“But what if she forgets to feed them, or leaves a window open and Rainbow flies out and gets lost? What if one of them wanders into the snow and freezes? What if she gives them too much sugar? You know how Snowy is! She’s…she’s…oh what’s the word?” Ivy was pacing a hole in the floor of the cabin, she had been all morning. The foals were still asleep, not even the sun was up this early. So luckily, she could have her miniature freak-out with only her father to see.

“Forgetful?” Kringle offered. He had been watching Ivy pace for about an hour and a half now, fretting over the safety of the little foals in her care. It made him smile, she was finally becoming a parent. A good parent always worries if they’re doing the right thing. “I think you’re overreacting, Ivy. Snowy is perfectly capable of taking care of them, she has enough energy to take care of them.” This was one of the first times where he could be the voice of reason in the house, usually it was Ivy telling him he was being a worrying old coot.

“I just…I don’t want anything bad to happen to them, dad.” Ivy finally sat down after what seemed to be an eternity of movement. “I know we’ve only had them for a while, but it’s like this is right…like it’s my job to make sure nothing bad happens to them.” Her bed, which she had been pacing by, was occupied by the objects of her anxiety. She had got into the habit of letting the fillies sleep in her bed with her, usually there was just enough room for all of them plus her on the bed. She acted as the barrier between them and the floor, now there were pillows there to make sure they wouldn’t fall off.

Idly, Ivy stroked Applejack’s mane. It wasn’t often that she got to just…look at them. Most of the time they were full of energy and moving about, but when they were asleep she just got to appreciate them just a little bit more. Like how Applejack had little white freckles that made a straight line from one cheek to the other, or how Pinkie’s mane was always unusually straight. The little things.

“Congratulations. You’re a parent, Ivy.” Kringle leaned back in his homemade rocking chair that doubled as his work chair, he smiled at his grown daughter. His all-grown-up daughter that had foals all her own. It was a little difficult to accept, but handled it with a smile like he did all things. “Being a parent is about worrying whether or not you’re doing everything wrong. It’s not very healthy, but that’s why those who don’t have children live longer.” Kringle laughed at what he said, it was true but funny. All of the worry that offspring brought was worth it.

“So…I’m supposed to be a nervous wreck…?” Her question was met with a nod from the graying stag in the rocking chair. “And I’m supposed to not trust them with Snowy?”

“No. Snowy’s your friend, you’re supposed to trust friends with them. It’s strangers you have to worry about.” Kringle knew he was going to have several conversations like this with his daughter in the near future. New parents always needed help.

--

Snowy Daze put some logs on the fire. For now she was responsible for the house, her parents had left for a week to go see some relatives in Equestria. She was only seventeen, and she wasn’t sure if she was ready for running the house by herself. It meant she had to make sure the fire was sufficiently stocked, the fridge was full of food, and the house didn’t burn down. It was a lot to take in.

“I…hate…morniiiiiiiings.” Was all Snowy could moan out as she collapsed on the rug in front of the fireplace. She wasn’t used to waking up this early, the sun was supposed to wake up before reindeer. Not the other way around.

Snowy knew as sure as she had antlers on her head, that she didn’t want to be some doe who dragged timber around like Ivy. She was destined for something…not better, but less labor intensive than that. Like being a baker. She loved to bake, it was like a hobby she never got to enjoy. The only time she was able to bake was for parties, it’s one of the reasons she loved to throw them. That and they were just so fun.

*Knock Knock Knock*

That would be Ivy, she warned she’d be here early. But did Snowy listen? Noooo, Snowy was too busy thinking of games to play with the little ponies. She loved ponies, they were like polychromatic magical versions of reindeer…without the awesome antlers to boot. Those were an added bonus for being a reindeer.

Back to the door issue: Snowy didn’t want to get up and answer the door. It was so far away! It was like….fifteen feet. Who could ever walk that far this early in the morning? (Except Ivy.)

“S’open!” It was better to just let things handle themselves sometimes. This was one of those times, plus the floorboards were speaking to her. ‘Don’t leave us, Snowy!’ and ‘We love you, Snowy!’ How could she deny them? That would be rude and inconsiderate.

“Snowy?” She saw Ivy’s hooves enter her house, and the little wooden sled follow after her. “What are you doing on the floor? I thought I told you to be up by now.” Great, she was mad. Ivy was mad, and Snowy did not give a single care.

“Too early…sun hasn’t even woke up…” Snowy readjusted herself so she was lying on her back, hooves splayed out. Now she could see the daggers Ivy was glaring at her quite clearly, they were shiny.

“And lucky for you, neither have the foals. So it looks like you get some more sleep for a while.” Ivy unloaded a basket from the sled and sat it beside Snowy’s sleepyhead. “If Twilight or Rarity use their magic, just tap their horns. If Applejack gets too rough with Pinkie, just lightly thump her nose. If Rarity starts fussing, it means you’re doing something wrong. And if Fluttershy starts to cry, just giver her the bear….oh and if Rainbow Dash flies into the rafters…well, good luck on that one.” Snowy was making sleepy mental notes of all of that, and then drooling on the paper. So tired! “Their names are on a little sheet of paper in there along with which one is which in case you forget.” Snowy watched as ivy dipped her head into the basket and gave the blanketed foals a nuzzle. “Bye-bye girls, Ivy loves you and will be back later.”

‘Aww, how sweet…’ Snowy thought as she passed out.

--

“Go to breakfast without us, son. I’ll try to calm your mother down and we’ll meet you there.” Shining Armor sighed, he just wanted to have a meal with his whole family again…a happy mommy, a daddy who wasn’t worried, and a little sister who was home. Was that too much to ask? Apparently, because it didn’t happen.

But Shining Armor knew better than to argue. His mommy wasn’t not going to be sad for a long time, his daddy had said so…and his daddy knew everything about everything. He was a librarian for the Princess.

Nudging open the door, Shining left his family’s room and entered the big hallway outside. There were a lot of doors in the hallway, all looking like his family’s. Once he had even walked into the wrong room and saw the Princess eating a big chocolate cake. He didn’t tell anypony though, he didn’t think the Princess would like him telling everypony that she liked chocolate instead of vanilla. Vanilla was the best type of cake, but everypony gave into the dark side sometimes.

He knew what door the dining room was though, it was the one with the big fork and spoon as handles. The first time he saw that, it made him laugh. He bet it made the Princess laugh too, that’s why she had it like that.

So Shiny pushed open the funny doors that lead to the dining room and trotted in. The table that was in the really long room was….well…really long! It was like a gazillion feet long and had just as many chairs! But not many of the chairs were ever filled. The Princess was in her big chair today though at the far end of the table.

There were also a filly sitting closer to the door. Shining had seen her walking around the castle a lot. Maybe she lived here like the princess, she was pretty enough to be one. Usually he would be scared to talk to her, but today he felt really brave! Like he could stare down Nightmare Moon and make her run away! So he nervously trotted over and took a seat next to the pretty-princess-pony.

“Umm…hi.” All of a sudden, he felt really small. Like even a mouse could chase him away…he didn’t feel all too brave now.

“Oh, hi.” Celestia, she was so pretty. Like…like…like the first crayon in a new pack. Perfect.

“H-Hi…I-I’m pretty…you’re Shining Armor.” He face hoofed, smacking his hoof right into his nose and sending sharp pains through his face. “I-I mean I’m Shining Armor….and you’re pretty.” Luckily, she didn’t think he was as big a fool as he felt because she was giggling.

“Hi Shining Armor.” He wasn’t sure why a Princess like her was talking to him. It felt like his stomach was full of little butterflies that wouldn’t quit trying to get out. He only hoped she would speak her name. “I’m Inky Pie.”

--

“Pardon me, miss?” Ivy was busy cutting down a tree. How does a reindeer cut down a tree you might ask? Well they developed a special saw that spanned between the antlers and hooked onto each protrusion. The reindeer would then move their head back and forth to saw the tree in half, at first the motion could make some nervous but everyone eventually got over it.

“What is it, I’m busy?” Ivy didn’t like to be bothered during work, It meant that her rhythm she had going was broken and that meant it took longer to cut down a tree. Reluctantly, Ivy pulled the saw out of the tree and looked to whoever disturbed her.

It was a pony, a unicorn stallion to be precise. He was a pale yellow with a red and white mane draping across his head. Surprisingly, he was quite tall for a pony. Much taller than anypony Ivy had ever seen…but that wasn’t the only curious thing about him. He was towing some sort of machine, it looked like a carriage but had two smoke stacks on it and was making a whirring sound constantly. That and he was wearing a blue pin-striped vest with a pocket on each side, it wasn’t every day someone wore clothes.

“I am terribly sorry, miss. The name’s Arboreus T. Sap, I’m an Arborist from Hoofington.” He held out a hoof for a shake, but once he realized he was not going to get one he used the hoof to fix the wire rim glasses that were drooping down his nose. “Anyways, I’m here on very specific business and I require a large plot of land. Would you happen to know where I might be able to purchase some?” Ivy laughed. She didn’t mean it to be rude, it just sounded that way.

“The land belongs to everyone, Mr. Sap. No one can buy or sell it, that’s ridiculous. Here you find a plot of land and just set a house up on it, the house is yours and the land is everybody’s.” Ivy had given this spiel about a dozen times at this point, all to silly ponies who thought they could own land.

“Everybody? What a cute turn of phrase…” The unicorn pulled out a pen and little notebook from his pocket with his pale green magic, wrote something down, and stashed it again. “So nopony owns the land, huh? A little bit like the buffalo, you lot are. Not surprising, archaic societies and all.” The notebook and pen went back in his pocket. “Very well, I shall commence building a domicile all my own somewhere around here. Somewhere my boys can have some room to run around.” As if on cue two little horned heads poked out of the mechanical carriage, they looked to be almost identical to Arboreus. “There has been some terrible business in Equestria, foals being taken in the dead of night. Not good at all, so I thought that I could move up here away from all of the hustle and bustle of the old country. Well that and I happen to be working on a miracle plant that can grow in these harsh conditions, and every scientist knows that a real-world application of a theory is the only way to make sure it works.”

Ivy had been nodding in and out of the conversation while the stallion spoke. She had more important things to worry about, like getting her work done so she could go get her foals from Snowy. She just wanted to get home to her family.

“Well alright Mr. Sap. You have a nice day.” Ivy grabbed her saw with her antlers again and got back to sawing the tree.

“I don’t believe I caught your name, Miss?” Ivy sighed, she honestly did not want go on with this. Sure the stallion was nice and polite, but he was just way too talkative during work hours.

“Winter. Ivy Winter.” She was almost through the tree at this point, just a little more and she’d have to clear out. “I hate to cut our conversation short, but I think you should move along before this tree comes down.”

“Oh, you are quite right.” The stallion quickly put the harness that connected to the large machine he was towing back on and moved quickly out of the area.

--

Goooood morning ponies!” Snowy shouted as all of the foals finally woke up. Luckily they had given her an adequate napping time so she felt fully charged now! She was waiting with a big smile on her face now, and she was ready to play!

“WAAAAAAA!” Six little voices all wailed at the same time, sending Snowy straight to her haunches. The doe laid her white-tipped ears against her head to protect them from the unanimous scream that was coming from the little ponies.

“I’m sorry! I’m so so so so sorry!” Snowy advanced towards the little ponies’ basket. As soon as she got within reaching distance of the foals, she picked one up. It was the pink one, argh what was her name? It was something obvious, Snowy knew it…Pinkie! It was Pinkie! “There there, it’s alright. Auntie Snowy’s here to take care of you for awhile.” The response she received was a scream right in her ear.

“I’m in trouble…” Was all Snowy could say in realization of the situation she was currently in.