"...Are you sure we should start exchanging gifts now?"
"Oh, I can't wait."
"You're using that weird accent again."
However, every time Aurora spoke in a weird way, it was when she was in her most cheerful mood; after it happened enough times, Sunset Shimmer had become accustomed to it.
She accepted the Hearths Warming Eve gift that Aurora gave her, weighed it on her hoof, and found it to be very light; shaking it a few times, she didn't hear any sound. Either the contents were fixed very well, or the material was relatively soft.
It wasn't time to open gifts yet; Sunset Shimmer still knew that gifts were meant to be opened tomorrow morning.
Although she didn't know what it was, she caught a glimpse of the excited look in Aurora's eyes, and even she began to look forward to the moment of opening gifts.
With a friend by her side to chat and brag, even the waiting time didn't feel boring.
When Twilight Sparkle arrived at the cottage with Spike, she saw that the two senior sisters were already there, and had even decorated the cottage almost completely.
"I didn't think you would have started so early."
"It's not your problem, Twilight; it's that the two of us came too early, so we just decided to do something to pass the time." Aurora rubbed Twilight Sparkle's slightly dejected little face, and incidentally patted Spike, who was riding on her back.
The weather had turned cold, and Spike also wore a hat, scarf, and gloves, looking a little cuter than usual.
"Ma, ma... ma!" As soon as Spike saw Aurora, he immediately opened his arms to ask for a hug, repeating the few words he had learned to pronounce.
"Oh, cute little baby, you should call me sister." Although Aurora was somewhat helpless, she still cooperated by holding him in her arms and gently rocking him.
"This might be something he learned unconsciously; after the academy went on break, I brought him home, and he has been staying at home with me these past few days."
"It must be that Twilight has been calling 'mom' at home, and Spike learned it through subtle influence." Sunset Shimmer said with a wicked smile; she still remembered that when she and Aurora first went to her house to find her, Twilight Sparkle had mistaken them for Twilight Twinkle.
Twilight Sparkle's face turned red, and she smiled somewhat embarrassedly. Because she was indeed like that at home, and of course there was her brother, Shining Armor; the two siblings were much the same.
As soon as Sunset Shimmer said this, it made the unprepared Aurora laugh out loud, and Spike, who was looking at her, also laughed along.
The entire House of Academic Studies was filled with a lively atmosphere.
"Come, Spike. Happy Hearths Warming Eve; I hope that when I see you next year, you will learn to call me sister." Aurora used magic to grab the gift belonging to Spike and placed it in Spike's arms. It was just that the gift she had prepared seemed a bit large, and it was somewhat difficult for the little Spike to hold.
Spike couldn't yet realize the meaning of gifts, but he liked these brightly colored wrapping papers; in his cognition, this was a form of reward.
Spike took the gift that Aurora gave him in his hands and opened it without even thinking.
"Spike! Gifts are meant to be opened tomorrow morning!" Seeing this, Twilight Sparkle immediately spoke up to try to stop him, but it was obviously too late by then; the little dragon's claws sliced through the gift's packaging like a box cutter.
"It's okay, let him open it; it's the same whenever the gift is opened anyway." Aurora excused Spike for a few words, then looked toward Sunset Shimmer with a hint of anticipation.
"Senior sister, can I open my gift early too?" This posture had a sense of "Spike already opened his, why can't I?" I really didn't expect Aurora to actually compete with a child.
Sunset Shimmer looked at her with doting yet helpless eyes: "Then I want to open mine too!"
Twilight Sparkle looked at the situation that was gradually getting out of control, trying to make a final struggle.
"But the tradition of Hearths Warming Eve is that you wait until after Hearths Warming Eve to open gifts, right? That has always been the rule."
"Rules? Rules are meant to be broken!" The familiar keyword directly triggered Aurora's passive, and the famous quote came straight out of her mouth, leaving the pony "Twilight-stunned and open-mouthed."
Was this still the Aurora senior sister she knew? Twilight Sparkle couldn't believe that this rebellious statement would come out of the mouth of Aurora, who valued rules the most.
But Aurora didn't speak; she just tacitly bumped hooves with Sunset Shimmer, and then they went to prepare to open gifts together.
Twilight Sparkle opened her mouth, but couldn't say anything.
Watching Spike, who was sitting on Aurora's back having already opened the wrapping paper and was studying how to open the box inside, Twilight Sparkle finally gave up on thinking.
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