Snow fell gently upon the city of Vanhoover.
Weather ponies flitted from cloud to cloud, coating the land in a gentle white which brought cheer to the odd filly and colt playing outside. While they played, other ponies shoveled or trudged through the white powder in the hope to reach the stores filled with frantic mares and stallions alike. Others, however, preferred the comforts of indoors.
One such pony who took to the inside was Magic Barrier, who was sampling homemade eggnog.
“Hmm…” Barrier swished his sample around his mouth before giving the brew a swallow. “Could use a some more alcohol…” The stallion’s horn flared as he pulled the ever-trustworthy flask from his nearby saddlebags.
“You know Fleetfeather told you not to!” Verdant shouted out from the living room. “Besides, you know how much Wind Whistler likes this stuff.”
“Fine,” Barrier pouted, putting the flask away and the eggnog back in the fridge.
“And… done!” Verdant happily exclaimed from the living room. “Hey Barrier, could you come check this out?”
“Alright, I’m coming.” Barrier trotted towards the living room where the green pony sat before the fireplace, his tail wagging like a puppy with a new bone. “So what is it you’ve been working on?”
Verdant hopped up and ran to Barrier’s side, pointing at the fireplace mantle. “Ta-dah!”
Above the fireplace was a set of nine socks, each matching the coats and cutie marks of the house’s residents.
“Verdant,” Barrier tilted his head at the sight. “Why did you get a bunch of custom made socks and put nails into the mantle to hang them from?”
“Because I wanted to share with all of you a Hearth’s Warming Tradition that my grandmother started back in Dream Valley a long time ago.” Verdant’s eyes were practically shimmering as he looked to the socks. “You see, it all started when Grandma Minty accidentally broke a magic candy cane into a bunch of crackley little pieces…”
“Verdant,” Barrier cut the younger stallion off by placing a hoof to his lips. “I’m really not interested in a long story. Could you please just skip to the important part?”
Verdant gave the unicorn a flat glare until he eventually sighed and rolled his eyes. “The point is that because of Grandma Minty, every year at Hearth’s Warming, ponies in Dream Valley would set up socks by the fireplace and they would be filled by a magical spirit in a red outfit with small gifts if you were good or lumps of coal if you were bad.”
“Uh-huh,” Barrier’s eyebrow rose slightly. “Man, Dream Valley had some weird traditions.”
“Trust me, Barrier. The spirit in red is real.” Verdant pulled away from the elder stallion, headed for the front door. “At any rate, I promised Candy Cane and Mistletoe that I’d help set up their party tonight. Want to come with? Everyone else is gonna be there.”
“I’m gonna pass on that,” Barrier politely replied, offering the green pony a wave. “I’ve been meaning to catch up on some reading. Still, you and the others all have a great time.”
With a shrug, Verdant took off into the snow, leaving Barrier to with a stack of books on his nightstand.
***
Barrier sat alone in his bed, reading by lamplight on his eighth book of the night. The charcoal stallion chuckled at the passage in his book where a large stallion named Home Run failed to jump over the Galloping Gorge on his son’s skateboard.
The dark unicorn was pulled from his merriment when he heard a thud coming from the living room.
Barrier set his book aside quietly and lifted one of the floorboards, drawing his sword from its hiding spot in a single silent movement.
Slowly, he crept his way towards the source of the noise and was surprised by the strange sight before him.
Standing in front of the fireplace was a strange two legged creature in a bright red outfit with white fuzzy trim. On his strange legs were flared leather boots with golden buckles. His hands were covered in white gloves that were reaching into a large burlap sack from which the creature was taking out small wrapped boxes and putting them into a the socks hanging above the fireplace. Upon his head was a red cap with a white trim that matched his long, fluffy beard.
Barrier crept a bit closer to the stranger, but halted when a chuckle came from him.
“No need to sneak up on me with a sword, Little Barrier,” the stranger laughed as he turned around to face the unicorn. “My, it’s been a long time since you had a Hearth’s Warming. Ho-ho-ho.”
“Identity yourself!” Barrier barked at the being in red, who simply laughed.
“Sorry there, Barrier,” the pudgy creature picked up his sack and slung it over his back. “But I’ve got a lot of other presents to drop off before the night is over. See you next year.” He then smiled at the stallion before raising one of his fingers up to his nose. To Barrier’s surprise, the creature seemed to zip straight up the fireplace in an instant.
“Oh no you don’t!” Barrier growled as his horn ignited. In a flash, the stallion was now on the roof of his manor, where he saw the rotund being was getting into a bright red sleigh with a set of eight reindeer in the reins.
“On Dasher, on Dancer, on Prancer and Vixen! On Comet, on Cupid, on Donner and Blitzen!” the red coated stranger called out as he gave the reins a tug. As the reindeer started to rear back, Barrier ran up to sleigh, jumping into the back where he landed in a sack full of wrapped gifts.
Sticking his head out of the bag, Barrier saw that the reindeer were charging towards the edge of the roof. To his shock, them running from the roof didn’t lead to the group falling to their death, instead seeing them take to the snowy night sky.
“What in the actual fuck?” Barrier whispered as gazed over the edge of the sleigh, where he saw the lights of Vanhoover disappearing far below them.
“Now don’t swear, Barrier,” the creature chided as he waggled his finger at the stallion, as if he were speaking to a small child. “If you keep talking like that, you’ll end up with a lump of coal in your stocking.”
“How about you give me a straight answer,” Barrier grumbled as he pulled himself out of the sack, landing in the sleigh next to the jolly, laughing being. “Who are you? What are you doing?”
“Well, Barrier,” the creature in red patted the charcoal unicorn on the head, much to his aggravation, “I’m Santa Claus and I’m delivering presents to people all across your world by putting them in their stockings.”
“Okay, but why?” Barrier looked at the sleigh-driver incredulously as they soared through the night sky.
“Well, it all started many years ago when a mare named Minty accidentally broke a magical candy cane…”
“Oh, Faust curse it,” Barrier groaned, smacking a hoof to his forehead. He tried to pull his flask from his saddlebags, only to realize he had left them back at the manor.
“Oh, cheer up, Barrier,” Santa patted the stallion on the head once more before reaching over and opening a glove box in front of him. Inside the box was a single large yellow and red candy cane that Santa offered to the pony. “Here, it’s your favorite flavor.”
“Oh, really?” Barrier’s tone was dripping with sarcasm as he brought the sweet up to his face and gave it a quick lick. “There’s no way you could have candy… taste… like…”
“Pasta with a light marinara sauce?” Santa chuckled, making his large belly shake like a bowl full of gelatin. “You’d be surprised what holiday magic can do.”
“Right,” Barrier said dismissively as he saw a city coming up in the distance. From the look of the towers, he could see it was clearly Canterlot. “At any rate, could you either turn this around or just drop me off somewhere in Canterlot so I can ride a train home?”
“Hmm…” the bearded being rubbed a hand along his hairy chin. “How about this? You help me with my deliveries tonight, I’ll not only drop you off back home, but I’ll also give you a very special present for your troubles.”
“I think I’m gonna pass on that, Santa.” Barrier leaned back against the sleigh’s side. “It would probably be quicker to walk than ride with you.”
“Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho!” the red-clad being gave out a hard laugh that even the reindeer snickered along with. “I’m afraid it won’t, Barrier. You see, time is stopped for most of this world while I’m making deliveries.”
“...Come again?” Barrier’s eyebrow shot up as he closely examined the red clothed being.
“Just look down and take a look around,” Santa said as he pointed down at the city below.
Barrier looked over the sleigh’s side and took in the sight of Canterlot below. Very few ponies were out at the time, but what did see caught his attention. There were a group of ponies and griffins that were standing in front of a house, holding carol book and standing statue still. What was even more surprising to Barrier was there was a pegasus mare in the middle of the air, her wings as still as stone while she hung several feet above the ground.
“If time’s frozen,” Barrier pulled himself back into the sleigh, still unsure of what he had seen. “Then how come I was able to tag along with you?”
“Well that’s simple, my boy,” Santa chuckled as they circled around the palace, looking for a good landing spot. “Time flows for whoever’s house I’m visiting once I land on it. Otherwise, the world’s frozen in time.”
“I see…” Barrier gazed down once more, seeing that they were about to land on the highest point of the palace.
The sleigh and reindeer smoothly landed on the tower’s top. Once they had halted, Santa hopped onto the roof and grabbed the bag of gifts.
“At any rate, if you give me a hoof, my deliveries will go faster and we’ll be back in Vanhoover sooner,” the jolly man in red said and he made his way over to a narrow chimney that was sticking out. “Well, are you coming along?”
“Might as well,” Barrier sighed as he hopped out, following Santa over to the chimney. “So, how are we getting in?”
“Holiday magic can do all sorts of things, Barrier,” Santa smiled to the unicorn. “For example, it can let us do this!” He jumped up and the chimney somehow squeezed the plump person and his great big bag down.
“And here I am without my flask,” the charcoal unicorn sighed as his hooves touched the chimney’s edge which seemed to widen to allow Barrier down. In a matter a moments, he landed in a large bedroom that was illuminated solely by moonlight.
There were only two issues for him when he landed. The first was that he landed face first on the floor. The second was the horrible noise coming from the room.
At first, he assumed it was the sound of a large cat choking to death on something. Looking up, he saw the cacophony was coming from the slumbering form of Princess Celestia snoring up a storm.
“Sweet Faust…” Barrier whispered as he straightened himself up.
“Bare in mind,” Santa leaned closely to the stallion. “This is better than I’ve heard from her in years.”
“Yikes.” Barrier shook his head at his words. “So, what do we do?”
“You just need to reach into the bag and it’ll give you the gift we need to leave,” Santa quietly answered as he reached into the sack and pulled out a box covered in white wrapping paper topped by a golden ribbon. “After that, you just put it in the stocking like—”
The pair were silenced by the princess’s door creaking open. The two looked to the source of the noise, where they saw the princess of the night staring at the pair of them.
“Our apologies,” Luna whispered as she crept into the room. “We simply wished to check on Our sister while returning from a lavatory visit.”
“Ah, it’s been far too long, Luna,” Santa smiled and leaned down to the midnight blue alicorn, pulling her into a tight hug. “How are you doing?”
“We…” Luna paused, nervously biting her lip. “It has been an eventful few months.”
“It certainly has, little girl.” the bearded being pulled away from the hug before giving her a pat on her head. “Now, it would probably be best for you to head back to take care of night court.”
“Indeed,” Luna gave him a bow before nodding towards the stallion with him. “We wish thee a good night, Barrier.”
“And I you, Princess Luna,” Barrier whispered as he gave her a half-bow before the alicorn made her way to the door.
“Oh! Before you go,” Santa said as he reached into his sack once more, pulling out a black and white candy cane and tossing it to Luna, who deftly caught it in her mouth.
“Thhnk ku!” Luna muttered through the mouthful of truffle and cream flavored candy as she made her way out the door. “Hahy Hawermin an airy krusmus!”
“The same to you, Luna,” Santa Claus chuckled before looking over to Barrier. “So, shall we continue?”
“On it,” Barrier muttered as he reached into the sack with his magic and pulling out a collection of small gift boxes and dumping them into the long white and gold-trimmed stocking hanging by the fireplace. “So, will I have to teleport back to the roof every time we do this?”
“Ho-ho-ho, no.” Santa chuckled as he slung the bag over his shoulder. “You just put your hoof beside your nose like this.” The mysterious creature did so an instant before he was seemingly sucked up the chimney.
“Saves some effort on my part,” Barrier whispered as he brought his hoof up and found himself being pulled into the fireplace and sent up the chimney like a rocket. The chimney launched him up into the air before landing him flank first next to Santa.
“Alright, time for Luna’s presents, followed by the staff and the ponies in the barracks.”
Barrier sighed as he stretched against the sleigh’s back. “This is gonna be a long night.”
***
Barrier groaned in exhaustion as he pulled himself from the sleigh, falling face first into the snow.
Sweet Faust’s flank, I don’t think the night lasted this long when Nightmare Moon was controlling it!
The journey was incredibly long for Barrier and Santa as they traversed the whole world, delivering gifts to ponies, griffins, zebras, dragons and all sorts of other species.
The trip had been educational for Barrier to say the least. He had seen creatures he had never even heard of before such as these strange bug-like ponies and kirin. He also learned about some of the things that Santa’s holiday magic could do, like take them to the bottom of the ocean or that his chimney trick also works on a dragon’s esophagus and nostrils.
Barrier shuddered from both the memory and the cold as the being in red picked him up under one arm. The stallion was too tired to struggle out of Santa’s grip as he took them down his house’s chimney.
“You did a very good job as my helper tonight, Barrier,” Santa said softly as he silently moved through the house, taking the unicorn into his bedroom. “I’ll make sure you’ll have an extra special present this year.”
“Fhtagn…” Barrier muttered as Santa gently placed him on the bed and tucked him in like a small foal.
“Good night, Barrier.” Santa patted Barrier on the head and started to walk away. “Have a Happy Hearth’s Warming.”
Moments after leaving, the stallion had heard the sounds of bells jingling as his eyelids finally became too heavy and he drifted off.
***
“Wakeupwakeupwakeupwakeup!”
Barrier groaned as he rose from the bed, seeing an enthusiastic Wind Whistler hopping up and down on him.
“Come on, it’s already seven o’clock!” The filly whined, tucking her legs in as she plopped onto the bed.
Barrier forced himself to sit up and rub the sleep from his eyes. Flash and Fleet had six of these… friggin’ masochists.
“Hurry up, you two!” Windy stopped bouncing on Barrier and landed on Daring, knocking the air from her lungs. “Verdant was right about the spirit thing! The socks are full of presents!”
“Just give us a sec, kiddo,” Daring wheezed as the filly bolted from the room. “Urgh… I think my kidneys are pancakes now.”
“Still not as good as mine,” Barrier chuckled as he rolled out of bed, dodging a pillow the pegasus lobbed at him.
When the pair arrived in the living room, they saw the rest of their housemates were happily chatting amongst themselves, either giving one another gifts or pulling presents from the socks.
“Hey Barrier!” Verdant called as he drew near. “Your sock is waiting for you! I can’t wait to see what you got from the spirit!”
“Just hold on,” Barrier yawned as he reached the hearth, where indeed the black sock with his cutie mark emblazoned on it seemed rather full.
Barrier’s horn lit up and he pulled the stocking down. Looking inside, he found a few sweets, a book that’s cover depicted Grimhilde slipping on a banana peel and slamming into a lamppost, a Hearth’s Warming card and a shiny golden flask. Etched into the flask was Barrier’s cutie mark surrounded by holly.
“Alright, these are all pretty nice gifts, you guys,” Barrier smiled as he pulled the flask from his telekinetic grip and into his hoof. “Now, which of you got them?”
The assembled housemates looked at one another in total confusion.
“Barrier, none of us did,” Fleetfeather said, pointing behind Barrier. He looked where she was pointing, seeing a pile of boxes covered in gift wrap. “All the presents we bought are over there.”
“Then where did all the stuff in the socks come from?” Barrier’s eyebrow rose.
“It’s just like Grandma Minty said,” Verdant spoke up. “Since we were all good, the spirit brought us all presents.”
“Well since nopony’s speaking up,” Barrier lit his horn, teleporting into the kitchen. “I’m gonna fill this puppy up.”
“Oh, that reminds me!” Hat Trick excitedly said from the living room. “It’s not Hearth’s Warming until we have some eggnog!”
As he levitated a bottle of liquor from the kitchen cupboard, Barrier opened up his card. He was rather surprised by the message within.
Dear Magic Barrier,
Thank you very much for helping me with my deliveries last night.
I hope you enjoy your present. It’s an enchanted flask that will never run out of scotch.
I hope you have a very happy Hearth’s Warming Eve.
~ Santa Claus
Never runs out of scotch? Barrier chuckled as he opened the flask and tipped it over the sink, which quickly started to fill up with scotch.
Barrier was shocked to see the small flask had managed to completely fill the bottom of the sink, far more than the eight-ounce can should have been capable of.
“Heh,” Barrier chuckled as Hatty made his way into the kitchen. “Holiday magic.”
A loud boom came from behind Barrier, prompting him to swiftly pivot around. Almost immediately his eyes had found Hat Trick, lying on his back and covered in knotted ropes. Within the fridge beside the eggnog was what looked like a bright blue cannon with pink wheels.
“What in the…” Barrier muttered to himself as the other housemates rushed in to check on the purple pegasus. For reasons he could not explain, Barrier felt he needed to look at the card once more, where he found more writing from the mysterious spirit.
P.S.
Pinkie Pie put her “Knot-Cannon” in your refrigerator.
She said it had something to do with continuity and whatnot.
I learned not to question things when it comes to her a long time ago.
Just wanted to give you a little heads up.
“Well, everypony,” Barrier chuckled as his horn lit up, pulling the collection of ropes off of Hatty. “Who’s ready to celebrate Hearth’s Warming?”
The assembled ponies all cheered and celebrated the holiday from early in the morning to late into the night.
For them, it truly was the most wonderful time of the year.