“And we’ll have our hearts warming on Hearth’s Warming Eve~” Vinyl sang as she sipped on a bottle of wine and levitated the toys by the New Year’s tree. “And our hearts will be warming on Hearth’s Warming Eve~”

“Mom!” Gliss complained with a wince, holding in her hoof a basket with tiny flickering lamps. Those unicorns and their magic… she thought with envy. “That’s an awful song, and you know it.”

“What should I sing instead?” Vinyl gulped on the wine. Again… A bottle, every day. “Rock’n’roll?” she laughed. “That pseudomusic that the feathered play?”

Gliss frowned invisibly. It’s not pseudomusic. It’s better than your jazz, Mom. Or any jazz, for that matter. It’s strong, and carries a message. And who cares if the griffins play it? Aloud, she just mumbled something random and incomprehensive. “Well, I, for one, have come up with a new tune,” she tried, giving her mother a hoofful of lamps.

“And here I was, thinking that you were supposed to be sleeping,” Octavia chimed in with tinsel on her shoulders. “Vinyl, take the spangle, please.”

“Spangle.” Vinyl rolled the word on her tongue. “Sounds like a verb. Like ‘I’ll spangle you, Vinyl’.”

“What should we call it then?” Gliss dove in, happy that they were finally having one of the family moments. She knew that arguing about words was somehow tying them to the past, to the happy times when she trotted about the flat with a lollipop, two happy parents watching her every move. “It is spangle.”

“Ack!” Vinyl took up the bait gleefully, even putting down the wine. “It’s tinsel!” She took the tinsel telekinetically from Octavia, trying to decorate with it the tree, which was already full of festive colour and light. “It’s called tinsel because it… tinsels.” She pondered. “Doesn’t it look tinsel...ish?”

“Nope,” Gliss replied happily, “it looks spangtacular. It spangles. In a spangly way,” she added. “Mom, could you hold the lamps, please?” she addressed Vinyl, who snatched the lamps with her telekinesis. “I want to show you guys the song I wrote yesterday.” Hearth’s Warming is still a while away, but the song may fade… I need to perform it and write it down. But how the hay do you write down… what should I call it? Slamming? Tapping?

“The song you wrote at night,” Octavia clarified, taking up some tinsel to put on the tree. “When you were supposed to be sleeping with a headache.” She glanced sideways at Vinyl’s bottle but said nothing.

“I still have a headache,” Gliss protested, plugging in her Les Pone. Okay, a touch of reverb… Some delay… There. “It’s just not as pronounced.”

Vinyl sniffed. “My filly, speaking such smart and complicated words.” She dried a tear which, frankly, neither Gliss nor Octavia could identify either as true or fake. There was a good chance that it was a bit of both.

Gliss ran her hoof across the frets, feeling the sound, the slight electric crunch, the clean feedback. She played the scales that formed the piece, the usual way, just without the pick. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her mothers stop the decorating and listen attentively. With a smile, she let her hooves tap on the neck, repeating yesterday’s, rather, yesternight’s, performance.

The notes danced properly; the tempo may have been twitchy, but she felt so warm inside, now that she was performing with a technique she herself invented, a technique that was fresh and new, and-

“Nice.” Vinyl chewed on her lip. “Um. It was… nice.” She stepped towards the tree, where Octavia was already decorating the tree, a little too busily.

“Mom?” Gliss asked with caution, putting down the guitar. “Usually, your opinion is more colourful.” Something’s wrong. Something’s amiss. “Mother?” she addressed Octavia, who was conveniently standing with her back to the filly. “What did you think about my new tune?”

Octavia let out a nervous laugh. “Well, sweetie, I’m not a guitarist, I’m a cellist.” She handed the tinsel to her wife. “Now, Mom here is very knowledgeable in the guitar field, as you know what a wild guitarist she used to be in her youth…” She smiled disarmingly, while Vinyl just blinked. “So you’d better ask her. And I’m off to do the groceries!~” Swiftly, Octavia trotted towards the door, grabbing her white-and-blue scarf along the way.

The door slammed. Vinyl sighed and looked at her daughter. “She didn’t actually take any money.” Sneaky sneaky Tavi.

Gliss shook her head. “No, she didn’t.” With a frown, she confronted her mother: “So, what did you really think about my tune? It’s a new technique,” she explained with barely concealed pride. “I invented it. I called it… tapping.”

“Tapping?” Vinyl reiterated.

“Tapping,” Gliss confirmed with a nod. “Because of how you tap the neck, not glide your hoof on it.”

Vinyl sighed. “Listen, Slidey, kid…” She wrapped her hoof around the filly’s neck, making her vastly uncomfortable. “You’re not supposed to tap the neck, you’re supposed to play the notes. It’s not the way to play the guitar. It’s not a piano.” She chuckled. “And, believe me, I play both.”

“Why not unite them?” Gliss asked defensively. To hell with how I’m ‘supposed’ to play it. Let’s talk about how I want to play it.

“Because,” Vinyl explained, as if to a little foal, “they are two different instruments.”

“So you don’t approve?” Gliss wondered bluntly.

“I don’t approve as a guitar player.” Vinyl let go of Gliss’s neck and shoulders. “But I approve as your mother. Exploration and all of that.”

The doorbell rang, and Vinyl trotted over to open it. Gliss fell behind, watching her mother open the door. Before them stood a now-familiar white unicorn, who tipped his hat to the pianist. “Good evening, Miss Scratch.”

Vinyl blinked. “And you are?”

“Silver Chord,” Gliss chimed in from behind. “He’s my new acquaintance, Mom.” More like, ‘the guy who makes me giggle silly and sets my stomach on fire’... “Come on in, Silver,” she motioned for the young stallion.

Silver entered the flat, taking off his hat and scarf, eyeing curiously the tree and Octavia in a red nightcap. The cellist waved at the unicorn with a smile. Silver nodded. Gliss quickly disrupted the awkwardness. “Mom, we’ll be in the kitchen. We’ll need some privacy to talk.”

“Sure thing, kids.” Vinyl nodded. “All the privacy you could ever want.”

As the two young ponies sat in the kitchen, Silver took a cautious look around and wondered, blushing slightly, “Can you explain to me what is a tree doing in the middle of your household?”

Gliss blinked. “It’s Hearth’s Warming!” Seeing Silver’s oblivious reaction, she asked, more carefully, “You… You don’t have Hearth’s Warming in the Crystal Empire?”

“We have the holiday,” Silver confirmed. “We just don’t celebrate it… How do you prepare for Hearth’s Warming in Equestria again?”

Gliss smiled.

***

“And then we decorate the tree with lights and spangle and-”

“I thought it was called tinsel?” Silver interrupted.

Gliss furrowed her brows into the famous Philarmonico frown that made Silver gulp and nod. “Anyway, we decorate the tree. And we count the days till Hearth’s Warming on the calendar, and then on the Eve we get presents and warm cocoa!” And Mom gets some booze… She really is… drinking a little more than she used to.

“We don’t have that custom in the Crystal Empire,” Silver explained, sipping on his tea. “We don’t count days till Hearth’s Warming - but we do celebrate the New Year with presents and resolutions.”

“What’s your resolution gonna be?” Gliss asked with curiosity, her heart beating slightly faster than usual. She blamed it on the coffee.

“Oh, I don’t know.” Silver finished the mug and looked into Gliss’s eyes. Heeee, eyes. Such blue. Uuuum. “Get on with my studies?” The young stallion shook his head. “Reconcile with my father?” Another shake. I’ll have to investigate this one, Gliss thought immediately, before the idea that this might be none of her business came into her head. “Maybe… fall in love with a smart, beautiful young mare?..” Silver leaned in slightly. Gliss felt her breath ragging up, her heart beating, her hooves trembling.

“Hey there, kids!” Vinyl entered the kitchen clumsily, throwing away the now-empty bottle. “You having fun?” She proceeded to the fridge. Yes, we were, Gliss thought. Until you stepped in. Why do parents always have to ruin everything?

“Yes, thank you, Miss Scratch,” SIlver replied politely, wiping his mouth with a napkin.

Vinyl took out a six-pack out of the fridge and popped a can open with a hiss. She gulped the beer greedily and let out a tiny burp. “Oh, sorry,” she apologised easily, stepping out of the kitchen.

Gliss’s face fell flat on the table, all the while lighting with embarrassment. Oh Celestia, now would be a good time for the ground to swallow me up…

Octavia stormed into the kitchen with grocery bags, planting those on the counter. “Oh!” she noticed with a polite smile. “Silver, nice to see you again.”

“Likewise, Miss Philarmonica,” the guest replied with a neverdropping smile. I would give my Les Pone to see this smile every moment of my life. Wait, what am I even thinking?!

“Glissando, stop faceplanting on the table,” Octavia chided sternly. “You don’t want that thing to happen?” Turning to Silver, she began, “When Glissando was just three…”

“No!” Gliss quickly raised her head. “Of course we don’t want that, Mother.” What we don’t want is a foalhood story to embarrass me before a possible coltfriend… Noting that her mind had already registered Silver as one, Gliss smiled innerly. A very fine candidate. If he really does fancy me and doesn’t just smile at everypony the same.

“I am afraid it is time for me to leave,” Silver said, dropping his smile to a sad-but-still-polite level, and stood up. “It has been very nice to visit your household.”

Gliss stood up as well. “I’ll see you to the door.” She followed the colt into the corridor. On the way, Vinyl waved from Gliss’s couch. “Heyo there, kid!” Silver replied with a small nod. Gliss reddened. “I’m sorry,” she said as Silver put on his scarf. “My mothers… They can be… tiresome.” And they embarrass me every day. Thank Celestia Lyra didn’t drop by…

“That’s okay,” Silver replied, looking at Gliss’s hooves. He raised his head, joining their looks. “I’ve come to see you, after all. And I am charmed by your mothers. I can see that your good looks are inherited.”

“My…” Gliss reddened fiercely. Good looks! I’m good-looking! He’s calling me beautiful! He’s basically asking me out!! ...or he’s just being polite. Gliss steadied herself. “Thanks. Um. It must be weird for you.”

“What?” Silver tugged on his scarf. “Why?”

“Well…” Gliss rubbed the carpet with her hoof. “You’re from the Crystal Empire, right? I know that… most of the crystal citizens don’t approve of… what my mothers have. I know same-sex marriage isn’t legal in your country.”

“And will never be,” Silver confirmed. “But that doesn’t mean that I am against it. I am not your average crystal citizen.”

“Oh yes,” Gliss let out with a whisper. With a body like this, far… from… average. I wonder if his… um… is far from average too?

“I don’t blame the crystal citizens,” Silver said. “They are all very conservative. It’s the crystal culture. But that doesn’t mean I am not open-minded. After all, I found a way to study here, and not there.”

“I thought it was because you could find more musical opportunities here?” Gliss wondered idly, her heart racing for some reason.

Silver kissed her hoof as a good-bye gesture. Oh, that’s why. “It seems that there is so much more that I can find here.” With that, he put on his hat, tipped it, and walked off. Gliss waited for a moment, then giggled gleefully and ran into the flat, crushing Octavia in an embrace.

The older mare blinked in surprise. “Glissando? What’s the matter?” she asked gently, rubbing the filly’s shoulder.

“Nothing,” Gliss replied with a smile. “I just felt like giving you a hug.”

“Is your head better?” Octavia wondered, kissing the filly’s forehead.

“Oh yes.” Gliss smiled. “So much better.”