Dream Pop watched the stallions go into the other room and, once they were gone from sight, whirled around to face all the mares with a big grin on her face. "Okay! It's time!"

Since everypony else seemed to know what that meant, Crystal just sat down quietly on the sofa with Clement in her lap and watched as Pretty Palette pulled out a thick book. Coral continued to patrol the perimeter, but she did linger close to keep an eye on the proceedings.

"Gather 'round, girls," Palette began as she flipped through the book until she seemed to find her place. "It's time to fill out this year's page!"

Dream Pop wiggled into place on the sofa between Crystal and Sugar. "Don't worry, Crystal. I think you're a shoe-in to win!"

"Win what, exactly?" Crystal furrowed her brow, but before Dream Pop could reply, Pop Rocks scoffed.

"Oh, you'll eat those words, Dreams. I've got this year on lockdown."

Sugar tittered and squealed something that made the other mares laugh. Crystal just tried to smile and nod along politely.

Palette clapped her hooves. "Settle down now, girls." She met Crystal's gaze and explained, "Since my fillies are too important to remember to write their momma—" At her mock glare, they rolled their eyes and sighed. "—I gotta hear about what they've been up to somehow. So I thought, why not make a game of it?"

"So we play 'Two Fibs and the Truth'!" Dream Pop chimed in with a big grin. "The goal is to fool everypony into not being able to guess which of three things actually happened to you since last Hearth's Warming. And then Momma writes down the truths in the Candy Book."

Crystal idly ran her hoof along the feathers of Clement's little wing. "That's a cute idea, but how do I fit into this?"

The bright smile Palette flashed her could have melted snow. "By Dream Pop inviting you, you're an honorary Candy filly, of course!"

"What about me?" Coral said as she trotted over, posture and gait all in perfect form. "Can I play, too?"

Palette reached down to pat her on the head. "Why, of course, sweet thing!"

Coral clicked her hooves together and stood at attention. "Then I wanna go first!" She paused, then added at Crystal's admonishing look, "Please."

"Oh, she is just precious," Bubblegum said with a soft giggle.

With a flustered scrunch of her nose, Coral held her head high and proclaimed, "This year, I fought a dragon, I drove an airship, and I stormed a castle."

Slowly, all eyes turned to Crystal with brows raised, questions unspoken but loud and clear. She cleared her throat and smiled at Coral. "Coral, dear, the point of the game is to tell two fibs and a truth."

It would be a lie to say she didn't relish in the brief amusement she saw on Dream Pop's sisters' faces. Oh, they must all be tall tales, she could hear them thinking, so she waited just a moment longer before she continued.

"You're not supposed to tell three truths."

Pastel's eyes went wide and, without looking away from Crystal or Coral, she closed the book in her lap. "Well, I think the game is gonna have to pause for this."

Coral stared up at Crystal with stubborn defiance. "But I want to win, and Colonel said to never tell a lie."

"But—" Crystal interrupted herself with laughter and shook her head, waving one hoof. "All right, I suppose that's fair. Why don't you tell everypony about your three truths, then?"

"Yes, Mama." Coral strode to the middle of the group to begin her report. "First, I fought a dragon when I was staying with Grammy Luna and Twiglet Sporkle—"

Auntie Sunny was teaching Coral bad habits again, it seemed. Crystal snorted before correcting, "Twilight Sparkle."

Coral just rolled her eyes and kept going. "She showed up with what I thought was an invading dragon. I managed to pin him down before Grammy told me he was a friend, not a foe."

Pop Rocks, the second youngest of Dream Pop's sisters, snickered. "I've wrestled with dragons before on one of my expeditions. You've got moxie, filly."

Expeditions. Crystal clicked her tongue against the back of her teeth as she tried to remember who Pop Rocks was. The archaeologist, then? She was certainly the tomcolt of the group with her short-cropped mane and tail.

"I know." Coral puffed up under the praise. "My great-grandpa let me fly his airship. He gave me a bitterscotch for a successful flight, too."

Bubblegum gave a placating sort of smile, the kind Crystal knew she would face at every parent-teacher meeting when Coral started primary school. "Butterscotch, sweetheart."

Coral's lips rounded and her ears perked with understanding. "That makes a lot more sense than bitterscotch." She cleared her throat and finished, "And I stormed a castle with Colonel when Grammy Luna and Celestia foalnapped my brother."

Once again, all eyes turned to Crystal to seek answers she didn't have. She just offered a small laugh and shrugged—their family was not a normal one by any means, but she suspected Pretty Palette understood what that was like.

"And what about this brother of yours, hmm?" Sweet Tart asked, steepling her hooves under her chin and leaning in. "What adventures has he been on?"

Coral rolled her eyes. "Clem? He doesn't do anything."

"Not true." Clement puffed out his little wings and sat up tall in Crystal's lap. "I do lots. When I wanna."

"Yeah." Coral paused for a dramatic flair, then continued, "Lots of boring stuff."

"Nuh-uh."

"Yeah-huh."

"Nuh-uh!"

"Yeah-huh!"

"Okay, children," Crystal interrupted with a tired sigh. This wasn't what she had wanted to do today. In fact, this was the exact opposite of what she had wanted. "That's enough."

Clement snuggled against her and glared over his shoulder at his sister. "She started it."

The sisters all looked at one another before Sugar tittered something in her fast-paced, squeaky little voice that spurred them into fits of laughter and giggles.

"Oh my gosh! He is just like Tom!" Dream Pop slapped her knee with one hoof.

Before Crystal could ask, Toast came storming out of the parlor with an expression between anger and dismay. "My name isn't Tom, and whatever you're talking about, it's not true!"

Bubblegum practically whinnied with amusement. "A colt who doesn't do very much and prefers to just laze around while his sister fights dragons, flies airships, and storms castles? Tom, this foal is you."

Toast's ears drooped and his mouth flapped open and closed a few times while Clement just nestled in for a nap, long since resigned to not caring.

"I don't laze around," Toast said, his gaze dropping to the floor. "I'm a pediatrician."

"Just," Sweet Tart chimed with a grin.

Toast jerked his head back up, ears pinned flat against his mane. "I do important work! And I'm not boring!"

"Says the pony whose name is Toast." Pop Rocks rolled her eyes.

"My name is Toast, like the celebration!" He gestured a hoof at his flank, which featured a popped champagne bottle. "I'm a celebration!"

Pretty Palette dropped the book on the coffee table with a resounding thump! The room went silent as all attention fell on the mare, who smiled and said, "Well, I think that's the cue that it's time for dinner. Come on, fillies and colts, get your flanks to the table!"

Crystal waited for the room to clear before she gingerly scooped Clement up and set him on the floor. "Come on, sweetie. Aren't you hungry?"

"But it's not time for dinner," he muttered and flopped down as if his bones had gone soft.

"Mama said we have to be good guests." Coral poked him in the side. "If they say it's dinner time, then it's dinner time."

Crystal tried not to smile too fondly; she loved both of her foals too much to show favor. "She's right, Clem. Dream Pop's family just does things differently than ours."

Clement relented with a sigh as he forced himself upright. "Okay, Mama."

The two foals led the way while Crystal lagged behind. Sitting for so long on the sofa had her back aching, and she was dreading having to sit at a dining table. But when needs must, Crystal always endured.

She saw Silent already at the table with Dream Pop's father, and the sight of him momentarily overrode the pain with a loving warmth. Coral took the seat beside him without reservation, and the tension Crystal thought she glimpsed in his face melted away.

His head turned to—she assumed—seek out his other foal, but instead their eyes met while she slowly made her way around the table. A smile broke across his muzzle that spoke of love, of everything the day was supposed to be and still could be if they just made a break for it.

With a soft huff of a laugh, Crystal took the seat across from him with Clement at her side. "I really must thank you," she said, her attention shifting to Palette, "for letting us take part in your family's Hearth's Warming."

Palette tittered and waved her kerchief before she set it in her lap. "Ain't nothin' to it, dear. Now, if everypony could just settle down, Daddy Doo can get started on the speech."

Giggles made their way around the table, but each mare and stallion took a seat and turned to look at the head where Doohickey stood in front of his chair.

"Another year's come'n gone," he began, his voice tired yet full of fondness, "and look at where we are. My daughters and son keep growing, keep changing. I consider myself a lucky old stallion to know that no matter where life takes you all, I can count on this day to bring you all home.

"It warms my old heart to know that Momma Pal and I raised such fine foals. And while we're proud of you girls, going far and wide to do real good work in this world, credit needs to go where credit is due."

Doohickey turned a smile that wrinkled the corners of his eyes on his son. "While you all were gone to the far corners of Equestria, Toast was here doing good, too. He's too humble to brag about himself, so I'll do it for 'im."

"Dad," Toast said, simultaneously withering under the gazes of his sisters and smiling from the words of his father.

With a chuckle, Doohickey continued, "Toast's no stranger to delivering foals, but he got a rare opportunity this past winter. One of the buffalo came to him, saying that their chief's daughter was in a bad way. She'd gone into labor early, and they were worried they'd lose the calf if somepony didn't intervene.

"So Toast went out in the dead of night without question. Turned out it was twins what was giving her so much trouble. Toast delivered the both of them, two big healthy calves, mother just fine to boot. Chief was so grateful that he made Toast an honorary buffalo."

There was a moment of silence before heads turned to Pop Rocks, who ducked low in her seat and mumbled, "Yeah, that's a big deal in their culture. A really big deal, actually."

Doohickey's grin shone bright beneath his bushy orange-and-grey moustache. "There you have it. Momma and I are proud of all our foals, filly and colt alike. And most of all, we're real grateful to have you all here today. In return for the present of your presence—"

All the sisters groaned, and Crystal suspected the joke was long since old.

"—let us say thanks and happy Hearth's Warming with this meal."

Just like that, hooves began to fly in all directions as food was divvied up and passed around until each pony had more than a full plate in front of them. It was almost hard to believe that just moments earlier, the siblings had all been fighting; now, they were smiling, laughing, and enjoying one another's company while they ate.

Crystal watched as Coral fussed over ensuring that her peas didn't touch her mashed potatoes, that the butter didn't fall off her bread roll, and that her apple dumpling was in the perfect center of the plate.

As usual, Clement was the opposite of his sister and was content with his plate just as it was, mingled food types and all. He was already halfway through his dumpling before Coral started on hers.

"If I may ask," Silent began as he mixed onions and chives into his mashed potatoes. "I find it interesting to learn how other parents named their foals. If it's not too personal to ask, of course."

"Not at all!" Palette waved her fork in a tight circle, giggling. "For Doo and me, it was so easy! They all chose their own names. Whatever I craved while pregnant with 'em, well, that was what they picked!"

Crystal blinked and looked around the table. Sweet Tart, Bubblegum, Dream Pop, Pop Rocks… When her eyes met Sugar's, the little mare squeaked and laughed.

"Exactly right, sweetie." Palette nodded. "By the time I got to Sugar, I was just eatin' sugar by the hoofful straight out of the bag. I was real grateful when Toast just wanted plain, simple toast. My dentist sure was, too!"

Doohickey eyed Coral and Clement as the two ate, their habits at complete odds. "What about you two?" His moustache twitched as he chuckled. "Can't imagine you used the same tactic as us with names like that."

Coral shot upright, one hoof raised high in the air. "Mama named me Coral 'cause my mane made her think of the ocean and she thought I was really pretty like a coral reef. And Colonel gave me the Knight name 'cause he knew I'd be an amazing guard just like him!"

"I got named from my great-grandfather," Clement said between bites of apple dumpling.

Coral shot him a light glare. "Lucky."

Crystal had to smother a laugh as she reached over to smooth Clement's ever-wild mane. "I'm so sorry that you don't like the name I chose just for you."

"No! I didn't mean that!" Coral's eyes went wide and she jumped up, her forehooves planted on the table. "I love my name, Mama! Honest!"

"I know, dear, I know. I'm just teasing you." Crystal smiled and turned her head to Palette. "These dumplings are absolutely divine."

Palette returned the smile with one three times as bright. "Oh, thank you! It's my specialty. In fact, it's part of why Doo married me at all!"

Crystal's ears twitched as excitement thrummed through her. She ignored the amused grin on Silent's face in favor of keeping her attention focused on Palette. Let him laugh at how predictable she was—she had a story to learn. "Is that so?"

"Why, yes. It feels just like yesterday when I met Doo…"