown, and the ponies narrowly avoiding being nailed by pine cones and rocks. At one point, the squirrels started to create snowballs from the snow in the trees, putting sharp pine needles in to make them spike balls. 

Blue Square was hit in the cheek with one of these spike balls, and in retaliation, he picked up pine cones that were laying around after the squirrels had thrown them and threw them back. Unfortunately for him, he didn't throw them very far. Green Circle threw farther than he did, and managed to knock some of the nearby trees to dump snow on the squirrels. Unsatisfied with being useless, Blue Square decided that the best course of action for him was to fortify the log further, and went to collect snow and mud to pack onto their protection. 

Double Diamond had taken to using his scarf as a sling. Molding snowballs and setting them onto the thick, purple cloth, he twirled his makeshift sling, and hollered, "Don't fail me now, lucky scarf!"

The snowball that was slung nailed a squirrel directly, and the dazed rodent ended up falling out of the tree and landing into a pile of pine needles, leading out a squeaky groan. Double Diamond felt sorry for the squirrel, but it was short lived as he was hit in the forehead with a pine cone, and resumed slinging snowballs and pine cones at the squirrels. 

Powder Snow took note of the various snow creations shaped like desserts that Sugar Belle made and threw, and commented, "Say, you've got some pretty strong telekinesis for such a cute little unicorn such as yourself."

Sugar Belle threw a large snow cake at the tree, and winced when she broke some of the branches. "Oh, that's because I moved furniture a lot."

"Ah, so you moved a lot?"

Sugar Belle bit her lip. "No, I've lived in Fillydelphia since I was born, and only left a few years ago. I was just... inspired to rearrange the furniture by my father."

Powder scratched his beard. "I don't know why some ponies like to rearrange furniture so much..." 

Before he could muse about it further, he was hit in the back of the head, and heard some squirrels laughing at him. With a hot snort, he created a large snowball, and chucked it at the squirrels. 

And so the war dragged on. The ponies' fur was being matted with mud as they dug deeper in order to both fight the squirrels and fortify their log, and their rumps and hooves were freezing the longer they sat in it. Their hooves felt like ice as they molded snowballs and mudballs, and dripped with dirty water as the melting snow and mud mixed. They still ducked when the squirrels brought about their barrage of pine cones and snowballs. Later on, much to the ponies' disgust, they had summoned some birds to drop a few "bombs" on them. 

About an hour or two in the war, the squirrels were low on pine cones, and the ponies seized the chance to hop over their fortress, grab the sled and the tools, and hightail it out of there. Even as they galloped away, the squirrels kept on throwing pathetic little snowballs at them. 





"Ugh, I need a bath."

"Me too."

"Me three."

"We all need a bath."

"...at least we found a tree."

The tree they had set up in the ski resort hub wasn't quite as perfect as the squirrel tree, with some bare branches, some of the needles being a sickly brown or yellowish green, and one huge branch was missing. However, it was nice and sturdy, especially once Powder Snow had secured it, and the point was fine enough for a star to be balanced on top of it. And for all it's faults, it was still a nice looking tree. 

The some couldn't be said for the family and Sugar Belle. Their hair and coats were wet and matted with mud, bird poop, and tree sap. They stood there, shivering and sniffling, and all tired and aching from the squirrel war, chopping down their other option for a Hearth's Warming Tree, and towing it back to the resort. It had been a more eventful day than anticipated, especially since Green Circle now laid in a snow drift, moaning about how soft it was. At the very least, the group accomplished their task. 

Sugar Belle looked at Double Diamond. "I never thought squirrels could be so vicious."

"That was worse than Chipparooney," Double Diamond said. Shaking himself off, he said, "Anyway, since it's getting dark, it's time to go home."

Black Diamond was resisting rubbing his eyes with his mud-covered hooves. "Please plant a tree there for next year. I'm not sure we want anypony to fail getting that tree for future Hearth's Warmings because of General Pine Cone and his nutty army."

Double Diamond glared tiredly at him. "I'll keep that in mind."

Alta picked up her daughter, and said, "Okay, let's just get to the gondola already. I'm tired of smelling like bird crap." 

Blue Square was getting increasingly annoyed by the stain on his glasses. "I hope tomorrow's baking lesson is kinder to us than the squirrels."
> The Snow Family, Part 2: Baking Lessons
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

After a bath and a good night's rest, Sugar Belle was ready for a second day with Double Diamond's family. 

She did some early morning baking in order to restock some of her goodies on the shelves, and then once again tasked Cuppa Joe and Pumpkin Spice to watch the cafe for her. She apologized for making them work so hard, but they didn't mind. The two were happy to be in charge for once, and being twins, they were having their own family time anyway. 

She was just about to leave when Party Favor opened the door. 

"Oh, hi!" he said with a bright smile. "I was just here to get a chocolate chip muffin, but seeing you here is a treat in of itself."

"Oh, well, I haven't left yet, but I was going to," Sugar Belle replied, twirling a loose curl in her mane. 

Party Favor giggled. "I"m glad I caught you, then. So... how was yesterday?"

"Oh... it was, uh, kind of weird." She tightened her hair tie with her magic. "We went out to find a Hearth's Warming Tree, found the perfect one, and ended up at war with squirrels."

Party Favor blinked. "At war... with squirrels?"

"I know. I could scarcely believe it myself. And from what I heard from Double Diamond and his family, this isn't the first time they've been fighting squirrels--apparently they have a rival back in the Unicorn Range named Chipparooney."

Party Favor held his breath as he stifled laughter. "What?"

"I know! And the squirrels we fought chucked pine cones at us like there was no tomorrow, and we had to throw snowballs, mudballs, and some pine cones of our own back!" Sugar Belle giggled, seeing as looking back on the memory made it funny to her. She sighed. "Unfortunately, we lost, and we we didn't get our perfect tree."

"Aww..."

"We did get a good tree, though."

"Yay!"

Sugar Belle nodded. "Yeah... battling squirrels is more intense than I thought. Who would have thought that I'd fight some? And they said that the ones we were dealing with were worse than Chipparooney."

Party Favor rubbed his leg. "Gee, I wonder if Chipparooney's anything like Cheddar."

"Cheddar?"

"Neighbor's dog." Party Favor shuddered. "Vicious creature."

Sugar Belle covered her mouth. "How big was he?"

"He was a toy poodle."

Sugar Belle blinked. "Uh... okay."

"Hey," Party Favor said with narrowed eyes. "I've learned in the past two decades of my life... it's the small dogs that you have to watch out for. Cheddar bit me more than once, and it always hurt so bad!" He started to use his hoof to bounce his blue curls. "And the worst part was, Kazam always mocked me because I had a mane and tail as poofy as Cheddar's fur, so I logically shouldn't be scared as something as fluffy as I am." 

"Oh, that doesn't make sense. Why did your brother have to torment you so?" Sugar Belle shook her head. "Oh, that reminds me, how are things going on your end?"

Party Favor scoffed. "Dad's not impressed with my balloons... like always. He also didn't like the fact that I made him and the girls wear corks on their horns so that they don't pop their mattresses. Gee, it's not like I don't want to rebuild mattresses for the next several days."

"I don't get why he's not impressed--your balloons are both a magical and engineering feat."

"Psht, he's still hung up over the fact my horn's a dud. Gee, I'm sorry for being disabled."

Sugar Belle shook her head again. "He needs to stop focusing on what you can't do with your horn." She put her hoof on Party Favor's chest. "If anything, he should be proud of what lays in your heart. After all, I've never known a stallion more noble."

Party Favor stared at her, a blush coming upon his cheeks. "I... I... uh... are you sure you're not just saying that because I come from the Canterlot gentry? Because, well, there are those higher than my family on the social ladder and uh--say, shouldn't you be heading to Double Diamond's place now? You've got things to do with his family, remember?"

Sugar Belle's eyes widened. "Oh, my gosh, you're right!" She focused her magic on one of the shelves, and put a chocolate muffin in Party Favor's hoof. "Here you go, enjoy!" And with that, she sped out the door. 

Party Favor looked at the muffin, muttering to himself, "Me... noble..."





Sugar Belle soon arrived at the house with a wagon full of ingredients. Double Diamond wasn't home, having left to have a meeting with his staff and advisers about preparing for the upcoming opening, leaving his own family to sit around the house. They read whatever books they brought or could find, or in the case of Green Circle, built a snowpony in front of the house. So, when Sugar Belle arrived, they welcomed her and her activity for baking Hearth's Warming treats. 

"All right then!" she said, standing in front of the lined up family in Double Diamond's kitchen. She levitated some note cards and passed them out to each pony. "We're each going to make a nice Hearth's Warming treat today. I have chosen these recipes for us to bake today based on how satisfying the end result is and how relatively easy they are."

Black Diamond wrinkled his nose. "What, you saying we can't bake?"

Sugar Belle raised an eyebrow. "No, I just have a bunch of tricky recipes that shouldn't be attempted by casual bakers. Anyway, the ones I chose should be fun enough to make. We have gingerbread cookies, sugar cookies, peppermint meringue shells, sprinkled marshmallow-rice cereal balls, chocolate and nougat pretzels, and fudge."

Powder Snow licked his lips. "Sounds delicious!"

"Wait, wait, wait..." Alta said. "Are we going to bake them all at the same time? Because I'm pretty sure about three of those require the stove, and the other three require the oven, and Double Diamond only has one oven."

Sugar Belle shook her head. "Oh, no, we'll take turns."

Blue Square narrowed his eyes at the card he held. "You gave me the fudge recipe." He looked up at Sugar Belle with a furrowed brow. "Are you exacting revenge on me for what I said the other day? Because no form of creative effort should go without criticism, because if there wasn't criticism, how could you improve? You're a fine baker, Sugar Belle." He stepped forward and patted her head, much to her annoyance. "But, you do need to correct the imbalances in your baking, after all."

"Blue, your criticisms were petty and weren't very constructive," Black Diamond said. "You were making a big deal out of very tiny mistakes."

Blue Square rolled his eyes. "Hey, at least I don't break down and take off when I'm criticized."

Sugar Belle glared at him. "Look, just because I gave you the recipe for the fudge doesn't mean I'm getting any 'revenge'. Still, since you're still complaining about it, I'd like to see you try to make so-called 'perfect' fudge, with perfect measurements, perfect stirring, perfect time in the fridge... you know the works that prevent a very, very picky eater from just dropping the fudge and squishing it under their hooves."

Blue looked at the note card and gulped. "H-how hard can baking be?"

"Fair warning, the fudge takes the longest to make, so you're going last," Sugar Belle said in a sardonic tone. Then, she straightened up and clapped her hooves with a smile. "All right, whoever has the sugar cookies goes first!"

The group of ponies looked at their recipes, and Greenie started to bounce. "That's me! That's me!"

Sugar Belle giggled. "All right, I'm going to be your supervisor as you do your stuff. You'll read the directions carefully, right?"

Greenie rolled her eyes. "Well, of course! I'm top reader in my class!"

Sugar Belle smiled, and used her magic to do up her mane in a bun. "Great! Let me just bring my wagon of ingredients into the kitchen, and we'll start."

Greenie nodded. "Okey-dokey!" Then she turned to her parents and asked, "Say, Mom, Dad, you mind pulling out some of the old Hearth's Warming records? We've got to bake to some Hearth's Warming tunes, you know!"





Once Sugar Belle brought the wagon of ingredients into the kitchen and put it in the corner nearest the oven, the baking began. 

The making of the sugar cookies was going smoothly, with Greenie reading the instructions as carefully as she could and following them step by step. She had made sure to mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl from the wet ones, and she was currently sitting on the counter and stirring the 'wet' ingredients, singing merrily.

"Just hear those sleigh bells, ring-a-ling, ring-ting-ting-a-ling too..."

Sifting the items around in Double Diamond's fridge in order to make room for some of the desserts that were going to be made, Sugar Belle sang along, "Come on, it's lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you..."

"Outside the snow is falling and friends are calling 'Yoo hoo!'"

"Come on it's lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you."

Greenie kept eyeing the mixture she was stirring, checking to see if it was ready for the dry ingredients. "Have you ever been on a sleigh ride, Miss Sugar Belle?"

Sugar Belle shut the fridge door. "I'm afraid not. My friends back in Fillydelphia had invited me, but Father always said no, saying I'd break my curfew. And in my years in this town... we didn't really celebrate anything..." She rolled her eyes. "...unless it was equality. So, I haven't really had a Hearth's Warming for a long time."

"Geez, that's oughta suck," Greenie replied. "We ought to set up a sleigh ride so that you can have one!"

"Isn't it basically like riding a carriage, except the carriage is made for snow?"

"Yeah, but you could snuggle up warmly against somepony to keep warm from the cold, and they won't mind, because they think your body's warm." She set the bowl down, grabbed the bowl of dry ingredients, and dumped them into the wet. "Mom and Dad said their first date was a sleigh ride up in some canyon in the north, I can't remember which. Maybe whoever you ride with will be your special somepony."

"Well... if I had to snuggle with somepony during a sleigh ride, it better be somepony worth snuggling and not somepony I'd want to bop on the nose."

Greenie giggled. "Like Weak Link?" Her face furrowed into a scowl. "He pulls my pigtails, blows spitwads at me, and he once buried me in snow! Yeah, I'd hate to be stuck on a sleigh ride with him--I'd punch him in the nose over snuggling with him."

Sugar Belle nodded. "I've heard that if a colt treats you like that, it means he's fond of you."

"That's stupid."

"Yeah, I figured that out some time ago."

Greenie started to exert a bit of strength in trying to stir the cookie dough. "Oh, geez, when did it become so thick?"

"That's what flour does to dough." Sugar Belle stepped forward. "Do you need help?"

Greenie shook her head as she strained in her stirring, grunting as her face turned red. "No, no, I'm a big girl, I can handle it!"

Sugar Belle shrugged. "All right, big girl, I'll take your word for it." She turned to the wagon. "Now, I know I packed some rolling pins..."

As Sugar Belle started to dig for one of her rolling pins, Greenie was busy fighting the thick dough. She pushed and pushed, driving her spoon into the mixture as much as she could. Her muscles were aching, and her wooden spoon was bending, threatening to snap in half. She sweated, her face turned red, and she wanted to scream at how suddenly hard it was to make cookie dough.

A sudden slip of the spoon made the dough fly out of the bowl. Time slowed down as the ball of dough arced across the kitchen, with the little green filly hearing her heartbeat in time with the slow seconds of the dough's journey through the air. The seconds slowly counted down to the moment of impact on the floor, and she expected the resulting sound to be loud and thunderous, reverberating with the horrible mistake that she had made. Her heart stopped when the dough made contact with the brown-and-green checkered floor. 

Plop.

She flinched, and glanced at Sugar Belle. Seeing as the unicorn didn't seem to notice in her digging for the rolling pin and her current action of scooping flour onto the counter, Greenie quickly sped to the dough with her bowl in hoof. Remembering the five second rule, she counted four before it was back in the bowl, and she quickly scurried back before Sugar Belle turned back to her. 

"All right, Greenie, is the dough all mixed up?" Sugar Belle asked. 

Greenie stared at the cookie dough, thinking it wasn't too dirty. It wasn't like there was a cockroach in it or anything. "Yeah, I think so."

Sugar Belle spread the flour all over the counter with her hooves, while simultaneously dusting the rolling pin with a bit more flour with her magic. "Then let's get to rolling it out."





After Greenie had finished the sugar cookies and was letting them cool, it was time to make the gingerbread cookies. Since Black Diamond had received that note card, it was his turn to go and bake. 

He looked between the containers that held the salt and the sugar. "They look the same."

Sugar Belle levitated a bowl toward him. "Oh, I'm sure with those keen eyes of yours you could tell the difference between salt crystals and sugar crystals. After all, didn't you quickly spot the uneven earth where the dead tree used to be?"

Black Diamond caught the bowl. "I'm better at spotting irregularities in things pertaining to geology, not baking ingredients."

"That's what the labels are for." Sugar Belle winked as she levitated measuring cups and utensils toward him. She tilted her head and gave him a curious look. "And I thought Blue Square was the one using the big words around here."

Black Diamond scoffed. "He thinks it makes him sound smart. I'm pretty sure he doesn't know what he's talking about half the time."

Sugar Belle's brow furrowed. "Well, if anything, it'd be worth it to teach him that making sweets is not an easy thing, and nopony can make them the absolute 'confection of perfection' that he and whatever other ultra-perfectionists want." A tiny bit of venom rolled off her tongue during her quoted phrase, and several of the many memories that made her tense up flashed in her mind. 

Black Diamond held up the notecard and scanned the recipe. "Welcome to the club of being absolutely annoyed by him."

Sugar Belle nodded, and then looked up at the ceiling. It had been a while since she enjoyed baking just for Hearth's Warming fun instead of business. Hearing the clinking of the spoon Black Diamond used to stir the dry ingredients and the backdrop of a record playing the sweet croons of a choir, her mind wandered off to when she was just a little filly, eagerly baking cookies for her class's Hearth's Warming party.


-----
 

As an early bloomer, little Sugar Belle had been quick to work on expanding her talent in baking.

She could smell the sweet, chocolatey aroma wafting from the oven, swirling around the room in an elegant dance. One sniff massaged her nose, and she could sense the individual ingredients that had been stirred into the dough, as well as being scattered all over the counter and floor. She could sense the distinct starchy dust known as flour, the sweet crystals of sugar, its brackish twin called salt, and the double whammy of baking chocolate and chocolate chips, combined with several other ingredients. 

With a smile, she eagerly watched the oven window like a movie, snuggling her fluffy moose doll, Mr. Chocolate. Each brown blob of dough had flattened into crisp islands on the baking sheet, with tiny pools of chocolate on them. Already her mouth was watering, and she was one hundred percent sure that her chocolate chocolate chip cookies were bound to be the talk of the school. 

A deep, gruff voice boomed above her. "Whatcha doing, sweetheart?"

She looked upward at the big, mauve unicorn stallion towering above her. With scruff on his chin that matched his curly, mulberry mane, he looked over her with a soft curiosity glistening in his green eyes.

Sugar Belle squeezed Mr. Chocolate. "Making cookies for my class. We're having a Hearth's Warming party at school."

The stallion, her father Herb, chuckled. "Is that so? Mind if I had a little taste test?"

Sugar Belle supposed that there was no harm done. The timer dinged, and Sugar Belle was quick to sit Mr. Chocolate down and open the oven door with her fledgling magic. The bang of the open door hitting the floor made her jump, and the heat blasted in her face and made her skin tingle with a little too much warmth. She squeezed her eyes shut, worried about her eyes being burnt.

Luckily, Herb managed to pull the cookie sheet out and close the over door in record time. As Sugar Belle opened her eyes, her father was already levitating a cookie and sniffing it. She watched as he tentatively took a bite, and chewed slowly. She could catch each crunch with her ears, and examined his stoic face.

Rubbing her hooves, she squeaked, "I know you like chocolate, Daddy. Lots of ponies like chocolate, so I thought it'd be perfect to make it for my class."

Herb swallowed the bite, and then stared coolly at Sugar Belle. She stared back in confusion, wondering why he wasn't shoving the whole cookie in his mouth, why he wasn't humming in delight, or why he wasn't even smiling. Watching as the stare grew colder and colder, her heartbeat grew in volume and tempo. She held still, anticipating his reaction.

Herb dropped the cookie, and crushed it. Sugar Belle gasped as he ground his hoof into the floor, her body feeling physical pain as the cookie was squished more and more. After a few tense seconds, Herb removed his hoof, revealing a pancake of chocolate on the floor. And to her horror, he used his magic to throw the other cookies onto the floor, and then stomped all over those.

"Daddy!" she shouted, jumping forward and trying to salvage some of her precious cookies. "What are you doing? Stop!"

Herb swiped the cookies she saved from her hooves, and crushed them with his magic. Glaring at her, he snarled, "Too chewy. Too much chocolate. Not enough flour, too much salt, vanilla's too bitter, and you let your hair fall in the dough!"

He threw the mound of chocolate at Sugar Belle's horn, and she reacted with a squeaky whinny of pain. As she rubbed her head and started to pull the cookie ball off her horn, Herb ordered, "Clean up this mess! I can't have my kitchen like this when I'm having friends over, and I don't want them to see the disaster you caused while baking that crap!" He narrowed his eyes. "And next time, your baking better match the talent you got your cutie mark for."

As Herb left in a huff, Sugar Belle managed to pull the cookie ball off her horn. She stared at the cookie ball, and then looked around at the mess in the kitchen she had made in her mixing of ingredients. She spent a good long minute staring at the remains of her cookies on the floor, and a lump formed in her throat.

She wiped her eye, pulled Mr. Chocolate close, and took a bite out of the cookie ball. "It doesn't taste that bad..."


-----


Sugar Belle shook her head and looked over Black Diamond's shoulder as he took another bowl and put the wet ingredients in, starting with the sugar. Or, at least, what looked like the sugar. She had a little moment of doubt, but she brushed it off, reasoning that he read the labels... and that salt containers were generally smaller than sugar containers. 

Black Diamond gave her a funny look. "Please stop breathing on my shoulder."





Once Black Diamond's gingerbread cookies were done, she moved on to the chocolate-and-nougat pretzels with Alta. In talking about the mountain quarry her great-grandfather had built and her older brother currently owned, she ended up burning the nougat and the chocolate. In her dash to take the nougat off the stove and try to fix it with extra sugar, she ended up accidentally tossing it onto her own head, which Sugar Belle had to pry off... only for her to stumble back and cause the chocolate to fall on her head. 

They remade the confections after washing their hair, though in her haste to finish up her turn, Alta ended up letting a few stray hairs from her mane and coat fall into them, and the little strands managed to hide from the both of them. 

Then, after the pretzels, it was the rice-cereal balls with Powder Snow. In melting the marshmallow, the big lug somehow got himself stuck to the floor. Sugar Belle had to pry him off the floor with a broom, putting her magical might in levering the sticky giant. 

She managed to free him, but at the cost of Double Diamond's broom. 

Finally, she got around to making fudge with Blue Square. She was not particularly looking forward to dealing with him, and wondered how long it'd take for him to annoy her with his extreme fussiness. 

It didn't take long, as he immediately started with counting the grains of sugar. And with him being an earth pony, it was going to take longer than it would have with Sugar Belle, a unicorn. Aside from that matter of a pointless chore that would be too time consuming, Sugar Belle was irritated with him for starting with the wrong ingredient. 

"Blue Square," she began. "You're supposed to begin with the milk, butter, and baking chocolate."

"Oh, I know, I know," Blue replied, carefully holding a tiny grain of sugar in between his hooves and dropping it in the cup. "I'm just making sure that all the ingredients are perfectly measured before I actually begin. I don't want a single grain of sugar out of place."

Sugar Belle sighed. "Why does the number even matter?"

"One grain means the difference between too sweet, too bitter, and absolutely perfect! It's not like you know anything about perfect, Little Miss Dusty Fudge--I can still taste that flour you didn't properly stir from two days before."

Sugar Belle blinked, and her eyes narrowed into a stony glare. Without even moving a single muscle of her body, she activated her magic, using it to snatch the cup and scoop up the sugar. Placing it back on the counter, she watched with mild satisfaction as Blue Square beheld the scene in horror.  

Then, Blue shrieked. "No! Now I have to start all over and make sure that the measurement is perfectly even with the exact amount of sugar crystals to fit in a cup!" He leaned forward and shook his hoof at her. "Do you know how many crystals that is, Missy?"

Still holding her intense glower and without missing a beat, she answered, "3,472."

Blue blinked. "Say, how did you--"

Sugar Belle got in his face. "I've. Counted." She backed him up into the wall, poking at his chest in order to emphasize certain words. "Stayed up all night as a ten-year-old filly just to count every single grain for just one cup, making sure that each and every grain fit perfectly into place as the cup was filled to the brim! Knowing just how long it takes to count to nearly thirty-five hundred, I'm not willing to wait for your tedious perfectionism so that you can satisfy your ego!"

Blue Square shuddered. "Whoa, whoa, take it easy, it's just a cup of sugar. No need to get mad about it."

Sugar Belle narrowed her eyes and snarled, "If there's no need for me to get mad about it, then there's no need for you to make a fuss over minor mistakes that nopony else will notice." She backed up and stared at him coolly. "Now... I want that fudge done today." 

Blue nodded. "Yes, Ma'am." With that, he shuffled back to the counter, and started doing the measurements as quickly as he could. 

Sugar Belle's face relaxed, and she leaned on the wall to catch her breath. Holding her chest and panting, she muttered, "Goodness, I scared myself..."



 

After the fudge was done and Sugar Belle made the peppermint meringue shells, Double Diamond soon returned, shaking snow off his coat and rambling on about the opening and how the celebration was going to go. He mentioned how the weather team was going to put on a show with their Wonderbolt guest, how Party Favor was banding together with others in order to decorate, and that everypony was eager for Sugar Belle and her cafe team to provide some treats. He was pleasantly surprised when his family took him into the kitchen and showed him the desserts they made. 

Double Diamond whistled. "Wow! You guys made those?"

Greenie nodded. "Yep! Miss Sugar Belle helped us!"

Sugar Belle nodded. "We had fun, though we had a few mishaps. 

Double Diamond looked around at the splatters of chocolate, marshmallow, and nougat all over the floor, walls and ceiling. He noted how dusty with flour the counters were, and felt sugar and salt crystals crunch under his hooves. He even noticed his broom snapped in half in the corner. With a sigh, he muttered, "I thought baking required some cleanup."

"You came in before we could even start."

Greenie bounced up and down. "Come on, try our treats, bro!"

Double Diamond laughed. "All right, don't mind if I do."

His first action was to take one of the peppermint meringue shells, which gained a nod of approval from him. He immediately deduced that it was Sugar Belle's work, and moved on to the others, seeing as those seemed full of promise with their alluring smells.

Next, he took one of Black Diamond's gingerbread cookies and took a bite. His face immediately contorted into a grimace, and he forced himself to swallow the bite. He glared at the cookie for a bit, and then turned to the others with a look of worry. 

"Salty..."

Sugar Belle blinked and glared at Black Diamond, who shrugged and mouthed, "Salt and sugar look the same to me."

"There are labels for a reason," Sugar Belle chided.

Double Diamond downed a glass of water, and wiped his mouth. "Okay... next one." He took a bite out of one of the the chocolate and nougat pretzels, and another expression of disgust came on his face. "Ugh... hairy." His taste test of the marshmallow rice cereal balls brought on the same reaction, as well as Sugar Belle shooting a look of disbelief at a sheepish Alta and Powder Snow. 

He took a bite out of Blue Square's fudge, with more of a mildly perplexed expression. "It's kind of bitter and... burnt?"

Blue Square backed up into a corner, and hissed, "I tried to make perfect measurements, I really tried! But she wouldn't let me! She thinks that not having the exact number of grains is unimportant, but I knew she was wrong!"

Sugar Belle groaned. "It's bitter because it was burnt, not because there's too little sugar in it; if anything there might actually be a little too much. Besides, you were panicking at the stove, that might have something to do with it."

"It's not my fault you're scary!"

Double Diamond held a hoof up. "Blue, chill. It's not the end of the world." He glanced at the lone unicorn in the room. "And Sugar Belle? Scary? I don't know, I think that's a bit of a stretch."

Greenie pawed at the floor. "Are you going to try my cookies or what? I made sure none of my hair got in the dough, and that I didn't confuse the salt and sugar, and they clearly aren't burnt! I think you'll like them."

"All right, all right..." Double Diamond swiped a sugar cookie and took a bite. With a perplexed expression upon hearing and feeling a squelchy crunch that wasn't anything like a cookie, he took a look at his bite mark. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped, the unswallowed bite falling out of his mouth, and he tensed up as if the cookie was going to eat him back. 

Greenie frowned, feeling her heart being torn in two. "Did I put in too much baking powder?"

The horrified Double Diamond threw the cookie across the room, yelling, "Cockroach! There's a cockroach in my cookie!"

Double Diamond's brothers both started laughing at his reaction, bringing bout a glare and angry snorts from him. He shook his hoof as if to threaten them with a pounding, only refraining from doing so under the glares of his parents. Meanwhile, Greenie was wide eyed in shock, and turned to look at a certain part of the floor, the gears turning in her head. 

Sugar Belle blinked. "Cockroach? How did that get in there?"

Greenie's hoof brushed against the floor. "Well... I kinda dropped the dough while you weren't looking..."

"What?! Oh, no, don't you know that bakers and chefs don't use food that's been on the floor? It's contaminated even without the cockroach!"

The filly's ears drooped and she looked away. "I know... I just didn't want to waste ingredients."

"But you could've made somepony sick!"

Her eyes still wide and glistening, Greenie teared up, and then bolted out of the kitchen with sobs, much to Sugar Belle's dismay and heartbreak. Immediately, Alta noticed her daughter leave the room, and dashed right behind her. All was quiet as the boys turned and stared at the door, with Double Diamond clearly burdened with guilt. 

"Aw, man... darn bug phobia," Double Diamond muttered. 

"Entomophobia," Blue Square corrected. 

"You're not helping!"

Sugar Belle sighed. "Let's just clean up the kitchen."





Cleaning up the kitchen took the rest of the afternoon, and Sugar Belle had to leave that evening. With the others busy with other things, she donned her winter wear in front of the front door. She didn't feel quite satisfied with her Hearth's Warming--which was a shame, because she liked Double Diamond's family. 

But, alas, it was her last day with them, and tomorrow was going to be with Night Glider's family. 

Double Diamond approached her. "I'm sorry we didn't get to go sledding today. We would have shown you that we all have some sweet moves on skis and sleds."

"It's all right. I'm not sure Greenie is ready to look at me after the cockroach."

Double Diamond shuddered. "We need an exterminator in this town." He leaned on the wall. "To be honest, I think I was the ruder one. I mean, you don't throw a filly's cookie across the room, even if there is a bug in it. It may have offended her."

Sugar Belle sighed. "I can't believe you had to taste all those screwups..."

"Well... everypony makes mistakes, I won't hold a grudge."

Sugar Belle smiled at him, and then opened the door to leave. As she walked out into the cold night, Double Diamond grinned and saluted her, saying, "Don't worry, I'll have a talk with Greenie. Have fun with Night Glider's folks."
> The Wing Family
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sugar Belle had no idea how to knock on Night Glider's door. 

Clouds packed hard enough to be nearly solid made up Night Glider's home, and much to her dismay, it floated a little too high for a little pink unicorn to reach. As skilled of a telekinetic Sugar Belle was, carrying herself into the air was a task that was too high a level for her. Faced with the job of getting her friend to notice her, she simply figured that a good snowball would do the trick. After all, she'd do this at her old friend's apartment back home in Fillydelphia. 

Her heart sank on thinking of that friend, who ditched her when their attempt at a baking business fell through. She supposed that empty promises on her part over the years--from hanging out, to helping with school projects, to the claim that they'd make a lot of money with said business--may have made said friend fed up with her, but it still hurt to be left alone like that. Especially when she was in terror of what kind of wrath would be spawned from her father's disappointment. 

She picked up some snow with her magic and packed it into a large snowball. She didn't hesitate to chuck it at the door, using her refined telekinetic strength and good aim for a good shot. She supposed that a few of her snowballs would make for a decent knock on the door. 

However, the door opened, and the snowball hit Fleetfoot squarely in the face, knocking her back. 

Sugar Belle gasped. "Oh, oopsie! I'm so sorry!"

Night Glider flew out the door, looked between her sister on the porch and the unicorn on the ground, and then burst into laughter. Wiping tears out of her eyes, she looked down to her friend and hollered, "Nice shot!"

Fleetfoot sat up on her haunches. "Oh, ha ha. You've alwayth had a lousy senthe of humor."

Night Glider rolled her eyes. Then she snickered, "I never knew a face full of snow could make a lisp worse."

Fleetfoot stood up and shook herself off, catching her sister in the spray of the snow crystals. She smirked when Night Glider gave a shout of dismay, and taunted, "What? Can't handle a little mist?" She put a heavy emphasis on the s, which quite clearly annoyed Night. As a final blow, Fleetfoot bumped her on the shoulder, and then smacked her in the face with her tail as she went back inside. 

Night scowled, but decided that she was in no mood for a fight. So, she hopped off her cloud home and into the snow below, putting herself face to face with Sugar Belle. "So, Belle, are you ready to spend the day with my family? Sorry that you have to be in the same room as my sister."

"Oh, I don't mind! In fact, I think it'd be pretty neat to get to know a Wonderbolt a little bit."

Night Glider snorted. "Heh, sure, meet the Wonderbolt. Shame it's not any of the cooler ones like Spitfire or Soarin."

Sugar Belle shifted uncomfortably, kicking herself for forgetting that Night Glider was likely still wounded over getting rejected while her sister got in. So, she changed the subject with, "So, Night, what do you guys have planned for today?"

Night Glider perked up. "Well, my mom has brought craft supplies so we can make ornaments. Trust me, we make some of the coolest ornaments that you'll ever see!"

Sugar Belle beamed. "Oh, really? Well, sounds fun! I am a bit of an artist myself."

"All right, let's get those crafts out and start!" Night Glider hovered, gearing up to go back into the house. However, a moment of pause had her looking at her floating house, and then back to her wingless friend. "Uh... can unicorns use magic to walk on clouds?"

"Uh... I can't perform spells like that. I'm a baker, not a magical prodigy."

Night Glider scratched her head. "Guess we should art it up at your place instead."





The pegasus family hauled the boxes of craft supplies from Night Glider's house to Sugar Belle's loft, while Sugar Belle herself set up a table for the five of them to work at. As she placed the stools around the unfolded table, she kept on glancing at the medium sized boxes that had been placed on her bed. She imagined that in those boxes were things like paints, glitter, cotton balls, and other tools to craft the ornaments, much like a schoolfilly's art project. She wasn't sure why a family that was mostly athletic pegasi touted this as a great tradition of theirs to share with her, but who was she to judge?

Then, when she and the pegasus family was seated, one of the boxes was opened and out came something she didn't expect. 

Star Catcher daintily pulled jars from the box and set them down gently in front of her. Inside each jar appeared to be a weather phenomenon, each blowing, precipitating, or gleaming in their own unique ways. Sugar Belle scanned the jars, spotting rainfall, snowfall, jumping rainbows, lightning, mini tornadoes, and many more kinds of weather. 

"Whoa..." she said, blinking. "Are you implying that you make ornaments with... weather inside them?"

Star Catcher nodded, patting the snowing jar. "Indeed, Miss Belle! Every Hearth's Warming, we strive to create a work of art in our little baubles combining the forces of nature with classic art implements, resulting in the most uniquely decorated tree in the neighborhood."

Night Glider nudged Sugar Belle. "I thought that I'd spice up the new ski resort's Hearth's Warming tree with our cool ornaments."

Wingspan grinned. "I thought my wife was crazy when she first told me about it... but, well, I realize that she's some sort of mad genius."

When she laid out the final jar, a few spoons, and a small net, Star hovered to the bed where the biggest box lay. "We've created many of them over the years, all of them having such a wonderful creative flair that not even the grandest magic could replicate." She reached in the box and pulled out the first ornament, when was raining golden glitter. "This is the first one I've ever made when I decided to experiment with the clouds. I'm still proud of it, even years later."

She put that one back and pulled out an ornament with a solemn snowfall descending over a little snowmare. "This one was Wingspan's first, which is dedicated to his late sister." She laid it back it gently, with a sad smile toward her husband. 

She pulled out another with a colorful tornado inside. "This one was Night Glider's first." She then pulled out one that held a rainbow of red, white, and green hopping between heart-shaped clouds. "And this one was Fleetfoot's first. Oh, I'm happy that my little girls have inherited my  artistic talents, though it's none of our special talents."

Both Fleetfoot and Night Glider blushed. "Mom..."

"We've had a few broken over the years; I had to catch the cloud, remove the decoration, and place it back in the right weather jar--I don't want to lose any cloud from the collection." Star shook her head sadly, clearly thinking of amazing ones that befell an unfortunate fate. She turned to Sugar Belle and smiled. "Don't you think our weather ornaments are amazing, sweetie?"

Sugar Belle nodded, her eyes wide and dazzling from her awe at the examples. "You weren't kidding when you said that your ornaments were 'cool'... I've never seen anything like it! Although, I wonder how--"

"Star has a collection of weather patterns?" Wingspan interrupted. "Her father works at the weather factory and has gathered leftovers to give her the collection. It's kind of a common practice among those workers."

"Or how they're susthained over the years?" Fleetfoot said. "Concentrated pegasuth magic can keep weather patterns going for decades... we just don't do it because too much of a type of weather is pretty bad for the ground."

Night Glider sighed. "Or maybe she was asking how we even transfer pieces of the weather from the jar to the empty ornaments?" She patted Sugar Belle's back. "Well, Belle, we have specialized tools for that--like a little scoop to snag and carry a piece, and a net to catch any runaway clouds. Don't worry, anypony can use them, so you can still make your own as long as you do it very carefully and with great skill."

"Yes, I was going to ask that last one... and the how of you even mix the art stuff with the weather!" Sugar Belle idly tightened her hair tie, staring at the one with the lightning with concern. "I still would appreciate seeing how it's done."

Star smiled. "I agree that a demonstration will help. Now, what cloud should we use?"

Wingspan scoffed. "Not the lightning, that's for sure--that one's a fighter! We haven't successfully made any ornaments with that one, try as we have over the years." He turned to his daughters. "And you know you're not allowed to touch it until your mother has figured out how to handle it."

Night Glider crossed her front legs, grumbling under her breath, "What makes her an expert? She's a masseuse. I'm the only actual weather mare in this family." 

Star nodded at her husband. "You're right, Wing... perhaps the calmest cloud is the best example to use."





Sugar Belle's first attempts at scooping pieces of weather naturally had the little clouds flying away from her. She levitated the cloud scoop and swiped some as quickly as she could, only for them to take off and lead her on a chase with the mini cloud net. She'd be hopping all over her own furniture, swinging the net and missing the runaway cloud. She had to take extra care to step around the ornament boxes so that she didn't smash any precious memories of Night Glider's family. 

Her first attempt was with the rainbow cloud, so that one didn't fight back, and she caught it just long enough to force it into an ornament and shut it. In looking at her rainbow, she desired to sprinkle glitter in there to make the rainbow sparkle, but she worried that once she opened the ornament, it would escape. She was thankful that Night Glider was kind enough to dump some glitter inside, and then Sugar Belle shook it to mix them. 

She later tried to scoop from the rain and snow clouds, subjected to the chase a second and third time. This time, however, her hair ended up damp from being rained and snowed on. She could have sworn she heard them blow raspberries at her when those happened. Luckily, she managed to net the cloud both times, and quickly stuffed them into the ornament. And again, she wanted a certain effect, only to fear that they'd escape when a non-pegasus opened the ornament. 

Again Night Glider helped her keep the clouds in the ornaments, and Sugar put paint and food color in them respectively. However, it only resulted in muddy brown paint rain, and yellow snow. After the sounds of obvious stifled laughter from the pegasus family, all agreed that yellow was a terrible color for snow. 

Gazing at her three ornaments, she kept on inwardly cringing at them. The sparkling rainbow's glitter kept on falling off, not sticking on like she had seen the pegasi do with theirs. The muddy rain had turned the entire inside of the ornament's glass walls into an opaque brown, rendering her unable to see anything going on in the little orb. She didn't even want to look at the yellow snow again. 

Meanwhile, the orbs across from her were fantastic. In one of Night Glider's, there were small gold stars that dotted the piece of rainbow cloud, accompanied by blue, dark purple, and silver glitter to create a so-called "rainbow" of a starry night. Fleetfoot had essentially created a blizzard tornado with one of hers, Star Catcher had a cloud ballerina that rotated in its pirouette, colored in soft colors, and Wingspan had floating candy cane shape in his foggy ornament, though she knew that they were just weaved hairs plucked from his mustache.  Gazing at those and others, she couldn't help but wonder what kind of pegasus sorcery this was to manipulate the weather that finely. 

Finally Fleetfoot stood up and stretched. "Well, I'm hungry."

Wingspan looked at his watch. "Oh, lunchtime already? Wow! Where did the time go?"

"Indeed; I'm famished myself," said Star Catcher as she slid off the stool. "Let's go find some place to eat."

"Well, Sugar Belle's cafe is downstairs," Night Glider said. "Maybe her coworkers could whip something up."

Star clapped. "Sounds wonderful!"

Wingspan grinned and flew to the door, swinging it open. "In that cause, I'm going to see if they have any fruitcake! I haven't had any of that in years, and I crave the fruity goodness of a classic holiday treat!"

Fleetfoot cringed as she followed her father out the door. "You do that, Dad. I'm having pumpkin pie."

Star Catcher pranced after them, and Night Glider nearly followed until she noticed Sugar Belle still forlornly staring at her ornaments. After gazing at her for a moment, she called to the rest of her family, "You guys go ahead, Sugar Belle and I will catch up!" Then, she hovered toward her friend and asked, "Hey, what's with the long face?"

Sugar Belle poked at the mud-brown ornament. "Look at these disasters. Father would mock these feeble attempts at art."

Night Glider rubbed her neck uncomfortably and then feigned a smile. "Well... so? Your father's not here, so he can't really say anything to you right now. Besides, I think you did pretty good for your first time... despite the clouds not cooperating... or the paint and glitter not sticking like you want... or the fact that this activity is heavily dependent on pegasus magic to work." She took one look at Sugar Belle's deadpan expression and grinned nervously. "I'm not helping, am I?"

Sugar Belle sighed. "I guess a simple baker unicorn can't really make ornaments like a pegasus can, huh?"

"No..." Night Glider looked to the floor with a sad pout. However, a few moments passed before a thought struck her mind and her face lit up. "But, maybe you can make an ornament like a simple baker unicorn! You know, something like maybe mixing up some dough and making a cookie or something in the ornament!" She jumped and hovered in the air, nearly hitting the ceiling. "It's perfect!"

Sugar Belle raised her head, her expression brighter. "Really? You think we can do that?"

Night Glider shrugged. "Hey, I'm up for trying it. But I'm pretty sure you can bake anything anywhere; it should be a piece of cake for you."

"Well, I suppose whatever result I get will be better than the yellow snow."





The two mares had taken a ornament down to the basement to mix up a small gingerbread pony. Estimating that it would be about one-eight the size of a normal cookie, Sugar Belle deduced the fraction of ingredients needed for the single small cookie in the ornament. In the little spoonfuls of ingredients went from the dry ones from the bags to the wet ones from the basement's ice box, and she stirred them with her magic. Night Glider carefully held the ornament and watched as the pile of haphazard mush was swirled into dough the shape of a pony.

"Sweet! You mixed it all together like a champ, Belle!" The dark-coated pegasus nudged her pink friend. "Like I said, piece of cake."

Sugar Belle giggled. "Well, you were certainly right about what kind of ornament I should have been making." She looked at her cookie in the glass orb. "However, I need to figure out a way to bake that. I don't know any instant bake spells, and that kind of glass would probably melt in the oven."

"Wow, guess we didn't think this through, huh?" Night Glider rubbed her chin. Then she smiled. "Okay, I've got an idea. Back up we go!"





Back at the craft table, Night Glider had dared to pull a certain jar out from its box, to which Sugar Belle gasped, "The lightning?!"

As the dark cloud rumbled and flashed within its jar, Night Glider patted the glass and nodded confidently. "Lightning's hot, so I thought it'd make for some instant baking."

Sugar Belle backed up. "But your parents said you're not ready to use it."

Night Glider raised an eyebrow. "Belle, I'm an adult and one of the best weather mares in town. I've dealt with some pretty nasty storm clouds in my time here in town, so, I think I can handle a dinky one for a quick moment of instant baking." She started to unscrew the jar. "Get your gingerbread pony ready."

Sugar Belle gulped, but levitated her ornament over, the tube on the top open for a small lightning bolt. She simultaneously kept the dough inside to its pony form, awaiting the moment when it'd be baked and keeping its form together on its own. That is, if the bolt didn't burn it to a crisp. 

The jar was opened, and immediately the thundercloud flew out of the jar, zapping Night Glider in the face before she could catch it. She yelped in pain and bumped the table in her cradling of her muzzle. Those actions resulted in Night dropping the jar, and the finished ornaments to roll off the table, all of which shattered upon impact with the floor. 

Watching painted and glittering clouds rise from the floor, Sugar Belle looked around with a grimace. "Night Glider..."

After rubbing her burnt nose, Night Glider huffed and exclaimed, "Don't worry, I've got it!" 

She zipped up to catch the thundercloud,, bumping her head on the ceiling in the process, only for her grab to not only shock her, but send a bolt of lightning Sugar Belle's way. A brief scream came out of the unicorn's mouth, and she dropped her ornament on the floor, leaving a pile of dough to fold into a sad blob. Above her, Night had let go of the thundercloud, which zipped around the room and started to zap everything. 

Night panted as she descended back to the floor. "What gives?! I've met some mean thunderclouds, but this one is just touchy!"

Sugar Belle groaned, heaving her frizzle-maned head up. "Maybe you should try the net..."

A boom of thunder sounded in the room, and Sugar Belle turned to find that the cloud had popped the balloon flower that Party Favor had made for her, and was zapping the dates off of her personal calendar. "And catch it quickly."

The duo were rained on by the muddy paint cloud passing by, followed by a glitter rainbow. Sputtering, Night Glider said, "And put it where? The jar's broken, several of the ornaments are broken--" She was briefly interrupted by a mini-tornado throwing snow and mustache hairs at her. "Not to mention we have a few other clouds floating around here! Ugh, and I liked my starry night rainbow too..."

"Look, I'll go get a jar, okay? I've got plenty in the basement, I'll be right back." Sugar Belle galloped to the closed door, and attempted to carefully pry it open to just a crack to slip through so that the clouds didn't escape. 

Night Glider grabbed the cloud net and bolted up in order to catch it. Unfortunately, it was just above Sugar Belle, and when Night swung the net over the cloud, it responded by shooting lightning once again, zapping Night across the room onto Sugar Belle's bed, and zapping Sugar Belle into throwing the door open. The unicorn stumbled to her back, and watched in horror as the cloud zipped out, followed by the art clouds. 

After sitting against the wall in a daze, Night Glider rolled off the bed, and then stumbled across the room. "Eugh... sorry, Super Belle... shoulda caught it in the otter sigh of da room..."

Sugar Belle sat up, wiping off glitter and paint that the art clouds had rained on her. "It's okay. We still need to catch them!"

"Well, nopony's going to throw open a window in this weather, so we can still get them."

Thunder rumbled downstairs. Both girls' eyes widened in horror, and they both screamed. 

"Oh, no, the cafe!" 





After holding open a door for Double Diamond, who was carrying a cake for his father's birthday, Party Favor made his way to the counter so that he could order a lunchtime batch of muffins to bring home. He muttered to himself the muffin flavors that his family wanted, making sure that he didn't forget. As he chanted to himself, he caught Night Glider's family from the corner of his eye, and turned to wave at them. The three sitting at that table waved back, with the parents smiling warmly and Fleetfoot doing a confident salute. 

However, he was confused by the lack of Night Glider, as well as no Sugar Belle, since it was that family's turn to be her host. 

Then, all of a sudden, a small thundercloud zoomed in, sending bolts of lightning at the nearest table and startling the ponies sitting there. It zapped each table as it hovered, prompting the cafe goers to jump, scream, and flee wherever the cloud floated. It was followed by a group of the most colorful clouds that Party Favor had ever seen, which rained brown paint, glitter, yellow snow--it better not be what he thought it was--and carried a mini tornado that threw snow and hair wherever it went. 

Party Favor ducked under a table, and looked around at the chaos unfolding before him. It was a madhouse, with everyone trying to take cover or trying to dig through the panicked crowd at the door. The calmest of anypony was Night Glider's stunned parents and sister, who were standing there stunned as if their pet had escaped from its cage. 

A scream came from upstairs, followed by rapid trip-traps down the stairs and Sugar Belle and Night Glider, both covered in paint and glitter, emerging from the hall leading to the former's loft. They froze and watched in horror as the thundercloud and its artsy companions chased the customers everywhere. 

Wingspan turned to the girls, his face now a scowl. "Night Glider!"

Said mare flinched, and turned to her father with a sheepish grin. "Oh, hey, Dad..."

"Why is the thundercloud out of its jar? Because last I remember, we put it back in the box so nopony could knock it over and break the jar. What in the blazing hay were you and your friend doing?!"

Night Glider rubbed the back of her head. "We were... trying to bake a cookie..."

"What does a cookie have anything to do with this?!" Star Catcher asked.

"See, I thought Sugar Belle would have been more comfortable making an ornament that fits her, so we mixed up some dough in one of them, and since we can't put it in the oven, I thought that lightning would have been a quick way to do it."

Fleetfoot facehoofed. "Lightning would have burnt it, stupid! The formal training you've never had would have had the temperature as a basic lesson! See, it's thith kind of immature thinking that got you rejected from the Wonderbolts!"

Night Glider visibly bristled. "Oh, really?"

Party Favor looked up from his spot under the table, watching the thundercloud still flying around and zapping everything in sight, either breaking them or leaving scorch marks. "Uh, guys?"

"Yeah, really," The mocking drawl rolled off Fleetfoot's tongue like a tumbling rock. "I made it in because I knew better than to showboat recklesthly at the academy and actually do what Spitfire said the way she expected me to do it."

Sugar Belle was at the front door, begging the ponies crowded there not to open it and let the clouds escape. Some argued that they wanted to get out of there and onto the safe street; a pony would be crazy to stay and be at the mercy of a runaway thundercloud! Meanwhile, Wingspan and Star Catcher went off to find some containers to catch the clouds in, though they were zapped away from some spots by the cloud. Party Favor still sat under the table, saying, "Guys..."

"I wasn't showboating! I was trying to have a little fun while doing the routine!" Night Glider shouted. 

Fleetfoot rolled her eyes. "Well, Spitfire sure didn't see it that way--and even if she did, you still wouldn't have gotten in because it's a fact that you're too childish! She saw that I am the more mature out of the two of us, and thusth, she saw it fit to have the better one on her team."

Party Favor jumped when a lightning bolt hit his table. "Guys!"

"For crying out loud! I can't believe you're so arrogant just because you're five minutes older than me!" Night Glider shouted. 

Fleetfoot huffed. "Well, I guess five minutes was enough difference between keeping composure under pressure, and giving up your cutie mark because you're a sore loser!"

Night Glider's eye twitched, and she roared as she tackled her sister and started throwing punches, to which Fleetfoot gladly returned the favor. Wingspan was quick to notice the scuffle, and dived down to try to break them up while his wife still searched for an empty container to use. Sugar Belle looked between the door that ponies were filing out of and the clouds that were still flying around the room and causing a mess, hoping that none of them zipped out of the door when it was open. And Party Favor had stood up to shout, "Hey, fighting's not gonna solve anything!"

The thundercloud passed right over him, and it shot a lightning bolt straight at his horn. 

All stopped when they watched him contort and tremble from the pain of the sudden zap, and then fall to the floor in a daze, his mane frizzier and his coat giving off sparks. Sugar Belle gasped and ran to his side, and Night Glider dropped the fight to join them. 

"Party Favor!" Sugar Belle exclaimed. "Oh, my goodness, I didn't realize you were here until... oh, my, are you okay?"

Party Favor just looked up at the ceiling, seeing stars. "I'm sure the Pisces constellation will lead me to Aquastria..."

Night Glider looked at his horn. "Ouch. It can't be fun having a direct hit on what amounts to having a lightning rod on your head."

Sugar Belle covered her horn with her hooves. "I feel buzzy just thinking about it. Oh, maybe the cookie was a bad idea."

Night Glider sighed. "Yeah."

Star Catcher popped up from behind the counter, waving with an empty jar in her hoof. "I found one!" She then quickly flew forward and caught the thundercloud in one fell swoop, sticking the landing and holding up the jar proudly. "That's a trick my Papa taught me."

The remaining ponies at the door cheered, while Night Glider and Sugar Belle just started. Behind them, Wingspan helped Fleetfoot up and both were just nodded proudly at her. After a few moments of this, the customers then left the ravaged cafe, and glares were shot towards Night Glider. 

Wingspan rubbed his temple. "Well... I hope you realize now why we don't touch that thundercloud. Now we have to catch the other clouds,  clean up Miss Belle's cafe, and get Mr. Favor to a doctor... maybe even fly him to a hospital."

Party Favor shook his head and hoisted his front half up. "I'm fine, really." He winced and rubbed his horn. "Oh, ow... my horn hurts..."

"You still should see the doctor," Star Catcher said.

Party Favor stood up shakily, nearly stumbling on getting on all four hooves. "Okay... I'll do that..." He turned and ambled toward the door, grumbling about how he didn't want to explain his current jittery state and his hurting horn to his family. 

Wingspan scratched his head. "Well, considering what happened, he seems to be recovering quickly."

Sugar Belle smiled. "Oh, he has a way of bouncing back from these things."

Fleetfoot scanned the cafe, littered with overturned tables and chairs, scorch marks, paint, glitter, and food splattered all over the floor. She crossed her front legs and turned away to ignore her sister's scowl as she said, "Well, thanks a lot, Night Glider--we're spending the rest of the afternoon cleaning up this mess." 

A glittery rainbow cloud hovered above, raining some of its glitter on Fleetfoot, which managed to make Night giggle a bit. Fleetfoot noticed very quickly, and spat out some of the glitter. "Can we catch the other clouds now? I'm not in the mood to become a disco ball."
> The Rune Family, Part 1: Ice Skating
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

There was only one day left until Party Favor was the host. Under normal circumstances, he'd be more than happy to celebrate Hearth's Warming with one of his dearest friends and make her happy on the most wonderful time of the year. But, as the time grew closer for Night Glider's turn to end and his to begin, Party Favor was letting a concern vex him. He was grateful that his sister was the understanding type, and so caught her reading in the guest room on his top floor.

"I'm not sure if our family's ready for her yet."

Silk Shimmer looked up from her book. "Huh?"

Party Favor shuffled his hooves. "Yeah, I know, right? I haven't really gotten Dad to come around on the whole horn and balloon things, and I don't know if we might accidentally remind her of her dad if we end up arguing. I mean, her dad and our dad both have high expectations destined to be disappointed, so..."

"Relax, Party Favor, I'm sure Dad will behave while Sugar Belle's around."

Party Favor paced in front of the bed his sister sat on, chewing on his hoof. "I don't want any of our family tension to get in the way of giving Sugar Belle a good Hearth's Warming! She's already had to deal with evil squirrels, bad bakers, and runaway clouds--what if Dad and I fight and some out-of-control magic turns a snowpony into the Abominable Snowpony, and then it eats her?!"

Silk did not hesitate to throw the book in his face. "No, bad Party Favor, paranoid fantasies have no place this time of year." She levitated the book place to her hooves and turned the pages back to where she was. "Besides, I'm sure she'll have a good laugh over those memories in the future. You two laughed over the whole evil squirrel thing earlier."

Party Favor sighed. "You're right, maybe I am getting too worked up about this. We'll just have our normal family traditions.... 'cept with her instead of Kaz." He felt a sharp zap in his horn, and proceeded to cradle his aching head. "Ow..."

Silk scooted over as Party Favor sat down. "Still hurting from yesterday?" 

Party Favor nodded, still holding his head. "I hate being a lightning rod."

Silk grimaced. "That cloud could have fried your brain. I hear that hundreds of unicorns a year die from lightning strikes to the horn. Maybe you only survived and kept your mind intact was because it was a small cloud? Or is it the concentrated crazy of party ponies protecting you? I've seen Comedy Gold get into a lot of situations..."

"Both?" Party Favor deadpanned. 

Silk twiddled her hooves. "Maybe. In any case, you still have a day to rest before we have our turn with Sugar Belle. I wonder how she's doing with Night Glider's family."

A sudden smack on the window behind them made them jump, and they spun around to see what it was. There was Night Glider, pressed up on the glass with a dazed expression, and it was a few seconds before she slid down and fell down to earth. 

The two unicorns rushed to the window, and opened it up to peer down at the pegasus-shaped hole in the blanket of snow. Leaning forward, Party Favor hollered, "Night Glider? Are you okay?"

"Pumpkin spice is overrated. I vote cornbread for president!"

Sugar Belle galloped from over the hill and to the hole, where Night Glider sat up and rubbed her head. "Oh dear! I didn't mean to give you the wrong direction! I got my rights and my lefts mixed up, and you were flying everywhere so fast I couldn't keep up... I'm so sorry!"

"S'okay, Sugar Belle..." Night Glider mumbled. "Helping a pegasus practice a formation is tricky, so I don't blame you." She narrowed her eyes. "Now, Fleetfoot, on the other hoof..."

She sped off into the distance, shouting, "You did that on purpose, Flatface!"

Sugar Belle had a hoof on her head. "Oh, no..." She glanced upward at the two ponies peeking from the window, and explained, "I was being a spotter for them while they practiced for the opening, and they just ended up bouncing off each other. Sorry to bother you guys."

"Oh, we really weren't doing anything," Party Favor said. "Just discussing tomorrow."

Sugar Belle smiled. "I'm looking forward to it!" She turned and started to gallop away. "See you later!"

Party Favor waved goodbye, and then rested his chin on the windowsill with a sigh. That was such a sweet smile that she had; he sure didn't want to disappoint her. He prayed that there wouldn't be any more mishaps for her; she had dealt with enough. 

Silk tapped his shoulder. "Okay, can we close the window now? It's cold outside!"





The next morning, Sugar Belle had bruises from breaking up the fight between Night Glider and Fleetfoot the day before, and despite her attempts to clean, she felt as if there was still glitter in her mane from the ornament fiasco the day before that. With their sisterly bond, Night Glider and Fleetfoot certainly weren't going to have a show for the opening unless they got their act together. It made Sugar Belle wonder what her life would have been like if she had grown up with a sibling. 

Would they have been the metaphorical punching bag instead?

Not wanting to dampen her own mood, she instead thought of how today it was Party Favor's family's turn. Knowing that he had a way of lightening up the mood no matter what the situation, she was looking forward to it. After all, if he could provide a little respite from the terror of Starlight's reign, even without his cutie mark, then Hearth's Warming should be a piece of cake for him. 

She had scarcely knocked on his door thrice before it was thrown open and she was wrapped in a hug by a stallion of light blue. 

"I'm so happy you're here!" Party Favor exclaimed. He broke the hug and dragged her inside. "Come on, my sister would like to get to know you better!"

Sugar Belle giggled. "Well, after hearing a bunch about her from you, I'd like to know her too."

Once in Party Favor's living room, where his parents sat on the couch with hobbies of theirs, Sugar Belle was greeted with another hug, this time from a Silk Shimmer exclaiming, "Hi! I'm so glad that our family is finally hosting you!" 

Sugar Belle giggled. "And I'm glad to be a part of your traditions this year."

The father, Quasar Rune, glanced up from his book. "Well, seems that Silk Shimmer has already taken a shine to you, Miss Belle."

His wife, Merry Maykin, was crocheting a scarf. "She did always want a sister."

Silk broke the hug, though still had her hooves on Sugar Belle's shoulders. "Tonight, after the family day trip, we should do makeovers."

"Oh! I've always wanted to do a makeover with my friends, but..." Sugar Belle grimaced, her heart sinking at the thought of those accursed curfews and the hours of effort to make a dish perfect, lest she face the wrath of a certain someone.

Silk tilted her head. "But what?"

Sugar Belle pursed her lips. "Well, my social life dwindled when I was a teenager. My friends got mad at me for baking all the time."

Merry looked up. "But what is wrong with baking, sweetie?"

"Well, when they think that's all your life amounts to, no matter how much you love it, your friends get sick of you being a one-trick pony. One tried to keep up our friendship and help me open a bakery when we were grown up, but she too left when that fell through."

"Oh, ouch!" Silk Shimmer exclaimed. "I'm sorry that happened to you. Being defined as just one thing can be crippling... in more ways than one." She glanced between her reading father and her brother as she said that, expecting some sort of reaction. She then continued, "Well, since you're going to be my 'sister' for the next couple days, I'll happily teach you a thing or two about makeovers and show you a few magic tricks, and maybe you could lend me some baking tips and, uh... okay, I'm curious, what other hobbies do you have?"

"I like arts and crafts. And snowball fights. And telekinesis workouts."

Silk laughed. "I guess that's a non-mage unicorn magic practice you're talking about, huh?"

Party Favor piped in with, "In telekinetic terms... she's buff."

Sugar Belle broke down into laughter, ending up down on the floor in her giggle fits. Party Favor grinned and waggled his eyebrows, while Silk just rolled her eyes and shook her head, though not without a few giggles of her own. "Why are you like this, bro?"

"He's got to compensate somehow," Quasar muttered, not taking his eyes off his book. If he noticed Party Favor's glare, he didn't show it, and most of his distraction fell to his wife hitting him on his shoulder and giving him a scolding glower. 

Sugar Belle stood up, and still laughing, asked, "So, does that mean your brother's 'buff', too?"

All fell eerily quiet. Both Silk Shimmer and Party Favor grimaced, backing away and rubbing the backs of their heads, with Silk having an involuntary shudder. Merry froze in her crocheting, and Quasar simply tensed up, breathing sharply through his nose, and his lips in a tight line. Sugar Belle kicked herself over having said that, because of course Kazam was powerful--it was the misuse of that power that landed him behind bars. She especially looked at Quasar, and wondered what he was thinking.

"...I'm sorry I said that."

Quasar sighed and stood up. "Oh, no... I suppose the term 'buff' applied to him too... though more in general magic than just telekinesis. But, you meant no offense, Miss Belle, so I won't take any. But, let us get ready for our outing."

He turned and left the room, presumably to fetch something. Sugar Belle heard Party Favor growl, and asked, "Is he okay?"

Party Favor scoffed. "When the jailed favorite gets brought up, he sulks over the tragedy; but it's perfectly okay to pick on the disappointment."

Merry resumed her crocheting, focusing on finishing that last row. "Now, now, Party Favor, your father does have a right to be upset over one of his foals being incarcerated, though he should get over his problems with your disability. He does love you and has always wanted you to reach your full potential. His problem is that his definition's a bit narrow, and he can't take a hint."

Party Favor looked up at his horn and grumbled, "Not like I asked for it, Dad."

"Okay, we're not here to wallow in any misery, we're here to share our happy Hearth's Warming traditions with Party Favor's friend," Silk Shimmer said. "This entire thing was your idea, little brother, so...

"Heh..." Party Favor cleared his throat, and turned back to smile at his pink friend. "So, Sugar Belle, have you ever been ice skating before?"

Sugar Belle put a hoof to her chin. "No, but I've always wanted to."





"Okay, I'm having second thoughts on this."

Sugar Belle couldn't quite recall how she got in the middle of the mountain pond. All she knew was that she was there, barely keeping balance on a quartet of ice skates, and that any momentum she once had vanished, leaving her to slide to a stop. Looking down at the sheet below her, her mind went to every possible thing that could go wrong. Frostbite, slipping and hitting her head, falling through the ice, a sudden avalanche, or maybe all of the above could happen and have them all injured or even dead. 

Then there was Party Favor and family, most of whom danced across the ice like professionals. Merry and Silk jumped and spun in various edge and toe jumps, with axels and Lutzes being spruced up with shimmering magic creating Hearth's Warming-themed illusions. The girls often weaved past each other, and sometimes even twirled together in their improvised ballet. She swore she could hear classical music go along with them. 

Party Favor frequently went up on two hooves, mainly to mold some balloons into a hoop (without popping it with his skates somehow), and jumping through it. Forwards, backwards, with a flip, or even hula-hooping with the balloons, the blue party pony was having a blast. He did not go unnoticed by Quasar Rune, who just rolled his eyes, and continued skating in a simple promenade. 

Sugar Belle tried to shuffle forward. Oh, how she envied their prowess! But she was no stranger to a fear of slipping, and she did not want her chin or even her rump to feel how cold the ice was. It was almost embarrassing, feeling this pathetic from barely moving and thinking about the potential pain so much. 

And she could hear his voice mock, "Here you are, flinching again, you little wimp! Come on, you know that I wouldn't leave a mark on you when I'm letting off steam, and you're pathetic for always crying about pain that never comes. Besides, I would've dented my lucky pan with your thick head!"

She was willing to bet that he'd kick her to make her go faster.

Quasar Rune drifted to where she was. "It appears you're having trouble, Miss Belle."

"Oh, uh, I'm sure I can get the hang of this." She smiled weakly at the older unicorn and attempted a step forward. "I mean, I'm very much self-taught with my baking and I've done all my homework on my own as a filly, so why can't I teach myself how to--YIPE!"

She was lucky that Quasar caught her with his magic just before her chin hit the ice. "It is not advisable to attempt a regular hoofstep on the ice. See, this is more about pushing yourself across the ice than it is about pulling yourself forward."

Party Favor was the next on the scene. "Hey, what's going on here?"

"Honestly, I'm disappointed that you didn't notice your friend's struggle sooner, Party Favor," Quasar said, balancing Sugar Belle on her skates. "But, nevertheless, she needs assistance, and I'm willing to show her the proper technique."

"It would be nice to figure out the whole skating steps thing," Sugar Belle said. "I mostly just slid like an awkward deer."

Party Favor glanced between them, and then went forward to take Sugar Belle's foreleg in his own. "I think she'd learn faster by doing."

Quasar shrugged. "Hm. Just as long as you don't make her jump through any balloon hoops."

"I know the concept of 'baby steps', Dad," Party Favor replied, narrowing his eyes. He turned to Sugar Belle and brightened. "Come on, Sugar Belle, let's have a little stroll around the lake!"

"Okay--whoa!" Sugar Belle didn't have much time to speak before Party Favor pushed forward and glided across the lake. At first, she tried to canter across the ice in her shock, only for no traction to be gained and for her to revert back to being frozen on stiff legs, only this time she was holding Party Favor's foreleg as tightly as she could, to the point that she worried her skate was poking him. Breathing rapidly, she felt like she was barreling toward her doom. 

"It's okay, I've got you!" Party Favor said. "Just push your back left..."

Sugar Belle nervously complied. 

"And then your right..."

She followed suit, and started alternating between pushing and gliding with each hoof. The more she did it, the more natural it felt, and she felt herself growing more comfortable with each step. Without Party Favor's instruction, her one front hoof on the ice started playing along.

Party Favor grinned. "Haha! You're doing it! You're starting to get it!"

Sugar Belle giggled. "So I am! It didn't end up like Double Diamond's skiing lessons!"

"Well, we can't say that for sure until I let you go." Party Favor winked. "Just tell me when you're ready, and I can let you glide freely."

Left and right, left and right, Sugar Belle thought to herself. She kept looking down at intervals to make sure that she was still doing it correctly, unsure if she should ask Party Favor to let her go. But, still, looking up made her want to gaze at the beauty of the snowy hills, glistening under sunbeams poking through the overcast sky. She also wanted to watch Merry and Silk jump and twirl, creating their illusions of stars and snow, and of bells of Hearth's Warming trees. She also noted Quasar's watchful eye, making sure they weren't getting into trouble. Indeed, the longer she went, the more fun she was having. 

As she watched the girls, she remarked, "They're sure giving a flair to their skating."

He shrugged. "They're performers, they can't really resist giving them a flair. My mom's a professional magician, and when she's in performance mode... well, of course she's show-offy. Silk Shimmer's a little shyer, but just enough that... well, you heard the story about her assisting those con artists for a time because she had trouble selling herself."

"Yep. Hehehe, I still find the idea of a circus train funny."

"Well, I prefer real circuses, with amazing performers like the great clown Ponyacci! Though, it's cool to think about Silk in a circus, with the kind of tricks she's using right now." He pouted in thought for a moment. "Now that I think about it, does Double Diamond know how to skate?"

Sugar Belle turned back to him. "Maybe? His family did say he was always into winter sports."

"Well, if not, I bet he'd be a fast learner; like you are!"

Sugar Belle smirked. "Well... we can't say for sure until you let me go, hm?"

Party Favor blinked, nodded, and drifted away, slowly releasing his grip, up until they were only attached by the blades. "Okay, are you absolutely sure you're ready?"

Sugar Belle felt her heart jump into her throat, but said, "Yes", anyway.

They broke apart, and Sugar Belle was on her own. She looked at her hooves, making sure they were still doing the push-and-glide thing that she was told to do, and then looked forward to see any obstacles. She turned before she could hit Quasar Rune, and as she passed him, shouted, "Your son's a great teacher!", and then continued on. 

Party Favor jumped for joy and spun. "You're doing great, Sugar Belle!" 

As Party Favor landed, Merry laughed and hollered, "You're so proud that you just did a triple axel yourself!"

Sugar Belle laughed. She continued to glide over the ice, with her legs automatically performing the movements. She felt like she was flying, much like a bird who escaped its cage. Was this how Night Glider felt when in the sky, or how Double Diamond felt when he was skiing? The euphoria of just skating across the ice was breathtaking, and she can only imagine the thrill of landing a jump. 

Finally, she met up with Silk Shimmer, and skated by her side. "By the way, thanks for your help."

Silk pouted. "I didn't realize you were having trouble! I get brain farts like that a lot. At least Party Favor helped you out, hm?"

Sugar Belle giggled. "Well, I sure hope you're planning on a good makeover tonight. Judging by how you apply your own, doing my face should be a piece of cake."

"Pfft, I've done multiple of my friends' faces at once. As Party Favor would put it, I'm magically 'buff' too."

"Is your whole family 'buff'?"

Silk snorted and shook her head. "We really need to stop using that term. But, yeah, strong magic runs in the family." Silk frowned and watched Party Favor as he was showing off for their mother. "It really made it all the more glaring when we found out about Party Favor's horn. Since then, Dad had been cooler toward him, and his cutie mark... didn't really help. I'm not as powerful as Kaz, but at least I didn't feel unloved because of something I couldn't control. I can't imagine what that's like."

Sugar Belle looked down on the ice, thinking back to her foalhood. Named after her mother, who died in foaling, and unfairly blamed for it. Expected to become exactly like her namesake to repent of her 'sin'. Treated kindly when she behaved like her, and treated harshly when she dared to be different. How dare she not be as interested in shopping as her mother, and how dare she end up inheriting something from her father. How dare she not be the supposed perfection in baking that Mother was, or even as 'good a cook' as her father. What a wonder that Sugar Belle didn't turn out like Starlight Glimmer. 

Now that she thought about it, what had Starlight's life been like?

"Me neither," Sugar Belle muttered. She wasn't quite sure if it was a lie or not. 

Then, out of nowhere, Silk shouted to her brother, "Where'd you get that kite?!"

Sugar Belle looked up, and sure enough, Party Favor had acquired a kite somehow. However, noticing how colorful the kite was, it was plain as day that he made it out of his balloons. The real question was where the heck he stored those balloons. 

His kite caught the wind and pulled him forward. His skates slashed thin, white lines across the blue ice, and he weaved around the lake as if he was water skiing. He alternated between spreading his legs wide and bringing them close together again, and lifted various limbs to strike a pose like a professional figure skater would. He even took the time to wave to his mother, and to the still promenading Silk Shimmer and Sugar Belle as he passed them. 

Quasar let out a sigh. "Why can't he leave balloons out of these activities for once..."

Then, Party Favor made the mistake of trying to jump. Instead of landing like he did earlier, a sudden updraft carried him up high into the air. Joyful laughter morphed into terrified screams, and before he knew it, everypony else were colorful dots on the ice. 

Meanwhile, Sugar Belle gasped. "Oh, no! I don't think the balloons will survive up there for very long."

"The atmosphere is not kind to balloons," Quasar murmured, watching the scene carefully. "If he didn't defy the laws of physics regularly, I'd say that's the biggest risk, but, I'm expecting a descent more ridiculous than that."

"Why are you so calm?!" Merry snapped. "My baby's up there!"

Silk Shimmer skated forward. "Well, I'm going to find out where he's landing so--"

She didn't get to finish the sentence before a family of birds flew right into Party Favor's balloon kite, and the pop startled her out of talking. As her brother fell, Silk prepared a bouncy bubble spell on the ice to give him a soft landing. Unfortunately, she realized that she had formed it just a few feet off, as Party Favor crashed through the ice, and into the black water right next to her. 

Everypony flinched at the sight, and skated over to the hole that Party Favor made. While Merry was screaming and trying to shake her hsuband in a fit of rage, Silk and Sugar Belle held her back, while Quasar leaned over the hole, his horn glowing for a few moments before he levitated a shivering and coughing Party Favor out of the hole. 

"Only you could survive something like that," Quasar said. "Still, taking your magic signature earlier this week proved to be useful."

He levitated him over to Merry, who grabbed her baby and hugged him as tightly as she could. Both Silk and Sugar Belle breathed a sigh of relief, and gathered around them to make sure that he was all right. Aside from the shivering, Party Favor only cradled his horn and complained, "Ugh... I'm cold... I ache... and my horn hurts again..."

"Yeah, I imagine that getting electrocuted and falling from the sky into a frozen lake in the same week is not very good for your health," Sugar Belle said. "Maybe we should just head back to your place. Ice skating was fun while it lasted."

"I was thinking the same thing," Quasar said, skating back to land to fetch their items. 

As everypony carried him back to shore, Party Favor said, "While I warm up, you girls can have fun with your makeovers."
> The Rune Family, Part 2: Figures
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sugar Belle sure was glad that Silk Shimmer had been her makeover partner that night, because she felt the prettiest that she had ever been in her entire life. Her eyelashes were fuller and yet amazingly soft, and she could actually feel how rosy her cheeks were now. Silk had chosen a deeper pink lipstick to put on Sugar Belle's lips, and worked a flowered hairband in her bouncy purple curls. When finished, Silk made Sugar Belle twirl around like a little filly, because "beauty should not be stiff". 

"You were pretty before, but, it's always fun to figure out a way to enhance that!" Silk had squealed. 

Sugar Belle's attempt at applying makeup on Silk didn't go as well. Poor Silk Shimmer ended up looking like a gingerbread pony. 

Sugar Belle didn't mind that Silk wiped it all off when Party Favor laughed, but she herself wanted to keep her makeup on. Merry liked it, Party Favor liked it, and Quasar... well, he at least acknowledged that his daughter did a good job doing the makeover. So, Sugar Belle kept it on the rest of the night, even while having hot cocoa and sharing recipes for desserts with the family.

Even when she went home for the night, she still looked in the mirror and admired it. 

She imagined herself back in Fillydelphia, striding down the street like she walked down a red carpet. Heads were turned to gaze at that pretty little unicorn, who beamed with the confidence she wasn't allowed to have in youth. They all cheered as she danced, and with with each stallion she twirled to, she gained a flower in her mane. Her old friends and her new friends joined her in her dance, laughing along with a joyful tune, and the whole city cheering for them. My, how she felt alive. 

Then, all of a sudden, she was face to face with her father. She cowed at the sight of the older stallion's scowl, and was subjected to his painful grab of her horn. In her mind's ear, she could clearly hear him roar, "Wipe that gunk off your face! You look like a floozy!"

Sugar Belle winced under the pain of his grip. "But, Dad--"

"Don't you 'But, Dad' me, Missy! How's about you stick to learning to not bake garbage, instead of training to be a showgirl?"

"Can't I just feel beautiful for a moment?"

"Pfft, as if! Your mother never needed to dress up like a clown to be beautiful! Too bad that following in her steps is impossible for you, no matter how much I try to knock sense into you. You just have a knack for ruining everything."

Sugar Belle's heart sunk. She would never be the stunning beauty that her mother was. She would never inspire the number of awestruck friends that her mother did, nor would she strike a passionate romance like her. She would never match up to her mother's baking ability, which was rumored in her neighborhood to make taste buds sing and dance like it was a big holiday. She would never be as smart, as talented, or as reliable as the previous Sugar Belle was. The proof was in that failed business long ago, her last friend leaving her in a huff, and her fearful impulse to run away before the word could reach her father.

Sugar Belle wiped the makeup off. It was time for bed, and keeping it on would not be comfortable in her sleep. Tomorrow was Hearth's Warming Eve, and the second day with Party Favor's family. She wondered what traditions they were going to show her next, giving her a fuller picture of the Rune family Hearth's Warming--though one missing family member didn't allow her to complete it. 

Then, as she slipped into bed, she wondered how it was going to go south. After all, each day had some sort of disaster happen, no matter who she was with. She felt like the bad luck charm of Hearth's Warming's traditions; maybe she should have stayed out of her friends' family affairs. 

However, she huffed defiantly. No, she thought, she was going to enjoy this holiday like a normal pony, even if it killed her!





If there was anything that wouldn't lead to a big mishap, it would be making Hearth's Warming figures. 

Sugar Belle could barely remember the days of her Grandma's needlework or school projects, but it was enough for her to pick up sewing quickly. They all sat around Party Favor's living room, each having drawn out designs for their individual figures and started their projects, be they dolls or statuettes. Or in Party Favor's case, a balloon figure, hence why he was the first to finish and put on a designated shelf. Now, he was just planning out other balloon figures of Hearth's Warming symbols. 

"As you can see," Silk Shimmer said, pointing with one of her knitting needles. "He's an eager beaver for making holiday art in the best way he knows how. He's already got a balloon Hearth's Warming Tree in the corner, now he just needs to do everything else."

Sugar Belle looked at said tree, as finely decorated as any real tree despite having less detailed branches, and nodded in agreement. "You should have seen when he decorated for Nightmare Night."

Quasar Rune, who had been slicing away at a wood block, glanced up at his horn. "Balloon decor in a house full of unicorns. Can't see how that would go wrong."

"Oh, don't worry, before the trip, I taught myself an indestructibility spell to cast on them so there are no accidents," Merry said, crocheting away. "I frankly don't want to pick up popped balloons like we've done every year, and no artist likes his artwork destroyed."

"Thanks, Mom!" Party Favor chirped.

Quasar groaned, and cringed when the squeaks of Party Favor's balloon modeling rang out again. From taking a peek at Party Favor's sheet and looking at the snowflake that he was crafting, he deduced that he was going to make a lot of those to hang from the ceiling. Just thinking about it was giving Quasar a headache, and he tried to focus on his wood carving.

"Did you always decorate with balloons?" Sugar Belle asked. 

"Well, Party Favor always tried, but..." Merry paused in her crocheting and looked at her needle, which was a dark blue. "His brother had a habit of picking on him. I do admit, it feels odd to have balloon decor now that Kazam's not here to pop it all."

"We usually just decorated with lights, bows, and the usual tree," Silk Shimmer said. She smiled at Sugar Belle, still knitting without looking. "How about you? How did you decorate?"

Sugar Belle looked at the little pink pillowcase she sewed and coolly stuffed it. "We were not much of a decorating family. The most that ever happened was rearranging the furniture, and maybe getting a discount tree from the local market."

Party Favor, having built a balloon stepladder, was hanging a snowflake from the ceiling. "Wait, did you even decorate the tree?"

"Mm, yeah, with crafts I made at school." Which was all burned once Hearth's Warming was over. All that hard work of hers gone to waste, because her father didn't bother separating the art from the tree when using it as firewood. She sewed the tiny "pillow" up, and twisted it to make a head. "I honestly had more Hearth's Warming fun at school, with arts and crafts, sharing treats, and listening to Hearth's Warming stories."

"Oh, telling Hearth's Warming stories to each other is a tradition of ours!" Silk exclaimed. "What's your favorite? I liked 'The Best Hearth's Warming Pageant Ever'."

"I liked 'The Innkeeper'," Merry said, enchanting each snowflake Party Favor put up. 

"'A Hearth's Warming Tale'," Quasar muttered.

"'The Ballad of Holly Daybreak!'" Party Favor cheered, jumping and slapping another snowflake onto the ceiling. 

Sugar Belle shrugged. "Well, I guess I liked the story of Equestria's Founding. And the one about the nutcracker. And I've heard all those but the Holly Daybreak one. Who is she?"

Party Favor continued to put up balloon snowflakes, bouncing his stepladder around. "A pony that started many of the traditions we celebrate today, like candy canes, Hearth's Warming trees, and gift giving. When Hearth's Warming became an obligation to keep away Windigos rather than a celebration of friends and family, she started them as symbolism for what Hearth's Warming is supposed to be about and for ponies to have fun and strengthen bonds." 

Once he put the last snowflake up, he hopped off and went back to his plans to decide what he should make next. "She traveled across Equestria to spread joy. She's kind of like... a party pony, in that sense."

"I don't know," said Quasar, his wood block now starting to resemble a pony. "It sounds like she may have ruined a solemn holiday with frivolities like that. No matter how much you sugarcoat it, her traditions have led to ponies making it all about the presents than about loving your fellow ponies."

Party Favor had started to make a model of a green mare--who Sugar Belle guessed was Holly--but stopped and looked up at his father with a glare. "Well, it's not her fault that some ponies miss the point. She just wanted to rekindle the joy of the holiday."

Quasar rolled his eyes. "With cheap fun and games, sure, good job, Holly. Well, if she's a so-called 'party pony', then I suppose that they all ruin serious matters by making light of them and making ponies avoid their problems rather than facing with them like an adult."

Merry gasped. "Quasar!"

With no indestructibility spell cast on that green balloon, a loud pop thundered through the house as Party Favor threw it on his own horn, snorting hotly. "Oh, I'm not facing my problems like an adult? Is that what you're saying? Gee, who was the one who started acting cold because I couldn't even lift an acorn with magic? Who was the one who insisted that it was a mistake when his oldest and favorite son ended up in jail because he misused magic? Who's the one who thinks it's okay to make snide jokes about my very nature as a party pony?"

Quasar dropped his half-carved figurine and stood up. "Oh, please tell me, who was the one who brought disaster to our home in hopes that he could please the fickle crowds of Canterlot? Who was the one who continually caused problems with those balloons, the damages of which we had to pay for? Who was the one who decided it was a good idea to run off and get his cutie mark removed because he couldn't stallion up and admit that he causes more trouble than it's worth?"

Party Favor stomped. "Oh, sure, make excuses like that instead of admitting that you just find my special talent stupid!"

Silk Shimmer cut in between them. "Seriously, you two? You're fighting now? We have a guest!"

Sugar Belle wanted to whack them with a spoon and tell them that they're both idiots, but at the same time, she really wanted to stay out of the fight. The fact that they yelled to Silk, "Stay out of this!" and that Quasar was a skilled mage that she couldn't hope to sway made her more reluctant to do anything--just sit and watch as the fight unfolded.

"Let me guess, you're going to go the route of 'You don't understand' like every spoiled teenager yells?" Quasar Rune growled. "Perhaps you don't understand how frustrated I am with how your special talent is nothing but a dead end!"

"And you don't understand how lonely I felt being just about the only unicorn in Canterlot who can't use magic! I've been bullied for years, and you did absolutely nothing to help! All you cared about was stroking Kazam's ego! And look where he ended up; I say I got the better deal."

"Oh, sure, joining a cult and having your cutie mark removed is the better deal. And where is Miss Starlight Glimmer now? Probably out to cause misery for somepony else because of her ridiculous vendetta against cutie marks."

"Hey, if she was mocked for her talent--or maybe lack of talent--and had to deal with a distant dad and a big brother bully, then I don't blame her for feeling that way! At least she'd have a better excuse than Mr. 'Show Off By Turning Las Pegasus Citizens into Vampires'!"

Once the two locked horns, Merry stood up, "Okay, that's enough! This fighting is getting us nowhere, and clearly you're both acting ridiculous! I just want us to be a happy family as we were years ago, before all this nonsense about magic and cutie marks tore us apart!"

"I shouldn't have asked about Holly Daybreak," Sugar Belle groaned, rubbing her temples. She turned to Silk Shimmer. "So, uh, where should we hide in case your father starts throwing furniture around?"

Silk Shimmer blinked. "Huh? Hey, Dad may be angry, but he does have self-control! Where'd you get that idea?"

Sugar Belle bit her lip. "Uh..."

All of a sudden, both Party Favor and Quasar Rune yelped, and all the girls in the room turned to see them apart, both rubbing their horns... and eyeing a beam of magic with horrified eyes. It bounced between the balloon snowflakes on the ceiling like a pinball, going through the hoops and loops of Party Favor's art. Left and right, back and forth, in arcs and zigzags spurred by the bouncy latex, the five unicorns could only watch helplessly, in hopes that it would fizzle out before hitting anything besides balloons.

It descended from the ceiling, sending everyone ducking for cover. It only bounced off the balloon stepladder, then the balloon tree, and then broke through the window. 

After staring at the broken window for a moment, Merry turned to the boys and asked, "What happened?"

Quasar rubbed his horn. "I'm not entirely sure. I felt something shock my horn, and I involuntarily released some magic." He turned to Party Favor and looked at his horn. "It couldn't have been your horn..."

Party Favor shrugged. However, before he could say a word, there was a roar outside in the distance, followed by a foal's scream. Both he and his father's eyes widened, and their jaws dropped at the same time, in the exact same manner. As amusing as the family resemblance was, Sugar Belle could tell that they were likely thinking the same thought of "Oh, horseapples".

Silk Shimmer leapt off the couch. "Did it hit something? I think it hit something!"

Quasar's face turned grim. "We better make sure that foal's all right."





That magic beam had traveled quite the distance, as Sugar Belle and the Runes galloped for some time before they found out just what it did. 

They came across Double Diamond and his family, who were throwing snowballs, rocks, and pine cones at a giant snowpony, which held Green Circle in its snowy grip. Try as the filly might, the snow was packed too tight for her to escape on her own, and try as her family might, the snowpony just absorbed the projectiles like nothing. The only thing that clearly affected it was when Powder Snow threw a boulder at it, causing it to stumble back and nearly fall. However, it did prevent any more boulders from coming by waving Greenie in the line of fire, easily stopping Powder from just grabbing another large thing to throw.

Double Diamond was quick to notice the others. "Hey! A little help over here, guys!"

There were no questions asked, and the Runes and Sugar Belle went in to fight. Quasar, Merry, and Silk galloped around and zapped it with magic, causing parts of the monster to melt. Meanwhile, Sugar Belle started to tear chunks of snow from the snowpony's legs, tossing them aside and digging through the snow to try and weaken it. Double Diamond and family followed suit to help her.

Party Favor molded a balloon into a sword and started to canter around, looking for a place to strike. This did not go unnoticed by Blue Square, who paused to stare at him incredulously. 

"Mr. Favor," Blue said, adjusting his glasses. "A balloon would be utterly ineffectual against a giant monster--or anything for that matter--in this climate. The gasses in the balloon will contract in response to cold, making the balloon rather--"

Party Favor used another balloon to bounce up and slash the foreleg that held Greenie, which surprisingly cut right through. Snow hoof and Green Circle fell to the ground, and thankfully Sugar Belle was there to catch her, though the packed snow the filly was trapped in made it a little heavier than the pink mare liked. Nevertheless, despite some clear strain on Sugar Belle's part, she held it up long enough for Powder and Alta to grab their daughter and pull her out of the snow.

Blue blinked. "...deflated."

Sugar Belle gave him an exasperated glare. "Do you ever not talk?"

Greenie glanced at Sugar. "Sadly, he has to open his big mouth all the time."

Blue threw his hooves up in the air. "That should be impossible! That guy should be fined for breaking the laws of physics!"

Double Diamond slung a rock at the creature. "It's Party Favor, don't question it."

Black Diamond slammed a snowball on Blue's head. "Now, let's focus on destroying the thing."

Greenie frowned. "I worked so hard to build it."

Alta laughed. "Hey, it just lost a hoof. Beating that thing will be a piece of cake."

All the snowpony had to do was stomp on the ground and absorb more snow to regrow its hoof. It looked at its new hoof, grinned wickedly, and roared to the sky. All shuddered and covered their ears in response, and everyone instinctively backed away from the behemoth. 

Alta looked at Greenie, and then gave her to Blue Square. "Buddy, could you take your sister back to the house? Also, bring me my pickaxe, I think it'll help with the fight."

Blue Square nodded. "Okay, Mom."

As Blue left with his sister, the Snow Family readied themselves for another round. 

Meanwhile, the Runes were on the other side of the snowpony, trying to gauge any weaknesses it may have. Party Favor turned to his father, and said, "Hey, I think my balloon sword laid a pretty hard blow on that thing, so maybe I can keep chopping it up into pieces and showing you that maybe, just maybe, my talent isn't so useless after all?"

Quasar scowled. "It's not like you'd be hired on combat prowess."

"Hey! I'm the town's event planner already!" Party Favor snapped. 

"Now's not the time to argue!" Silk yelled.

The snowpony swatted them aside, sending them tumbling through the snow. As they picked themselves up and pulled themselves out of snow piles, they noticed a boulder being flung at them, and resolved to roll out of the way before it landed, with the boys on one side and the girls on the other. 

The snowpony had to turn its attention back to the earth ponies, especially Black Diamond, who was punching holes in its legs left and right. It attempted to stomp on the blue-gray pony, but Black Diamond was too swift. Even so, with each stomp, it managed to absorb more snow to fill the holes, no matter how many times Black Diamond punched its legs. 

Once Blue returned and gave a pickaxe to Alta, she immediately jumped on the snowpony, climbing it effortlessly and then striking its back with the pickaxe. Elsewhere, Sugar Belle attempted to rip out more chunks, and the rest were trying to stab and dig at it with sticks. 

The Runes galloped forth, with three zapping the snowpony with magic and the one slashing at it with his balloon sword. Blasting holes and slashing off limbs still proved to be fruitless, as the snowpony still absorbed more snow and would swat at the ponies every chance it got. It even absorbed Alta's pickaxe and bucked her off, sending her flying into the air and falling until her husband caught her.

At one point, Quasar Rune and Sugar Belle had been caught in one, and thrown several meters back into a snowy pillow. Both breathing heavily and feeling cold crystals dampen their coats, they looked at each other. With a mild glare, Sugar Belle asked, "Just how powerful are you to make a snowpony come to life and grow fifty feet tall?"

Quasar blew on his bangs. "Well, I can say that I can't turn anypony into a monster, or fuse anything, or remove cutie marks. However, perhaps I could think of a way to deanimate it. If only I had my spellbook to give me ideas..."

Sugar Belle opened her mouth to reply, but was suddenly grabbed by the snowpony. Then, she screamed, "Think of something, quick!"

Quasar Rune quickly got to his feet, and stared in horror as the snowpony started to wave her around. He heard Powder Snow complain, "Oh, come on! Just when I got the boulder, too!", but could only try to decide just which way was the best to defeat it. Any idea of his required him to conserve energy until he could cast it. He hoped that everypony else could hold out longer.

Thankfully, backup in the form of Night Glider and Fleetfoot rushing from the sky to kick the snowpony in the face allowed him a bit more time. They were followed by their parents, and they hopped to the ground in order to join the others. Night Glider landed by Double Diamond and Party Favor.

"Okay, can you guys explain where the Abominable Snowpony came from?" she asked. 

Party Favor pursed his lips. "Well, my dad and I had an argument, something zapped us, and he shot a spell that got out of our house and onto his sister's snowpony." He pointed at a glaring Double Diamond during the last part of the sentence. 

"What do you mean 'something zapped you'?! My sister almost got eaten by that thing!" Double Diamond snapped. 

"Well, we didn't do it on purpose! My dad at least knows better than to shoot magic willy-nilly!"

"Do you even know what that 'something' that zapped you is?!"

Party Favor shrugged and smiled sheepishly. 

Night Glider looked up at the towering snow monster. "Let's discuss this later, 'cause it might eat Sugar Belle."

The boys turned their heads upward. Sure enough, Sugar Belle was now in its hoof and the monster had hungry eyes on her whenever it had the chance. It kept on getting distracted by the efforts of the others to knock it down, whether by the Snows' digging and throwing, the Runes' zapping, and the Wings' aerial strikes. It kept on absorbing snow to fill every dent made and to pack itself harder for an icy exoskeleton, much of which made strikes hurt for the flesh and blood ponies. It even made it harder for Night Glider's parents to pull Sugar Belle out of the hoof before being swatted away like flies, and Fleetfoot was swatted away by a snowy tail. 

Party Favor gasped, and in an instant had his balloon sword ready. "Nopony eats any friend of mine!"

He galloped forward and leapt into the air, ready to strike the same way that freed Greenie. If he could do it once, he could do it again, and there was no way that he'd let that stupid snowpony eat his first friend. Plus, maybe his dad will finally give him a little respect. 

The snowpony was onto him, however, and with a quick movement of the head, nabbed him with its mouth and swallowed him whole. 

There was a collective gasp from everypony. There was a moment of silence as they all stood there in shock, trying to process what they had just witnessed. Sugar Belle had her hooves to her mouth. Numb as she was from her haunches down, she ached everywhere else at the sight of one of her dearest friends getting eaten in a flash. 

The silence was broken by Merry Maykin's scream, and there came a barrage of magic blasts from the mother of the eaten, which Sugar Belle had to duck under. "How dare you?! Give me back my baby! He is not your lunch, you pile of dirty snow!"

"Mom, careful! Don't hit Sugar Belle!" Silk Shimmer cried. 

The snowpony was pushed by the wave of magic, and backed up from the angry mother. It was blasted again and again, and several times, the beams nearly hit Sugar Belle, which left the pink mare unable to do much of anything under the constant threat of stray magic. 

Quasar restrained his wife. "Merry! Control yourself! You might accidentally hurt not just Sugar Belle, but Party Favor as well!"

Merry spun around to glare at him. "Oh, sure, tell me not to hurt our son when you've been doing that yourself for years! It's because of you that he ended up in the middle of nowhere! I'm at least trying to be a good mother--you've barely acted like a father to him!"

"What?! This is an inappropriate time to scold me, dear! Besides, it was obviously the crit--"

"Shut your piehole!"

Merry blasted the snowpony again, not realizing that it was at the edge of the hillside that led down to one of the valleys. When it was hit, it tumbled backwards down the hill, becoming a large snowball in the process, with only the leg holding Sugar Belle out of the bell. It still didn't prevent Sugar Belle from having a wild, spinning ride down the hill, screaming the whole way. 

The group all ran to the edge of the hill, watching as the snowball grew bigger and bigger, and rolled down toward the ski resort. 

Double Diamond gasped. "That's just great! On top of that thing putting my friends in danger, now the resort's in danger!"

Black Diamond scoffed. "Oh, no, your vanity project's in danger, boo hoo."

Blue Square huffed. "And you pick on me for getting worked up all the time."

Double Diamond shouted, "Shut up, twerps!" 

"All three of you, shut up!" Alta snapped. "We need to get down there, and fast!"

Fleetfoot looked at Powder Snow. "I'd offer for our family to carry you, but that guy lookth a little... heavy."

"Refrain from commenting on others' weight, Flopfoot," Night Glider said. 

Fleetfoot glared at her. "You're just asking to be punched."

Quasar shot a fountain of purple sparks from his horn, catching everypony else's attention. "Enough! I'll get us down there!" Not letting anypony else comment, he started to cast a spell. There was a flash of light, and they had all disappeared from their perch on the hill.





The snowball had rolled right into the resort plaza, and crashed into the main lodge, mowing over the Hearth's Warming tree in the process. It reformed back into its monstrous pony shape, climbed onto the lodge, and roared like a dinosaur. It held a dizzy and nauseous Sugar Belle in the air, as if she were nothing more than a trophy to be won. 

Sugar Belle looked down, and saw just how high above the ground she now was. She wasn't sure how many stories to estimate, but she felt like she was on top of an office building, stuck in a snowdrift. And now, seeing as she was now alone with the monster, she realized that it was going to try to eat her. 

She was brought face to face with the monster, who now licked its lips. She noticed the snowpony had somehow picked up a log on its roll down, which jutted out of its forehead like a unicorn's horn. And seeing all the pine branches and rocks having formed into a messy mane, she noted, much to her horror, just how much it looked like her father. 

You're weak, the face said, despite how much she didn't want to hear it. You're stupid. You're shallow. You bake garbage, your art is garbage, you couldn't run a business if you tried, and you never seem to learn your lesson! She covered her ears and gritted her teeth in an effort to block the message. 

I'm a merciful stallion; I gave you many chances to improve that so-called special talent of yours, but you just keep baking garbage! Why do you even have that cutie mark? If I could, I'd rip it right off so that the world can see how much of a talentless hack you are!

As the snowpony opened its mouth, she heard, "I wish you had died on the day you were born, instead of your mother."

"Shut up!" she shouted, confusing the snowpony. While there was an opening, Sugar Belle ripped one of the snowpony's rock eyes out, and then let it fall. "I have had it with your expectations, and how you keep moving the goal posts! Stop making excuses to treat me and my special talent like garbage!"

She ripped out the snowpony's other eye, and then let that fall too. "Is it too much to ask for real love and family like my friends have?! Stop being a selfish jerk and start loving me like a real dad!"

The snowpony roared in reply, as if it was denying all the pleas that she had ever made. She still glared at it, but it still hurt to hear the message. With a lump in her throat, she responded, "Well... thanks for reminding me why I didn't invite you."

The snowpony prepared to eat her once again, but was startled by a muffled pop within it. It was another few moments before the snowpony tried again, but it was yet again interrupted by a pop. Then, after a few moments of silence, the biggest pop came, with a brief expansion of its barrel and a jerky movement that dropped Sugar Belle and sent her falling stories down. 

It was then that the rest of the party teleported over, and once Silk Shimmer saw Sugar Belle fall, she galloped over and summoned a bubble to catch her. This time, her bubble caught the intended pony, and Sugar Belle bounced face first into the snow, otherwise unharmed.

Silk lifted Sugar Belle off the ground and onto her hooves. "All right, I've got you now."

Double Diamond and Night Glider caught her in a hug, out of relief and to warm her up. Fleetfoot and Black Diamond stood by, looking up at the snowpony, with the former asking, "Okay, now how do we get rid of the Abominable Thnowpony?"

"At least it's blind now..." Black Diamond said looking up at the damage on the snowpony. He looked at Sugar Belle. "Did you do that? If so, that's hardcore!"

Sugar Belle looked at the snowpony and bit her lip. It was a good thing that it was just snow and not an actual flesh-and-blood monster. "Oh, my... did I really do that?"

"Well, it's a good thing it takes a lot to tick you off," Night Glider muttered.

The snowpony hopped down from its perch, and started to stomp around blindly around the plaza, scattering the ponies every which way. As Sugar Belle, Night Glider, and Double Diamond took cover by the fallen Hearth's Warming tree, Sugar Belle asked the other two, "Hey, has Quasar Rune made a plan yet?"

Double Diamond shook his head. "Not yet. He better have a good spell before the resort is destroyed!"

Night Glider peeked through dry branches at the snowpony, who paused to inflate a bit, only to pop inside and let extra air out through burping. "How does that thing have gas? It didn't have any soda."

"No, but it did have Party Favor," Double Diamond said. "Duh, he's trying to break out!"

"But, doesn't he have a cork to stop his horn from popping it?"

Sugar Belle rubbed her chin. "Wait, I've got an idea. Where's Quasar Rune?"

Night Glider peeked over the tree, and spotted him, his wife, and his daughter hiding beside a cabin. "Oh, there he is!" She grabbed both Sugar Belle and Double Diamond. "Come on, let's see if Party Favor's stiff pop will go along with... whatever you have in mind."

She flew them over to the Runes just as the snowpony stepped on the tree, and startled the unicorn trio as they landed in front of them. Before any one could say a word, Sugar Belle said, "Mr. Rune, do you know that indestructibility spell your wife learned?"

"Huh? Of course I do, but how will that help?" Quasar asked. 

"The thing has gas because Party Favor's trying to break out," Night Glider said. 

"The balloon keeps popping, and we know Party Favor is better than that," Double Diamond said. "There's obviously something sharp in there stopping him!"

"His horn?" Quasar deadpanned. 

"So... maybe you could cast the spell on his balloon so he could escape?" Sugar Belle asked. 

Quasar Rune scratched his chin. "Perhaps, but that would require getting into the snowpony to hit the right target. I don't want the thing to be indestructible. I'm also considering adding a deanimation spell to make sure it can't just put itself back together."

Night Glider grimaced. "Does getting in there mean..."

"Oh, no, no!" Quasar said. "I can just teleport in there. I imagine being eaten is... unpleasant." He shuddered at the thought, as did his wife and daughter. Then. after a brief moment of meditation, he disappeared in a flash.

The five remaining of the party peeked over the corner, watching the snowpony march around in its blind daze. They watched for any signs of "gas", hoping that the creature would inflate soon. Merry looked as if she was about to faint, while Silk rubbed her back to keep her calm. Sugar Belle, Double Diamond, and Night Glider were quiet, hoping that this plan would work. Elsewhere in the plaza, the other families were peering out of their hiding places, wondering what was to happen net.

The snowpony bulged, only this time the bulge grew bigger. It grew and grew and grew, and the snowpony screeched in both horror and agony, realizing of its fate. It tried to burp, but to no avail, and anything could only go so far before it broke apart. And thus, there came an epic explosion of snow, rock, dirt, pine needle, and a pickaxe, flying away from a balloon that was inflated bigger than any normal pony could manage and dumping piles of snow all over the plaza. Hanging on to the balloon was Party Favor and his father, covered in ice and wet snow, but otherwise all right.

Everypony climbed out of their hiding places, while Party Favor and Quasar landed on the snow. All sat down to take a breath, and Party Favor was jumped by his mother and sister and friends, who were more than happy that he was all right. And Alta was happy that she got her pickaxe back, though she laughed when Party Favor blamed it for his difficulty in escaping. However, not everyone was happy.

While Double Diamond did give his hug of relief to Party Favor, he also looked around at the ski resort plaza, with piles of snow covering the cabins and street, rocks everywhere having dented the cabins and knocked chimneys loose, and the bristles of the knocked over tree just poking out like blades of grass. Biting his hoof, he griped, "Aw, yikes! The opening's supposed to be tomorrow and the whole thing's a mess! We lost our tree and it'll take forever to clean up this snow!"

His parents looked around, with Powder Snow muttering, "Oh, dear... it looks a lot like that avalanche years ago."

Double Diamond growled and kicked some snow. "Well, this is different! Back then, I was an irresponsible little twerp who only cared about cheap thrills; now I'm trying to be responsible and getting this town more money with this ski resort, and I still blew it! I don't even know why anypony trusted me to take care of this stinkin' town after Starlight took off!"

Party Favor frowned. "I'm sorry, Double Diamond. I didn't know we were here until... after my escape."

Night Glider then said, "You know, technically this happened because of a mysterious 'zap' that you and your Pop felt. Do you have any idea what the heck it was?!"

Party Favor shook his head, and Quasar shrugged as well. 

To that, Wingspan shouted, "What do you mean you don't know?! Aren't you a magical unicorn who knows magic? Because, really, it's not like a mini storm cloud floated in and shot lightning at you!"

Merry hopped in between them. "You mean like that one that your daughter released that hurt my baby? You're lucky that this weird party pony magic thing was protecting him!"

Quasar interjected, "It's called 'jester magic', dear."

Merry glared at her husband. "Oh, what do you know? You didn't bother trying to understand, before!"

Quasar shrugged. "Well, I did find a few things in the library..."

"Oh, be quiet!" Merry turned back to Wingspan. "Anyway, if my baby had died, I'd rip your wings off!"

Star Catcher flew in. "Hey! You rip off my husband's wings, you'll have to deal with me!"

Fleetfoot followed suit. "Hey, it wasn't my dad's fault! It was my sisthter's."

"Hey!" Night Glider snapped. "What's the big idea putting the blame on me?!"

"Because you were the one who released the cloud, sthupid!"

Night Glider scowled, and said to Silk Shimmer. "Trust me, you do not want a sister. They drive you crazy."

"Oh-hoho, you have no idea what it's like to have brothers!" Silk Shimmer said. "They always find their own special ways to drive you crazy! If they're older, they mock you for not being as magically talented as them, and if they're younger, they break your stuff!"

"I said I was sorry!" Party Favor complained.

Double Diamond laughed as he approached Silk Shimmer. "Oh, let me tell you about my brothers! One of them has to be a total downer all the time and the other is a know-it-all who just won't shut up!"

Black Diamond and Blue Square shouted, "What?!" Then, shoving his younger brother aside, Black Diamond marched up to Double Diamond and growled, "Oh, you think you're an angel? Well, putting up with your utter arrogance and bullying for years just because you were the best at sports was no picnic! Maybe the fact that you caused an avalanche and lost the trust of Paddock City residents was just the karma that you needed!"

Blue Square piped up. "Not to mention I doubt your competence in managing an entire village, even one as small as this one. Even as an adolescent you ditched babysitting us just to have your adrenaline rush in the backcountry! In laypony's terms... you fail at being the eldest!"

"Not like either of you would do better, Mr. Grumpy and Mr. Fussy!" Double Diamond argued.

"Now, now..." Party Favor said. "Let's be real, the one who really failed at the eldest is my brother. You guys try having a brother in jail! I feel dirty just for being related to him!"

Sugar Belle just watched in horror as it all devolved into one big argument involving... well, everypony, except for her. She caught snippets of each pony's grief, be it about blaming someone for a mishap during the week, the whole problem with having siblings, criticizing parenting, or bringing up each reason why one of her friends joined the village in the first place. There was even an aggressive snowball fight starting between Double Diamond and his brothers, which soon dragged most of the others into it. 

She tugged at her hair, actually hearing Starlight's philosophy ring through her head after so long. After all, Starlight had reasoned, the reason ponies fight is because they were different. Even when they were part of the same family, they were all clearly different ponies, and they couldn't settle those differences. Sugar Belle had accepted that long ago, because wasn't the reason her father hated her was because she was different from her mother? Didn't her friends leave her because she was living a different life from them? Didn't her attempt at a business fail because she and her last friend had different ideas and ponies had different tastes? Heck, she was still different for not having any family here at all--good thing, too, as that clearly lent itself to frequent fighting. 

Finally, she screamed, "STOP!"

Everypony froze, some of them in mid-throw. They all turned their attention to her, and grimaced at the sight of a dirty, glaring, and misty-eyed Sugar Belle, who breathed heavy mist in the chilly air. 

"You know, maybe I should have spent Hearth's Warming by myself this year! I've already dealt with my stupid angry father every Hearth's Warming until I came to this town, and I don't want to deal with any more stupid angry families trying to fake being happy families! If Hearth's Warming is about family, then maybe I shouldn't celebrate the stupid holiday at all!"

She turned around and started to head for the resort's gondola, which was still far enough away that it wasn't ruined. However, when Party Favor tried to follow her, probably in hopes of explaining that it wasn't really like that, she just snapped, "Leave me alone!"

Party Favor backed up, his eyes shining with hurt. Sugar Belle hated seeing him upset, and her heart ached at his expression, but she was to angry to try to correct it, and continued marching forth until she boarded the gondola. She didn't want to look back at the three families, and she didn't care if they regretted anything. Her father never regretted treating her the way he did.

Still, as she was lifted back to town, she couldn't help but cry.