“Mom! Mom! Wake up! It’s Hearth’s Warming!”

Rarity’s yawn collapsed into a weary smile as her magic finished tying her robe’s belt. “Coming, dear. Just let me get my coffee…”

“I already got it for you.”

Rarity froze on the last step of the stairs and looked towards the kitchen for any signs of smoke. “Did you?”

“Yup.” The filly poked her head out of the sitting room, a mug of steaming liquid clutched in her magic. “Pinkie Pie dropped it off a few minutes ago.”

Rarity mentally face-hoofed. “Of course. Pinkie’s special Hearth’s Warming blend.”

Sweetie Belle sipped from her own mug as Rarity accepted the cup gratefully. “She gave me a hot chocolate. She said she had to run.”

“Is she trying to give everypony in Ponyville something to drink again?” She took a deep breath of the coffee before taking a dainty sip. “Bless her heart.” She went to take another drink but stopped short when she noticed the white filly bouncing up and down. “Yes?”

“Can I?”

“Can you what?”

“Mom.” Sweetie’s eyes hardened. “Presents.”

Rarity laughed and waved her hoof in a ‘go on’ gesture.

Sweetie Belle was under the tree in an instant, marveling at the foil wrapped packages. “Here you go, Opal.” She tossed one box over her shoulder where it smacked Rarity’s cat right in her face. Opal hissed and swiped at the box in anger… then fell into a purring mess when a cat-nip ball rolled out and under her nose.

“Looks like quite a haul from Santa Hooves this year.” Rarity observed. “Why don’t you open mine first?”

Sweetie Belle looked out from under the pine tree and raised an eyebrow. “Which one is it?”

“The small one. In the green paper.” Rarity folded herself onto her couch and took another sip of coffee.

After a bit of searching, Sweetie Belle successfully held the sought after package in her mouth. She gave an experimental shake, trying to ascertain the contents.

“Ah ah ah. Is that how a lady acts?”

Sweetie Belle let her magic lift the box and begin to tear off the paper. Inside was a small box carved from oak. “What is it?”

“You have to open it, you silly filly.”

Smiling, Sweetie Belle found the latch and carefully opened the box. Inside, on a bed of velvet, was a golden necklace. Hanging from it was a shining emerald, perfectly cut and gleaming in the morning light. Sweetie Belle’s eyes widened. “Wow! It's so pretty! Did Spike make this?”

Rarity laughed and shook her head. “No. That gem was carved by master artisans from Saddle Arabia almost two hundred years before Spike was hatched. Your great, great, great, great grandmother received that as a gift from a prince as a parting gift after she turned down his marriage proposal. It’s been passed down our family line for generations, mother to daughter, and now it’s come to you.”

“Huh.” Sweetie Belle looked from the shimming stone and back at the pile of gifts.

Rarity narrowed her eyes. “Don’t be rude, Sweetie Belle. That’s a tremendous…”

“When I woke up this morning, I was trying to figure out what was different about the tree this year.” Sweetie Belle looked back at the gem, then back to the presents. “There’s two presents missing.”

Rarity’s jaw almost dropped at her daughter’s lack of appreciation.

Sweetie Belle looked into her mother’s eyes with tears flowing down her cheeks. “It’s because they’re not here.”

Everything clicked in Rarity’s mind and a hoof shot to her mouth. Of course.

It was the first Hearth’s Warming since the accident.

Rarity dropped her mug and quickly lay down next to her sobbing daughter. She nuzzled her and put a leg around her neck. “Don’t cry, darling. Please don’t cry.”

Sweetie Belle sniffled. “I s-s-still miss them.”

“I do too, my little one.” Rarity felt her own tears coming and did her best to hold them back. “I miss them every day. But I know that wherever they are, they’re still watching over us. And they wouldn’t want us to still be worrying about them. Right?”

Sweetie Belle sniffled again and nodded, her gaze again focused on the emerald.

“Mother instructed me to give that to you when you got married, to claim it was a wedding present if I hadn’t have told you the truth about us just yet. But something told me to give it to you this year.”

“…I promise to take care of it.”

“I know you will.” Rarity kissed the top of her little daughter’s head. “That’s why I gave it to you.”

Sweetie Belle wiped her eyes free of the last of her tears and pulled a large package from under the tree. “Open mine?”

Rarity smiled gratefully. “Oh, Sweetie Belle! You didn’t have to get me anything.”

Sweetie Belle shrugged. “It was supposed to be a birthday present, but it took a while longer to finish.”

Rarity’s tearing of the paper paused and she looked at Sweetie Belle as seriously as she could. “I’m not going to find a trunk that's supposed to be full of gems empty again, am I?”

Sweetie Belle shook her head quickly. “I didn’t make this one. But I had to make sure it was perfect.”

Now intrigued, Rarity finished pulling off the paper and gasped.

It was a portrait, carefully and laboriously painted, of Sweetie Belle and herself. Her image was looking down at Sweetie Belle with the utmost love in her eyes, a look that was being returned by a looking-upwards Sweetie Belle. The detail was tremendous, the colors were nothing short of extraordinary.

“How…?”

“When you took me to Canterlot that first time, I talked to a street artist while you were seeing a client. She was testing this new spell that allowed her to pull memories and emotions from a pony and put them down on canvas as a painting.” She offered her biggest smile. “After she saw my mind, she offered to do the painting for no charge.”

Rarity was still amazed. She looked at the canvas’ edges for a signature. She would have to inform the Canterlot elite of this artist as soon as possible. After several moments, she settled on what might have been a signature, though to her it just looked like a tangle of swirling lines. “Does it have a name?”

“She called it 'I Found You.’”

Rarity felt her tears starting to threaten a comeback, so she simply lowered the gift and grabbed her little filly in the tightest hug she could. “Happy Hearth’s Warming, little one.”

“Happy Hearth’s Warming, Mommy.”