Persona EG LTE | Mythril Moth Creations

Today's Horoscope (Virgo): There's still time to end up on the naughty list, so watch yourself.

Morning

Today is the first official day of winter vacation. Even though half the dorm is leaving for home today and Twilight's parents are coming into town, nobody's in much of a hurry to do anything.

We have one last big breakfast together as a group, after which Fluttershy takes a taxi to the train station and Rarity's parents pick her up.

Cadance and Shining Armor are busy getting their spare bedroom ready for Twilight's parents. The rest of us decide to sit around in the lounge. Twilight puts on the weather news; the radar images and live reports paint a dire picture for the Baltimare area, and within the next twenty-four hours, Canterlot may be under a blizzard warning...

"Man, that weather's gonna suck," Rainbow says. She's flipping through a comic book.

"When's your dad coming in?" Twilight asks.

"His plane's supposed to get here at around three," Rainbow says. "So I'll be outta here by five."

"What are the two of you gonna do about Christmas dinner?" I ask. "Do you have like, grandparents and stuff, or...?"

Rainbow shrugs. "Dad doesn't have any family but me," she says. "It's just us."

"Oh, Rainbow..." Twilight says.

"Eh," Rainbow shrugs indifferently. "Makes Christmas more fun, you know? We can do what we wanna do." She grins. "We pretty much pig out on junk food and watch action movies or whatever."

Daytime

A little before noon, Cadance and Shining Armor walk in. "Okay, so here's what we're gonna do," Shining Armor says. "Cadance and I are gonna go pick up Mom and Dad at the train station. The rest of you need to figure out what to do about lunch. Everything needs to be ready or almost ready when they get here, because after we all eat, Mom and Cadance are going grocery shopping to stock up for the week."

"And to get stuff for Christmas dinner," Cadance adds.

"Ooh! I'll go with you two to do that," Pinkie says.

Cadance smiles. "Thanks, it'll be easier with three of us."

Cadance and Shining Armor leave.

Pinkie frowns. "There's not really a lot to work with in the kitchen," she says. "What do you guys think we should do?"

"How about sandwiches?" I suggest. "We've done the pizza thing to death..."

"Hey, yeah!" Twilight says. "SubLime delivers and they've got those catering specials..."

I pull up the ordering app on my phone; we start discussing what we should get. With eight of us, and considering the appetites of some of us, we decide to order the twenty sub assortment so everybody will have at least two sandwiches. The whole thing is a pretty big hit to my debit card, but I don't mind.

While we're waiting, we sit down in the lounge. Twilight has a serious, thoughtful look on her face. "Rarity's birthday is the day after New Year's, so we're going to need to plan ahead," she says.

Rainbow grimaces. "She's gonna be with her family and I'm gonna be with my dad...that's gonna make this one tough."

"We'll need to do whatever it takes to be as close to Rarity as possible," I say. "If we're lucky, we'll all be invited to her birthday party."

"I could smuggle myself in inside a cake," Pinkie suggests. Nobody comments on this.

The sandwiches arrive almost an hour later. Cadance, Shining Armor, and Twilight's parents show up at almost the same time as the delivery driver.

"Hi Mom, hi Dad!" I hear Twilight say as Rainbow, Pinkie, and I carry the sandwiches, chips, and sodas to the dining room. "Just leave your things in the lounge and come sit down, we're about to have lunch..."

We've just about got everything spread out on the table when everyone else walks in. "Flash! So good to see you again!" Velvet says. Then she looks past me and gasps, hands flying to her mouth. "Oh my God..."

I follow her gaze and see a confused Rainbow Dash. "What?" Rainbow says.

Velvet walks over to Rainbow, looking her up and down. "You have your father's hair, but other than that, you look exactly like Firefly..." She sweeps her up in a hug. "I haven't seen you since you were a baby..."

Rainbow shifts uncomfortably.

Twilight coughs. "Mom?"

Velvet backs off. "Sorry, dear," she says. "It's just...I knew your parents, and what your mother did...it's bothered me for years..."

"Uhh..." Rainbow seems at a loss for words.

I cough. "We'd better eat," I say. "You guys have a lot of grocery shopping to do, and Rainbow's dad is coming to pick her up in a few hours."

The sandwiches are all labeled; each of us takes two (except for Cadance and Velvet, who take one each), as well as chips and a drink.

"How come you only got six-inchers and not footlongs?" Twilight asks.

"Six inches is more than enough for you, Twi," I say. About five seconds later, what I just said catches up to me.

Everybody else is staring at me. Twilight has an "I cannot believe you just said that" look on her face. Rainbow is grinning like an idiot. Pinkie falls off her chair, laughing like a hyena. Shining Armor has a pained look on his face.

Cadance breaks out into a giggle fit. "Oh-KAY!" she says loudly. Velvet smirks. Night Light just shakes his head and takes a bite of his meatball sandwich.

I decide to eat my sandwiches and keep my mouth shut.

"So Blaze is coming to pick you up, huh?" Night Light asks.

"Yeah," Rainbow says. "You really knew my folks, huh?"

"We sure did," Night Light says. "Blaze and I were good friends. We used to go out drinking..."

Rainbow frowns. "Dad doesn't drink..."

"Oh, he quit while Firefly was pregnant with you," Night Light says. "Decided he needed to be responsible, get himself ready for fatherhood."

"He was determined to be the best husband and father in the world, even if he knew he might have to travel a lot," Velvet says. She sighs. "Your mother was a fool to just run off like that..." She pales. "Oh God...I'm sorry, dear..."

"Nah, it's cool," Rainbow says listlessly, toying with a potato chip. She looks down at her sandwich, eyes dark.

"Rainbow, you have to understand...your mother, well...she was a party girl," Velvet says. "She lived by the motto 'live fast, die young'. Oh! I don't mean...I mean I'm sure she's alive and..."

"I don't care if she is or not," Rainbow says. "Why should I?"

"Now don't be that way, Rainbow Dash," Cadance says. "There may come a day when you'll want to find her..."

"Yeah, find her and kick her ass," Rainbow mutters.

Night Light clears his throat. "How's Blaze doing these days?" he asks. "We lost touch after college."

"He's doin' great," Rainbow says. "Sure, I don't get to see him as much as I'd like, but he taught me to play soccer, we talk every day if we can..."

"I wonder if he'll remember me," Night Light says.

"I'm sure he will, dear," Velvet says.

"Hey Mom, are Grandma and Grandpa coming? Or Nana?"

Velvet shakes her head. "Nana's going west to visit your great-aunts. It...might be their last Christmas together."

Twilight's face pales. "Which one?" she asks quietly.

"Twinkle Star," Velvet says. "Cancer." She shakes her head. "And Grandpa and Grandma, well...they're not coming because they don't want to get snowed in. You know how Grandpa gets when it's cold..."

"Oh yeah," Twilight says.

"Well my dad's coming for Christmas dinner if we're not buried under snow," Cadance says. "He'll only be here for dinner, though."

"Speaking of Christmas dinner," Velvet says, "what would everybody rather have, turkey or ham?"

"Either's fine with me," I say.

"I like ham, but I like turkey too," Pinkie says.

"Why don't we have both?" Twilight suggests. "I mean we've got two ovens here in the dorm and another at Cadance's place..."

We all stare at Twilight, who ducks her head. Her hand slowly, sheepishly snakes out to grab one of the extra sandwiches.

I shrug. "It's not a bad idea," I say. "Especially when you think of the leftovers."

"Hey, yeah!" Night Light says brightly. "Turkey and ham sandwiches..."

Velvet laughs. "Okay, okay. We'll do both." She looks at Twilight. "The leftovers had better last a few days, though."

Twilight blinks. "Hffwfh?" she mutters around her sandwich.

Cadance looks at the remaining sandwiches which are still on the table. "Hey, wait a second," she says. "Who even paid for all this? We didn't leave any money..."

"I did," I say. "Don't worry about it."

Velvet frowns. "You...paid for lunch? All of it? Yourself?"

I shrug.

Night Light shakes his head. "No, that's no good," he says. He takes his wallet out of his pocket and counts out thirty dollars. Shining Armor does likewise.

"No, really, it's fine," I insist.

"No, we're chipping in," Shining Armor says. "It isn't right for a high school kid to feed eight people out of his own pocket, and we all know how much all this cost you."

I decide not to argue the point and pocket the money. My cash reserves were getting a bit low anyway since I paid cash for most of my Christmas shopping.

Rainbow shakes her head. "Man, Twilight...you lucked out, landing yourself the rich boyfriend."

"I'm not rich," I say. "I just...don't have money issues."

Rainbow gets up, walks over to Twilight, and hauls her locket out of her blouse, holding it up so it catches the light. "Yeah, we noticed," she says. With a smirk, she heads back to her seat.

"Rainbow!" Twilight cries.

I shake my head. "Yeah, but once I'm on my own, I'm gonna have to work hard just like everybody else," I say.

"Most everybody else," Shining Armor mutters, giving Cadance a sharp, playful poke.

Velvet shakes her head. "It still amazes me you chose my son sometimes," she says.

"Mom!" Shining Armor protests.

Cadance giggles. "Let's just say he has something...special," she says with a playful, naughty smirk.

Velvet facepalms. "Not now, Cadance," she moans.

Not long after that, Cadance, Velvet, and Pinkie head out to do the shopping. The rest of us finish off the sandwiches, then clean up. Night Light and Shining Armor put the presents Twilight's parents brought with them under the tree, then carry the luggage over to the apartment. We pass the rest of the afternoon playing board games.

Afternoon

It takes nearly three hours for the ladies to get the shopping done. At a quarter of four, Rainbow gets a call from her dad announcing he's at the airport and will be on his way as soon as he can rent a car. She rushes upstairs to grab her stuff, then brings it down to the entrance while the rest of us help unload Cadance's SUV and put away the groceries. And there are a lot of groceries to put away...

Velvet hands Rainbow a plastic grocery bag. "Didn't have time to wrap these," she says. "And I'm sorry it isn't much, but there wasn't much notice. There's one for you and one for your dad."

Rainbow looks in the bag. "Ooh, good chocolates," she says. "Thanks!"

"Merry Christmas, dear," Velvet says, smiling.

A few minutes later, there's a knock at the entrance. Rainbow opens it. "Dad!" she exclaims happily. "Come in for a minute!"

Rainbow leads a tall, slim, athletic man with slightly darker blue skin and the same wild rainbow hair into the lounge. "Hey everybody, this is my dad!" she says excitedly.

"We can tell!" Pinkie giggles.

"Dad, these are my friends!" Rainbow says. "This is Flash, this is Twilight, and this is Pinkie!"

"Hey," Rainbow's dad says. "I'm Rainbow Blaze." He grins. "Rainbow's told me all about you kids. I'm glad she's got such good friends." He looks around. "Where are the others?"

"They left already," Rainbow says. "These guys are staying over for Christmas. I'm the last one out."

"Blaze? Is that you?" Night Light's voice calls from the hall. He walks in.

Blaze looks at him, blinking. "Night Light?" His grin practically splits his face. "Holy shit! Look at you!" He rushes over and grabs Night Light's hand. "Haven't seen you since college, man!"

Velvet walks in from the kitchen. "Hello, Blaze," she says.

Blaze's brow furrows. "Give me a sec," he says. "Vera, Velma, Vul—"

"Velvet," Velvet says. "Twilight Velvet."

Blaze snaps his fingers. "Right! Sorry, it's been forever..."

Velvet rolls her eyes. "Bullshit. You used to pull that on me every time you saw me."

Blaze chuckles. "And it never gets old." He blinks. "Wait..." He looks back at Twilight. His eyes widen. "Holy shit," he says. "You mean that's your daughter?"

"Yep," Night Light says.

Blaze shakes his head. "I thought the name Twilight Sparkle sounded familiar," he says. "What are the odds, huh?"

"Why don't you and Rainbow Dash stay for dinner?" Velvet suggests.

Blaze sighs. "I'd love to, but we've got a two hour drive ahead of us, and it's already getting dark out. I wanna make the most of what little light's left since I haven't driven in Canterlot in a while."

"I understand," Velvet says. "I do hope we'll all get a chance to catch up soon, though."

Blaze tilts his head. "Well...I was gonna bring Dash back on the second, but..." He looks at Rainbow. "Whaddya think? New Year's? We come back early, I hang out here?"

"Heck yeah!" Rainbow cries. "See you guys on New Year's!"

Blaze grins. "What she said. Come on, Dash! Let's get your stuff in the car." He looks around at all of us. "Merry Christmas!"

"Merry Christmas!" we all chorus. "Goodbye, Rainbow Dash!"

"Bye everybody! Merry Christmas!" Rainbow replies, grabbing half of her bags. Blaze grabs the rest, and they head out.

"Same old Blaze," Night Light says with a grin. "Hasn't changed a bit."

Evening

Twilight's parents, Cadance, and Shining Armor are all pretty tired, so they head for the apartment and turn in early. Twilight, Pinkie, and I make hot dogs for dinner and veg out in front of the television.

"Your family's so wonderful, Twilight," Pinkie says wistfully. "You're so lucky..."

"Yeah," Twilight says. She gets up from beside me, walks over to Pinkie, and hugs her. "You know...you're part of the family now," she says. "If you want to be."

Pinkie smiles. "That'd be nice..."

I'd be lying if I said I'm not a little jealous of Twilight's relationship with her parents...

Twilight turns on the weather.

"Temperatures in Baltimare have dropped fifteen degrees in the last hour," the weather anchor reports. "Residents are advised to take precautions, as late night precip is expected to cause ice accumulation on roads, trees, and power lines. Be advised to stay off the roads and be prepared in case the power goes out. We'll have more on that in a minute, but first, let's look at this storm system which is forming more rapidly than forecast models predicted. The weather advisory service just released a statement that a blizzard warning may be issued for the Canterlot area as early as tomorrow morning..."

"Wow, you usually don't see weather like this until the middle of January," Twilight says, eyes wide.

It looks like Twilight's parents got out just in time...

We might be snowed in for most of Christmas week...