Hearts Warming Eve is New Years Eve in this headcanon of mine, so deals with it.

And I am also doing tiny commentary in my stories from now on. In a third person section like this chapter is, it should be easy to notice.

"Are we late?" Rarity asked as she trotted through the front door of the Golden Oak Library with Blake, Sweetie Belle bounded in behind with a few presents floating along. She was getting a lot better with her magnets.

"Your fashionably late as usual," Twilight giggled while she and Schmidt worked on hanging tinsel around the library. "And Sweetie, you can put the gifts under the tree with the others."

"OK," she chirped before turning towards the door. "Come on Johnnie, right over here."

"Oh thank the heavens above," he grunted as he stumbled into the library looking like an over loaded pack mule. Luckily Applebloom and Scootaloo quickly rushed over to help the mini-marshmallow colt.

"So where's Mark?" Blake asked, heading over to help AJ set up the long table.

"Mark had an errand to run with that Time Turner feller," she responded. "But he should be back right soon."

"I don't like this," Rainbow Dash sighed from the other side of the decorated fur tree. "I know Pinkie insisted we have this party… but…"

"I know Dash," Fluttershy nuzzled her longest friend.

"A party without our resident party pony…" Rarity joined the nuzzling. "It just doesn't feel right."

"Pinkie wanted this here party to happen," Applejack commented as she placed fresh apple fritters on the table. "She made us Pinkie Promise, and y'all know what that means."

"Never break a Pinkie Promise," the three mares repeated in unison.

"This may help lighten things," Twilight pulled a scroll and floated it over her friends. "Princess Nightmare Moon and Princess Cadence were able to cure Gallan of his sickness."

"Why that's wonderful news," Rarity brightened as she took the letter and looked it over.

"His body still needs some time to recover," Sparklebutt continued. "But she said that they should be returning in about a week."

That's good to hear," Doc sighed with relief. Inwardly he had feared the worst when Mark had brought Luke by Shy's cottage, the amount of radiation the man had been nuked with would have been fatal without the aid of magic. Even though he didn't know what gamma radiation was at first, he was pulled away and quickly learned. He's just glad that it's not contagious.

"What's good to hear?"

Turning about at the sound of the front door banging open, all were happy to see Mark's armored body framed in the archway. "Honey, you made it," AJ rushed over to embrace her husband. However as she did, something came skittered up over onto his shoulder. "What the hay is that?"

"Oh, This is Mugs, my pet camel spider," he chuckled, reaching up to rub the spider's segmented abdomen… and getting an odd purring noise in return. Spiders should not do that. "I do hope you're not afraid of him."

"Afraid, no…" AJ shook her head as she peered closer at the odd looking spider, who peered right back. "But Ah was a might bit startled."

"Can Ah see him?" Applebloom wondered as she and the other crusaders came bounding over to see the new creature.

"Sure you can," Mark smiled, lifting the spider off his shoulder and placed it on hers. Almost immediately it skittered about Blooms small body, exploring every inch of her.

"It isn't dangerous is it?" Johnnie asked as the fillies giggled at the creature's antics.

"Well, well…" Mark chuckled. "You're being rather protective."

"They're my herd," the colt snorted while keeping a close eye on the girls. "I wouldn't be much of a man if I let something happen to them."

Blinking, the man regarded the fluffy unicorn male and smiled, the kid was learning. "John-boy," Mark stood tall and crossed his arms. His back cracked a little, but he ignored it.

"Yes sir?"

"You're no longer grounded," he rubbed the teens head. "And no, Mugs is perfectly safe... Now." At the odd look the teen gave him he chuckled. "Equestria has had an interesting affect on Mugs, he's gotten smarter and bigger… but I assure you he's completely friendly, unless you're a crackhead, door-to-door salesman, or Jehovah's Witness." Johnnie didn't know what the first or last ones were, but he was completely relieved all the same.

"Thanks," Johnnie said before trotting off to watch over the crusaders.

"Now then, where's Apple?" Mark wondered aloud.

"She's helping Granny in the kitchen," Judy stated from a nearby sofa where she was feeding a bottle to little Applespice, who was all giggles and coos and other adorable shit. What, do I look like a goddamn expert on babies?

"Thanks," Mark nodded as he turned and headed for the kitchen. However, just as he was opening the door something black zipped out, smacked him square in the face, and took him right off his feet and laid him on his back with a solid THUD!

'DADDY!' her ecstatic voice boomed inside his head as she nuzzled his face.

"Awe, isn't that cute," AJ beamed happily, all around her there were nods of agreement and one "Eeeyup."

"Now that we are all here," Granny gave a knowing smile as she stepped over Mark and placed a fresh cinnamon apple pie and homemade ice cream. "Let's get this here shindig started."

[After the consuming of the stuff and that schtick]

"That was the best Hearts Warming dinner ever," Isaac Thomson sighed happily as he rubbed his belly. "You really pulled out all the stops Granny Smith."

"Eeeyup." Big Mac added while scarffing down his third helping of pie and ice cream.

"Ah aim to please," the elderly mare nodded her thanks, happy at seeing everypony well fed and content.

"So does this mean we can open our gifts now?" Scootaloo somewhat impatiently buzzed, hopping up and down.

"We are still waiting for the last of our guests to arrive, Scoots," Twilight said as she helped clear the table in one pass of her magic.

"More guests," Mark blinked in confusion. "Who else is coming and why didn't we wait until they got here to eat?"`

"They couldn't make it here in time for dinner, but promised to arrive after their duties allowed," Sparklebutt suddenly beamed as a flash of light erupted outside the library. "And that should be them now."

"Twilight, my faithful student, how good it is to see you again," Celestia cheerfully said as her student opened the door. Behind her stood Moon, Luna and their respected human companions… except Max who was in his male Sunbutt mode at the moment. "May we enter?"

"Oh yes, please do," and then, to the surprise of everypony, Twilight gave another greeting in perfect German while Schmidt grinned his approval.

"Teach the girl something new," Mark glanced at Helmut.

"Twilight has a talented tongue," the German chuckled while adding, "for linguistics that is." Right.

"I bet she does." Mark gave a roll of his eyes before stepping up and addressing the royal sisters. "Moon, Luna, Celestia, how good of you to join us…"

"Good evening General, How is the family?" Celest asked as she stepped in. His face twinged in amusement as she was deliberately fucking with him in a friendly manner.

"AJ and Apple are doing just fine."

"And the business you had to take care of?" she inquired.

"I found the time to get everything accomplished." He gave a half hearted sigh before turning his gaze to where Applejack and the others were gathering. "I could have stayed back then, but this is my home now and I'm happy here in Equestria. Besides, I'm listed under the KIA list. It wouldn't be good form for the USMC if I did stay."

The sun princess watched him carefully for a moment. "You may not believe this… coming from me that is," she said, giving him a warm grin. "But I now truly think that the whole of Equestria is better off with you here, and I only pray that someday I can properly thank you."

Mark was about to question her on that, but it was at that moment Twilight called for all to be seated around the main floor of the library. Taking a sec to let his daughter land in his head, he flopped down on a cushion next to Applejack and tried to get comfortable. "Now I'm sure you all remember the rules," Twilight said as she stepped into the middle of the room. "The idea behind this came from Mr. Duffy, each of us was given a name at random and had to buy or make that pony a gift… so the question is, who to start with?" Said sniper snorted in amusement at being called 'Mr.'

"If I may," Celestia spoke up. "I received Applejack's name, but I must speak with her in private… so if she wishes."

"Sure thing," the farm mare nodded as she stood and headed for the kitchen with Celestia following.

"So who's first?" Sparklebutt inquired.

"May I," it was Johnnie, now in human form, who spoke up first. "Oddly enough, I got the Cutie Mark Crusaders," he said as he handed out three gifts. He waited for the girls to tear into the packages before explaining. Wanting to give the girls something special, he went to the smith and had replicas made of his dog-tags out of silver and had them mounted on silver chain.

After the oohs and happy gasps, he pulled out the set from around his neck and showed the three new round disks, one with each of their names embossed on it. "I now carry your names close to my heart, as you now have mine next to yours."

It was kind of corny (well, really corny as fuck), but the girls each stood in turn as he fastened the necklaces to each in turn.

"That was very thoughtful John…"

"Can we go next?" Scootaloo interrupted her mother as she was joined by Applebloom and Sweetie Bell. After getting a nod, the girls marched up to Moon. "Nightmare Moon, while we haven't much money, we hope you enjoy this gift."

I like how they fearlessly stated her full name.

"I will try." Using her magic, Moon slowly unwrapped the gift before holding the burgundy cape with gold interior. "er… It is..."

"We know how hard things have been for you to make friends since your return," Sweetie said as she took point on this. "So we decided to make you an honorary member of the Cutie Mark Crusaders." The other two chorused in on the last part. "From now on, you will always have friends who will have your back."

"From now on, yah will be one of us," Bloom smiled, however the sound of face meeting hand made all turn to find Mark sighing into his palm. Goddammit now it's stuck in my head.

"I… I thank you," Moon was now misty eyed as she used her wings to hug the girls.

"Lunacae, would you like to go next?" Twilight asked.

"Oh yes," she sniffled, wiping a tear from her cheek that was caused by the adorable display. "We were given Mark's name and with Anon's help, We came up with the perfect gift."

With that, a brightly wrapped box floated over to Mark. It only took a second before he was holding… "It's, it's a EOD Spartan helmet," he blinked in surprise. Instead of the grey visor that his ODST helmet has, this one was pitch black to make it more batshit scary. Also inside was a can of pitch black paint to up the intimidation factor.

"We made it to go with your current armor," Moon smiled. "Anon said you should have something to set your armor apart, and that you would… fangasm, at having one?"

"Thank you Lunacae," Mark chuckled, delight shining in his face as he examined every inch of the grey helm. "I will use this with pride." He was already fucking vibrating.

"Well Mark," Twilight questioned.

"Oh, I had Marshmallow… er, Rarity," he corrected himself as he stood and pulled a large object from his magic pocket. "This is a bolt of white silk from my world… sorry I didn't have time to wrap it." Roughly a hundred pounds of silk. That's a lot of fucking silk.

"Silk from the human world," she gasped. "It's absolutely amazing. And being white, it means I can use my magic to color it any..way…I… Oh my."

It took Mark a moment to realize that everyone, not just Rarity, now wore a shocked expression on their faces and were all staring at something behind him. Spinning around he discovered Celestia helping a human woman into the room.

She was probably in her mid twenties and had long blond hair. She had on a pair a daisy duke cutoffs and a flannel shirt tied below her 36c chest… god she was showing a lot of leg and mid-riff skin (just like the girls at school!)… but her eyes, her bright green eyes that told him everything.

"So what do you think Mark?" Celestia gave the man a mischievous grin.

"Do…do yah like it?"

"Applejack," Mark was on his feet and at her side in an instant. Slowly he reached out and took her hands and marveled at how small they looked compared to his. Yet he kept coming back to her eyes and the way they sparkled… the rest of the night became a blur as he pulled her close and kissed her.

(She still fucking tasted like apples.)