Oh the weather outside...
I stood on the doorstep, trembling. It had nothing to do with the chill, it was actually warm today for winter.
No, I was trembling because on the other side was my wife’s family, waiting for me. And I was petrified. It wasn’t that I hadn’t met them or even spent a Christmas with them. This would actually be my third with the group. What scared me was the terms of my involvement this year, set down by a very insistent Twilight Velvet.
“You don’t have to get us gifts this year, Sunset dear," she had said. “Instead, why don’t you tell us one of those stories I’ve heard Twilight tell us about that you tell at Hearth’s Warming?”
The older woman was voracious for the written word. It’s one reason why she had written me a recommendation for the author’s fellowship that I had at the University; it gave her first access to anything I wrote. Even the bad stuff. Especially the bad stuff, some of which was based off my adventures or those of a certain bard from across the mirror.
So I stood on the stoop, two old books in my arms. I could feel the rough covers and smell the pages, eliciting a memory of the Princess Twilight in my mind. The smell of old books tended to follow her despite her no longer being shut into a library. It was just part of her now. I looked down at the cover of the top book of the two, the embossing of three stylized ponies circled a small flame, one from each tribe. I knew the next one held the cutie mark of an old miser of a pony. I knew the stories almost by heart, but it always felt better having the old books at hand.
These weren’t my copies, though. My sister, Dawning Dew, had them to read to Hue’s family this year. These I had borrowed from Twilight’s library.
And spent an hour filling out the forms for a Ponyville Library card and then the check-out information. In triplicate. I knew Twilight was obsessive about her books, but why did I need the library card? I was one of the Princesses of the Realm, for pony sake! And the paperwork! Ugh!
It was at that moment the door opened to reveal Shining Armor, keys in his hand.
“Oh, there you are,” he said with a smile. I could see the faint bags under his eyes. “We were wondering when you would show up.”
I held up the books. “Someone made me fill out for a library card,” I said by way of explanation. “Where are you going?”
“Food run,” he sighed, running his hand through his hair. I noticed that it was a little less impeccably groomed than normal and he had a touch of stubble on his face. “Cady wanted some sweet habanero wings from the local shop and won’t be swayed.”
“Cravings starting to really kick in, huh?” I asked as we swapped places.
“Don't get me started,” Shining laughed. “It’s been getting worse for almost a month now.”
I waved as he climbed into his car and drove off, leaving me to shut the door and remember why I had waited.
When you got right down to it, some of our history - pony history, that is - can seem downright strange or silly to humans. I remember when I gave a brief history of the founding of Equestria to the girls one year, Rainbow Dash couldn’t stop laughing, and she was part of the magic of friendship! I knew that the Sparkles loved me like a daughter, but this was something that actually worried me, sounding ridiculous to them.
Intellectually, I knew it was foolish, and the knot of panic I felt welling in my stomach was likely bleedover from Twi. Not that she was worried, no. She loved Christmas like she was still seven and woke everyone in the house early to open gifts. But just as she had become a touch more snarky and relaxed from our bond, on occasion I would be more analytical and have odd bouts of fear. It was the only aspect of our link that I disliked. I shouldn’t feel like hyperventilating over something like this!
“Sunny?” Twilight called from the living room. “That you?”
You know it is, silly, I sent back as I entered the room, smiling and feigning calm. We hadn’t told her family about our bond, but we suspected Cadence knew something was up.
She always knew. It was eerie.
I went around the room and hugged the various members of the Sparkle family, including an obviously pregnant Cadence. As I settled in next to my wife, I smiled.
“Did I miss anything?”
I was sure they could hear my heart thumping as I finished the tale of the defeat of the Windigo threat. I closed the book and looked at them, my smile feeling wooden as I looked up at the small audience.
And found Twilight Velvet grinning like Pinkie when someone calls for a party.
“That was so amazing!” she breathed. “And you told it so wonderfully, like you’ve practiced it.”
I blushed and set the book aside. “It was the tradition in my house to read this or other seasonal tales,” I told the matron as I picked up the other tome I had brought. “My sisters and I would take turns, so we all knew the stories fairly well.”
“How are your sisters, by the way?” Cadence asked, shifting slightly in her seat. “I haven’t seen either of them since the wedding.”
I rolled my eyes. “Dew is off with her husbands family this year, and dealing with an infant at the same time, so she’s pretty busy. Glory got commissioned to restore and repair a mural in Trottingham, so she’s been pretty well off the map for a while. I had some letters from her waiting for me when we went to spend Hearth’s Warming with Dew.”
“She really needs to get that young man to marry her already,” Velvet said. “I’m sure she’s ready to settle down.”
“I don’t think it’s from lack of trying on Soarin’s part,” Twilight said. “Glory just doesn’t sit still long at all. With Dew still on maternity, she’s taking up a lot of her work too.”
“Well, she does do excellent work,” Night Light said as he glanced at a portrait hanging on the dining room wall, one of the main members of the Sparkle family done by my dear sister as her gift for Hearth’s Warming last year. A similar one of Twilight and I sat in our condo as well as one of ‘Sunshine’ and I in my family’s house in Canterlot. Night wasn’t understating in his comment. Glory may be an incurable gossip hound, but she was a well-trained painter.
“Speaking of work,” Velvet remarked, turning to me again. “I see you have another book in your hands, and theyre shaking a little. Why?”
“It’s stupid,” I said with a shake of my head. “I thought that when I read these stories, you’d find them stupid or silly or something.”
“Sunset,” Velvet exclaimed. “These are your heritage, I would never belittle them or you! And it was a wonderful tale, likely embellished a bit over the years before being codified in the form you know, but it’s still an endearing story that makes me wonder what that land of yours is like now.”
I saw Cadence smile. “It saw fit to make her a princess, so it has to have some issues,” she teased.
“That was technically this one,” Twilight snarked, slipping an arm through mine. “And she’s all mine.”
I was about to comment when Cadence gasped, and grabbed Shining’s hand, moving it to her belly. Twilight grinned as she saw it.
“The baby?” she squeed and went over, replacing her brother’s hand as he reached over to ruffle her hair. I watched with a warm smile, feeling her excitement and wonder reverberate through the bond.
“Have you come up with a name yet?” Twilight asked.
Cadence smiled as she cradled her swollen belly.
“I’m leaning towards Gleaming for her, but we haven’t decided yet,” the educator breathed. “Still got a few months to go though, so I expect us to have another round of naming between now and then.”
“Why not Flurry Heart?” my wife asked the woman.
Shining spoke up at that point. “It’s a nice name, but we want our daughter to have unique name for a unique girl.”
Night Light chuckled. “Also, if the whole counterpart issue were to hold true, she’d have been born by now,” he pointed out. “Completely different circumstances here.”
Velvet shushed everyone as the baby’s kicking apparently subsided.
“Sunny still has another story to read, everyone,” she reminded us. “I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to hear this one.”
She’s as bad as River, I thought as I opened the worn cover.
Be nice, Twilight returned in my mind. It’s one night, it won’t hurt you.
I smiled and leaned against her, using her return to cover the motion so as not to give away that we might have done something strange.
But as I started the story of Snowfall Frost, I saw Cadence smiling out of the corner of my eye.
How does she always know?!