Friendship is Failure #14: A Hearths Warming Carol

by DakariKingMykan


Act 5: Future's Grim

ACT FIVE

Twilight’s bedroom had completely disappeared. All around her there was an eerie dark fog with seemingly no end in sight, which sent shivers in her back.

“If I didn’t know better, I’d say I’ve gone fully crazy!” she whimpered to herself.

Then, she had that strange feeling that she was not alone…!

Ever so slowly, she turned round, and gasped at the creature she saw. It looked just like Sweetie Belle, but she looked very pale and cross with bloodshot eyes, and she was dressed in a spooky, greyish robe with a large hood that nearly his head face within the shadows.

Nervously, Twilight asked “Are you… the Ghost of Hearths Warming Later?”

The spirit merely nodded once; it did not speak.

“Can’t you talk?” asked Twilight, but the spirit merely placed its spooky sleeve on her back and motioned for her to come along with in. Heeding the spirits non-verbal advice, Twilight complied and followed it deep into the shadowy fog…

The fog began to swirl and warp, and Twilight was brought to a Hearths Warming time, sometime in the future for certain.

The sky was dark with rain, rather than snow as the weather was unseasonably warmer, but Twilight couldn’t actually feel any of it. “Why is it so quiet here?” she asked, but the spirit still said not a word.

Then Twilight heard the sound of baby cry.

That’s when Twilight looked and saw familiar pony pushing a baby carriage, “Rarity?!”

It was her, but she looked much taller, her mane was longer, she was wearing and elegant rain gown she had made herself, and was wearing a diamond necklace exactly like the one Spike had gotten for her.

“Oh, dear…” she cooed as reached into the carriage and picked up what was obviously her child; which was a very unusual creature, it looked like a pony, yet it had pointed ears, a rather long snout, and a few scales shimmering in its coat… almost like a dragon!

“Rarity’s a mother?” Twilight asked in disbelief.

The spirit remained silent as ever.

Then Twilight saw the baby’s father come along-- Spike! He looked much taller, having grown up to Rarity’s height. His wings were bigger and his voice was deeper too.

“Hello, my dears.” he said, and he stroked his baby’s head and kissed his wife tenderly, much to Twilight’s astonishment.

Spike then held out two little gifts; one for his wife, and one for his child. “Happy Hearths Warming, my dears.”

The baby had a brand new rattle, while Rarity got a new golden bracelet, “Oh, Spike… you charmer!” cooed Rarity, and she dipped him back behind the baby carriage, much to Spike’s delight.

He got up from behind the carriage with small lipstick smears on his face, “It wasn’t that hard to afford. Thanks to the big bonuses everyone got from that rather… unpleasant time!”

“Oh… that.” scoffed Rarity “What did you ever see in that pony?”

“I don’t know, but I guess it serves her right for the way things happened. At least it brought us together.”

“And I couldn’t be happier.” agreed Rarity, and the happy family walked off, leaving Twilight confused and baffled. “What are they talking about?” she asked, and the spirit pointed off behind her.

Twilight turned round, and what she saw made her nearly faint, “My Friendship Castle? My School of Friendship!!”

Both buildings were they, but they both looked in bad shape. The colors of the crystal were all faded off; some of the towers had collapsed.

The school had been shut down due to Twilight’s crime. All the parents of the students had grown concerned with their students having Twilight Sparkle-- a monster in their eyes-- teaching their children anymore things about friendship. So the students were pulled out, and the school was foreclosed.

Then, along came Pinkie Pie, and she too had grown a little over the years, and she seemed to be leading a tour group. “And here, is the largest monuments in all of Ponyville; the castle and school of the former Princess of Friendship, who shall remain nameless!”

“Nameless?” gasped Twilight, and she heard the tourists booing and hissing at the sight of the castle.

Fluttershy and Discord were in the tour group as extra chaperones. “I remember all that…” Discord teased, and he used his magic to re-enact what had happened.

Perfect images of Celestia and Twilight were shown, and their actual voices were heard. Twilight could not believe her eyes at what she saw…

Celestia was furious beyond words; for it turned out that Miser Stash was proven innocent of his crimes-- The day after the big blaze-- which was Hearths Warming Day, the remains of his cigar was discovered at the sight of the burned Hearths Warming tree, proving conclusively that Miser didn’t set the tree ablaze, and worse yet… it was proven that the tree was destroyed by unsafe wiring of the electrical lights, due to Twilight’s carelessness.

You can bet, when everyone found out about this, they were infuriated. Because of her, Hearths Warming was ruined that night, and all the presents they had wished to give out were lost, but as if that weren’t bad enough…!

Even though Miser had been clearly proven innocent and would have been released from jail, he had died that Hearths Warming morning; all that stress, anger, sorrow… it wasn’t good for a pony his age, and he suffered a massive heart-attack and died in his cell.

Talk about having loads on her shoulder-- as Twilight was responsible for the decorating of the party, the destruction and chaos was her fault, and Miser’s death as well for blaming him for something that was HER doing.

“It pains me to do this to you, Twilight Sparkle,” Celestia said “But you leave me no choice! You are forthwith stripped of your title as Princess of Friendship!”

Both Twilight’s gasped hard in horror, and Celestia demonstrated her seriousness by using her magic to remove Twilight’s wings, making her a Unicorn once more.

“You are hereby banished from the kingdom of Equestria forever!”

The Twilight image fell to her knees in tears, and Celestia herself had tears of her own, but her decision was final and had to be done for the seriousness and bad examples Twilight had done.

Discord stopped the images, “I guess maybe I miss her a little.”

“So do I…” agreed Fluttershy “But then I think of poor Miser Stash; Even though he wasn’t the friendliest, he was innocent, and then he… he died!”

She trembled with sadness and outrage, Pinkie Pie felt the same.

Both the Friendship Castle and the School was sold off and condemned, but ultimately left up as a permanent landmark to remind everyone of the horridness caused, in hopes that others would learn from this and never repeat the same mistake.

All the items and furniture-- everything inside the castle was sold off after Twilight was banished, and all the money went to those that had their Hearths Warming ruined, and to pay for the damages, which was why everyone seemed much richer now than ever!

“Come on; on with the tour!” Pinkie called, and all the tourists headed off.

Twilight felt very broken hearted and very hurt. It seemed as if the world of Equestria had become much richer without her; like she was some sort of wall holding things back that everyone was glad to be rid of! What was more, she hadn’t seen all of her old friends yet.

“What happened to Starlight Glimmer?” she asked to the spirit, “And Rainbow Dash and Applejack. I must know.”

The spirit then guided her to Miser’s old bank, which now I had a picture of Starlight hanging above it, meaning SHE was now the owner and proprietor of the bank.

Much as she was angry with Twilight; as her former apprentice she had a knack for book-balancing, adding figures, and all that. Plus, the bank needed a new owner since Miser passed, and while Starlight felt it was also partially her fault for dragging Miser to the party, which started the whole incident in the beginning, she felt she owed it this much to herself and to Miser to take care of the bank.

She was now at the top of her game, collecting and handing out loans and donations.

Rainbow Dash and Applejack came along to collect a small withdrawal. “Time to do the annual charity work.” said Rainbow.

Starlight gave the mares a cheque to spend in the market for supplies to get to give out to the poor.

“And don’t forget,” said Starlight “You still have to give supplies, to You-Know-Who.”

The mares looked sour, “Oh, right.” scoffed Applejack “I don’t get what the whole point is. She was banished from here.”

“Maybe…” agreed Starlight “But Miser Stash never turned his back on any pony, and I’m not about to either.”


Twilight felt strangely about this, but she knew fully well whom they were talking about.

She looked up at the spirit, “Is that where we’re going next; to see me?”

The spirit nodded and transported them again… to a far off place beyond the Equestrian borders, to a rocky canyon where it was hot and dry, laden with bones and nothing but rocks and mountain formations for miles

“This is where I live?” Twilight asked.

The spirit only pointed forward, and much to Twilight’s shameful and pending fear, she saw herself, or rather what she would look like in future, and she was a mess! She was all disheveled, from years of living in such a dry place. Her mane was longer, but frizzled and tangled. She wore a tattered, ragged brown robe and was walking along levitating three buckets of rather dirty water she had fetched from a small watering hole for the canyon creatures; her only source of hydration due to lack of rain.

She made it to her home, an unsightly looking cave deep within a ravine. “I’m home…” she called out inside, “I brought the water.”

The Real Twilight wondered who her shadow self was talking to and it turned out that there several boulders around the cave, with cute little faces carved into them.

“I’m talking to a bunch of rocks?!” Twilight cried, then again it made sense, since she had obvious been living alone all this time, with no friends, no pony to talk to, drinking dirty water, and feeding on the fruits and vegetables she grew in a clearing outside; which explained why she seemed so malnourished.

“So, how was everyone’s day?” Shadow Twilight asked to her rock friends. Naturally, there was no verbal answer. She didn’t try to use her magic to turn the rocks into anything better, or even give them some form of life so they could answer.

Obviously, years of living alone in a hot and dry place had changed Twilight for the absolute worst. She had forgotten many of her old spells, and was slowly descending into madness from lack of socialization.


The Real Twilight was starting to tremble in fear, “No, this can’t be real!” she cried, and finally, Rainbow Dash and Applejack had arrived by hot air balloon.

“It’s my friends!” Real Twilight cried, feeling hope was returning, but all Applejack and Rainbow did was drop a couple of small boxes by parachute from the air-balloon.

“Let’s get out of here before I see her.” said Applejack.

“I’m on it.” said Rainbow, and she leapt out of the basket and began to push the balloon along the air to get them both as far from Twilight’s area as fast as she could.

“No! Wait!” Real Twilight called… once again forgetting they couldn’t hear her, and she watched sadly as her old friends vanished into the distance, leaving behind only the falling crates which landed by Shadow Twilight’s cave.

Real Twilight watched her shadow self hastily open the crates, like a curious desert rat, revealing canned foods with pull off tabs, and canteens of fresh drinking water, and a small letter…

“Happy Hearths Warming… and you’re lucky we still do this-- you monster!!”

Shadow Twilight’s eyes filled with tears and she fell on the hot ground, sobbing miserably in her loneliness.

Real Twilight had seen enough, and she was sobbing miserably. “No more!” she begged to the spirit “I can’t stand anymore!”

She finally was beginning to realize the harsh lessons the spirit was trying to show her…

-Actions have consequences-- sometimes all it takes is just one little mistake, and that can change your life forever!

-Friendship may be divine, but even it does not last forever. All friendships can be just easily broken, perhaps beyond repair.

-Sometimes in life, we all must own up to our mistakes!

“I can’t let this happen!” cried Twilight, “I won’t let it happen!”

She turned to face the spirit, “Do you hear me?! I want to go back! I want to make things right again! I won’t let this dark future happen!”

By this time, she was down low, begging the spirit, “This is only a potential future! There’s still time! Please let me go back!”

The spirit remained motionless and didn’t even so much as blink at her.

“Let me go back!

“LET ME GO BACK!!!”

In her fit, Twilight lunged at the spirit…


…and landed with a thud, on the floor of her bedroom.