Help! My Heart is Full of Pony! - The Common Pony · 6:59pm Dec 25th, 2020
[Reposted from 2019]
The moral of Hearth's Warming Eve, both the holiday and the episode, is that the working class of every race have more in common with each other than they do with their respective tyrannical leaders.
It was on this very principle that the nation of Equestria was founded. The friendship of Clover the Clever, Smart Cookie, and Private Pansy was, in and of itself, an act of revolution.
As the years go by, the more I think about it, the more powerful and inspiring this message becomes. The more relevant. I'm reminded of a song called "Christmas in the Trenches" by John McCutcheon. As you probably already know, on Christmas Eve of 1914, opposing soldiers laid down their arms and spontaneously came together (against orders) to sing, and drink, and dance, and play soccer, and share in yuletide cheer. It's one of the most beautiful moments in history, (and I've written about it extensively both in these essays of mine, and in fiction). John McCutcheon sang of it, "For the walls they'd kept between us to exact the work of war / had been crumbled and were gone for ever more."
That's what Hearth's Warming is about - not just an excuse to ponify Christmas. It's about the poor realizing for themselves that their leaders are lying to them. It's about rejecting what you've been taught to believe. It's about the common pony rebelling by coming together in friendship.
Let's do that. Let's do that right now.
-Sprocket
Friendship is the greatest magic of all. Let it bring us together in the best of ways!
Happy Hearth's Warming. :)