//------------------------------//
// A Yuletide Break 
// Story: Book 1: A New Element of Friendship 
// by Medley of MLP 
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A New Element of Friendship



A Yuletide Break


        It was a perfect day that day. The snow outside my home looked pristine and twinkled a bit in the sunlight. I was comfortably lying in my bed, enjoying the warmth within my blankets and smiled a bit at the memories of the adventures I had with the other 6 mares. This was somewhat rudely interrupted by Pinkie barreling through the door and jumped on my bed repeatedly, excited.

        “Come on, come on, come on Med! It’s Hearth's Warming Day! Which means Hearth's Warming party and treats and presents and lotsa other Hearth's Warming goodness!” Pinkie screamed in joy before taking a hoof and sped off towards Sugarcube Corner, somehow going IN BETWEEN buildings as to not disturb the snow.

        We had finally arrived in Sugarcube Corner, with Pinkie vibrating slightly in pure excitement as I was trying to fight a woozy feeling and a pounding headache at trying to figure out how in Tartarus Pinkie got us here both so fast and not going outside that wasn’t magical teleportation. Eventually, I just shunted it to the back of my mind and smiled happily, greeting with everyone at the Hearth's Warming party Pinkie had thrown.

        I could see right away that the mares in question earlier this morning were here, bright-eyed and as happy as I was. Spike was close to Twilight, looking longingly at Rarity and looking a bit nervous. Most likely he was worried over Rarity liking his gift, straight out of puppy-love crush cliche number… 7? But I soon moved on, seeing in surprise that other than the rest of the Apple family, Zecora, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Trixie, it was practically just us Mane 7 plus Spike. Nevertheless, it still felt like all of Ponyville was crammed into this small little shop, which only showed off Pinkie’s extraordinary skills in party making.

        “Happy Hearth's Warming Day, Medley!” Everyone happily called out to me, smiling happily as I gave a wide smile in return, putting my presents to everyone underneath the tree.

        I have to say, shopping for everyone this year was really hard, especially since I just went shopping for them recently. Not out of malice or laziness mind you, rather forgetfulness and lacking the grasp of the deadline. Luckily, I found everyone something they could all enjoy. Apparently I was also the last to arrive, if Pinkie ushering us towards the tree was anything to go by.

        “Now, we get to open our presents and have a delicious Hearth's Warming feast with lots and lots of cake and ice cream and apple cider and-” Pinkie rambled on a bit before she was politely cut off by Twilight.

        “Now, let’s start with the stallions here first, as it’s only fair. We’ll also go by youngest to oldest first, so Spike gets to open his presents first. Then Medley and then finally Big Mac. Then it’ll be us mares from youngest to oldest. Now, let’s see here… is anypony younger or exactly 19 years old? Other than the fillies, of course,” Twilight asked.

        “Tri- I- would be 19 myself. When is your birthday? Mine is September 12th,” Trixie challenged Twilight.

        “Oh really? Mine is October 12,” Twilight grinned back at Trixie.

        “Huh… that’s my birthday too. I’m just a bit older,” I commented off-hoovedly.

        “Really? Huh… odd,” Twilight stared at me for a second before shaking her head and refocusing, though she was blushing very lightly. “So it seems the order will be Applebloom, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, me, Trixie, Pinkie, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, Zecora, and then to end off things will be Granny Smith.”

        Everyone nodded and we went right into our presents with great haste and exuberance. For time and convenience's sake, I shall not list what everypony got in said order of things. However, since I have horrific memory, I will put down at least what I got for the others and what I got in return from everypony. Let’s see here... 

        I got Spike a personalized saxophone, Big Mac a new set of tools for his tool box, the CMC, which is the Cutie Mark Crusaders (headed by Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo and Applebloom), all a one-time pass for any quiz or exam they wished, with a guaranteed A, so long as it wasn’t the final exam, Twilight a musical planner since she was interested in the idea of becoming a singer herself and wanted something to keep track in, Trixie a new design for her firework show during her performances, Pinkie a complete kit of prank items, minus the fake knives, Dash a nice pair of shades that both kept your vision in full color while also keeping the sun out of your eyes, Fluttershy a flute that hoots like an owl when played, Rarity a set of gold beaded bracelets (they were cheaper than I thought, especially since it was proven to be real gold), AJ a white Stenson to match her own brown one, Zecora the spell used to help “cure” me so that she could tinker with it, and Granny Smith a pot with some sunflower seeds starting to sprout.

        What I got in return was a certificate from Spike to my favorite music shop, a more sturdy bed frame that could be easily assembled from Big Mac, a combined effort from the CMC to create a homemade Christmas card with three unique candy canes, a book on Equestrian musical history (unabridged version) from Twilight, Trixie’s first ever made poster for her new show ‘Trixie The Illusionist’ with a signature at the bottom, a joke book that featured puns from Pinkie, a pair of workout clothes from Dash, a whistle that sounded like a mockingbird when you blew into it from Fluttershy, a new pair of enchanted glasses with emerald inlays on the ends from Rarity, a small basket of golden delicious apples from AJ, a special potion brew to uplift my spirits from Zecora, and a Zap Apple pie from Granny Smith.

        The only thing of note during the process was Pinkie’s gift-giving. Which involved her pulling a present from her mane, putting it underneath the counter, only to grab a completely different present from the exact same spot a minute later. When I went to go see if the present she had earlier was still there, I didn’t find a single thing, except a tag that read ‘Happy Christmas or whatever you crazy ponies celebrate! And thanks for the cherry chimichangas! So delish!~ From: Deadpool!!!’. I instantly put the tag back and just walked away, shaking my head and promising to drown myself in my favorite mixer until I completely forgot that. Though it wasn’t helping right now, as I kept on thinking, How? Why? When? Why? Can it be? WHY?!, over and over.

        Once all the presents had been unwrapped, Pinkie’s and Granny Smith’s smiles were wide as a banana when they shooed us into the dining area, showing the veritable buffet of food they had on the tables. There were mounds of mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, peas, roses, dandelions, posies, noodles, and that was just the dinner options. The rest of the dining area was completely stocked with almost every kind of apple dessert imaginable and an equal amount of other sweets and goodies, nearly covering up the dinner foods. Whatever little space was left was filled with many varieties of soda’s for the foals and Spike and alcoholic mixers for the grown-ups

        “Git on up there, everypony! Soup’s on!” Granny Smith called out, letting us storm the tables with unbridled glee and happiness.

        It was practically chaos during dinner. Dash kept on hitting the hard apple cider, getting steadily drunk in the process as she steadily devoured an entire apple pie and cherry pie. Fluttershy was like a ninja, taking a little bit of everything, but remained far away from any sort of liquor or alcohol and kept Dash in line as best she could. AJ tore her way through all the apple options, including a basket of apples that she had brought herself to the party while taking the alcohol in moderation (until she and Dash had a drinking competition), Rarity slowly but methodically made her way through an entire bowl of peppermint chocolate cookies, making sure to only have small sips of alcohol at a time, Pinkie was a whirlwind of sugar and alcohol, making her way through practically everything in her path like a Tasmanian Devil, before passing out in a half an hour due to her body finally responding to the vast amounts of food and drink going through her. Twilight was trying to eat and read at the same time, not even noticing that she was drinking beer while she was eating her way through an entire cake, all the while I was having a blast, munching my way through the flowers and making my delicious mixer of root beer and tequila, which got me a few odd stares from the rest of the girls until they shrugged and went along doing what they were doing.

        Meanwhile, the other adults managed to keep the foals and Spike out of the alcohol and shaking their heads at us with a smile. At least I think they were. Honestly, that was when my vision started to get a bit blurry and my already bad memory just decided to up and leave on me. So, the only ones who could really describe what happened next would be Trixie and Zecora, as those two are the ones I know the most and trust the best. Nothing against the foals, Spike, Big Mac or Granny Smith of course.

Zecora’s P.O.V

        It was quite a sight to see, especially on this full day. For when the alcohol touched them, their true selves began to act and play. Rainbow Dash was less cocky, more emotional, and quite close to Fluttershy. I think perhaps that there are some feeling that have been denied. The same is not quite so for for Twilight and Medley. In fact, they worked together, in perfect harmony. They didn’t yell or cry once they were in each other’s sights. But rather they acted almost normally, but they looked like they’ve seen the light. With touches of hooves (and Medley’s wings), they soon began a song, which everypony, even me, started to sing. It was a song of true friendship, no matter what the course. And I think that taught them all something, in full force. They did not stop at just friendship though, they continued on. They brought in the next level, an unnatural phenomenon. They talked about love, and all that entailed. Though being drunk, their point somewhat failed. But, in a manner unlike I’ve recently seen, they decided to act like a couple of teens. They were right underneath the mistletoe as well, so when they decided to kiss, my heart began to swell. To see such a love in such clear view, it made me wonder if they truly had a clue. Lucky for Medley that he will and won’t read this part. For truly, to be that oblivious, aches at my heart. A Merry Hearth's Warming, a Happy Holiday. It now is time that I must go away.

Back to normal P.O.V.

        Hopefully either Zecora or Trixie adequately explained what had happened afterwards. Now, back on point to where I last remember…

        It was about noon by the time I woke up, my head ringing like church bells were right next to my ears, my head pounding as I tried to take in my surroundings. Everything was still blurry, so it took me a while to recognize some books on a nearby shelf and the fact that it looked I as inside a tree trunk.

        Golden Oaks Library…? How did I…? I tried to think before giving up, trying to shut out any sort of light and tried to go back to sleep. But that was when I recognized that there was another pony in the bed with me. With a purple coat… and unicorn… horn… Please dear LaurFastia, tell me this is just a part of a dream…

        Unfortunately for me then, it wasn’t, as I saw Twilight start to move a little bit in the bed, slowly rising as she groaned in pain.

        “What in Celestia… Ow my head…” Twilight groaned as she blearily looked around, commenting similarly to me, “What the… Home? I thought I was still in Sugarcube Corner…”

        When she turned around to face me, it was deadly silent. We looked at each other for what felt like an eternity. What finally broke the silence was us in unison screaming at the top of our lungs before rolling out of the bed and landing on the floor, soon going from a scream of surprise to one of hurt.

        “Medley?! What the Tartarus are you doing here?!” Twilight screamed at me as I tried to fight off the increasing headache that came with said screaming.

        “I have no damn idea whatsoever. I blacked out and don’t remember a Tartarus damned thing after my 5th mixer,” I gritted out.

        She then began to look green as she rushed off to a nearby toilet. I could hear faint sounds of throwing up as I unsteadily got back up on my hooves. I was somewhat glad my own stomach could handle the alcohol inside me, though cursed the fact that it took so little for me to be drunk off my ass.

        Eventually I saw Twilight stumble back into the room, looking a bit queasy. “What the Tartarus happened then last night? I know at least we might’ve been too drunk to do… other activities. Read it in some scientific book once.”

        “Thank LaurFastia for small blessings then,” I murmured, my head now a dull roar instead of a jackhammer pounding on me. “Shall we go see who else is gonna be like us? I gotta ask somepony who wasn’t drunk and old enough to tell me what exactly happened. And I got a present I was gonna share with just you gals and Spike after the party yesterday.”

        She nodded as she and I went downstairs and poured some coffee. While I don’t often drink coffee, I felt like today of all days it was necessary to at least somewhat quell the headache that came from being drunk.

        Spike came down just after Twilight had a few sips of coffee, grinning at us and giggling a bit, earning him two simultaneous death glares.

        “Soooo… how did you date go last night? I bet it was a doozy!” Spike laughed before paling a bit at our growling, wisely deciding to shut up.

        “As much as I can remember, we didn’t do any kind of dating, nor anything inappropriate. Besides, he’s my friend Spike,” Twilight snipped at Spike.

        Spike nodded, but didn’t look convinced in the slightest. He quickly made us all some breakfast before all three of us headed off to Sugarcube Corner to see if anyone else had arrived.

        Sure enough, the rest of the girls were there, and all of them showed stages of alcohol drinking. Dash looked like she was as wasted as we were, AJ faring not too much better, Pinkie looked more tired than anything, Rarity was in good condition, leaving Fluttershy to be the only sober and completely healthy pony out of all of us. Spike was a baby dragon, so all he had was a small bit of tiredness that came from an apparent sugar high last night.

        “Hey y’all… Ow… mah head hurts worse than a stampede near mah ears…” AJ waved a bit as she nursed something to cure the headache.

        “Gonna agree with you there Applejack… oh sweet LaurFastia my wings ache, and my head is killing me…” Dash complained as she was nursing a similar drink, with two other cups close by them, apparently for me and Twilight.

        “Oh, that reminds me… Zecora stopped by for just a tad to drop off some headache potion for your eventual hangover. I’m quite glad to say that none of you did anything foolish or embarrassing whilst you were drunk,” Rarity smirked a bit as she added, “Zecora also said instead of letting you four face the consequences of a hangover, she felt a bit of pity and said to help her harvest some apparently dangerous ingredients to find.”

        “Thanks Rares… Not today though… later time. Hangover cure,” I spoke simply as I made my way to my cup of potion relief, Twilight following close behind me. Once I had a bit of the potion, I looked over and saw Fluttershy blushing profusely and sticking close to Rarity and Spike.

        Twilight seemed to notice too, as she politely asked Fluttershy, “What happened last night? Did we do something bad?”

        Fluttershy shook her head, but murmured something too low for us to hear. And no matter what we tried, she would not speak any higher. We eventually gave it up as a lost cause, as I would ask Zecora at a later time while I was helping her harvest. I then perked up a bit as I remembered what I was going to give the girls and Spike.

        “Hey everypony. And Spike too. You know my human memories, right?” After a round of confused nods, I went along with my idea, “If I could contact Princess Luna today so that we could all have a connected dream again, I could show all of you, including the princess, one of humanity’s highlights. I had wanted to show you all yesterday after the party, but we got a little… sidetracked.”

        Everyone seemed to look at each other, silently contemplating before they all turned to me and nodded in approval. I smiled as I asked Spike to send a letter to Luna explaining what my idea was and if it would be alright with her to do this for us. A few minutes later, Spike belched out a reply letter, with Luna saying that she would gladly be willing to do this once we all went to sleep tonight and was quite curious as well what I had in mind to show to cheer everypony up.

        It was for the rest of that day we decided to sit quietly in Sugarcube Corner, enjoying each other’s company. Surprisingly enough, even Pinkie was a bit more mellow today, only making small talk with us. Sooner than was thought possible, Celestia was setting the sun as we all yawned. While the rest of us had fully recovered from our hangover after a few hours, we did all feel particularly tired and decided to bunk at Sugarcube Corner and bring our gifts back to our respective homes tomorrow. So off to the spare beds and makeshift beds we went and went off to sleep.

        We all awoke in a featureless dreamscape, with hints of other dreams happening off in the distance. Some were quite personal, some general, a few violent, most were peaceful. There were even some hints of dirty dreams that thankfully Spike couldn’t quite catch. The oddest thing about this landscape though was the red and blue haze as far as one could see normally, and no matter how we tried, we couldn’t see what was exactly in that haze.

        “It is quite the enigma, is it not?” Luna appeared behind us, looking over at the haze and causing us all to jump a bit in surprise.

        “P-Princess Luna!” Twilight yelled as she hastily bowed before her, as did the the rest of us.

        Luna just chuckled a bit and shook her head. “While we do enjoy our royal pleasantries from time to time, all of us are friends here in the world of dreams. I am just it’s protector, not it’s ruler. So do rise, my little ponies.”

        “I do have to say though, your language skills are slowly getting better Luna,” I commented as we all rose, some more unsure than others.

        “We hope that was a compliment, young stallion,” Luna raised an eyebrow at me with a ghost of a smirk.

        I nodded with a grin as she laughed a bit as well. I quickly then told everyone what my present would be.

        “So, I’ve been thinking about something since all of you were last in my mind. While yes you have seen my entire life, you saw the bare basics, cutting out any unnecessary information. What I just thought of while combing through my human memories was a moving picture advertisement that I actually researched a bit more on. But first, some backstory,” I explained as everypony nodded and I continued, “As you saw during your crash course in my human life, humans have had many wars. For me, the three worst wars in my history was the American Civil War because of close ties to my home country, and the two world wars that affected, well, the world. The first World War was not as horrible for us as it was for others, but it still left its impact nonetheless. What I want to show you… is a moment of peace and tranquility within a horrendous war.”

        Everyone looked stunned at what I was proposing and they met together to quickly debate over looking at the memory of what I found. It was short-lived though, as everyone soon broke away and agreed to it, which made me smile a bit.

        “Then let’s do this,” I looked off to the left and saw a door that was labeled ‘WWI Christmas Truce’. This time, I led the group through the doorway… and into the trenches.

        “My word, what a dirty and unclean place!” Rarity held her nose with her hoof as best she could as she tried to block off the stench.

        “This was how World War I was fought: in trenches. It was only the only way to survive and to not get your head blown off by a sniper or your body riddled with holes from a machine gun or even caught and be an easy target on the barbed wire,” I explained with a deadpan expression.

        Everyone looked around and felt nauseated, and I would have to agree with them. The smell of corpses and other unpleasant scents filled the stale air, the dead rats around us showing signs of poison gas being used and the sound of cracking guns could be heard occasionally, even in the blackened night.

        “Why did you bring us to this time specifically Medley?!” Twilight raged at me.

        “Because all this… is about to change. And all it took was one soldier from both sides,” I smiled as I could see the sun begin to rise and light up the whole place, which did little to improve the trenches except where it was safer to step.

        Indeed, not too long after the sun rose up, the troops were waking up from their slumber, the night excellently disguising themselves. Not to mention the mud and dirt they had on them helped them blend in better. They were getting ready and into position for another day, completely ignoring us as I pointed at a nearby calender someone had managed to grab.

        “Today is Christmas Day, a human holiday very similar to Hearth's Warming as you can possibly recall from my own personal human memories. While other Christmas’ were just another day of war, this one is a bit different,” I pointed out as we could hear a commotion, followed quickly by some rapid-fire German.

        It had seemed one of the soldiers had decided to slowly come up and out of the trench, clearly showing that his hands were empty of any kind of weapon. When we also managed to get up and out of the trench, thanks to Luna, we saw that a soldier from the other side was doing the same, his fellow soldiers telling him to get down before he got himself killed.

        By sheer foolishness, bravery and luck, the two soldiers approached each other warily, as both side were starting to trickle out behind them. No weapons were drawn or even brought up, but everyone showed that their hands were free and not hiding anything. It then came to a breaking point, when the two soldiers looked at each other before shaking hands and smiling.

        This caused all tension to break loose, as everybody started to meet with the opposing enemy and treat each other like brothers. Treats were traded, stories were told, and there was even a game of football going on between the two opposing forces. There was no harmful words being flung about, no hostility. If it wasn’t for the battlefield setting, it would’ve looked like an entire city coming together to celebrate this holiday. In other words… Equestria. Specifically, Ponyville.

It soon all came to an end though, as the sky was getting darker. Everyone said their goodbyes, knowing that they would have to fight each other once again. However, before everyone went to sleep, those two soldiers that were brave enough to practically call a truce for that day only, started to sing ‘Silent Night’. Everyone quickly joined in, and all we could hear as we were leaving was the sound of two armies singing in unison with each other, ending on a peaceful note before war reared it’s ugly head once more.

        Once we had exited the memory, everyone was practically stunned, even Luna. However, it was Twilight who broke the silence, asking me a question.

        “Was… was that what truly happened? How could humans be so peaceful one second and yet go right back into murdering one another?” Twilight pleaded as her eyes began to well up a bit.

        I gave another surprise of the night: I hugged Twilight, comforting her as I tried to explain as best I could.

        “To be honest… I have no clue. I think it’s a war within all humans to be the peaceful, civilized being they wish to be versus the beast that wishes nothing but it’s own gain, especially if causes others pain that they once were. Ideals, politics, religion, race, gender, sexuality, income… these are all barriers that humanity has tried to break down, with slowly but steadily increasing results. When I had left Earth, my former country had progressed far enough to give others the freedom of religion, multiple political parties as to not let one group control the power, banning discrimination based on race, using government programs to help the poor, giving clear rights to those sexually different, empowering the hated gender. Now have they all worked? In many cases, yes. However, they still deal with things like sexism, racism and corruption, both of power and money. That doesn’t mean they stopped trying, but rather try and fight back to help those in need of such protections. That’s why I think my former country in particular fought in so many wars: they wanted to have other people of the world be given the same opportunities as they did. Though I do admit some cases were much sketchier than others as to why they did them, but it was the ideal behind it that drove them. In summary… it’s human nature to be paradoxical, but always try and be better than before,” I explained at great length, barely noticing how everyone else was entranced by my speech.

        “We thank you, Medley, for your explanation as to why they were like this. We have not had to deal with this kind of chaotic being for over a thousand moons,” Luna smiled sadly as her horn started to glow and look over at us all, “Our dear sister is about to raise the sun now. We believe it is time for all of you to sleep peacefully in your own dreams. And as for humanity… my royal sister and I can research all that we can on this species and possibly see about sending a diplomatic party, if possible, to your world. Farewell, my fellow ponies.”

        I finish writing here, as now there is nothing left to say of any note. I had a rather dreamless sleep and the day after the dream was nothing much to worry about. I end off here, wishing a Happy Hearth's Warming to everypony and a Merry Christmas to myself. Cheers!