TRIXIE: A Hearth's Warming Eve Carol

by SupaSupaBadTrulyMadMoves

Shadows at Dawn

Nightmare Moon led the nightgown-clad Trixie down a snowy dirt road lined with tall pines, soft snowflakes falling all around them.

"Wasn't it the middle of the night a second ago?" Trixie said in concern, peering up at the daylight.

"You are seeing this road as it was many years ago," the spirit replied. "You do know this road, I take it?"

"Know it?" Trixie marveled. "I know it better than I know the details of my own face."

"Is that so? And yet, this is the first time in many years that your thoughts have drifted to this place, is it not?"

"I… that is correct…" Trixie muttered, slowing her pace.

Nightmare Moon tilted her head and peered at Trixie with interest. "Truly? Are you crying already?"

"No," Trixie said firmly, brushing a tear away from her lined and aged face. "I… I'm not." She paused for a moment, then snapped her head up toward Nightmare Moon in alarm. "What do you mean 'already'?"

"Hmm? Oh, nothing, nothing at all," she said hastily. "Let us proceed."

Trixie followed, but paused. "Erm… won't the ponies in the village notice when Nightmare Moon comes casually walking down the road?"

"These are scenes from the past," Nightmare Moon replied calmly. "We have no power to alter them. We will not be seen. Keep up with me, won't you?"

Trixie quickened her pace to catch up to the dark mare. They walked over a hill, and came upon a quaint little village, the sight of which made Trixie's heart clench up, her freezing-cold eyes well up with steaming tears.

They walked down the main street, indeed unnoticed by everyone they came across. A freckled yellow earth pony with lime-green eyes and hair hopped along the sidewalks in a zig-zagging pattern. She stopped at a cart carrying multicolored, crystalline apples.

"Closing up shop for the day?" she chirped.

"Eeyup," said the huge red stallion behind the cart.

"One for the road?" she asked him flirtatiously, flipping him a coin.

He smiled and gave her a single apple.

"Aw, ain't you just a peach?" said the mare, winking at him. "Merry Hearth's Warming Eve, my good man."

She hopped away, nearly going into neck spasms when she saw a golden pegasus flying overhead, dressed in olive green and khaki, and carrying loads of travelling gear.

"Setting off on vacation, Miss Do?" the cheerful mare called out.

The pegasus halted in midair and turned to face her. "That's right. Merry Hearth's Warming Eve, Ms. Peachbottom. I'll see you when I get back."

"I look forward to it. Merry Hearth's Warming Eve."

"Ugh, it's constant, isn't it?" Trixie said bitterly. "Everywhere you go, it's 'Merry Hearth's Warming Eve', nonstop…"

As they continued down the street, a huge, sharp-toothed, monkey-like creature tipped his hat to a very tall and slender unicorn stallion with light brown fur, who was bundled up tightly in many layers of warm clothing.

"Perfect Hearth's Warming Eve, is it not?" the creature boomed in a thick accent. "A nice soft snowfall."

"Oh, indeed," said the stallion. "A lovely change from the weather we've been getting. The past few weeks, the wind has been whipping me like a rented mule." He turned his head to the mule who was standing nearby in the streets. "No offense."

"None taken," the mule drawled.

The huge hairy beast laughed. "Merry Hearth's Warming Eve to you, Mr. Trenderhoof."

"Yes, and also to you," said the unicorn, bowing.

Trixie scarcely paid attention to the scene unfolding, her eyes forward, waiting for it to come into view.

And it did. On the other end of the tiny village was a dock, set at the edge of a great lake, and on the other side of the lake was a massive stone castle.

"My old school," Trixie said in delight. "There she stands, as grand as ever." She frowned and looked over her shoulder. "I knew every one of those townsfolk. If this is the past, then that castle must be filled with…"

Nightmare Moon nodded. "Let us see." The coils of her mane wrapped around one of Trixie's legs, and she flew across the lake at a breakneck speed, carrying Trixie along with her.

Trixie shut her eyes tight as wind whipped at her face, and she peered out just in time to see that she and Nightmare Moon had just passed neatly through a closed window and were now in a school corridor.

Trixie adjusted her nightcap and stared in surprise at the frosty glass of the window. "Remarkable," she muttered.

A loud bell rang out, and several classroom doors opened. Nightmare Moon touched Trixie's face and directed her attention to one door in particular. An attractive young teacher stepped out, holding the door open for her students. "All right, my little ponies. Have fun with your families and I'll see you all after the break."

Fillies and colts in school uniforms started filing out, and Trixie held her breath, realizing what was coming. Sure enough, trailing behind her classmates, came Trixie's younger self. The little blue filly had a vacant and glum expression, dragging her hooves slightly.

"There you are," Trixie said sadly. "Why so morose, little one?"

A classmate came up alongside the young Trixie, a filly with a huge pink bow in her mane. "Howdy, Trixie," she said. "Stayin' here at school for the holiday again?"

"Yes," the young Trixie peeped, looking to the floor guiltily.

"Aw, I'm sorry," her friend said with a sympathetic pout. "I'm sure you'll get to be with your family soon."

Trixie sighed and kicked at the ground. "Oh, I don't know, Apple Bloom, I don't think they're ever going to want—"

Apple Bloom squealed in delight at the sight of two other fillies coming out of another room, and ran toward them. These three fillies pranced around each other, chattering eagerly.

"Apple Bloom!" said one, flapping her tiny wings in excitement. "You ready to go back to our hometown?"

"Yeah, I'm ready!" said Apple Bloom. "We'll spend time with our families and get all kinds of new chances to try and get our cutie marks!"

"Ooh, the boats are here!" a little white unicorn squeaked. The three fillies scampered down the hall, as did many others, leaving the young Trixie alone and seeming very small in the huge corridors.

Trixie stepped forward and looked into the eyes of her childhood self, who stared straight through her, unaware. "Why so sad?" the present-day Trixie said gently. "You get your dorm room to yourself, and get to spend your days reading. You have all the friends and all the worlds you need there in the books. You're happy, aren't you? I know you are."

The young Trixie wandered off, and Nightmare Moon beheld the other with interest. "Do you talk to yourself often?" she asked.

"Well, how often do I get to look myself in the face?" Trixie said with a wry smile, which quickly vanished and gave way to a very deep frown as she watched her past self vanish around a corner. "It seems my school days weren't quite the adventure I remembered."

"Perhaps not," Nightmare Moon agreed. "Let us see another Hearth's Warming Eve here at this school."

The air rippled around them, and dissolved into a new scene. Trixie and Nightmare Moon were now standing in a dormitory common room, decorated with gold and red banners. The young Trixie was sitting in a large chair by the fireplace, reading a book. Trixie was unsurprised, until she took another look and realized that the filly in the chair was a few years older than the one she had seen a few seconds ago.

"Oh my," she breathed.

An older Apple Bloom came down the stairs, bundled up for winter and carrying a suitcase. "Hey, Trixie," she said casually. She paused, and noticed a large black case next to Trixie's chair. Her eyes lit up. "Trixie… are you finally gettin' to go home?"

"I am," the young Trixie said proudly. "My father is picking me up at the front gate."

Apple Bloom looked over Trixie's shoulder and smiled. "Actually, I think they're gonna do ya one better…"

The door to the common room burst open, and in scampered a tiny filly, so bundled up against the cold weather, in clothes far too big for her, that her legs and face were scarcely visible. Only an excited pair of magenta eyes could be seen, peering out from behind her tightly-bundled scarf and hood.

The present-day Trixie's jaw dropped as the filly scurried past her and into the embrace of her younger self. "Big sister!" the tiny filly squealed.

"Oh, is it really you?" the young Trixie breathed, reaching out with a pale pink magic aura to uncover the filly's face. Lowering the little one's hood revealed a wild electric-blue mane—attempts had been made to tame it, but it simply could not be done.

"Vinyl," the adult Trixie wailed in quiet anguish.

"Oh, Vinyl," her young double cooed. "Look how big you've gotten."

"I'm here to take you home, big sister," little Vinyl Scratch peeped. "Father is waiting for us. I think he'll be very happy to see you. He's so much nicer than he used to be. Come along!"

Trixie laughed and lifted her trunk, levitating it over her head as she trotted out into the halls of the great school, Vinyl hopping along happily at her side. Trixie couldn't stop smiling, nor take her eyes off her little sister as they walked side by side. She was surprised, then, to realize that a stern-faced mare was standing in her path, draped in an elegant purple robe.

"Oh!" Trixie said in alarm. "Ms. Harshwhinny…"

"Yes, hello Miss Trixie," the schoolmaster said in a clipped tone. "It has come to my attention that you'll be leaving this fine institution for good."

"Yes, Headmistress," Trixie said meekly.

"Marvelous," she said briskly. "You're an exceptional student, Miss Trixie. You immerse yourself fully in your studies, taking no time for friends or other frivolous pursuits. That trait will suit you well in the real world. I've taken the liberty of recommending you as an apprentice to a number of business owners I know in Canterlot."

"Oh my," said Trixie in surprise. "Thank you, ma'am, for taking the trouble…"

"Oh, no trouble at all," said Ms. Harshwhinny. "The world needs more ponies like you and I. Your attitude will take you far in life."

"…Thank you," Trixie said quietly.

"Off with you, then. Enjoy your brief holiday. I daresay it will be only a matter of days before you are contacted for apprenticeship."

The adult Trixie and Nightmare Moon watched the teenaged filly and her little sister walk off into the distance.

"Sometimes, I wish Ms. Harshwhinny had never made those recommendations," Trixie remarked. "I thought at the time that this day would mean a reconciliation with our father, a chance to see my sister every day. It was not so. After a few short days, I was apprenticed, and since then, I've never left Canterlot. I never saw Vinyl again."

"Indeed," Nightmare Moon whispered. "You never got to see her grow into a mare. Though I do believe she managed to bear foals before her untimely death, correct?"

"Just one foal," Trixie corrected. "My niece, Cadance, is all that remains of my sister."

"Your niece," Nightmare Moon repeated. "Your sister's daughter, your one and only remnant of your family. The one whom you invited to go to hell."

Trixie flinched. At that very moment, her younger self was fading from sight, and in a moment, the school hall had been replaced by the snowy streets of Canterlot. It was dark, but Hearth's Warming Eve lanterns were set up everywhere, bathing the street in red and gold light.

Nightmare Moon led Trixie to a warehouse, one which was normally very plain and nondescript but this evening was covered in an almost absurd amount of tinsel, wreaths, and ornaments, placed in a gleefully haphazard array.

"Do you know this place?" Nightmare Moon inquired.

Trixie laughed. "Ah, this is where I was apprenticed. Oh, what good times await me beyond this door?"

Ghostlike, she walked right through the closed door, and into the expansive warehouse within, Nightmare Moon watching her carefully.

All over the warehouse, boxes of goods were being transported in and out on the backs of strong earth pony stallions, while pegasi flew back and forth carrying smaller parcels, aided by unicorns wrapping packages with their magic.

One pegasus in particular, a young mare, was flying around the factory at breathtaking speed, covering twice as much ground as any of the other workers, leaving a rainbow-colored trail behind her everywhere she went.

"Could that be…?" Trixie laughed. "It is! It's Rainbow Dash. Oh, what a character she was! And she worshipped me."

Rainbow stopped to hover over one of the unicorn workers, a blue mare with a silvery mane.

"Oh my," Trixie said gleefully. "I don't recall Rainbow Dash looking so young, let me… ha!"

Trixie looked into her other self's youthful face, examining it carefully and chuckling lightly as she touched the lines on her own face. "Well, hello, beautiful. Aren't you a cherry bomb? You feel so grown-up, don't you? Ah, but you're still just a child…"

The warehouse went still and quiet all of a sudden as a door opened. Two stern-faced pegasi walked in, and between them stood a third pegasus, older and sinisterly hunched, her face hidden in shadow.

"Greetings, employees," this pegasus said coldly. "Tonight, as I'm sure you're aware, is Hearth's Warming Eve. You may think this means you get a short break from your back-breaking labor; well, you're wrong. All you get is… THE NIGHT OFF!"

She stepped out into the open, revealing a widely smiling face and a pair of golden eyes which were skewed in two different directions.

"You get the night off! And you get the night off!" she shouted, waving her arms around wildly. "Everypony gets the night oooooooooff! Those of you with homes to go to—go! Run! Don't lose a single second with your loved ones! The rest of you, prepare yourselves for the finest Hearth's Warming celebration in all of Canterlot! Trixie, Rainbow Dash—clear up all this warehousey stuff and start setting up the PARTY!"

"You bet, Miss Derpy!" said Rainbow, hovering up into the air and saluting. She and the young Trixie darted off in different directions.

The present-day Trixie laughed out loud. "Well, if it isn't old Miss Derpy, back from the dead. This was one of the finest evenings of my life."

Nightmare Moon gave her a sinister, fanged smile. "Well, I'm glad you're enjoying it."

The boxes were piled up in the back alley, and in their stead, Rainbow hung strings of lights around the warehouse's rafters and support beams, while Trixie magically set up all the holiday trees and their ornaments.

The two pegasi who had been flanking Derpy opened the warehouse doors wide, and over the course of the next hour, as Rainbow and Trixie swept and then mopped the floors, ponies started filing in, ponies of all sorts and all ages, from all walks of life.

A band was set up, consisting of a piano, harp, and sousaphone, and the center of the warehouse was roped off into a dance floor, though it remained empty as ponies instead lingered around the edges of the huge room, socializing and gathering food from the buffet table, enjoying cakes and pies and great frothy tankards of beer.

Derpy flittered around the party, deceptively spry for her age, swooping down on a very tall and thin white unicorn. "Hellooooo, Miss Fleur!" she said wildly, hitting the floor and skidding past her target.

"My greetings, Miss Derpy," the beautiful mare replied, draping her body across a blond stallion with a mustache and goatee. "I received your package. Right on time, as usual. Your service is masterful."

"Aw, shucks, thank you," said Derpy, blushing red. "Say, have you met my husband?" She scooped a plain brown stallion out from the crowd. "Honey, this is Fleur, one of our clients. Fleur, I'd like you to meet my husband, the Doctor."

"The Doctor?" Fleur said with interest. "Doctor—?"

"Don't," Derpy's husband interrupted, amused. "Don't even. It's just 'the Doctor'."

"Ah," said Fleur. "Well, I can certainly understand that. My own companion, after all, is known simply as 'the Dude'."

The Doctor chuckled and held out his hoof to shake. "Well, smashing to meet you. The Dude, is it?"

"Yeah," said the stallion, wrapping one arm around Fleur and shaking the Doctor's hoof with the other. "The Dude, or Duder, His Dudeness, El Duderino, you know, whatever you wanna call me."

Derpy giggled. "How funny. Well, that's enough of this music. Cheese!"

A stallion zipped out of the crowd and appeared at her side as if by magic. He had an orange coat and a wildly curly brown mane, and was dressed in a much-used shirt with a high collar, gray with numerous patches.

"Go up there and get this done right for us!" Derpy instructed.

"You got it, Aunt Derpy!" he chirped, and he zipped over to the stage, waved an arm to silence the band, and stood on his hind legs to properly grasp an accordion he had somehow acquired somewhere between Derpy and the stage. The crowd paused briefly, their attention caught by the cease in the music.

"Hey, everypony!" the young stallion exclaimed loudly. "Would you like to polka?"

On that last word, he launched into a polka interlude, and the rest of the band backed him up. Satisfied and more than a little entertained, the partygoers went back to their meals and conversations, and several of them flocked to the dance floor, including Derpy and the Doctor, who engaged in a very fancy and elaborate dance together, involving deft movement of the hind hooves flailing around seemingly independent of the ponies' bodies, and an elaborate toss, leaving Derpy to swoop and spin in the air before daintily drifting back down into the Doctor's arms like a falling leaf.

Just as the crowd was ready to start applauding the impressive dance, a pegasus mare with a shocking pink-and-green striped mane stepped onto the floor and started breakdancing, spinning on her head and gyrating across the floor. The partygoers whooped and cheered, fired up, as Cheese's polka medley of nostalgically familiar songs continued.

"Trixie!"

The young Trixie managed to tear her eyes away from the handsome singer and turned her head toward Rainbow Dash, who was flying out of the crowd, escorting a familiar, though much younger, sleepy-eyed griffon.

"Trixie, have you met Gilda?" Rainbow said. "An old friend of mine from the Filly Scouts. She works for Prim Hemline."

"Ah, Merry Hearth's Warming Eve to you," Trixie said amiably, extending a hoof.

"You too," the griffon replied, shaking it with her talon.

"So, Prim, eh?" said Trixie, scanning the party for the tall, stern-faced mare. "How do you like working for her?"

"Oh, she's sharp, she's real sharp," Gilda drawled. "Real ruthless and savvy businesspony."

Trixie spotted her; apparently, she had struck a conversation with Fleur and the Dude.

"How about Derpy?" Gilda continued. "She good?"

"Mmm, she's a marvelous employer," Trixie said enthusiastically. "It's like… I can't quite explain, but it's rather like we're not just her staff, we're also her friends. That kind of energy is quite the environment in which to work. She has the power to change the atmosphere of the workplace, and she chooses to make it happy at all times. Wonderful to be here, truly."

The older Trixie, standing a few feet behind them with Nightmare Moon at her side, looked taken aback. "Did I say that?" she demanded.

"So it would appear," Nightmare Moon replied with interest.

Trixie sighed, and the spirit looked down at her.

"Something you'd like to share, Trixie?"

"It's just… I wish I could take this moment to say a few words to Twilight Sparkle and those diamond dog boys," Trixie muttered.

Derpy approached the young Trixie, looking extremely tipsy considering her deft dancing just a few moments earlier. "Trixie, are you trying to butter me up?" she teased, giving her apprentice a tight hug. "That's the thing, you know? No matter how much your business is struggling, no matter how urgently you need to get things done, if nopony likes you, what's even the point of it all? Now, Gilda…"

The old mare turned a single stern eye to Gilda (her other eye remained firmly fixed on the fizzy drink she was holding). "Now, Gilda, your employer and I don't see eye-to-eye on a lot of things, which is why I don't mind telling her she could stand to loosen up a little."

"Oh, I don't know," Gilda said with a smirk. "Sounds like you're not too good at cracking down on actual business around here."

"Well, I could point out that regardless of how much fun we're having, the job gets done," Trixie said slyly.

"It does indeed!" Derpy beamed. "Well said, my girl. Has Prim ever received a late shipment from me?"

Gilda shrugged. "Apparently not."

Derpy melted back into the crowd for some further mingling. The present-day Trixie smiled at her back as she watched her go. "A very powerful figure in my life was old Miss Derpy…"

"And yet I can't help but notice you took your schoolmaster's advice over hers," Nightmare Moon observed.

Trixie flinched, the spirit's remarks having once more hit her far too close to home. "Well, Headmistress Harshwhiny's advice was all I had left after… after…" Her eyes drifted toward the stage.

The polka quickly increased in tempo at that moment, catching the attention of the younger Trixie, who looked up at the stage. The accordionist made eye contact with her… and did not break it even once throughout the next song on the medley.

The polka finished in an explosion of sound and showers of confetti. The moment the last note was played, the curly-haired stallion zipped off the stage and joined Derpy on the dance floor. In short order, the band finished waving and nodding to the cheering party guests and began playing a slow and gentle waltz.

"That was amazing, my boy!" Derpy chirped. "You always make me so proud. Trixie, you remember Cheese Sandwich, don't you?"

"Of course I do," the young apprentice laughed. "Fantastic polka, as always."

"Ah, it was nothing, Miss Trixie," Cheese said modestly. He offered his hoof to her. "So, how about a waltz?"

She smiled. "Not nearly as much fun as a polka, but for you… anything."

In perfect unison, they stepped onto the dance floor, seamlessly blending in with all the other waltzing couples.

Much to Trixie's disappointment, this scene quickly faded, replaced by a moment much later that night, where the few apprentices who had remained behind for the party were settling into their bunks.

"Oh, Rainbow Dash?" said Trixie, lying flat on her back and speaking to the bunk above hers.

Rainbow's upside-down head quickly dipped over the edge of the top bunk. "Yeah, Trix?"

"Thank you so much for introducing me to Gilda. As it turns out, she and I have a lot in common—including a few small business ideas. We might go together in an investment of some sort."

Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Trixie, come on, who cares about business deals you're making with Gilda? Let's talk about you with Miss Derpy's nephew, huh?" She winked and grinned mischievously.

Trixie blushed deeply. "Oh, please, what's to tell? Everypony knows I've always been… fond of Mr. Cheese. What more do you need to know?"

Another apprentice burst out laughing from across the room. "That's right," she said deviously. "While Trixie's going into a new business, Cheese is getting all up in her business. Her lady-business!"

"Stick a sock in it, Lightning Dust!" said Rainbow, wadding up a piece of parchment and tossing it at the other; it bounced off of her head, leaving Lightning Dust unharmed but indignant. "You're just jealous that life is giving Trixie the big piece of the pie."

Trixie laughed. "Things do look like they're going well, Rainbow Dash. Very well indeed."

Nightmare Moon looked up, seemingly at the ceiling. "Really?" she asked. "No, no… we've got time."

"What was that?" the present-day Trixie asked cautiously.

"Not talking to you," Nightmare Moon said casually. The scene dissolved and was once again replaced by another.

It was a small, square park in the middle of the city. The ground was covered in a layer of snow, and more flakes were falling, thick and heavy.

Cheese stood in the center of the park, wearing an impeccably nice suit, black and shiny, beneath his winter coat. Trixie stood at his side, wearing a black dress and a veil that covered her face; she was using her magic to absent-mindedly shred the veil.

"Well…" Cheese was saying, slowly and sadly. "I guess some good came from this particular Hearth's Warming Eve… got you walking around in the light of day for once."

The young Trixie frowned deeply. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, nothing. I just know there are other things you would rather have been doing than coming out to mourn with me."

She glared at him. "Cheese, if you have something to say to me, say it. You know why I work so hard, don't you?" She waved an arm, gesturing to the snowy city. "I have no desire to end up homeless in the wintry streets, to starve to death in a ditch somewhere without even a name for my headstone. Poverty is such a dreadful thing, everypony knows this, so why do we condemn those who try their absolute hardest to avoid it?"

"I don't condemn you," Cheese said quietly. "I think you've just forgotten your intent. You were supposed to be building a life for us. That's why we've been working so hard, but you… you've lost sight of anything else but work. We're gotten to where we needed to be, but you're still going. You're…" He swallowed hard, fearfully. "You're like a maniac. You scare me, Trixie."

Trixie's lip thinned sternly. "I just want us to have a life together. I only thought that the better I could make that life… Well, you know I'm doing it all for you." He didn't respond, and her eyes widened. "You know that, don't you?"

He remained silent and contemplative for a few moments. "No," he admitted. "No, I don't know that."

Trixie stared back at him, struck mute.

"We said we'd get married when we were financially secure," Cheese continued. "And now that we've achieved that, I can see that going after that goal changed what you really want out of life. So… I've gotta do the right thing. I'm gonna go ahead and break off our engagement."

Trixie fumed, appalled. "Did I ask you to break off our engagement?"

Cheese suddenly looked fierce, shooting her a glare with intensity enough to match her own. "You and me. If we had just met, you where you are, and me where I am, would you still want me? Would Trixie the business baroness in her fancy new mansion ever wish to win the affection of poor but happy Cheese Sandwich?"

They continued to simply stare daggers at each other, ignoring the snow stinging their faces.

"Well?" Cheese demanded.

"I'm thinking," Trixie growled through gritted teeth.

Cheese sighed. "If you have to think about it… that's all I need to know. You're not the same mare I proposed to all those Hearth's Warming Eves ago. You want to marry me now because you're obligated to. I'm taking away that obligation. You're off the hook."

"This isn't what I want," Trixie said dangerously.

"Well, I hope you find what you do want," Cheese replied, remaining peaceful and calm. "I just know that I'm not a part of that picture. So… I'm going. Good luck, and goodbye." He turned and started trudging away through the snow, before halting and giving her a sidelong look over his shoulder. "I love you, Trixie."

Seconds later, he was gone. Trixie stared in his direction, still and expressionless, doing nothing but slowly blinking the snow out of her eyes.

The elder Trixie stepped forward to look her younger self in the face, the aged and lined nightgown-clad pony meeting the eye of the youthful mourner who could not see her.

"Why didn't you go after him?" the elder Trixie muttered softly. "Why?" Her lip trembled, and she shut her eyes tight but wasn't able to stop the torrent of tears from escaping. "I hate you," she informed her younger self in a barely-audible rasp. "Oh, how I hate you!"

Oblivious to her future self's agony, the young Trixie hung her head and wandered away. The one who remained continued shaking and quivering with sobs.

"Well!" Nightmare Moon remarked dryly after a few moments. "That's quite a punch to the gut, isn't it? No wonder you hate Hearth's Warming Eve so much. Lost your favorite mentor and her delightful catch of a nephew on the same day. That's got to sting…"

Trixie stared up at the spirit with tired, pained eyes. "D-don't mock me, Nightmare Moon. Please?"

Nightmare Moon stared back at her serenely.

"I… I… I've seen enough," Trixie stammered, swallowing hard. "Can we end this journey now?"

Nightmare Moon's eyes slowly closed, stayed that way for several seconds, then just as slowly opened again. "I think there's one more Hearth's Warming Eve you need to see. One that… could have been yours."

Trixie went pale. "No," she pleaded, as the scene started changing. "No!"

She tried to close her eyes and ignore it, but found she couldn't hold back her morbid curiosity and took a peek. Her eyes opened completely at the confused realization that she was still in the very same park.

Near her was an attractive earth pony mare, cream-colored with a well-kept minty-blue mane, and Nightmare Moon motioned for Trixie to take notice of this pony.

The mare was playing with two little twins: one a pegasus, one a unicorn, but moving as if one mind, zipping in circles around their enthusiastic mother before breaking out in hysterical giggles and rushing off to play in the snow, while the mare looked on with a smile.

"What is this? Who is she?" Trixie asked.

"Just… take careful heed," Nightmare Moon said simply.

Trixie did so, trying to notice some feature of the mare that would clue her in as to why this stranger was the subject of the scene. All she managed to conclude was that the mare was beginning to show signs of age with lines on her face very much like Trixie's own, but less pronounced.

Trixie managed to piece the answer together a few moments later as a taxicarriage pulled up to the park and its passenger stepped out, looking for all the world like the happiest pony on earth, and giving himself all the fanfare of a debutante. It was Cheese, his clothes as used and faded as ever, and with a face to match, handsomely marked with laugh lines and crow's feet.

"DADDY!" the twin foals shrieked, taking huge flying leaps at him and grasping him around the neck.

"Whoa-ho-ho!" he laughed, nuzzling them with his face. "Where'd you little pests come from?"

"Pound Cake, Pumpkin Cake, don't jump on Daddy," the cream-colored mare said gently.

"Or do," Cheese said mischievously, "because Daddy brought Hearth's Warming Eve presents for you!" Seemingly from nowhere, he produced two wrapped presents, and the two babies snatched them and zipped back into the park, yelling "WHEEEEEE!"

With surprisingly-developed wing speed and magic, they tore open their presents and began playing. Pound Cake's toy was a fantastic mythical flying machine made of wood, complete with propellers that spun when the toy was pushed through the air; Pound quickly began flying all over the park with the machine held over his head. Pumpkin Cake had received a plush doll of a white-furred, blond-maned unicorn princess, and hugged it tightly, rocking it back and forth.

Cheese let out a laugh at the children's joy. "Hey there, Coco," he finally said to his wife, giving her a kiss.

"Mmm," she replied sweetly. "Merry Hearth's Warming Eve, sweetheart."

The two of them walked along the edges of the park, keeping an eye on their children as they frolicked with other little foals in the park.

"Darling, you'll never guess who I ran into today," Coco said conversationally.

Cheese thought for a moment. "You're probably right," he finally said. "Why don't you just tell me?"

Coco giggled, then looked nervous, and spoke carefully. "It… it was your old friend, Trixie."

Cheese was silent and expressionless for a long moment. "Yeah?" he finally said. "How's she doing?"

"Mm, she's seen better days," Coco said grimly. "Her business partner has fallen terribly ill, so I hear. She may be on her deathbed this very night."

"Oh," Cheese said sadly. "Poor Gilda… poor Trixie. I don't know if she still knows anypony else from our old lives… or anypony at all. Gilda was all she had." He hung his head. "She must be so alone."

"Darling…" said Coco, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. "I know you still carry feelings of guilt, but… she isn't your responsibility."

Cheese solemnly raised his head upright once again. "No," he agreed gravely. "No, she isn't. She's independent enough that she can seek her own happiness… or not."

The scene faded away into darkness. Nightmare Moon and Trixie were now nowhere at all, just two strangely well-lit figures in a void of blackness and falling snow.

"I want to go home, Nightmare Moon," Trixie said shakily.

Nightmare Moon smirked. "Can you go home again after all you've seen?"

Trixie let out a sobbing gasp. "Why have you done this to me? What is the gain?"

"Why have I?" Nightmare Moon demanded, her eyes flaring angrily with white light and energy surging from her flowing, shapeless mane. "All I've shown you are scenes from your life, things which have already passed, exactly as they really happened. Do… not… blame… me." She leaned forward and lightning flashed, revealing that they were standing not in nothingness but among a sea of swirling, rolling clouds.

"Torment me no longer!" Trixie cried desperately, blasting Nightmare Moon in the chest with a beam of magic.

Nightmare Moon glanced interestedly at the scorch mark on her breastplate. "You know," she said wryly, "if you're going to keep doing that to every spirit you come across, it's going to be a very long night for you."

Her fanged mouth opened wide as if to swallow Trixie's head whole.

Abruptly, Trixie woke up in her bed, surrounded on all sides by her bed-curtains, completely blocking her from perceiving anything outside that small space. As she lie there flat on her back, breathing heavily and drenched in sweat, she heard a clock chime to mark a quarter past the hour.

"A dream…" she said frantically. "Of course. It was all a dream."

In moments, she had fallen back to sleep, not conscious of the deep rumbling laughter echoing just outside.

Author's Note:

Yep, really went crazy in my efforts to put every single character in the series into the story. Started with established Christmas Carol characters, and then, well, did a lot of sprinkling and scattering from there. I'd originally intended Apple Bloom to be greeted by Applejack, Big Mac, Granny, and Winona, until I realized it would be odd to keep that family together after all the randomly-constructed families I'd put together everywhere else, so those four can be found elsewhere.

I'm almost sorry that I made Vinyl talk. I don't know if anyone had ever thought of "silent Vinyl" before that became her canon portrayal, but now it's hard to imagine her any other way. On a similar subject... who would ever have guessed that the Doctor and the Dude would actually interact? Crazy.

Cheese's performance was meant to emulate the polka medleys that Weird Al includes on all of his albums, this one made up of some of my favorite songs from the 50s and 60s. The fanfiction.net version originally included the lyrics, but real song lyrics are against the guidelines around here. Of course, they're also against the guidelines on Fanfiction, but, pfft, like that's ever been enforced there. Around here I get the feeling that the guidelines are more like actual rules, so I cut the lyrics, and it looks like the story still works without them. Well, mostly.