Hi everypony, happy new year to you all!

My last chapter may have not got so many reviews, but they were good ones and it got a lot of viewers. Anyway, I know it's a bit late, but here the Hearths Warming Day chapter.

I would've tried to get this one finished by the time Christmas came, but I couldn't finish the last one in time, so here it is now.

Now with that out of the way, enjoy the chapter.

Chapter 61: Hearths Warming Day

Ponyville Library

It was late at night and we had just returned from Canterlot after preforming the re-enactment of the founding of Equestria, it was fun but tiring, all I wanted to do now was go to bed and get some long deserved sleep.

Besides, tomorrow was Christmas…or Hearths Warming Day, as they call it here, so I wanted to get to sleep so it could come quicker.

I was in the bathroom, standing in front of the mirror on the wall as I brushed my teeth. It was still pretty hard to hold a toothbrush with hooves, but I'm getting the hang of it. Once I finished, I spat the toothpaste foam into the sink and washed out my mouth, which was now clean and minty.

After that, I left the bathroom and went to the living-room, where Twilight, Spike and the other were relaxing before we'd all go to bed. As I entered the living room, the first thing I looked at was the tree and saw how perfect it was, it reminded me of the tree I had back in England.

I smiled at it, until I heard the sound of paper tearing, I turned to where the sound came from and saw Spike opening his presents, with Twilight lying on the floor beside him while watching. I went over to them. "Hold up there, fella, those are for tomorrow." I said as I stopped in front of them.

They both looked up to me before Twilight spoke. "Oh, didn't I tell you about our tradition?" she asked.

I shook my head. "No, what tradition?" I asked curiously.

Twilight then stood up before she explained. "You see, when Spike and I were growing up in Canterlot, he couldn't wait until Hearths Warming Day to open his presents. So ever since then, we've always opened our presents the night before." she said with a small smile.

"Oh, our tradition back in England was we only open one before Christmas, though sometimes it would end with two." I said before I tilted my head. "But if you open them tonight, what will you open tomorrow?" I asked curiously.

Twilight came up to me and leaned in towards my face. "I have a few more stashed away, I put them under the tree while Spike's sleeping." She said in a whisper.

With that, I got the idea. "Ooooh…any for me?" I asked before smiling largely.

Twilight smirked. "I'm not saying, but I think there's one under the tree right now." she confirmed as she looked over to the tree and eyed the presents. "Now, I don't expect you to jump-for-joy over it, but you can't open them if you-" But before she could finish, she noticed I wasn't standing next to her anymore. Instead, I was sitting in front of the tree searching for my presents.

Eventually, I found one with my name on it, it was a really small, like 'notepad' small. I get it out and start ripping the paper off with my hoof before it was revealed to be a book of hoof-made coupon book. "Oh…what's this?" I asked curiously.

Twilight walked over to me and looked at it. "It's a Couple Coupon book, I made it myself. You pick one you want to do, and we'll do whatever it tells us to." she explained before she used her magic to flip through the small pages and stopped. "Like this one."

I looked down at it and read when it said. "'All paid spare treatment?'?" I said in confusion.

"Anything you want in the spare, it's yours, you won't have to spend a bit, it'll be all on me." Twilight said with a kind smile.

I smiled back. "Aww thanks, Twi, but you really don't have to do that." I said before I looked back at the coupon. "There's even a few more that you don't have to do…like this one, a should hoof rub, I don't want to trouble you with things like tha-ahhh." I suddenly said as Twilight began to rub my shoulders with her hooves, it felt good, very good.

"I know you've had a hard last few months, Matt, so I want you to relax a bit more." Twilight smoothly s she rubbed my shoulders.

"Mmm…ok…" I said, feeling some tension go out of my body, my back ached at how nice it felt.

"Guys." A voice said, we both looked over to where it came from and saw Spike staring at us awkwardly. "I'm, like, right here." he said.

With that, Twilight removed her hooves from my shoulders and placed them back on the floor. "Sorry Spike." She said before she returned her attention to me. "That reminds me, the more…private…options are on the orange paper." She said.

I then looked back down at the coupon and flipped to the orange paper, I read the things they were for and went wide-eyed at what they said. "Oh my….oh my….oh my!...Jesus!" I said as I flipped through each of the orange pages.

Twilight smirked slyly. "And we can do each and every one of them without question." She said as she placed her hoof on my arm, making me tense up.

Spike rolled his eyes. "Gross." He said under his breath before he looked back under the tree to see if he could find more presents. He couldn't find any, but he did, however, find one for someone else. "Hey, there's a present here for Jeff." He said as he held the present in his claws.

I looked down at it before I looked around for Jeff. "Where is Jeff anyway? I haven't seen him all day." I said out of curiosity.

Twilight's smile then disappeared. "I tried to talk to him, but he just went into the guest room and said he didn't want to do any of this." She said.

I placed the coupon down on the small table beside me and looked at her with confusion. "'Not do any of this'? What does that mean?" I said before I turned to the stairs that led up to the bedroom and went over to them. "I'm gonna talk to him." I said.

I then went up the stairs until I reached the our bedroom, I went up to the guest room and went inside. "Jeff?" I called as I looked around for him, I soon saw him standing on the windowsill looking out the window. "Jeff, are you alright?" I asked as I went up to him.

Jeff didn't turn around, but he answered. "Yeah, why?" he asked in a rough tone.

"Twilight said you didn't want to open any presents, there's some under the tree for you as-well." I said, trying to convince him to come down.

"I know….I just don't feel like it, ok?" Jeff answered, not taking his eyes away from the window.

I stayed silent for a moment before I tried something else. "Do you want to tell me what's wrong? No-one should feel down at this time of the year." I said, hoping he'd tell me.

"No, I just want some time alone. So can you give me that, please?" Jeff asked calmly, everything was silent for a minute before he sighed heavily. "You're still there, aren't you?" he asked.

"Yep." I answered while sitting patiently on the floor, waiting for him to open up a bit.

Jeff sighed again before he turned to face me. "Alright, I'll talk!" he said before he took a breath and spilled. "I'm not originally from this part of Equestria…you probably already know that, but still…I'm from a far off jungle that belongs to other parrots like myself." he admitted.

"You mean there's more parrots like you?" I asked, receiving a nod from Jeff. "Lord help us." I thought before I listened to the rest of his story.

"Anyway, I got left that place to try and move up in the world, but I got captured and brought here to Ponyville to be a prize pet, that's when we met each other. But this will be my first Hearths Warming away from my family and…it really bums me out." Jeff said, looking down in depression.

Hearing that made me feel bad for him, I could relate to his problem and I knew how he felt. "Oh…I'm sorry, buddy." I said before I took a step forward. "But you know, this'll be my first…Hearths Warming…away from my family as-well, so I actually know how you feel." I said.

Jeff stayed quiet for a moment before he spoke. "I never thought of that." He said before he looked at me with sorrow in his eyes. "I'm sorry dude."

I gave him a small smile. "I'm sorry as-well, but you won't spend Hearths Warming alone, you can always spend it with us. I know we're not your real family, but we're close…aren't we?" I asked.

Jeff returned my smile. "Yeah…You're right, I suppose." He said before he flew down to me and landed on my back. "I should be feelin' down, it's the holidays, no-one should be down on the holidays." He said, in a more cheerful tone.

I smile at this before I turned and made my way towards the room's exit. "Glad you're feeling better, buddy, now let's go see about those presents." I said.

"Oh yeah, you mentioned there was one for me, right?" Jeff asked, sounding more interested than before.

"Apparently." I say as I walk through the door and leave the room.

"Sweet." Jeff said smoothly as I turned and grabbed the doorknob with my hoof and closed the door behind me.

-Later that night-

After opening our presents, we all called it a night and went to bed. We were all satisfied with our gifts, Twilight got a new hair-comb with small diamonds on it, only the best for my Twi, Spike got a sweater to keep him warm during the season, Peewee got a bird-feeder with bird seed inside it, Jeff got his own bed so he wouldn't have sleep on a bird stand anymore, now he could rest more peacefully.

As they all slept, Twilight and I were still awake talking to each other. "I can't wait until morning." Twilight said in excitement.

"Me too, I always love waking up Christmas morning…I mean, Hearths Warming morning." I said, trying to speak in their terms.

Twilight smiled. "Its ok, Matt, tell me about this time of your from your home, tell me about Christmas." She said as she placed her hoof on mine.

I looked at her and smiled lovingly before I told her the story. "Well, in religious terms, it celebrates the birth of what we call 'the son of Christ' or 'Jesus Christ', hence the name Christmas. They say if your good all year, a man named Santa Claus comes to your house Christmas Eve night and brings you presents, but only when you're sleeping. In the end, it's a season everyone loves and always will love." I said, ending the story.

Twilight raised her eye-brow, but kept her smile. "So…it's pretty much the same as here, only without the Jesus thing." she said.

I gave her a curious look. "You lot have a Santa?" I asked, surprised that I never thought about asking before.

"Kinda, only we call him Santa Hooves." Twilight stated.

"Of course you do." I said with an amused smile before I nudged up to her and held her in my hooves. "By the way, not only will this my first Hearths Warming away from home, it'll be our first Hearths Warming together as a couple." I said with a loving smile.

Twilight returned it. "I know…" she said before she wrapped her hooves around me and her loving smile turned into sly one. "How about we celebrate? Wanna use one of those orange coupons?" she said as she nuzzled her nose against my neck.

A warm thrill shot up my body and I smiled widely. "And my present has come early." I said before I grabbed the coupon book off the bed-side table and flipped through the pages to find one I wanted to do, I then found one and showed it to Twilight. "How about this?" I asked.

Twilight read it and smiled. "Coming right up." she said before she used her magic to tear out the chosen coupon and turned off the lamp, rendering the room completely dark.

The next day: Streets of Ponyville

The waking up the next morning was everything I had hoped for, my stocking full of small presents, going down stairs and seeing all the presents under the tree, and the sickly hunger feeling at the back of my throat, it all brought back happy memories of my past Christmas's in England.

We would've opened all our presents then and there, but Spike found a letter from Pinkie inviting us all to come to Sugar Cube Corner to open our presents together, Twilight and I talked about it before we decided that I would be nice to do that, Pinkie and the others were basically family to us and we wanted to spend Hearths Warming day the best we could with them.

So with that decided, we all gathered up our presents and left the library, door locked and all. We placed our presents in a cart and I pulled it to our destination with Twilight and the others walking beside me. We looked around Ponyville to see all the cottages decorated in lights and other Christmas themed stuff, they all made the entire town glow with a Christmas feel.

Spike was wearing his new sweater so he wouldn't go too cold in the snow, Jeff and Peewee were riding in the cart with our present and Twilight, like always, was walking beside me. I turned my head to her and smiled. "This certainly makes a change to my past Christmas's." I said.

Twilight turned her head to face me. "What do you mean?" she asked curiously.

"Well back in England, we normally opened our presents at home and everyone came to our place, we'd have Christmas dinner and everything." I said with a smile, remembering all the good Christmas' I had.

Twilight smiled back. "It sounds nice, maybe your family with visit again today, it'd be good if they did." She said as she kept walking beside me.

"I'm sure they will. I mean, they might still have Christmas dinner with Nan before they come, but they'll come…probably." I said, wondering if my parents and Jess would come to celebrate Christmas with me.

Meanwhile, Jeff huffed and turned to Peewee. "*Hmf* Well you know who's family won't be seeing their son for the holiday? Mine! You and Spike lived with Twilight way before Matt showed up, the rest of the girls have known each other long enough that they're basically family to each other, so I'm the only one who's gonna be spending the Holidays family-less." He said before he crossed his wings.

Peewee shook his head. "No you're not, Jeff, you'll be spending you Holidays with us. We may not be you family, but we're close like one." He said.

Jeff sighed. "I suppose…you guys are better than nothing, after all." He said with Peewee nodding in agreement.

Spike, walking beside the cart, overheard this and gave Peewee a disapproving look that he didn't notice.

We kept walking through the town to get to Sugar Cube Corner, seeing all the kids played in the snow, ponies buying food for Hearths Warming dinner, and other ponies adding more decorations to their cottages.

A few minutes later: Sugar Cube Corner

It didn't take long until we arrived at Sugar Cube Corner and, as expected, it was decorated to the brim. Lights, ribbons, a star on top of the cupcake on the roof, esc. Anyway, it looked like Pinkie had been hard at work trying to outdo herself.

I marvelled at Pinkie's work and smile. "Whow, looks like Pinkie had her hooves full last night." I said, not taking my eyes away from the bright and beautiful bakery.

"You should've seen her last year during Easter, a star's not the only thing that she puts on top of that cupcake." Twilight said before she walked ahead towards the front door, leaving me picturing what Pinkie would put up there.

I then quickly caught up with Twi just as she knocked on the door with her hoof. After a moment, the door opened and Pinkie was behind it, wearing a white beard and a Santa hat. "Twilight! Matty! Spike! Jeffy! Peewee! Happy Hearths Warming day!" She said with glee.

"Happy Hearths Warming day, Pinkie. Nice hat." I said as I looked up at her hat.

"Thanks, come on in." Pinkie said as she stepped aside. "Don't worry about your gifts, I'll bring them in, you guys get warm." She said with a kind smile.

Twilight, Spike, Jeff and Peewee went into the house while I detached the cart from my body and walked past Pinkie to follow them. "I'll just hang my scarf up and help you, there's a lot of presents there and you'll help carrying-" I then stopped once I noticed Pinkie had somehow appeared right in front of me.

"All done." Pinkie Pie said with a happy smile.

I looked at the table behind her to see all our presents were there, I then looked back outside to see our cart was empty. "Umm…how'd you do that?" I asked, unsure if I even wanted to know.

"Just a little Pinkie secret, nosey-posey." Pinkie said as she tussled my mane with her hoof, messing it up a little. She then proceeded to hop away. "Now come on, the rest of the girls are already here and they've been waiting for you guys." She said.

I just shook off the odd feeling, hung my scarf up on a peg and followed her, I immediately saw that Twi and the others had already joined up with the rest of the Mane 6, they looked like they were already having a good time. I walked up to them and sat in the space between Twilight and Rarity. "Hi ladies." I greeted with a kind smile.

They all looked at me and returned my smile. "Hello Matthew." Rarity said before she looked up at my messed up mane. "What happened to your mane, darling? Hold still, I'll fix it." she said before she used her magic to put my hair back to normal.

"Thanks Rarity." I said with a thankful smile once she was done.

"Happy Hearths Warming day, you two." Applejack said before she gave us a smirk. "So, did you use up any of those coupons yet?" she said before she chuckled.

I tensed up, slightly embarrassed, before I leaned over to Twilight. "Did you tell them about that coupon book you made for me?" I asked nervously.

Twilight looked at me with a small embarrassed smile. "Yeah…I didn't want to spoil anything but…I didn't really make it on my how, I kinda had help….even with the orange pages." She admitted.

Hearing that send a chill down my spine and I didn't know if I liked it or not, I looked at the others with surprise and saw they were all smiling at me, some with smirks. "Don't hold your breath for anything else like that, Matt, it was just something a little something we decided to put together to say…thanks." Rainbow Dash said with a sweet smile.

"F-For what?" I asked nervously.

"For giving us a dang good year." Applejack said with a kind but strong voice.

"What do you mean?" I asked, looked at each of them curiously.

"Think about it, Matt, since you came to Ponyville, you've made things feel a whole lot better." Fluttershy said with a bashful look. "I mean, you've always been there when we needed you." she said.

"You've been like another big brother to Applebloom and her friends." Applejack added.

"You gave Discord a chance to prove that he wanted to change when the rest of us didn't, know he's one of our closes friends…sort of…but he's very close to Fluttershy now." Rarity said as she pointed her hoof to Fluttershy.

"It's true, we're having a tea party next week, the rest of you are welcome to join us if you want." Fluttershy said, looked at us with a hopeful smile.

Rainbow Dash raised her eye-brow. "Yeah…I might have to check my schedule." She said before she returned her attention to me. "You're a totally cool flying buddy, you share my love for racing and aphetic activates, and you're always up for a race whenever you get the chance. Which reminds me, two old friends of mine from Cloudsdale challenged us to a race through the snow storm coming this weekend." She said.

I tilt my head. "You mean that big snow storm and practically buried Pegasopolis in snow? They say it's the most vicious snow storm of the year." I stated, looking a bit uneasy about the idea.

"So…you up for it?" Rainbow Dash asked simply.

"You know it!" I said loudly with a large smile before we both reached across the table and shared a high hoof before we sat back down.

"And best of all, you made somepony at this table the happiest mare in the world." Rarity said before she looked over to Twilight, causing me to do the same. "You've given her everything she deserves and more, now you're both going to start a family together and we just know you'll continue to treat Twilight right and become a loving father to your foal." She said with a heart-filled voice.

Twilight and I smiled lovingly at each other before I turned to Rarity. "Thanks Rarity." I said before I looked at the others. "Thank you all, I don't know where I'd be if I never met any of you." I said with full honesty.

They all smile warmly at me before Applejack grabbed her mug of cider with her hoof and raised it up. "Happy Hearths Warming day, everypony." she said.

The rest of us then grabbed our mugs and clanged them together all at once. "Happy Hearths Warming day." we all said before we pulled our mugs back and drank to this toast.

Once we were done, we placed out mugs back down on the table before Fluttershy looked around the decorated room. "Nice job on the decorating, Pinkie Pie, you put more up every year." She said with a kind tone.

Pinkie looked over to her and smiled. "Thanks Fluttershy, but I'm not quite yet." She said before she reached under the table and pulled up a box of decorations. "I was just about to put these up, but then I got the idea for all of us to have a gift-opening party together, so dropped the box and sent the inversions right away." She explained.

I looked over to her with a raised eye brow. "Wait, so…you still have more decorations to put up?" I asked, not sure if I could believe she wasn't done.

Pinkie shook her head. "Nope, could you and Fluttershy help me put 'em up?" she asked me.

I shrugged. "I suppose I can." I said before I stood up and walked around the table to Pinkie.

At that moment, Pinkie looked over to Rarity and winked at her, receiving a nod from Rarity. "Umm, Twilight, could you help me in the kitchen with something?" she asked before winking at her.

"Sure thing, Rarity." Twilight said before she returned the wink. Twilight then stood up and followed Rarity into the kitchen.

I wondered what was in there than needed two ponies to do it, but I just shrugged it off as nothing and followed Pinkie and Fluttershy across the room to help put up the rest of the holiday decorations.

As I started taking thing like baubles and ribbons, Rarity came back into the room and looked over to the other who were still sitting. "*Clears throat* I think we could use some more help in here." she said before she gave the same wink to Rainbow Dash.

"Sure, Rarity." Rainbow Dash said, returning the wink, before she turned her head to Applejack and nodded. After receiving a nod back, they both got up and went into the kitchen to join Twilight and Rarity.

I looked over to the kitchen door and wondered what was going on in there. "What are they doing that needs four ponies? Are they cooking in there…no, that can't be it, Pinkie would be all over that if they were." I thought before I decided, yet again, to shrug it off and continue with my task.

-A few minutes later-

As Pinkie Pie made paper snowflakes, don't ask how, Fluttershy and I were hovering in the air working on the doorframe. Fluttershy hug ribbons along it while I hug mistletoe in the centre, eventually, Fluttershy's task led her straight beside me, under said mistletoe.

Fluttershy and I noticed this and looked at each other, I chuckled nervously before I looked away with my ears down. Surprisingly, Fluttershy didn't do the same, she actually smiled and giggled. The next thing I knew, she planted a small kiss on one of my cheeks, leaving me stunned for a moment before I smiled at her.

Pinkie Pie, covered in cut pieces of paper, looked up at us. "Are you two doing ok?" she asked with a simple smile.

We both then looked down at her. "Yeah, totally fine…how about you, Pinkie?" Fluttershy asked curiously.

"I'm doing great, look at my paper snowflakes." Pinkie Pie said before she held up her badly-made paper snowflakes, it must be hard making things like that with only a pair of hooves.

Fluttershy and I looked at each other before we looked at her with fake smiles. "They…great, Pinkie." I said, trying to spare her feelings.

"Yeah…you should make those more often." Fluttershy said before she felt like hitting herself for saying that.

Pinkie Pie gasped with a large smile. "I should?!" she asked loudly.

Before we could do any more damage, Twilight and the others came back in, we looked over to them and noticed Rainbow Dash was holding a rolled up banner. As Fluttershy and I landed back down on the floor, Rainbow Dash pinned one corner of the banner to the ceiling while Twilight used her magic to pin the other to the ceiling. "What's that, Twi?" I asked curiously.

"Oh, just a little something we put together ourselves, we've been planning this for…well, since yesterday, to be honest." Twilight said with a kind smile before she used her magic to make the banner drop.

That's when I saw what it said. "Merry Christmas" Fluttershy and Pinkie joined up with the others and they all looked at me. "Merry Christmas, Matt!" they all cheered at the same time.

My jaw dropped at this before I walked over to them. "W-What's all this?" I asked, absolutely gob-smacked.

"Remember yesterday when you talked about your version of this holiday back in your world? It was before the Hearths Warming Eve re-enactment." Twilight asked before she looked back at the others. "Well the rest of us decided to try this holiday, well…your way." she said as she returned her attention to me.

I looked at all of them before I focused my attention on Twilight. "Twi…I'm grateful for this, to all of you…but you don't have to do this, you shouldn't have to sacrifice your holiday to try and make me feel more at home." I said, feeling as though this was a bit much.

Twilight gave me a sweet smile. "Matt, you've done so much for us…for me," she said as she placed her hoof on her stomach. "That we wanted to at least owe you this, we want to try it, Matt…we all agreed." She said.

I smiled lovingly at her before I wrapped my hooves around her and hugged her. "I love you, Twilight." I said, feeling more in love with her than ever.

Twilight returned the hug. "I love you too, Matt." she said with a loving smile.

Everyone else smiled warmly at the sight of this, at that moment, Pinkie spoke up. "So where do we start, Matty?" she asked, taking a step forward.

Twilight and I broke away from our hug before I looked over to her. "Well if this was at the beginning of the month, I would've been able to start off easy. But Christmas day, that's a tough one." I said before I thought. "Hmm…I suppose we could start by opening some of our presents first, then we have Christmas dinner, then we just do whatever." I explained.

"Cool, so which presents do we open first?" Rainbow Dash said as she flew over to the table plied with presents.

"Did somepony say presents?" a familiar voice echoed before we heard sleigh bells jingle, they sounded as though they were coming from outside.

Wondering what it was, we opened the front door and went outside into the snow. We looked around before we saw something coming up the street towards us. As it got closer, we eventually saw what it was.

It was Discord riding on a sleigh in a Santa outfit. Fido, Spot and Rover were pulling the sleigh, each was wearing fake antlers and Rover was wearing a red nose with them. We then saw someone riding with Discord in the sleigh, as it got closer, we saw that it was Shining Armor.

It didn't take long before Discord pulled on the ropes attached to the Diamond Dogs and they stopped in front of us, Discord stood up in the sleigh to show his pillow-stuffed belly. "Merry Christmas one and all!" he said in a cheerful tone.

Shining Armor, shook up by Discord chaotic sleigh driving, climbed down from the sleigh looking terrified. "Ok…never doing that again…" he said before he was suddenly greeted by Twilight giving him a large hug.

Hearing what Discord said, I walked up to Twilight with a curious look. "You had Discord in on this as well?" I asked.

Twilight broke her hug from Shining Armor and looked at me. "Actually, I'm as surprised as you are, I didn't tell him anything. I thought he had a different party to attend up in Canterlot." She claimed.

At that moment, Discord's head lowered down beside Twilight's. "Oh I do, but don't worry." He said before he moved his head closer. "I took care of it, they won't even know I'm gone." He whispered.

Meanwhile: Canterlot Castle

Princess Celestia and Princess Luna stared confusingly at a large cardboard cut-out of Discord that he himself left behind as his decoy, it feel forward flat onto the floor.

"I cannot believe you thought it was actually him for the first few minutes." Luna said as she looked up and her embarrassed sister.

Back in Ponyville

"Totally taken care of." Discord said with a large smile before a light bulb appeared over his head. "Oh yeah, I just remembered." He said before he snapped his fingers.

With a flash of light, 7 snow-sleds appeared, each one had their own colour that matched me and the Mane 6, with them were new winter hats, scarfs and hoof ice skates. We all marvelled at how new, clean and shiny they were, especially Pinkie who was soon pretty much in love with hers, she was stroking her hoof against them and everything.

"You're all welcome." Discord said with a proud smile before he appeared behind me in a flash of light and wrapped his arm around my neck. "By the way Matt, there's a little surprise for you in the sleigh." He said as his pointed his lion finger at the sleigh.

I then looked at the sleigh and saw nothing, I tilted my head in confusion before I looked back up at Discord.

"Oh, sorry, I left the warmth blanket on." Discord said before he snapped his fingers.

At that moment, an invisibility blanket flew off the sleigh to reveal my parents and sister sitting in the back of the sleigh, they all looked over to me and smiled. "Surprise!" My mum said cheerfully before she climbed out of the sleigh.

My jaw dropped at this before I smiled. "Oh my god!" I said before I went over to them and hugged my mum. "What are you lot doing here?" I asked as we parted.

"Twilight sent us a letter, she told us about her plan and wanted us to be part of it." My Dad said as he climbed out of the sleigh while dragging out a large sack out with his hooves.

I then turned to face Twilight to see she was smiling warmly at me again. "Looks like they came after all, just like you said." She said.

I gave her the loving smile again. "I think I love you even more." I said before we shared a small kiss.

After that, my mum and dad walked past us to go inside. "We're just gonna get out of the cold, come inside soon, otherwise you'll catch another cold." My Mum said.

"Ok." Said before I returned my attention to the sleigh to see Jess exiting it and she hug me, with me returning it. "I'm so glad you all came."

"I know you are, we're glad to have come as well." Jess said before she looked at Twilight standing behind me. "Hi Twilight, has Matt been a pain as always?" she asked with an amused smile.

Twilight returned it. "You know it." she answered.

Jess then broke the hug and looked at me. "You know, we may be ponies in another dimension and you might be married with a baby on the way, but we're gonna make this Christmas like all the others we've had, I promise you that." She said, keeping her calm smile.

Twilight then looked at me. "I'm gonna head inside too, Matt, don't take too long if you can." She said.

I turned my head to face her and smiled. "I'll be in soon, babe." I said before I kissed her again. After that, Twilight turned and went back inside to join the others.

I then looked back up at the sleigh. "Don't tell me Nan's here as-well, I don't think she'll be able to handle any of this." I said, checking the sleigh for my Nan.

"No, she's not here, she's having Christmas dinner with our Aunty this year." Jess said as I returned my attention to her. "Anyway, what did you get for Christmas, I got a lot of good stuff, like this." She said as she held out her hoof, showing her Pandora bracelet with small Pandora charms on it, including a new one that looked like a horse.

I saw this and smiled. "Oh, very nice, but I thought you only liked charms with meaning, like your Birthstone charm." I said as I pointed my hoof at the charm with her Birthstone on it.

"It does have meaning, Matt, it reminds me where you are and what you've done since you came here." Jess said with a warm smile.

I returned it. "Oh ok, that deserves another hug." I said before we hugged again. "Thanks Jess." I added.

"It's alright, Matt." Jess said before she pulled away and realised something. "Hey, you didn't answer the question, what did you get for Christmas?" she asked curiously.

I shrugged. "I don't know, we haven't opened them yet. Pinkie wanted us to open them together, it's what she calls a 'Gift opening party'." I said as I sat on my hind-legs and moved my front-hooves up and down twice while saying the name.

"Really? That's new of you, I thought you would've opened them as soon as you and Twilight got up." Jess said, with a look of both surprise and confusion.

"What can I say, I didn't want to miss out on Pinkie had planned for this party." I said before I remembered that I had opened some presents last night. "I did get a nice new scarf though, its inside if you wanna see." I said before I walked past her and made my way towards the entrance.

"Yeah, sure." Jess said as she began to follow me. "By the way, Dad brought all the presents they got for you." she said.

"I wondered what that sack was for." I said as we kept walking towards the door.

But before we could, Discord appeared in front of us, this time without and outfit. "You think that sack was impressive? Well how about this sack?" he said before he pulled out a tiny purse, he then reached his two eagle fingers into it and pulled out a giant sack of presents nearly bigger than Sugar Cube Corner.

Jess and I looked up at this before I called up to him. "Yeah, that's every good Discord, but I think it's reached the point of 'a bit too much' now." I said.

The giant sack then disappeared and Discord appeared beside us. "I thought there was no such thing as too many presents." He said with his arms crossed.

"Well there was no such thing as a pony that could use her tail as a pogo-stick, but Pinkie proved that wrong." I stated before Jess and I continued towards the entrance.

"Hey, I still don't know what Discord's supposed to be anyway." Jess whispered while her head was leaned towards me.

"He's a Draconequus." I answered as I entered the building.

"Ok, I'm not even gonna try and pronounce that." Jess stated as she followed me inside.

Discord was about to join us before Rover spoke. "Lord Discord, may we join you inside?" he asked with Fido and Spot standing beside him, wagging their tails in hopefulness.

Discord smiled. "My dear friends…" he started before his smile disappeared. "Sorry, but I need you to find the warmth blanket I used to keeps Matt's family warm." He said.

The Diamond Dogs then looked around but didn't see the blanket anywhere, mostly because it was invisible. "But…we can't see it. Can you make it so we can see it?" Fido asked.

"What do I look like? A miracle worker?" Discord said before he turned and walked inside with his tail closing the door behind him.

The Diamond Dogs sighed before they began searching for the warmth blanket, know it wasn't gonna be easy at all.

An hour later

A while later, after opening all our presents (Too many to name), we all started to make small talk to each other and play with some of our gifts.

Myself, Rarity, Shining Armor and Spike were playing Monopoly, it was a gift my Mum and Dad got me. It was hard teaching everyone how it worked, but eventually they got the hang of it.

My Mum and Dad were talking with Twilight, giving her some tips on how to raise a child, hopefully it was useful info.

Rainbow Dash, who was wearing her new goggles that'll help her see better on rainy days, was playing Pin-the-tail-on-the-pony with Pinkie and Applejack.

Fluttershy was spending time with Discord, they seemed to be laughing a lot about something.

As for Peewee and Jeff, they were standing on the counter talking to each other, having their own conversation. Jeff had a troubled look on his face, I wondered if he was still bothered by not being with his family this year, I'd have to talk to him about that later.

Rarity rolled the dice and moved her piece, the thimble, a few paces forward right onto a piece of land called Euston Road. Spike, being the banker, looked at her. "It cost one hundred bits, Rarity, wanna buy it?" he asked with a smile.

Rarity thought about it before she looked at him. "Sure." She said before she picked up 100 of the fake money and gave it to Spike, who gave her the card to the land in return.

Shining Armor looked at Rarity. "You just bought that to keep me from getting the full set." He claimed.

Rarity looked at him with shock. "Shining Armor, I would never do such a thing as that." She said before she smirked. "But it this case, yes, I did do that. Haha! I totally own you!" she said, acting addicted to winning at this game.

We stared wide-eyed at her until she realised how she sounded and smiled, laughing sheepishly. "Sorry, got a little carried away there." she said before she decided to change the subject and looked at me. "There certainly a lot of strange land names in this game, Matt."

I looked at her and nodded. "I thought you'd say something like that, these lands are based off places from England…yeah, it's kind of a British game." I said before I grabbed the dice with my hoof and began to roll it.

Shining Armor sighed with boredom. "Sorry Matt, but I think I'll fold or whatever you do to leave the game. It's been going on for ages, no one's winning or losing and it's just taking forever." He said as he stood up.

I then looked up at him as I placed the dice down. "Really?" I asked, getting a nod from him. "I suppose you have a point, my Dad always said this game dose that sometimes. In fact, I think I'll fold as well." I said before I got up.

I then looked down at Rarity. "You and Spike are free to keep playing if you want though, here." I said before I gave half my property cards to Rarity and the other half to Spike, along with my money. Shining Armor did the same with his cards and money.

After that, we both walked away towards the front door. Rarity and Spike looked at each other before Spike grabbed the dice and shook them in his hand. "C'mon baby, Spike needs a four." He said before he threw the dice…getting a 6.

Meanwhile, Shining Armor and I put on our scarfs and went outside for some air, the small cold breeze felt nice after being in a warm place for a while. "So…Twily's pregnant…" Shining Armor said, looking up to the sky as snow floated down from the clouds.

"Yep." I answered as I did the same.

"I'm gonna be an uncle." Shining Armor said, not taking his eyes from the clouds.

"Looks like it." I responded, feeling that this was going in an awkward direction. "…And I'm gonna be a dad." I added.

"Apparently so." Shining Armor responded.

We were both silent for a moment before I broke it. "This is kind of awkward, isn't it?" I asked.

Shining Armor looked at me. "No, no…yeah, kind of." He said before he looked down at the ground. "I mean, I know you and Twily have been together for a long time, you two are perfect for each other, but I just can't wrap my head around the fact that…Twilight, my little sister, is married and pregnant while I haven't gotten anywhere near any of those things yet." He said, looking a little disturbed by all this.

I see this and my ears drop. "I'm sorry." I said before I tried to make him feel better. "But don't worry, a charming pony like you won't have any trouble getting a pretty mare, maybe one that's just as incredibly hot as Twilig-…" I said before I noticed Shining Armor giving me an uncomfortable look. "Sorry, but you know what I mean." I say to wrap it up quicker.

Shining Armor then sighed. "Actually, I don't think I'll have trouble with that at all…" he said before he looked at me. "I want to tell you something, but just…don't tell Twilight just yet, ok?" he said.

I nodded. "Sure, what's up?" I asked curiously.

Shining Armor then leaned over to me and whispered. "I'm kinda already seeing somepony." He said.

Hearing that, I had to gasp, which made Shining freak out. "Keep it together, green guy, I don't want anypony to know at the moment, I'm just telling you because I needed to tell someone I know can keep a secret." He said quietly so no-one inside heard him.

I nodded. "Ok." I whispered before I gave him a confused look. "What about your parents or at least Twilight, can't you tell any of them?" I asked.

Shining shook his head. "My mom and dad aren't very secretive. If I tell them I'm dating somepony, they'll tell all of Canterlot, including Twilight, I don't want her to know right now." he said.

"Why?" I asked curiously, wondering why he would keep something like this from his own sister.

"Well…you know how Twily tends to go a little overboard with stress?" Shining asked.

I then moved my eyes up, as if I was really thinking about it, before I answered. "Ummm…yeah." I said, looking back to him.

"Well now she's in the early stages of pregnancy, she's stressed out a lot as she is, imagine how she'd feel if I told her I was dating somepony. Sure, she'd be happy, but it's a big thing to take in, especially while she's in a delicate place." Shining Armor explained the best he could.

I then imagined how that would work. Yeah, Twilight would be happy for Shining, but hearing your sibling is dating someone can put a bit of pressure on a person, especially if their stressed already. Thinking of how Twilight would probably react, I looked at him with wide-eyes. "If you put me through that, I'm not inviting you to this party next year." I told him.

"I know, so I'm not gonna tell her, it's just gonna be between us…ok?" Shining asked, hoping I'd agree.

I nodded. "Sure…but Twi's gonna have to know eventually, if the thing between you and this girl is serious that is. You know that, right?" I said.

Receiving a nod, Shining went on to say. "Yeah…I know, maybe I'll tell her after she's passed all the pregnancy stages. That way, when I tell her, it won't trouble her as much." He said, looking over to the front door of Sugar Cube Corner.

"Probably a good idea." I commented, giving him a small smile.

Suddenly, Pinkie Pie fell down between us and we both looked down at her. She pulled her face out of the snow and looked at me. "Hey Matt, I've been looking for you everywhere, what are doing out here while the party's inside." she said cheerfully.

Shining and I then looked at each other. "I'll be inside, give you two some privacy." Shining said before he turned and made his way back towards the front door.

As Shining went back inside, I looked back down at Pinkie before I looked up. "Where did you fall from anyway?" I asked.

Pinkie Pie stood up before she explained. "I was looking for you, but you weren't where I last saw you so I started looking upstairs. I then saw you out my window and I wanted to get to you as quick as possible…so I jumped." She said before giving me a large smile.

I gave her a concerned look. "Pinkie, you shouldn't jump out your window, you could get hurt," I said, checking her for any injuries.

"Don't worry Matty, I jump out my window all the time, saves using the stairs." Pinkie said before she held out a small present in her hoof. "Anyway, I was looking for you to give you this. It was on the table where all the other presents were." She said.

I looked at it with surprise. "Oh…I must've missed it, thanks." I said as I took it with my hoof, I then sat down in the snow and started opening it.

After a moment, the paper was off and it was revealed to be a music CD, the cover had a white silhouetted mare on it, the only thing that wasn't silhouetted was the black vale over her face. I then read the title on the case. "Countess Coloratura's hits…" I read before I looked at Pinkie. "Thanks but…who's that?" I asked curiously.

Pinkie Pie then gasped. "You've never heard of Countess Coloratura? How could you not have heard of her? She the most famous pop-star in Equestria!" she said, a little loud.

"I though Sapphire Shores was the most famous pop-star in Equestria." I said, knowing I heard that somewhere.

Pinkie scoffed. "She's only the second most famous pop-star it Equestria, dah! Countess Coloratura is the real deal." She said before she took a step closer and looked at the CD. "She's amazing, they say she has the voice of a goddess." She said.

I looked at Pinkie with awe. "Really?" I said before I looked back down at the CD in my hoof. "I'll try listening to it later, but I don't think we have anything to play it on." I said, looking back up to Pinkie.

"Maybe Vinyl Scratch can hook you up with something, if there's anything that plays music, she'll have it." Pinkie said before she started hopping over to the front door. "Now come back inside, it's freezing out here." she said.

With that, I placed the CD in my mouth and followed her back inside Sugar Cube Corner to re-join the others in the warmth.

After re-entering the building, I hung my scarf back up with Shining's and placed the CD down on a small table before I was welcomed by Twilight walking up to me. "Hey Matt." she greeted before we shared a small kiss. "You're mom and dad gave me some great advice on how to raise a child. Somehow, getting advice from someone who's actually had a baby is more helpful than the books." She said with a nice smile.

I returned it. "Yeah, they'd know about stuff like that, they had two after all." I said before chuckling slightly.

Twilight's nice smile turned into a warm one. "Glad they did." She said before we kissed again. "By the way, where you just outside with Shining Armor? I saw him come in some time before you and Pinkie did." She said.

I nodded. "Yeah, he just wanted to talk to me about something…nothing big." I said, trying take her mind off it so she wouldn't ask what we talked about…but it failed.

"What did you two talk about?" Twilight asked curiously.

"Crap." I thought before I tried to think of an answer. I could tell her Shining's dating someone without telling her, but the thought of her being more stressed out was bad for her, me and the baby, so I decided to keep quiet about it. "He was just saying that it felt a bit odd…knowing his little sister is pregnant. He's happy for you, of course, but he's just a bit shook up by how much you've grown up." I said, feeling that I didn't actually lie to her, we did in fact talk about that.

Twilight raised her eye-brow. "He really feels that way?...Well, I suppose I can't blame him, I'd probably feel the same if he was having a foal with somepony….I'd probably feel that way even if he was getting married." She said as she smiled with amusement.

I just nodded awkwardly, knowing that dating would probably one day lead to marriage, I did my best to tell her.

Twilight then continued to say. "Anyway, Applebloom and her friends arrived around the back while you were out, you should go see them." she said.

I smiled at this news. "Totally, I was hoping I'd run into them today." I said before I turned and made my way across room to get to the kitchen.

Once I reached the kitchen, I looked over and saw Applebloom and her friends looking through an oven, watching the cookies being made. "Pinkie Pie's cookies are the best." Scootaloo said.

"I know, I can't wait for them to be ready." Sweetie Belle added.

"We have magical artefacts all over Equestria, but we don't have an oven that cooks things faster? Something's seriously wrong, right there." Applebloom said, sounding impatient.

I then walked up behind them. "I felt the same way when my mum used to cook my dinner." I said, gaining their attention.

They all turned around and smiled once they saw me. "Matt! Happy Hearths warming day!" Applebloom said cheerfully as she leaped up and hugged my neck.

I wrapped my arms around her and hugged her back. "Happy Hearths Warming dad, sweetheart." I said before I looked at Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. "Happy Hearths Warming day, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo." I said with a kind smile.

"Thanks Matt, how's Twilight doing?...You know, with the baby." Scootaloo asked with a small smile.

Applebloom and I then separated before I looked down at Scootaloo. "She's doing fine, throws up and bit her and there, but she's fine." I answered before I looked down at Applebloom. "So what have you three been up to?" I asked curiously.

Applebloom smiled up at me. "We've been tryin' to get our Cutie Marks as fisher-ponies." she said before her smile went away. "But…"

"It failed?" I asked, thinking that's what happened.

"Yeah, how'd you know?" Sweetie Belle asked curiously.

"Just a wild guess." I said with an amused smile while looking at their blank flanks. At that moment, we heard a ping over by the oven, indicating that the cookies were ready. "The cookies must be ready, I'll get them out for you." I said before I made my way over to the oven to get them out.

The CMC watched with excitement as I grabbed the over-mitts with my mouth and opened the oven with my hoof, I then reached my head in and grabbed the hot tray of cookies with the mitts before pulling them out.

I poured them onto a plate and placed the tray in the sink. Once I turned back around, I saw the CMC surrounding the cookies with desire in their eyes. "Hey! Wait until they've cooled down, you don't wanna burn you mouths." I said, trying to keep them from getting hurt.

Applebloom then turned to face me. "We will, Matt, we're not babies." She said before she returned her attention to the cookies.

"Ok." I said before I made my way over to the doors that led back to the front-room.

After re-entering the room, I was suddenly spooked by Discord appearing in front of me upside down. "Hello Matthew, everything alright in the kitchen?" he asked curiously.

I took a breath before I answered. "Yeah, everything's fine, the girls are waiting to eat the cookies that just came out the oven." I said before I changed the subject. "So, did you want something?" I asked.

"Actually yes, I did." Discord said as his head twisted the right way up before his body did the same, now he was standing in front of me properly. "It's about your future child…it's a little personal." He said.

I thought about it for a moment, what did he have to say about my foal? There was only one way to find out. "Sure, shoot." I said, preparing for what he might say.

"As you know, my past history is a little…dark…so I'd understand if you didn't want me to be part of your child's life. Just say the word, and I'll make sure the kid never sees me." Discord said with his hands behind his back.

I was silent for a moment before I responded. "Discord…I don't feel that way and neither dose Twilight, we want you to be part of our child's life, we want all of our family members to be part of it." I said before I smirked. "Besides, what kind of life will our foal have without Uncle Discord?" I asked.

Discord gaped before he smiled with tears in his eyes. "Uncle Discord?" he said in a high pitch voice before he grabbed me with his tail and pulled me into a tight hug, making me gasp and struggle to breath.

After a moment, he released me and placed me back onto the floor. "One more thing." he said before he before his tail stretched over his head and stopped in front of me, his fluff tip seemed to be holding some kind of charm. I then took it before his tail went back. "That charm is for you child. Whenever he or she needs me, all she has to do is rub it and I'll appear in a snap." He explained.

I looked at it before I looked back up at him. "Thanks Discord, I'll be sure to give it to him or her…when she reaches the right age, that is." I said, just thinking of the last bit.

Discord nodded. "Of course." He said before he changed the subject. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I see a cub cake with my name on it…I mean it, Pinkie used frosting to write names on some of the cupcakes, it literally has my name on it." he said before he made his way over to the food table.

I smiled with amusement as I shook my head before I made my way over to the others to see what they were up to.

Rarity and Spike were still playing Monopoly…it looked a little ferrous. "Spike, I'll ask you one last time, will you please trade me Park Lane for Marylebone Station?" Rarity asked, sounding frustrated.

"If I do that, you'll get the whole blue set and then you'll build hotels on them and I'll lose a lot of money, I wasn't born yesterday." Spike said, sounding more frustrated.

Rarity gave him a glare. "This game isn't going to go anywhere if you don't learn to cooperate, Spike." she said loudly.

Spike returned it. "You're just upset because I'm actually winning!" he said, trying to sound louder.

"The only reason your winning is because you're cheating out of you scaly bottom!" Rarity yelled before she realised what she said and gasped. "…Spike, I don't like this." She said frowning.

Spike frowned as well. "I know, it's creepy." He said before he looked down at the game. "This game is cursed…tie?" he said as he looked back up at Rarity.

Rarity immediately nodded. "Tie!" she said before she and Spike started to pack away the game with all the cards and pieces.

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie, Applejack and Jess were still playing Pin the Tail on the Pony. Jess went over to the poster with the pony on it with the tail in her mouth.

Pinkie was letting her know if she was warmer or colder from it. "Warmer…warmer…cold, cold, super cold, you're practically freezing!...ok, you're back on warmer." Pinkie said as she watched my sister stubble around in the blind fold.

Then, Jess reached the poster and pinned the tail somewhere on it. She took the blind fold off to see she didn't get it on the flank, but it was close. "Aww..." Pinkie said, seeing this. "Don't worry, Jess, maybe you'll get it right on your next turn." she said with a confident smile.

Jess turned to her and smiled. "Maybe." She said before she looked over to our parents. "Do any of you not want a turn?" she asked.

My Dad shook his head. "No, you lot enjoy yourselves." He said with my Mum nodding her head in agreement.

"Ok." Jess said before she passed the blind fold over to Applejack.

Fluttershy and Twilight were sitting by a table talking about the foal. "So what are you and Matt going to call the foal when it comes?" Fluttershy asked curiously.

"We haven't decided yet, we still don't know if it's a boy or a girl, I think we have a few ideas for both genders." Twilight said, answering your question.

Fluttershy smiled. "How cute would it be if you have a little girl? *Gasp* Can I help babysit for you two while you out somewhere?" she asked, getting excited.

Twilight raised her hoof. "Fluttershy, take it easy, the baby's not even started to bloat my stomach yet. It's a bit early to make decisions like that." She stated.

Fluttershy was silent for a moment before she smiled sheepishly. "Oh…right, of course." She said as the front part of her mane fell down in front of her face.

As I watched, drinking a cup of cider, Jeff flew over to me and landed on the table next to me. "Hey Matt, can we talk?" he asked.

I turned to him and nodded. "Sure, what's up?" I asked, thinking I knew what it was about.

"…I know I haven't been very cheerful today, even though I should be…but I can't be, not when I'm so far away from my family. I just…wish they were here, just for today…but, they probably don't even know where I am." Jeff said, looking a little upset.

I swallowed the bit of cider in my mouth before I placed the cup down and responded. "I know, Jeff…I know it must be very hard…but you're not alone here, you're with us." I said.

Jeff looked up at me. "But what is us, Matt? I only met you guys almost a year ago and I still feel like a…sidekick! I'm not saying I'm not grateful I'm with you guys, far from it, I'm just saying I wish I could be with you guys and my family for this day." he said strongly.

"But you are with your family, Jeff." I said, even stronger. "Sure, we may not be your birth family, but you're more to us than a sidekick, you're one of our friend…You, Me, Twilight, Spike, Peewee, Applejack, Pinkie, Rarity, everyone…we're all one big family even though we're not related to each other. So like I said, you're not alone, you may not be with your birth family…but you're with us and we're as close as a family as they are." I said with a warm smile, hoping he'd understand.

Jeff thought about it for a moment before he managed to form a smile. "You're right…you guys took me in and welcomed me into your lives…you've treated me right and always looked out for me." he said before his smiled went away. "How could I have not seen it before? You guys…you guys are like a second family to me…" he said.

"And we always will be." I said before I wrapped my arm around Jeff and gave him a gentle hug, trying not to hold him too tight. Jeff returned it and smiled while doing so.

After a moment, we separated and Jeff tried to play it cool. "Well…maybe the hug was a bit sappy, lets end this like dudes." He said, putting on a manly smile.

"Yeah, lets." I said before we shared a hoof-bump. "Ok…now that's out the way, what are you planning to do now?" I asked curiously.

Jeff thought about it before he answered. "I think I might head up to Canterlot, there's a certain Phoenix there who probably wants to see me." he said with a charming smirk.

I closed my eyes half-way. "No she isn't." I said, sounding unconvinced.

Jeff's smirk went away. "…Yeah, you're right, she has no idea I'm coming." He admitted before he smiled. "But I'll surprise her…and hey, maybe I'll get her under the mistletoe, if you know what I mean hahaha!...*clears throat* Anyway, wish me luck." He said before he flew over to the front door to leave.

"Good luck, I suppose." I called as I watched him struggle to open the door and leave.

At that moment, Twilight came over to me. "Where's Jeff going?" she said, also seeing him leave.

I turned to face her. "He said something about going up to Canterlot to…well, make his own Christmas wish come true." I said before I changed the subject. "So, how are you feeling?" I asked, concerned in case she was feeling ill again.

"I'm fine." Twilight answered with an assuring smile. "I've felt a little sickly here and there, but I can manage, I just need to keep drinking some water." she said before she used her magic to hover and glass in front of her, that's when she noticed it was empty. "Oh…"

I saw this and gave her a kind smile. "I'll get you some more." I said before I took the glass in my hoof.

Twilight smiled sweetly. "Matt, you don't have to do that." She said.

"Yeah I do, you need to relax and take things easy, I'll handle this." I said lovingly before I turned and made my way over to kitchen while holding the empty glass in my hoof.

"Please be quick, the water is the only thing keeping me from losing it." Twilight said, watching me walk away.

I turned my head around to face her. "Don't worry, its not like you're gonna start throwing up within the few seconds I'm gone or something." I said before I went into the kitchen and saw the CMC eating the now cooled-own cookies, I smiled at them before I went over to the sink and started filling it up with fresh cold water. After it was rinsed and full, I turned to make my way back to Twilight.

As I was about to go back in, Spike burst in with a panicky look on his face. "Matt! You have to get in here quick!" he said.

With that, I quickly made my way back into the front-room trying not to spill any of the water. When I got in, I instantly saw throwing up in a bucket that Pinkie was holding in front of her. "It's a good thing I have a puke bucket, huh Twilight?" she said.

"*BLURRRR!*" Was all Twilight could say as she vomited in the bucket while my Mum rubbed her back to help her feel better.

I went over to her and chuckled nervously. "Haha…I got your water, sweetie." I said, holding the water out to her.

"*BLURRRR!*" Twilight vomited loudly into the bucket, making me a little frightened.

"I'll just…put it here." I said as I placed the glass of water down on the table next to her while she continued to vomit.

Twilight then brought her head up from inside the bucket and looked at me, her face was green and her mane was messed up. "I don't feel good…" she said before he cheeks inflated and she shoved her head back into the bucket.

I then placed my hoof on her back. "Maybe I should take you to the doctor." I said, concerned for her.

"Mmm!" Twilight hummed before she pulled her head out again and looked at me. "No, no…the doctor can't do anything, this is part of the pregnancy phases…I just have to push through it." she said before she vomited again. "*BLURRR!*…*Cough, cough*…I think I need my bucket emptied." She said, looking into her messy bucket.

"I'll take you to the bathroom." I said before I stood beside her and helped her towards the bathroom, Twilight used as much strength as she could to levitate the bucket in front of her.

As we went away, Applejack turned to Pinkie with a confused look on her face. "Why do you have a puke bucket?" she asked curiously.

Pinkie turned to Applejack and smiled. "I tend to eat a lot of the goods around her…it sometimes ends a bit messy, if you know what I mean." She said before she giggled, leaving Applejack with the disturbing image in her mind.

A few hours later

As the day turned to night, the party slowly started to die down, it got quieter and everyone seemed to be getting more and more tired.

Twilight managed to regain control of her vomiting, this time we brought her a fresh glass of water every time she nearly finished a different one, that way she could drink water non-stop. She kept the bucket close, just in case.

The Diamond Dogs were now with us inside, having finally found Discord's invisible blanket, despite having misplaced it again. Probably not a good thing that it was last seen…well not really, but you know what I mean…with Pinkie Pie.

My parents and Jess decided that it was their time to go, we had a warm loving goodbye before they gathered up all the presents I gave them and left to return home.

Everyone was now playing some of the game we got from each other…but not Monopoly, we've learned our lesson about that game…we were playing better ones now.

Shining Armor decided to say at our place tonight, the trains stopped running for the day and there was no way back to Canterlot. Good thing we still used the guest room.

While everyone played their board games and talked amongst each other, I watched while sitting beside a table with Twilight, making sure she was ok. I turned to her and smiled. "Are you ok, Twi?" I asked.

Twilight looked at me. "Hmm?...Oh yeah, I'm fine, I still feel a little off but I'm fine as long as I keep drinking." She said before she took another sip of her water.

I placed my hoof on hers. "You're gonna be fine, Twilight, I'm with you." I said, receiving a loving smile from her.

Just then, Applebloom came up to me. "Hey Matt, Pinkie said we could sleep over tonight, how great is that?!" she said with excitement.

I smiled down at her. "That's nice, Applebloom, dose Pinkie have three spare beds for the three of you?" I asked curiously.

Applebloom's smile went away. "I dunno…I'd ask her, but I can't find her." She said.

"I'm over here…and no, I don't have three spare beds" Pinkie's voice said.

We all then looked around the room, but couldn't see her. "I don't know where that came from." Applebloom said before she looked back up at me. "But now what are we gonna do? I already told Applejack and we had Rainbow Dash go to Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo's house to tell their folks, we can't take it back now." she said.

I thought about it for a moment before I thought of something. "I have an idea, just give me a minute." I said before I walked away to find someone.

Suddenly, Pinkie Pie appeared out of no-where as the invisible blanket fell off her, startling Twilight and Applebloom. "Wow, everything seems brighter for some reason." She said with a normal smile.

-A few minutes later-

Myself and the CMC went up to an empty room that was big enough for them to sleep in. "This room seems good enough." I said as I went inside.

Scootaloo looked around it. "Yeah…but where are the beds? We can't sleep on the floor." She said as she walked up to me with Sweetie Belle and Applebloom following her.

I smirked down at them. "Don't worry, you won't." I said before I looked over to the door. "Discord!" I called.

But instead of coming through the door, Discord rose up beside me through the floor like a ghost. "You called?" he asked, making me jump and look at him.

"Discord!" I said loudly. "Can you not use the door like a normal person?" I asked, feeling my heart race due to the startle.

Discord gave me a confused look. "What is the meaning of this word you call…normal?" he asked, as if he didn't have a clue what it meant.

"Really? Are you serio-…*Sigh* never mind." I said as I placed my hoof on my face before I changed the subject. "Can you please make three separate beds appear for the girls?" I asked.

Discord smiled before he rolled up his arms like sleeves. "Not a problem." He said before he snapped his fingers and made three separate beds appear in the room. "You're beds, ladies." He said as he looked down at the CMC.

Applebloom looked over to them before she looked up to Discord with a thankful smile. "Thanks Discord, they look real comfy." She said.

"You're welcome, my dear." Discord said before he returned his attention to me. "Now if that's my part done, I have a party to liven up." he said before he pressed the air like there was a button there, we heard a 'ping' noise and he suddenly started moving down through the floor until he was gone.

I felt a little creeped out by this before I shook it off and looked at the CMC. "Anyway, you're beds are ready when you want them." I said.

"Thanks Matt." Sweetie Belle said before she yawned. "I think we may want them now though, we feel a little tired." She said, sleepy-like before she, Applebloom and Scootaloo made their way towards the beds.

I watched as they climbed into their beds, how they tucked themselves in and lied down, I was envious by how comfy they looked. It had been a long day for me as well and I wanted to go to my own bed.

They snuggled up under the covers and laid their heads on their pillows, they yawned and blinked their eyes as they began to drift to sleep.

Seeing this, I decided to quietly leave the room to let them sleep, but just as I was about to leave the room. "Matt…" Applebloom said softly.

I turned around to see all of them leaning up on their beds. "Can you tell us a story?" Sweetie Belle asked.

I smiled warmly at them. "Sure." I said before I turned and walked back up to the front of their beds. "What kind of story do you want to hear?" I asked curiously.

"Applejack said that this party was to try your version of Hearths Warmings Day, so how about you tell us one of your home land stories?" Scootaloo said, sounding excited by the idea.

"…Ok." I said before I tried to think of some of the classic Christmas stories I knew, but I could only think of one in particular. "There is one I know by heart, but I'm not sure if it's something I should tell you…it might scare you." I said, warning them about it.

"We can handle it. Please Matt, tell it to us…pleeeease." Applebloom said before she gave me the big cute eyes.

Seeing them, I felt as though I couldn't say no. "*Sigh* Ok, but don't say I didn't warm you." I said before I sat down. "Get comfy and I'll start." I said.

The three of them then lied down and got comfy in their beds, keeping their eyes on me as they prepared to hear the story.

Once I knew they were ready, I breathed in before I began. "This story is called 'A Christmas Carol'…Many years ago in the city of London, there was a man who was as nasty as anyone could get, his name was Ebenezer Scrooge…"

As I told the story, the CMC became intrigued, I should've known a Christmas story about ghosts would spark their interests, Scootaloo's especially. They all tried hard to stay awake to hear it all, but they were just so tired that Applebloom and Sweetie Belle fell asleep halfway through the Ghost of Christmas Past part, leaving only Scootaloo slightly awake.

"Then Scrooge opened his eyes to fine himself back in his room, he was full of confusion and wondered how he had returned from the Past. But despite what he'd saw and been through, he remained strong and unchanged. Then, just as everything seemed normal, a light shined in his chamber room and a loud voice laughed and said "Come in and know me better, man." Scrooge went to the door and pushed it open to see…" I then stopped once I noticed that Scootaloo had finally fallen asleep, I exhaled before I stood up and made my way towards the exit of the room.

I managed to leave the room and close the door without waking them. But as I turned to make my way down starts, I was met by Twilight who was waiting for me in the hall, she was giving me a loving smile. "I saw what you were doing in there, how you handled them." she said before she nuzzled her head against my neck. "You're gonna be a good dad." She said.

I smiled and wrapped my arm around her. "And you're gonna be a loving Mum." I said before we both pulled away and looked in each other's eyes. "Pinkie has a balcony upstairs, wanna go on it and watch the saw fall?" I asked.

Twilight nodded. "Sure, that sounds nice." She said softly before we both made our way higher up Sugar Cube Corner.

We kept going until we reached the room with the balcony, Twilight and I walked out onto it and sat down as we watched the snow fall from the night sky. Twilight sighed as she leaned against my shoulder. "It's beautiful, isn't it?" she asked.

I continued to look up at the sky. "Yeah, it is…a good way to end my first Christmas here." I said.

Twilight lifted her head up off my shoulder and looked at my face. "Was it everything you wanted?" she asked, keeping her smile.

I turned to face her and returned the smile. "That and more…" I said before my smile went away. "I'm just sorry you didn't have the Hearths Warming you wanted." I said, feeling a bit guilty that everyone gave up their usually Hearths Warming traditions to try mine.

"Matt, this is what I wanted, it's what we all wanted. I was the one suggested it to the others and they agreed to it." Twilight said before she nuzzled my neck again. "It may not have been what we expected this year, but it's what we agreed to do…you know, to make you feel more at home." She said.

With that, I looked down at her. "What do you mean?" I asked curiously.

Twilight pulled away and looked me in the eyes. "You were saying how you'd miss out on Christmas back home, so we did this to help you feel better, so you wouldn't miss out, we invited your family and everything." She said, explaining her plan a bit more.

I was silent for a moment before I placed my hoof on top of hers. "Twi…I feel at home every time I see you, when I see Spike, our friends, the Library, everything here. True, I'd miss out on a few things back in England, but who doesn't when they move to a new place?...Or in this case, a new dimension, but you know what I mean. Anyway, I don't tend to get home-sick and I suppose the reason for that is this is my home now…and you're my whole life." I said with a loving smile.

Twilight returned the smile before she slowly wrapped her arms around me and hugged me. "I love you, Matt." she said, full of passion.

"I love you too, Twi, more than anything." I said before we pulled away and I looked at her stomach. "And I'm gonna love our foal just as much." I said.

"I know you will. And if you treat it the same way you do with say…Applebloom, he or she is gonna love you the same way right back." Twilight said with a warm smile.

I looked backed up to her eyes and we shared a loving kiss, after that, Twilight lied against my side and rested her head against my shoulder, closing her eyes to relax.

I then looked up to the dark, starry sky as snow gently fluttered down from it, thinking about how great this Christmas was. I thought about everything that's happened and everything that will happen.

It wouldn't be long now before Christmas is over, the brightest and exciting day of the year comes and goes so quick, I suppose the only thing to look forward to now was New Year.

Once I realised this, I thought about everything that's happened and everything that will happen.

This was the year I travelled to a new land, the year I made a lot of great friends, the year I fell in love, the year I was almost killed by an insane Alicorn, the year I got married, the year I found out I was gonna be a dad.

And damn…it was the best year of my life.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter

I'm sorry if this chapter feels a bit rushed, I was trying to get it done in time for today because, as you know, it's the premiere of FIM Season 6!

Spoiler Alert! Unless you already know the summary for the Episodes, then read all the way lol

In this episode, we're finally gonna see Shining Armor and Cadence's foal, apparently called Flurry Heart. Plus, Starlight's gonna be there, how will that turn out? We'll see.

The next episode will feature Pinkie and Rarity looking for a gift for Maud Pie.

Then there'll be one about the CMC struggling on what they'll do next because they now have their Cutie Marks.

Then there'll be one were Spike has to win the title of Dragon Lord to save his friend, but here's the question, from what? There's something to look forward to.

After that, the episode has no summary as of yet, but the title is 'No Second Prances', so it might feature an old villain looking for forgiveness, here's hoping it's Trixie. Speaking of which, could you imagine Starlight hanging out with Trixie? That would be legend-wait for it….-dary, legendary!

And lastly, the next episode after that will feature Rainbow Dash finally joining the Wonderbolts, but she makes a bad first impression.

Spoilers over!

Also, I don't follow Equestria Daily on Twitter anymore, so there will be less Pony News that before, I'm sorry to say.

One more thing, if there's anyone who's good at art out there, if you want to do some fan art based on my story, feel free to do so, but can you please PM me first so I know if you're interested?

Please remember to review.

Next chapter will be up as soon as it can.