The Pony That Doens't Celebrate Hearth's Warming
Should she do it or not? Should she do it or not? Why it has to be so hard? There she was, Celestia, princess of the ponykind, a mare who has spent her whole life facing crisis and making difficult decisions for the good of everypony, standing defenseless in front of an ebony door, trying to gather all the courage that would fit in her body to ask the pony in the other side if she wanted to celebrate Hearth’s Warming with her.
Celestia bit her lips, her hoof hovered closer and away from the door like a confused hummingbird. The guards couldn’t stop watching her; Celestia could feel how their tense hearts were about to explode. She felt sorry for the poor ponies, but she was feeling even worse than them.
But why?
She only had to open the door and tell her what she couldn’t say during Twilight and her friends’ beautiful play. “Do you want to spend the only free day we have in the whole year with me?” that was the only thing she had to do.
Why she can’t do it?
Everything was fine between the two of them. After the last Nightmare Night, she was happy and spoke with normality, and she had improved remarkably her relationships with her friends since Twilight’s birthday.
Then why is so hard to tell her?
Celestia let out a resigned sigh and turned around. She was about to take a step but something that seemed like a chain around her heart forced her to stop. She bit her lip and turned to face the ebony door, but one of her eyes fell on the guards.
“You should leave, my little ponies, it’s Hearth’s Warming Eve and your families must be waiting for you. Give this message to everypony and lock every door and window in the castle.”
The guards saluted her with their wings and left, leaving Celestia alone with the cruel door. A cold wind ran through the corridor, but Celestia didn’t feel the need to wear something besides her pink scarf and what she had under her wing: a blanket. A blanket that had resisted the pass of time as good as Celestia herself. The blanket was as much special as a piece of cloth; it was just a pale blue blanket that had the moon on one side and the sun on the other.
But the memories interwoven in it were worth more than the castle and everything inside. This blanket was bought by Luna and Celestia when they were only fillies, and since that day there wasn’t a night that they didn’t spend cuddled together under it, well… except one night a thousand years ago. The same year Celestia stopped celebrating Hearth’s Warming.
Celestia’s gaze sank like her ears. If she doesn’t have the courage to show her sister an old blanket bleached by million tears, she would never have the courage to ask Luna to celebrate Hearth’s Warming with her.
When Celestia’s forces had abandoned her once more, the giant door burst open. Luna jumped happily out of the room, but when she saw Celestia, she pressed her hooves to the ground and managed to slow down in time so the only accident was that their muzzles were pressed against each other.
“Uhmm, hi?” said Celestia as she hid the blanket under her wings.
“Greetings, sister. Is there something you need?”
Celestia’s eyes tried by any mean to not meet Luna’s. “No nothing, I was just… Err… Did you enjoy the play?”
“Twilight’s? It pleased me, yes.”
Celestia nodded more than one of those nodding dog toys some nobles collect. “Good, good, I’m glad you liked it. Twilight and her friends are very good actors. They… they sure are.”
“Indeed.”
After a few seconds of silence, Celestia displayed a smile that stretched all the muscles of her face. Luna walked away from her sister, watching her like if she was a giant spider that had claimed part of a wall.
“Are you going somewhere?” asked Celestia.
“Pinkie Pie and her friends invited me to party in Ponyville.”
“She did? That’s so nice of her. She has invited me too to her parties, but I’m always busy.”
“That’s the price of the crown, sister. You should go to sleep now.” Luna turned and opened her wing to leave.
Celestia looked everywhere for an idea. At the same time the giant Hearth’s Warming Heart in the plaza lit, a bright idea crossed her mind. “Why don’t we go to that party together?”
Luna stopped in her place. “No!” She turned to her sister as she cleared her throat. “I mean; you can’t come with me. Just imagine if we have so much fun that you forget to raise the sun. Hearth’s Warming will never come! You do what I told you and go to sleep, I promise I will be here in a couple hours.”
Luna spread her wings and flew out the window. Celestia watched her fly until she disappeared behind the clouds. “Stay warm…” said Celestia, knowing that no pony would hear her.
She walked slowly through the empty corridors of the palace. The absolute silence that surrounded her was an indicator that all the guards had left and her only company were the cold walls of the castle. The colorful sparkles that ran all over Canterlot sneaked through the windows, but they weren’t strong enough to make Celestia smile.
Celestia came into her room expecting to meet the company of her phoenix, but she had forgotten that Philomena moves to the royal forge when winter comes. She was alone. There was no pony in all of Equestria that cared about her. But there do was a creature that has been doing the same thing year after year since two hundred and fifty-eight years ago; the year when she found up that Celestia had nopony to celebrate Hearth’s Warming with.
Three knocks on the window caught Celestia’s attention, on the other side was a changeling with purple eyes and a reddened exoskeleton. Celestia opened the window with her magic and the changeling entered.
“Card for Princess Celestia,” said the changeling.
Celestia made the card levitate to her with her magic. When she opened it, the Carol of Friendship began to play. Inside was an image of Chrysalis naked with a glass of wine and flirtatious eyes. A mountain of gifts and Hearth’s Warming cards covered her body.
Dear Celestia,
Greetings from my secret lair. I hope you’re having as much fun as we have here, although I know it’s not like that. Look at everything my beloved subjects have given me because they love me so much and certainly not because I forced them. Every year I ask you and you always forget to answer me: tell me when you will be more vulnerable so I can invade you and conquer your kingdom. A warm hug.
With love that I will soon steal from you,
Chrysalis.
Send.
No! Don’t write that!
That neither!
Aghh! I have to do everything myself.
Celestia put the card aside at the same time the changeling aimed a hoof at her. She stood looking at him with fainted eyes, waiting for something interesting to happen in her life.
“Tip.”
Celestia gasped. “Oh, my… I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude,” she said as she searched for a few bits in the drawers of her closet. When she gave the money to the changeling, he flew to the window. “Wait!” shouted Celestia as she ran behind the changeling.
The changeling turned around in the air and stared at Celestia with an expressionless face.
“The night is too cold for you to leave like this. Why don’t you come with me and have a hot cocoa?”
“…”
“…”
“…”
“…”
The changeling blew her a raspberry and flew away.
“Oh, of course you must be busy…”
Celestia’s hooves took her to her balcony. Every time she stopped there, there was a crowd of ponies that wanted to see her say hello. But not today. The dreamed night of cuddling with Luna was nothing more than another silly dream of an old mare. Celestia went to her bed to wait for sleep to take hold of her. A day of nothing more than loneliness awaits her, and it will not start until she raises the sun.
A light tried to make its way between Celestia’s eyelids. She turned around as she growled in an attempt to scare the annoying invader, but her hoof realized something; beneath her wasn’t her soft bed, but a rough wooden floor. Celestia stood up as her eyes slowly opened. The amount of books on all the wooden walls and the wooden head in the middle of the room told her in a second where she was: Twilight’s library.
“I’m dreaming?” said Celestia as she looked around.
She slowly walked to the door, examining everything around her. This could be one of Luna’s pranks and in the dreamscape she was invincible. Celestia knew she was planning something after that time when she put a pea below her mattress and Luna spent three months with backache until she found it. At the precise moment when she poked her head out of the library, a hurricane of confetti hit her in the face.
“Surprise!” shouted all of Ponyville ponies.
“Surprise!” Pinkie yelled very, very desynchronized. She snapped her hoof, yes, she snapped her hoof. “I was this close!”
Celestia looked with her eyes completely open to all the villagers. Before she could say anything, a black mass threw her to the ground. They rolled almost eight meters until Luna landed on Celestia and gave her a big hug.
“Happy Hearth’s Warming, sister!” Luna shouted before grabbing Celestia by a hoof and drag her out of the library.
All the ponies rushed to see Celestia, and not only the ponies of Ponyville; Luna had made all the ponies appear in a dream version Ponyville to celebrate with Celestia. The princess didn’t know what to do; no matter where she looked, she always found thousands of smiles eager to share the joy of their hearts with her.
“Oh, beloved sister, with you by my side the fun will be neverending,” Luna said as Pinkie and DJ Pon-3 played some party music. “I have so many activities planned for us that I do not know from where to start!”
Everypony except for some nobles were dancing; but Twilight was the one and only queen of the stage. Between song and song, the ponies eat at a giant table with never ending food. Applejack and Pinkie Pie were determined to try everything in the menu. All those who saw the royal sisters pass by stopped to greet them, but Luna was so excited to show Celestia all the games that she had to push her sister so she didn’t stop to talk with everypony.
Celestia would never have thought that games like fishing apples and snowball fights were games that her sister would like; it didn’t fit with the memories of that grumpy, adult Luna complaining about the mundane. But if there was something that Celestia didn’t understand is why there is a spider-throwing game in a Hearth’s Warming party.
“Aunt Celestia!” Princess Cadance jumped on Celestia to give her a big hug with her wings. “Happy Hearth’s Warming! I can’t believe we’re celebrating together.”
Celestia giggled. “At last.”
“I’m so glad—”
PAFT![/ b]
A pair of snowballs hit directly on the faces of Celestia and Cadance. They removed the snow from their faces and looked in the direction where the projectiles came to see Rainbow Dash and Luna preparing a second wave. Celestia and Cadance didn’t say anything to each other. They put their wings in the snow at the same time and launched a shower of snow that destroyed the defenses of Rainbow and Luna. But when the princesses were going to claim their victory, Rainbow shot out into the sky releasing a wave of snow that buried all the town. The three princesses were covered with snow even in her feathers until they laughed it away.
“Oh, Luna, this is so much fun,” Celestia said as she shook off the snow. “It reminds me so much of when we were little.”
Luna left out a forced breath. “I only remember that... you always was the one vanquished...”
“Is everything okay, Luna?” asked Cadance.
“Yes, but I’m afraid that keeping the dream of a whole kingdom is tiring me.”
A smile decorated Celestia’s face as she watched her little ponies scampering everywhere. Although she would love to join them once again, she knew that Luna must be suffering a lot. Like all the beautiful dreams, this one was also destined to end.
Celestia approached her sister and gave her a hug. “Thank you, sister.” She spread her wings and rose over the town. Flaunting her real voice, Celestia announced, “Attention, my dear subjects! This dream is going to end now. Words are not enough to express how much I appreciate what you have done for me.” She forced her best smile. “But Hearth’s Warming is about celebrate with your family and friends, not with an old mare like me. I wish everyone a night of rest, and above all, a happy Hearth’s Warming.”
Celestia’s horn lit and a blinding light consumed Luna’s Hearth’s Warming gift.
When Celestia opened her eyes, she was back in her dark room, under the sheets of her bed. But there was something different. A strange feeling tickled the back of her neck. Celestia turned around to find Luna lying next to her, wearing the same face as a filly caught with a hoof inside of the cookie jar.
Celestia couldn’t help but smile. “Gather all the ponies in a dream, that’s madness.”
Luna pressed her head against the pillow with that pair of puppy eyes that had defeated Celestia thousands of times. “Happy Hearth’s Warming?”
Celestia didn’t answer, she just wrapped her wings around her sister and pulled her close to her. Luna seized the opportunity to nuzzle Celestia’s chest. Celestia couldn’t dissimulate her smile any longer. Only something was missing and she knew very well what it was. One of the drawers of the wardrobe lit up and the blanket levitated toward the sisters.
Luna gasped as if she had seen a ghost. “Impossible! Snuggles! What is she doing here?”
“She has never left this room.”
“But… This can’t… You… After all of this time?”
“Always,” Celestia said as she covered Luna with Snuggles. “Happy Hearth’s Warming, sister.”
Luna stared at her blanket until a devilish grin appeared on her face. She bounced on the bed, causing Celestia to fly to the roof. Using her magic, Luna slid the blanket underneath Celestia, and when she landed, the blanket enveloped the two sisters in such a way that they ended up tangled like a two-headed caterpillar.
“Happy Hearth’s Warming, sister!” shouted Luna in her royal voice at such a loud volume that Celestia could swear that the stained glass windows in the throne room had been broken beyond repair. But she couldn’t care less.
Like the only part of her body that was free from the cuddle prison was her head, Celestia kissed Luna on the forehead. “I couldn’t ask for a more perfect night than this.”
Both princesses closed their eyes and fell asleep feeling each other breathing tickling their muzzles, the same way they did since they were just two little fillies.