> By the Light of the Fire
>  by Test4Echo
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> A Stellar Burn
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

With a ding followed by a loud rushing of air, the burners on the stovetop lit with a vibrant glow. Almost instantly, the flames licked at the pot resting on top, quickly heating the cool steel and the contents contained.

Humming to himself, Firelight nodded and stepped back to take in a whiff of the aroma of food that currently filled his kitchen. The tender tanginess of roasted carrot reached his nostrils first, and he quickly checked the oven to make sure it was baking nicely. Afterward, he gave the honey glaze that was already cooking on the stove a couple of stirs and sampled it with the spoon.

"Could use a bit more..." he muttered to himself, taking a shaker of cinnamon and dabbing a couple of shakes onto the mixture. As he did, he heard a gust of the wind outside rattle the windows, and he watched as some snowflakes battered against the glass.

Sire's Hollow was almost completely decked up for Hearth's Warming, which was only a couple of days away. Although his vantage point was far back, he did make out some of the strings of multicolored lights that had been stretched between the few street lamps in town. They flickered as the flow of magical energy from their new power generator hiccupped. There were still a few kinks to work out with it.

However, the results were stupendous. In other houses’ windows, their light strings appeared like little stars, twinkling away. And—thanks to his input—Stellar avoided the tacky, Canterlot vogue designs she originally created. Sure, there were still a few aluminum Hearth's Warming trees scattered outside, but he won out with keeping the lights in tasteful arrangements, such as bells, snowflakes, or the like.

As he caught a couple of caroling fillies darting between a pair of snowponies, he heard a rap on the door. A smile spreading across his face, he gave the glaze one final stir, checked the bread stuffing that he had started to simmer, and then wiped his hooves.

Cheerfully turning around and trotting toward the door, he felt his heart rate quicken. Buried in a corner where they would be hidden when the door was open, were a few wrapped presents, done up in garish-colored paper. Fat, squat ponies were plastered all over it, tossing gift boxes around like they were candy.

Holding back a weak chuckle, he shook his head. He had to use up the rest of the fifty rolls of paper for his Frumpy-Bumpy somehow. He mentally cut himself off. No, he couldn't keep calling Starlight that. If looks could have killed, the last time he mentioned that pet name, she would have bored a hole through his head, the wall behind him, and at least three buildings past that.

Hopefully his guest wouldn't mind the slightly juvenile paper.

As he left the kitchen, he called, "Coming, Bumpkin!" Before he could reach the front door, there was a scraping in the lock, and a pale emerald glow appeared around it. Then, it went quiet.

Suddenly, there was a smack against the door as whoever was on the other side slammed into it. He furrowed his brow and started to reach for the handle with his own magic. However, a second later, there was another crash and Stellar Flare stumbled in and let a few trailing wisps of snow accompany her.

Bumping into Firelight, she let out a small woof and shook herself violently. Some additional flakes flew from her mane and landed on his nose, making him snort to get them off. She closed the door with another solid thwack of her hindleg and stated, "You know, you could do with replacing that."

"Oh, but it's the only original door left in all of Sire's Hollow," he protested, looking between the door and its slightly warped shape and Stellar. "Do you know what kind of hooves have touched that before—" He stopped when she gave him a quick peck on the cheek and a wink.

"I'm joking. Love you, too, Lighty." At that, she snickered and started to pull back from the makeshift embrace that she had fallen into.

Coughing into a hoof, he muttered, "Right. A joke." He bit his lip and then stated, "Love you, my Honey-Bunny Love Muffin." She let out a guffaw, then quickly silenced herself, instead just giving him another playful smirk as she turned around and took off her jacket.

Beside her she floated a purse that was filled with a few bundles of papers. As she set it down, he arched a brow and started to ask what those were for, then he sniffed. An acrid scent of burning food reached his nose.

"D'oh! Curse Chipmunk Cheek's sheets!" he exclaimed, whirling around and spotting the trailing cloud of grey that was sneaking out from behind the kitchen door.

Darting as quick as he could, he exclaimed, "I'll be back in a moment, Pudgie-Wudgie!" As he reached the kitchen, he was greeted with a wall of flame as soon as he opened the door. It slammed shut with a bang as he dove inside and Stellar finally got the last bits of her winter gear off.

"Everything okay, Lighty?" she asked, turning around and raising her eyebrows in surprise. Breathing in the smell of the burning food, she mused, "Hmm, charbroiled tonight. That's different." She didn't react when there was a loud crash followed by a bang. Firelight screamed once.

Digging into her purse, she pulled out a small mistletoe twig and scratched her chin, looking for the most strategic place to put the decoration. The most obvious would have been right outside the kitchen, but that was too boring. Likewise, there was the small chandelier that hung inside the front hallway. However, it could be pretty easily seen. It needed to be hidden, but convenient.

For a couple more seconds, she inspected the immediate areas for any potentially useful planting spots. If she put it over the dining room table, it could be a way to have a "romance toll," whenever he passed food. Or, there was always the living room. Snuggles by the fireplace always were an added bonus.

There was another deafening crash breaking her from her thoughts, followed by a whoosh of air. Firelight yelped, "Who chose this blasted stove?!"

"You, dear," Stellar quipped back. It was, after all, the first edition of Obsessive Growth's patented "flame whoosher" stove. Developed right here in Sire's Hollow!

She rolled her eyes. Fire hazard as it might have been, Firelight seemed to have things under control.

"How is the icebox on fire?!" she heard him scream.

Another bang and a few more clangs later, he finally let out a loud grunt, and suddenly the cacophony from the kitchen ceased. Going back to her task, she tried a couple of spots above the dinner table, then finally shook her head.

There would be better times to use it, such as Hearth's Warming Day itself. Might as well keep it to be special.

As she started to head back to her purse, she paused when she spotted a familiar picture on a small bookcase at the end of the dining room. Smiling in a bit of reminiscence, she floated the image of her, Firelight, Starlight, and her precious Sunburst over and gazed into Firelight's proud expression.

Of course, Sunburst was as handsome as ever, just like his father was. Starlight was robed in a brilliant white wedding gown, and Sunburst looked just dashing in his suit. It was hard to believe that was almost two years ago.

"Where has the time gone?" she mumbled to herself, cracking her neck as she placed the picture back on the shelf. "I wonder if she has started calling him 'Pudding Pop' yet?" she mused with a chuckle as she remembered the giddy face of Starlight when she finally shared her own pet name for Sunburst.

It was worth the glare she got from him as he overheard.

After she had put the mistletoe back in her purse, she trotted back into the dining room, tapping her hoof as she waited for Firelight to return from inside. She managed to hear him grumbling and grousing, and she called, "Are you all right?"

"Yes, Glitterbun, just a bit—" He grunted, and there was another loud crack as the rushing air noise started to become audible again. "Just a bit busy." After a beat, he stated, "Well, that wasn't expected."

Within a few seconds, there was a sudden blast, and the door to the kitchen blew open in a cloud of smoke. Quickly using her magic to open the windows to the dining room, Solar Flare kept her expression neutral as the soot was sucked out by the cooler air's vortex.

Shortly thereafter, he staggered out, holding in his magic  some carrot giblets and a small cup of something vaguely like honey. Some blackened patches of scorched sugar were bobbing on the surface. Floating alongside it was a charred plate of stuffing.

At least, she assumed it was stuffing, since much of it was blackened beyond recognition. She looked up from the plate, forcing a wide smile on her face as he gazed at her. As he wobbled on his hooves, he finally mumbled, "Our dinner… is... served."

With that, he let go of the plates and let them clatter resoundingly onto the table before slumping into his own seat a few feet away. For the next moment, the two of them simply stared at the food, both of their stomachs grumbling at the faintly acrid scent of the burned sides.

At last, Firelight murmured sadly, "At least the main meal is still all right." He sighed, leaning over the table and resting his head in his forehooves. On the back of his head, there were a few embers smoldering on the tips of his mane. One tiny flame flickered along the top, belching out a small line of smoke into the rest of the dining room.

Looking at it for a moment, Stellar stated nonchalantly, "You have a little—" She waved a hoof in his general direction. "You seem to be on fire, honey."

"I was that good?" he asked, perking up and gazing softly into her eyes. Internally, she smacked herself and groaned.

"No, Lighty." She pointed directly at the fire that was starting to spread along the top of his mane. "You're... living up to your name right now." She awkwardly chuckled. He turned his attention upward.

As soon as he saw the glow from above, he yelped and started to bat at it with his hooves, jumping back and into the kitchen. After a couple of loud yelps, there was a splash followed immediately by a sizzle, and Stellar snickered as she started to serve herself some of the roasted carrot.

Firelight's upper torso was drenched in water when he trudged out of the kitchen. Some tiny trails of smoke still rose from his head, and there was a tired, angry glint in his eye. With a huff, he sat down again and started to pout, glancing away from Stellar and out into the night.

When she passed him the main dish, he sighed and served up a bit as well. He took a few of the worst pieces of burnt stuffing for himself, crunching on it as he popped most of it in his mouth at once. Water dripped from his nose onto the plate, and Stellar scoffed.

"You look like a dying dog," she stated, earning a dry laugh from him before she teleported in a hand towel from her bathroom at home. As he took it, she added, "But you're far more handsome." She puffed out her cheeks and batted her eyelashes at him, and he blushed.

"I think your pick-up lines need a bit of work, Lovey-Dovey," he answered, drying himself off as best he could and letting the sheet of cloth fall to the floor. He grimaced as he swallowed some more of the stuffing.

Falling into silence, the two of them gazed at each other, passing around some more of the carrot that he had prepared. While Firelight had decorated the house, the dining room was spared most of his festive arrangements. Outside of some small ribbons on a couple of old oil wall lamps, as well as a couple of ornate tins that he had found digging through older ponies' trash, there was little to indicate that he was celebrating the holiday.

Although a number of the night sky’s stars were hidden behind the growing light pollution of the town, the brightest of the stars still danced and sparkled in the inky black sky, which caused them to look like tiny candle-lights thousands of miles away.

Not a single cloud was in the sky, and the two could feel the cold radiate through the glass and inward a couple of feet. As Stellar shivered, Firelight frowned and summoned a black robe roughly her size, covered with skulls and with patches of kites sewed onto it. Starlight's old bathrobe.

Arching a brow, Stellar asked, "You still keep that thing?"

Wincing and shooting her an embarrassed grin, he answered, "What if she wanted to go back to her roots?"

"I think my daughter-in-law would rather do anything but that, love," she replied between bites of food. Still, she took the garment and quickly slid into it, letting out a small sigh of contentment.

"Perhaps my son-in-law would find it adorable," he retorted with a slightly playful grin. The two chuckled and went back to their meal, although a minute later he asked, "How are the rest of the preparations going for the festival?"

"Well, actually," Stellar replied as she dabbed at her cheek with a napkin. "But you would not believe the hassle I had to go through today!" With a grunt, she jabbed one of the carrot pieces and then pointed it at Firelight. "'Stellar, we're out of fake snow.' 'Mrs. Flare, we don't have enough apple cider to keep everypony warm, can we crack out the hard stuff?' 'Stellar, what do you mean that the fillies and colts don't want to know what consummating the marriage of Commander Hurricane and Princess Platinum entailed?'" She groaned and rubbed her temples.

"It seems like every year it's always something else, Lighty." In a burst of emerald-grey magic, she produced a list, the one that Firelight had seen earlier. With a shake, she let it roll out and onto the floor, where it unfurled for at least another foot. Almost all the boxes had been checked, and there was one bright red X near the one about the Hearth's Warming play. He couldn't quite make out the details, but it looked like it said something about calling the Royal Guard.

As soon as the list was there, it disappeared in a similar flash, and she stared at him with a sultry, half-lidded gaze. "But you know me," she chortled as she bit down on her food. "Always resourceful." After swallowing, she asked, "What about you?"

Lighting up in eagerness, he exclaimed, "The antique store has really been popular lately!" At the suggestion of Starlight, he had agreed to work on setting up a store for other locals or even tourists to own a part of Sire's Hollow's history. Earnings went to supporting the Preservation and Improvement Society, the new joint committee that he and Stellar headed.

"I can't believe how many ponies are excited to have a bit of Sire's Hollow wherever they go," he crooned, looking longingly at the weather outside. A sad frown formed on his muzzle.

As much as it helped, it still pained him to see such valuable artifacts removed from the town. But he still kept the best for the society itself. After all, what would Sire's Hollow be without the bib of its first mayor, or the used handkerchief of Princess Celestia as she passed overhead the fledgling village?

"So it's all going according to plan," she mused, breaking him from his thoughts. She summoned a different list, which she hastily checked something off before banishing it back to wherever she had called it from.

"Now if only my son would get with the program and have a foal already!" She huffed and pushed back on the table before she passed over her plate to rest underneath his.

"I don't think that's biologically—"

"You know what I mean!" she snapped back, smacking her face with a hoof and slowly dragging it down her muzzle. She grimaced. "Don't you want to have grandfoals, too?"

With a mirthful chuckle, he hopped down from his seat and trotted over to her. As he took the plates and leftovers in his magic, he gave her a quick nuzzle and nibbled her ear lovingly. "Yes, Stellar-Wellar," he muttered back as she gave a soft whinny and brushed against his chest more forcefully. "But I think we should let them do it on their own time, no?"

"No," Stellar huffed back, a slight pout on her lips. "How am I supposed to be fulfilled if I don't have grandfoals!"

For a second, he opened his mouth to respond, then thought better of it. It was no easy win. Either he ended up in her ire, or she got another restraining order for a few months while Starlight and Sunburst plotted a way to satisfy her grandmotherly urges without giving into her demands.

Finally, he stated, "I'll just put these away. How much time do you have before you need to leave?"

"All evening, dearest," she answered with a grin, followed up with a low growl as she nuzzled under his neck again.

Moaning contentedly, he stood still for a moment to let her warmth go through him. A faint tickle caused him to snort as a few of the softer patches of fabric from Starlight's bathrobe brushed against his skin.

At last, he broke free and headed into the kitchen, Stellar sighing and letting her posture droop for a moment. As she trotted into the living room, she took a glance around at the decorations placed throughout the quaint room.

A crackling fireplace had been already set up, its orange flames providing a decent amount of light in the otherwise lightless quarters. Set up in the corner near the window, there was a Hearth's Warming tree, decked out in various ornaments and icicle decorations. A pair of bulbs, shaped roughly like Starlight’s and Sunburst's cutie mark, glittered as sparks of magic shot through their translucent crystal surfaces.

Starlight and Sunburst had gotten those ornaments the first year they were married as a gift separately for their parents. Of course, they didn't know that by that point, she and Firelight were seeing each other. After their kids had sorted them out, she and Firelight decided to merge their two committees together. At the new Modernization and Preservation Society—Firelight claimed it was the other way around—they just started to click together. It still seemed like a blur, although it was years ago.

It still took Firelight about half a year to finally ask her out, though. Not that she wasn't hinting enough, what with her final attempt being an invitation over to her house, alone, with three bottles of wine and dim lighting. He had asked if the power had gone out at her place. Typical stallions.

Whatever the case, it was still up in the air when they would finally tell their children. Whenever she brought it up, Firelight was always antsy, as he explained he wasn't sure if it would make Starlight feel odd that her mother-in-law could end up being her mother, too.

Clicking her tongue, she sat down on the couch, its plush cushions absorbing her weight, and she waited for Firelight to return. She caught the clattering of dishes and soon enough the running of water, followed by the door to the kitchen opening.

Shortly thereafter, he popped into the living room, his eyes alight with excitement as he trotted forward. She caught the glimmer of a couple of presents hidden behind his back, and she forced a smile on her face. As much as he tried, he was not being overly subtle about his intentions for the evening.

Sauntering into the room, Firelight flopped down next to her and leaned over, which she happily returned. For a moment, the two of them rested against each other and stared into the fire. The crackling flames licked out of the hearth and radiated some additional warmth through the room.

As she heard him begin to rustle with his wrapped boxes, she stated solemnly, "Can we not do this tonight?"

"Aw, why not, Honey Cake?" he asked, pulling back and giving her a mournful expression.

"Because I didn't bring my presents for you, you dolt!" she quipped, bumping his muzzle lightly with hers before she sighed and looked back into the fire. "I know we agreed to do it tonight, because I thought I'd be busy on Hearth's Warming, but—" she looked back at him, her green eyes flashing with glee "—I did manage to finish everything! I can come over on Hearth's Warming!"

"Oh, I see," Firelight responded, his muzzle still contorted into a sad frown. After taking a deep breath, he mumbled, "I was looking forward to opening presents tonight." Looking at her, he exclaimed, "And they would have been so great, too!" He whipped the box over and started to tear into it. "It was a limited-edition architecture book from 934 ALB that shows some of the most brilliant Cart Deco—"

He cut himself off, squeezing the bridge of his nose as he floated the book next to him. "Damn!" With a sigh, he let the present fall to the floor with a loud thud.

Snickering to herself, Stellar snatched the book and teleported it next to her purse, then stated, "It's okay, honey, you still have other presents left for me. It's the thought that counts."

"Right!" he exclaimed, perking up as he snatched another gift, this time what looked to be a piece of clothing wrapped in paper. "I was thinking of you so much when I got this new scarf from Manehattan that I was going... Damn!" He tossed the scarf at Stellar, puffing out his cheeks and holding back a whimper.

Catching the scarf deftly, Stellar smirked and wrapped it around her neck. She rubbed some of the material against her cheek for a second and moaned before sending it to her purse. She lightly tapped him on the nose and stated, “Thanks, Lighty.” She chuckled.

"I just want to surprise you, Cinnamon Pie!" he declared, brushing a hoof against her chin for a second and then pulling her in for an embrace. For a moment, the two rested there, Stellar letting him pet her mane. He mumbled, "Why do I have to get so ahead of myself some days?"

"It's why I love you, Lighty," she chirped, nuzzling into his neck for a moment before pulling back. As she did, she gave him a quick kiss, their lips parting softly. She groaned happily. "There's still a couple of days left to get something else." She winked.

They rested on the couch, Firelight wrapping a hoof around Stellar and gently rubbing her side. For what felt like only a minute, but was closer to half an hour, they sat silently, simply enjoying each other's presence. As Stellar was about to say something, there was a loud pop, and a small scroll fell in front of her nose.

Curiously, she grabbed it and unfurled it, her brow creasing as she started to read its contents. After rereading it to make sure she wasn't going crazy, she finally snapped, "That wench better not have done that!"

Shushing her, Firelight asked calmly, "What's wrong, Cutesy-Wootsey?"

Smacking the letter, Stellar snarled. "That imbecile! The festival's Hearth's Warming tree is ruined. Why? Because Air Bubble thought she could make it look nicer by dousing it in water for icicles." She huffed. "But she grabbed oil instead. You can figure out the rest."

With that, she sprang up from the couch. Shrugging off Starlight's robe, she trotted hastily into the other room. "I knew she was going to cause problems!" she groused, her voice echoing from the hallway. "I'll see you on Hearth's Warming. Hugs and kisses!" She made a couple of smooching noises, then stormed out into the night, slamming the door after her. "And fix that damned door!" she shouted from outside.

Blinking momentarily, Firelight finally asked himself, "What in Equestria happened?" Sliding off the couch, he waltzed out to the hallway, carrying the robe with him and pitifully running his hoof down the length of the wall before sighing.

Glancing down, he spotted a single picture that was roughly where Stellar's purse had lain. It probably had fallen out in her hurry to leave, and he picked it up. It could be returned when she visited in a couple of days.

As he returned to the living room, he sighed as he gazed at a picture of him and another mare on the mantlepiece. It was faded through years of sun exposure, but the happy expressions of both he and his first wife were still plainly visible.

Shaking his head, he turned back to look out the window. "What to do?" he fretted, biting his lip and tapping his hoof on the glass. The faint silhouette of Stellar faded off into the night, as she turned a corner to head toward the center of town. In the distance, he could make out the glimmer of a few flames. He grimaced.

Apparently, the letter wasn't wrong.

Flipping the picture from Stellar's purse over in his magic, he furrowed his brow when he saw what it was. Similarly to his mantlepiece image, it was faded and depicted Stellar and her late husband, Sunspot. He was beaming in excitement as she unwrapped a present, which he determined was a Valuable Times figurine.

The porcelain figure of Princess Platinum stared up with a cutely morose expression, its cheeks and head far too wide and big for a normal pony. Stellar was smiling widely, although he didn’t spot that she was straining a bit too hard to appear pleased.

Suddenly, he got an idea. Perhaps this was all a subtle and cunning plan from Stellar to get him to find one of those for her. It had been years since Sunspot had passed, so perhaps she was yearning for a return to tradition?

"Don't worry, Hot Muffin, I've got you covered!" he declared as he put away the picture. She would never see it coming.




***




With a shiver, Firelight pushed into his home and slammed the door shut. A shaft of wind shot up his jacket. As it brushed against his rump and dock, he yelped and shivered.

More wind whistled through a crack in the door, and he huffed as he bucked it tightly closed. "Perhaps Pudding Cakes is right," he muttered to himself as he started to unwrap his layers of clothes. Beside him was floating a small bag, which contained inside one of the Valuable Times figurines he had been searching for.

After spending far too long at the Sire's Hollow Hearth's Warming market, dodging hyperactive fillies having snowball fights, traders that wanted to sell him useless baubles like those new-fangled smartphones, and almost running into Stellar, he had managed to find a couple of upstanding traveling merchants who had on them a first edition figurine!

"They were rather quick to send me off," he mused as he finally started to warm up. Shrugging, he muttered, "Probably were just cold. They didn't have much cover out there."

Trotting into the living room, he smiled at the arrayed rolls of wrapping paper that he had already laid out. After splurging for some proper coverings, he needed to justify it with a new gift. That being the figure he got for Stellar.

Floating it around to face him, he stared into its large eyes momentarily, feeling like it was a pit of despair and darkness leering back at him. Shuddering, he quickly turned the figurine of Chancellor Puddinghead away. What she saw in those things, he wasn't sure, but so long as it made her happy...

Setting it gently down on the table next to the couch, he blinked when he heard an ear-splitting crash and saw that the giftware had shattered, from top to bottom. Small pieces of porcelain were still shaking back and forth, and only the base stood intact.

For a couple of seconds, he simply stared where the depiction of Puddinghead once rested, and then he snapped, "What?!" His temper rising, he felt a couple of veins bulge on his neck. He snatched the base away from the table.

Swiveling it up to look at it, he snarled when he read the words "Made in Neighpon" on the bottom with a tacky sticker. These weren't made in Neighpon, these were proud Clopsland art pieces that had a history in the center of Equestria, not along the coast. He knew. He looked it up in the library. Had to be thorough, after all.

Fuming, he let the present fall to the ground, its base somehow managing to not crash apart the moment it impacted. Streams of sweat started to break out on his face. Some of the bangs of his aquamarine mane flopped onto his forehead, and the fringes of his peripheral vision grew red.

As he ground his teeth, he felt a lump beginning to form in his throat. After a couple of seconds, the fire left him, and he slumped forward, a weak whimper on his lips. Groaning, he whined, "Oh, what can I do?"

There was really only one option: get his money back.

But how? He was no student of Twilight so that he could throw his diplomatic weight around. And while he loved Starlight and was so proud of what she became, he, unfortunately, was not the one who passed along all her magical prowess. There was no spell that he could utilize to have them comply with his request.

There was nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Gazing at the fireplace mantle again, he moaned and looked into the eyes of the mare in the picture there. Her pink coat contrasted nicely with his faded purple, and the two were in the middle of hiking through some of the woods outside the town.

With a whimper, he asked aloud, "What can I do, Shimmer Shine? What can I do?" He choked at a couple of tears, and closed his eyes, letting the hot stings trail down his muzzle and soak into the couch. After a few seconds, he mumbled, "Why can't I be brave like I was when I proposed?"

Sighing, he flattened his ears against his head and let himself slowly swing a forehoof back and forth. For the next couple of minutes, the only sound left in the room was the steady tick of a small clock and the faint whoosh of air as he let his right foreleg dangle.

Sure, Stellar would still be happy to just spend time with him, but he wanted to give her a true surprise. Wouldn't it have been even better if for once, he actually figured out her hints? When she opened it, her eyes would have lightened up like a filly's. He could visualise it immediately. Even the thought made his heart flutter a bit.

But now with the fake shattered, there was nothing he could do. Although he didn't bother to count, it was probably somewhere in the realm of half a million to a bazillion pieces. Who cared what the actual number was? It was irreparable.

Before he could continue to wallow in his self-pity, he heard the clock wind up, then suddenly strike its chimes. Out of it came a light-hearted clang, and he looked up. Was it three already? How could he forget his weekly “reminisce over his wonderful Precious Pumpkin Bumpkin time”?

The present forgotten, he bolted from the living room and up the staircase to the second floor. Skidding to a halt outside the small library next to Starlight's room, he cantered inside and perused the various books, tomes, and other assorted reading material. Soon enough, he pulled out a large album, its front decorated with hearts and a couple of pictures of he, or Starlight, or Shimmer Shine.

With a sigh, he hauled it back to the living room and quickly prepared a cup of tea. Settling back down on the couch, he started to flip through the pages, chuckling as he ran across an image or two of a young Starlight.

Admittedly, he had tried to get Starlight to partake in this once they had made up, but she always ended up being busy. She was truly a responsible mare, since she always seemed to be off saving Equestria when he wanted to spend time with her on photos.

Shrugging, he sipped at his drink, and his mind slowly started to wander back to the issue at hoof. With a grimace, he mumbled to himself, "No, I won't let it ruin my time." He snorted and focused back on the pictures.

Flipping over the page and landing on some of Starlight's teen years, he growled when the flash of one of the market merchant's faces filled his vision. He winced as he recalled the exorbitant price of a hundred bits they charged, and he snarled.

He glared down at the album. A picture of Starlight wearing a ripped black t-shirt, skull earrings, a spiked collar, and some black eyeshadow glowered in return. Conversely, he was also in that picture, smiling happily and blissfully unaware of the wedge he had been continuing to drive between the two of them.

Moaning, he shook his head and pressed both his hooves against his temples. "Oh! Stop being such a coward, Firelight!" he barked at himself, putting the album off to the side and sighing. "What would Glimmy do?" he asked as he rubbed his chin. "Probably shoot it with magic." He frowned. That wouldn't do.

As he pondered for a moment, he let his gaze trail back to the photo album. While most of the images were of Starlight, a few were of him or Shimmer. One was him in the spotlight, carrying on a speech in front of an audience of most of Sire's Hollow. Starlight was off to the side, smacking her hoof to her face.

Suddenly, he gasped and slammed his forehooves together. A sneer beginning to form on his face, he chortled. While he wasn't good in a scrap, he had taught Starlight all she knew about using words effectively. It was time to scrape the rust off his wordsmithing noggin.

He cackled a couple of times, a pair of loud snort-laughs emanated from his lips, and he grinned wickedly. "Let's see if their heartstrings can survive this..."

Sprinting into the front hall, he confidently prepared to depart. In a single motion, he opened the door, leapt out to the street, and barreled right into another pony.

Blushing, he muttered, "Sorry about that, Hard Tack." Firelight helped the wizened stallion to his hooves, brushed him off, then dashed out toward the marketplace. He barely heard Hard Tack's curses as the wind whipped in his ears.

Internally, he started to work out the exact avenue he would take. Everypony had to have some empathy to them. Surely the two merchants weren’t heartless, right? If he could spin something so heart-wrenching, they'd be sure to return his bits.

Darting past more houses, he sighed and shook his head. The noise of carousing ponies reached his ears as he approached the marketplace by turning a corner and coming in from the south. Already the first few tents and stalls had become visible, as they were nestled between a few of the older houses near the outskirts of Sire's Hollow.

Entering the temporary square, he started to flit his gaze about, searching for the two stallions that had conned him out of his bits. He wrinkled his nose. Although there was probably at least another three hours left of daylight, the merchants were beginning to pack up for the day.

Multiple were swapping signs over indicating their closures, and then left their stalls to start to store what wares they hadn't sold. Clinking of metal reached his ears, and he saw a couple of shop owners counting out their hauls for the day, the golden bits sparkling in the late afternoon sunlight.

A couple of foals dashed by, spraying him with snow and causing him to snort. One skidded to a halt before scooping up some snow and forming it into a loose ball. With a devious cackle, she decked her companion on the side of the head with it. At that, the other pony went flying and slipped underneath the skirt of one merchant table, popping up a moment later with their own snowball ready to throw.

As they continued their fight, Firelight huffed and started to trot around the area. Hooves crunching on compacted snow, he pricked his ears up when he heard the familiar voice of one of the merchants he purchased the fake giftware from.

"Yes, oh brother of mine, I'd say we made a pretty decent profit from this venture. With my help, of course."

"If you weren't trying to peddle off every last bottle of that Celestia-forsaken—" another, gruffer voice began.

"Daybreaker, remember, we don't discriminate here."

"Daybreaker­-forsaken tonic of yours, my casuistic brother, we'd have gotten more sales!"

"I have no clue what you just said, Flam, but I'll take it as a compliment!"

Finally finding the right avenue from when he was here earlier, he walked past a pair of stalls in the middle of being disassembled and saw the threadbare tent that contained the two stallions. Both were frowning at each other.

"I'll have you know, Flam, that the Horny Miracle is still safe. Especially after I figured out the right formula," he growled, holding up a cheap bottle containing a glowing liquid. Crude sketches of an alicorn with a horn three times her head's size were etched onto the label.

Something else was scratched out, but Firelight couldn't make it out from how the merchant was holding it against his body.

"If only I could charge you interest for the hospital bill, my overventersome sibling," Flam murmured before noticing Firelight's approach and instantly snapping into a wide smile. His moustache wiggled a bit, and he held his grin tightly. "Ah, I see our esteemed antiquer has returned! Is there anything else we can provide?"

Sliding in next to Flam with a sleazy smirk, Flim added, "Any further stupendous, jaw-dropping, head-turning gifts that you seek?"

Taking a deep breath and muttering to himself, Firelight managed to remain calm enough to state, "I'm looking—" He scrunched his muzzle as a fiery glow entered his eyes. "For a-a refund!" he declared with a slightly nervous stutter, stomping on the ground in satisfaction. Under his breath, he mumbled, "I actually did it!"

Both stallions blinked at him. Glancing between each other, they suddenly burst into fits of laughter, and Flim shook his head. "I'm sorry, but refunds are out of the question." He produced with his magic a long scroll, which unfurled another fifteen feet down the path and past Firelight. "Part of the contract here at Flim and Flam—"

"Flam and Flim," Flam interjected.

Whipping his head around so fast Firelight heard a few vertebrae crack, Flim fumed at Flam before returning to smile at Firelight. "Flim and Flam Mercantile, you agree that everything is fully genuine, unadulterated perfection! No refunds." With that, he furled the paper back up and grinned.

For a couple of seconds, Firelight stared at them, then he licked his lips, stared up to the sky, and moaned, "Oh! Whatever shall I tell my dearest mother! What can I tell my precious Pumpkin Cheeks when she asks why her Gram-Gram didn't send her a present this year?" He peered back down at them, tears now staining his cheeks.

"What?" Flim and Flam asked in unison.

Flim turned to Flam. "Is he trying to pull a sob story on us, brother?"

"I'm not sure," Flam whispered back, still staring at Firelight as he sniffled and shook his head.

"All she wanted, at the ripe age of one hundred and fifty-two, was to just give a nice, thoughtful gift to her granddaughter," Firelight continued, wiping at his muzzle and snorting. "Do you not have any empathy for a poor old pony who has only one lung?"

"Now, that seems a bit absurd—" Flim began, glancing back at a small picture on the wall behind him. From what Firelight could see, it was of him and the light-blue unicorn Starlight was friends with. Smixie, if he remembered right. Both were tightly pressed together, and Flim looked ecstatic. Smixie had a giant grin on her face, and she was pointing her hoof at him while a pair of grizzled stallions approached from the background.

Continuing his story, Firelight declared, "And she can only hobble on her single hindleg. It's the only leg she still has!" Before Flam could interject, he stated, "And her horn is almost curling into her head." He counted off a couple more items by tapping his hoof. "And she lost her tongue in a snow shoveling accident, and let's see: rickets, palsy, leprosy..."

Already, he caught that Flim and Flam's bottom lips were quivering. As a couple of tears formed in his eyes, Flam hastily turned his head to stare at an old photo stuck to the tent’s back. A small caption on the bottom of the elderly subject read, “Grammy Boozle.” She was goofily grinning at the camera, one of her eyes lazily peering off at an almost sixty-degree angle. 

His mind grinded to a halt momentarily as he saw that she looked identical to his fictional description. “Curse Glimmy-Wimmy’s old diapers! They’ll think I was using that picture to come up with this!” he groaned inwardly.

"A-And she also has a nasty cold," he finished with a sad cough.

Almost instantly, both stallions choked, then tears started to stream down their muzzles. Flam collapsed into a heap, blubbering out a few incomprehensible utterances as he smacked a hoof morosely on the table. Flim flopped on top of him, sputtering out, "W-We do understand!” He sniffled. “Gram-Gram lived to be one hundred and fifty-three!" He jabbed at the second picture.

Arching a brow, Firelight mumbled to himself, "I... didn't expect that to work."

For a few more seconds, the two stallions bawled away, their tears slowly freezing to the covering of their table, then Flam sniffed and pushed Flim off. As his brother slammed to the ground with a heavy thud, Flam gazed into Firelight's eyes and groaned, "We never knew you were being so noble!" Pulling out the sack of bits that Firelight had paid with earlier, he passed them along. "Here's your Meemaw's bits." He kicked Flim.

As Flim scrambled to his hooves and gingerly rubbed his neck, Flam gave a quick nod to behind the tent curtain. Flim hesitated momentarily but slipped through the entrance and returned with another Valuable Times figurine. Wiping his nose, Flim choked out, "Here, for your Meemaw. Truly genuine. Made in Clopsland." He pointed at a label on the base. "Daybreaker bless you!"

At that, they both started sobbing again, and Firelight hummed in confusion. Glancing momentarily at the giftware, he shrugged and slunk off, his mind racing on how to best wrap it.

After a minute, Flam perked up and asked, "Brother, do you think we were just conned?"

"Impossible, my chary brother," Flim replied with a scoffing grunt. "We can see through any con! Besides, who could think of so strange a tale unless it was true?"

"Quite true, quite true," Flam responded with a nod and watched as Firelight skipped back out of the merchant square.




***




Firelight moaned, curling around a bit to let Stellar more comfortably lean into him. Planting her with a kiss and holding it, he finally broke contact for a bit of air. He tasted the faint hint of peppermint on her lips. She pulled back, a sultry smirk on her face as she wiggled her eyebrows playfully. A soft growl left her throat, and she pressed against his chest, sighing as she stared into the fireplace.

Similarly to only a couple of days prior, they were once again resting comfortably beside each other in Firelight’s living room, with added glasses of wine which they were slowly nursing. Stellar nuzzled against his neck momentarily, a content smile on her muzzle.

Underneath the tree, there were a couple of presents. A couple of carefully wrapped boxes for Firelight, and then an amorphous blob that was his to Stellar.

It had seemed like the last day had been a whirl since he outconned Flim and Flam. Before he knew it, Stellar was over for the holiday, and they were through food. Now it was simply to finish with some gift exchanges, and then the rest of the evening would be theirs. For whatever they wanted.

At the thought, he felt his face blush a bit, and he took another sip of wine before glancing over at Stellar. She was radiant, exchanging her pearl necklace for one made of smaller diamonds. They all glittered and shone in the fireplace's glow, looking like bright embers stuck to her fur.

When she saw him staring at her neck, she winked and floated over one of the presents. "Not too fast, Lighty-Wighty." She held back a small cough and cleared her throat into her shoulder. Briefly contorting into a cringe, her expression soon returned to a smile. "Open and see what's inside. I think you'll like it."

She purred softly and inched closer, letting him catch a scent of her perfume. Placing the box next to him, she let him rip into it with glee only matched by a foal. Within seconds, he gasped and his eyes widened as he pulled out a large model of Sire's Hollow.

Encased in glass, there was a plaque on the wood base and he slowly read it. "Sire's Hollow. 957 ALB." He gazed into it in awe. "Oh! There's the old post office! And there!" He jabbed at the protective covering, causing it to jiggle a bit. "That's the first train station!"

Peering back up at her with tear-filled eyes of joy, he exclaimed, "Pudgy-Bumpkin, it's perfect!" He leaned forward and nuzzled her, taking a deep whiff of her mane and smiling. It was indeed perfect. "Perhaps I need to start collecting more?"

Stellar chortled. "Don't push it, honey." She nibbled on his ear before giving him a soft nudge to sit back up. Noticing that he only had the one gift, she shrugged and passed over his other present. With colt-like eagerness, he unwrapped it. He stared at it momentarily, then turned it around.

As he did, she grinned triumphantly. Staring back at her from the picture was herself, with the scrawled calligraphy of her signature, plus an inscription. "Please push Starlight to have babies," it stated. "I need grandchildren. Love, Stellar."

"That way you don't need me to remind you when I'm busy," Stellar explained, although Firelight's consternated expression remained.

Placing it back in the box, Firelight nodded slowly and then looked at her with anticipation. A few wrinkles formed on his forehead and were etched by the shadows cast by the fire like they were long, deep ruts in a canyon. Floating over his lump of paper, he passed it to Stellar and stated, "Open it, my Pudding-Wudding Squishy-Cheeks!"

"Oh Celestia," she mumbled under her breath as she began to unwrap the bundle. After digging through the various layers, she paused when she saw what was inside.

Her jaw dropped, and his eyes sparkled.

Gingerly lifting up the gift's contents, she continued to stare flabbergasted at the figurine therein. In turn, his smile only grew wider, and she stuttered a few times. Finally, she found words to speak.

"I hate it."

She dropped the figure back into the papers, and stared in utter surprise at the Valuable Times statue. However, her expression wasn't of sadness, but of irritation. At last, she looked up, a tired frown on her features.

Gently rubbing a forehoof against a temple, she grunted, "Before you start to apologize, no, it's not because it reminds me of Sunspot." Firelight closed his mouth. That thought was on the tip of his tongue before she spoke. She sighed. "I loved him, Lighty, like I love you. But, seriously, did you think I liked those damned figures?" She brought the piece back out. "They're creepy!"

Wilting a bit at her response, Firelight mumbled, "I thought you loved them. The picture—" he pulled out the image that sent him on the quest "—showed that you did."

Shaking her head, she stated, "I loved them for him, but I always hated those things." She scoffed. "You know what this means." A smirk formed on her muzzle. When he gave her a confused response, she declared, "Couch time for you!"

"It's my own house, Lovey-Dovey!" he protested in response. "There's no way that you could—"




***




Firelight's snores filled the living room as the front door to the house slowly creaked open. At just past two in the morning, everypony in Sire's Hollow was asleep, save for one mare.

Slinking into the dark room, Stellar Flare grinned as she carried with her a small box and a letter. On its cover, ruby-red lipstick was plastered with a thick kiss, and there was a little scribble that stated, "One final gift. Hopefully this hint is enough."

Slipping the box and letter next to the empty wine bottle, she chuckled. Admittedly, his gift was thoughtful, but still, she needed to assert dominance. If her Sunburst wouldn't listen, then Firelight would have to.

She planted a soft smooch on his muzzle, then slunk back out the door. Gazing up at the clear sky, which carried perhaps Twilight's grandest tapestry of twinkling stars yet, she muttered, "Happy Hearth's Warming, Lighty." She flicked her tail and trotted out. "And many more to come."




FIN