The sun was just dawning on what promised to be an eventful Hearth’s Warming, if nothing else. I had a plan in place for the gifts I was going to give and Luna would be right where I wanted her: At Twilight’s Castle for the party. Now all that was left to do was execute the plan and everything would be fine, or so I told myself.

I was making my way to Fluttershy’s cottage. I was familiar enough with her routine to know she’d already be up and about. She was also the one I wanted to give the first gift of the day to. My sense of sentimentality demanded it.

As I walked up, I spotted Fluttershy tending to her chickens, spreading feed across the yard for them.

“Merry Christ-er Hearths Warming Fluttershy!” I called out, two decades of habit getting the better of me once again.

“Happy Hearts Warming to you as well, Ranma,” Fluttershy allowed herself a giggle at my expense as I walked closer, “What brings you here so early this morning?”

“Because I felt it important that you receive my first gift of the day,” I said seriously, surprising Fluttershy.

“Why?” She asked softly and I took a steadying breath.

“Fluttershy, I may like to claim I’m a wordsmith, but even if I’m not just flattering myself, I’m only good with the written word. I don’t have the words to describe just how important you are to me. You were the first person to greet me when I first awoke. You helped me rediscover a passion in art I had long since extinguished. I can’t overstate how much it means to me that you’ve cared for me. I don’t know if this is love but…I’d like to find out. Do you, maybe, wanna go on a date sometime?” I said, bashfully staring at my feet as I delivered the last sentence.

It was probably just as well I was looking at the ground at the time or I might have instinctively dodged out of the way as Fluttershy wrapped me in a surprisingly powerful bear hug. It also helped get me out of explaining why I tensed so much from the physical contact.

“Yes!” She cried happy. I felt something inside me shift with her acceptance. I slowly, shakily returned her hug. Fluttershy, ever the empathic one, noticed my composure was holding up about as well as wet tissue paper.

“Ranma..?” She prodded softly. I chuckled softly as watery eyes overflowed.

“Look at me. I asked you out, you said yes, and I’m the one acting like a schoolgirl who just got asked out by the quarterback,” I muttered as I rubbed my eyes clear. Fluttershy just redoubled her hug.

“I don’t mind Ranma,” She assured me.

“So much for my cool first confession,” I joked lamely and Fluttershy was good enough to giggle for me. Eventually she let me go.

“I need to get back to tending to my animals. I’m sure a few of them are already wondering where breakfast is. Talk to you later about scheduling our date?” Fluttershy asked with the most adorable blush.

“Of course,” I replied, sure I had my own blush on my face. Fluttershy nodded happily and I turned to leave.

“Oh, and Ranma?” Fluttershy called out. I turned back around, “Thanks for choosing me first.”

“I meant what I said about you being the most important to me and if Luna wants to beat around the bush with ancient traditions she thinks I don’t know about then it’s her own fault if she ends up second banana,” I said with a shrug.

“I suppose that’s true,” Fluttershy replied. She then headed off to continue her morning routine and I set my sights on the other infamously early riser on my list.

Even this deep in winter, the work of a farmer was never done. There was still plenty to do in upkeep and preparation for the next season. So it was no surprise I found Applejack already up and about.

“Morning Applejack!” I called out to her as she was chopping some wood.

“Mornin’ Ranma,” She replied as she brought her axe down on another block of wood.

“I come bearing your Hearth’s Warming gift,” I informed her without preamble. This caused AJ to put down her axe.

“Comin’ to give me my gift in private? Folk might start talkin’,” AJ teased me.

“You’re so funny,” I drawled with a wiry grin as I pulled out the gift receipt and handed to AJ, “I know you wouldn’t much care for anything overly sentimental, so I got you something practical. I saw some tools around the farm were a little past the point where elbow grease can save them, so I got you some replacements, ready for pickup down at Filthy’s place.”

I watched as AJ’s eyes scanned the contents of the gift receipt. She then folded it up and put it in her pocket.

“Thanks Ranma. This…I appreciate it a whole lot,” She said gratefully.

“You’re very welcome,” I replied happily. I felt good knowing my gift would really help AJ, “See you at the party tonight?”

“I’ll be there,” AJ promised and got back to her chores.

“Hey Rainbow! Happy Hearth’s Warming!” I shouted up to the rainbow haired woman who was lounging lazily on a cloud. Why she was choosing to do this when the temperature was below freezing was a mystery to me, especially when she had a perfectly good house with perfectly good heating to lounge in. Even if my brain still had some trouble wrapping itself around a cloud house with internal heating.

“Happy Hearth’s Warming, Ranma,” Rainbow replied as she poked her head over the side, “What’s up?”

“Your Hearth’s Warming gifts!” I called back as I waved a folder containing them for her to see.

With her usual energy, she zipped down from the cloud to seize her gift. She eagerly opened the folder and beheld what was within.

“Is this…me?” She asked as she flipped through the artwork.

“Yup, I told you all about you being ponies, so I thought you might appreciate seeing it. The first one is as close to the show as I could manage and the others are various styles I’ve been dabbling in,” I told her.

“This is awesome!” She said enthusiastically.

“I’m glad you like them,” I replied with a smile.

“Like them? I love them!” Rainbow shouted, “I’m gonna go put these someplace safe! Thanks Ranma!” And with that she bolted off, leaving me standing there with an amused smile.

As afternoon faded into early evening everyone was scrambling about with last-last minute chores to get ready for the night’s festivities. This low level frenzy meant not too many people gave me a second glance as I walked towards Twilight’s castle with a fishing rod I’d borrowed from Big Mac in tow.

Of course, those that did give me a second glance were thoroughly confused. Unfortunately for them, I wasn’t of a mind to relieve them of their confusion. I was on the hunt. The hunt for wascally book worms! Or at least one book worm in particular who was about to give herself an ulcer. So I had a fishing rod and a stack of copyright infringement and with these two seemingly simple items, I would hopefully put a stop to any stress-related gastric crises.

To my absolute lack of shock, Twilight was fussing with table decorations in an attempt to get them all perfectly positioned. So, I lined up my cast and let it rip. Admittedly, it had been some years since I had last gone fishing, so instead of on the table Twilight was at like I had planned the stack of paper tied onto the end of the fishing line ended up on Twilight’s head.

“Hey!” She squawked in surprise.

“Sorry!” I apologized as Twilight grabbed the papers and turned to give me the evil eye.

“What is this?” She asked with best ‘you are in so much trouble’ voice.

“Your Hearth’s Warming present,” I replied glibly.

“Really?! What is it?!” There was just something so wholesome about how she can go from disciplinarian to excited school girl in 2 seconds flat.

“Well you said you’d have liked to see some of the literature from my world and lucky for both of us, the only book series I have memorized well enough to copy word for word doesn’t seem to have a counterpart here or on the other side of the mirror, strangely enough,” I shrugged. In a world with an Indiana Jones who was actually real and mirrors of just about every manga series I can think of, there was just no Harry Potter counterpart.

“Thank you!” She exclaimed happily before she started to look conflicted.

“Go. Read,” I ordered, “This place was perfect last night Twi, you stressing over it anymore isn’t going to do anyone any good. So go take an hour or two to yourself before the party starts.”

Twilight seemed to want to argue, but thought better of it and slunk off to her lair with her newly acquired prize.

The party was in full swing and everyone was enjoying themselves. Everyone except a certain anti-social moon princess, that is. This was just as well for my evil schemes. All the better to savor her surprise when I sprang my trap on her if we were alone.

So with everything in place I made my approach.

“Good evening O Princess,” I greeted with a flourishing bow. Luna arched an eyebrow.

“Good evening Ranma,” She replied warily.

“Would you care to dance? The balcony is conveniently empty,” If Luna hadn’t been suspicious before, my complete lack of trying to hide any scheme was doing the job.

“And what manner of prank awaits me on that balcony?” Luna asked suspiciously.

“No prank. Although I can’t guarantee you won’t end up feeling silly by the end of it,” I replied and I could almost see the cogs turning in Luna’s mind as she weighed the pros and cons of following me to the balcony. As I knew it would, her curiosity won the day. She took my arm.

“Lead the way Ranma. I can only hope I don’t regret this too much,” She sighed as I lead her to the balcony. She kept a watchful eye on me as I closed the doors behind us and then her eyes went wide as I turned on the music.

“Might I have this dance?” I asked with a cheeky smile. Luna groaned and the taller woman buried her head in my shoulder.

“How long have you known?” She groaned.

“I’ve been suspicious since that stunt you pulled at my first practice bout. Although to be fair, I didn’t think much of it until the others made a big deal of what you’d done. After that I did a little bit of research into ancient Pegasai courtship rituals and when you tried to ‘covertly’ do a couple more of them with me, I had my confirmation. Then the question became how long you would play games while thinking I was completely oblivious. When Hearth’s Warming rolled around and you still hadn’t said anything, I decided to take matters into my own hands,” I told her.

“And here we are,” Luna sighed.

“And here we are,” I agreed, “I also don’t know whether to be insulted you think I’m that dense or pleased with how thoroughly I pulled the wool over your eyes.” This provoked a snicker from Luna.

“Consider my eyes well wool’d,” Luna said dryly. She stood up properly, “Now then, I believe I am owed a dance.”

And so we danced.

So, people have been asking about / complaining about my chapters being shorter and little to no work being done on Standing United. There is a good reason for this. I didn't want to say anything before now in case I was just crazy. My doctor has now assured me that I am not crazy.

I have severe sleep apnea.

How severe is severe? I stop breathing approximately 40 time an hour when I'm asleep. Anything above 30 times an hour is medically considered severe.

Side effects include: fogginess, problems relating to memory, lack of energy, insomnia, and a whole host of other nasty things that have made it progressively harder for me to write as my condition has deteriorated over the last year or two.

The reason I didn't get a sleep test earlier? It wasn't until June or so of last year that it got so bad that I was actively waking up gasping for air. Then it took me 6 months to get an appointment because for whatever reason I couldn't get an appointment before that.

So now my doctor has ordered a CPAP machine for me and it should be here in 4-6 weeks.

Obviously I don't want to wait that long, so if I'm lucky I'll be using one of my dad's old CPAP machines until it arrives. If my usual level of luck is consistent, it's going to be a long 6 weeks.

Whatever the case, please bear with February's and maybe March's chapters probably being on the shorter side and hopefully by April I'll be getting good night's sleep for the first time since I was a pre-teen and as a consequence be full of vim and vigor and thus able to write more than 5 words in a row before my mind decides to wander back into the Silent Hill Fog.

Edit: My usual luck has held. Loooooong 6 weeks here I come.