Snow fell softly and silently across the hills surrounding Ponyville, layer upon layer coming to bed on the waiting ground. The early evening sun, though beginning to set, still beamed across the earth, reflecting off the settled snow to illuminate the valleys and the hills. Innumerable snowflakes, arcing through the frigid air, flashed across one’s vision for an instant before joining their brethren below. All was silent, save for the wind rustling through the snow-dressed trees, and the occasional calls of birds.
Gallus had grown up with the cold in Griffonstone, but that didn’t make it any easier to endure. He groaned and huffed, his exhalation freezing and lingering for a moment as a cloud, before dissipating just as quickly. He was cold, he was wet and uncomfortable, and he was so fluffed up that he looked like a feather duster, and it still wasn’t keeping him warm. Frankly, he wished he could go back to the school and have nothing to do but sit in front of the fire for the rest of the night with his friends. But it was precisely for his friends that he was out here, trudging through the snow.
*****
“Ponies have so many decorations,” muttered Yona, looking in awe at the half-dressed dorm and the second box they’d still yet to open.
“You said it,” agreed Smolder. “There’s the tree, the tinsel, the baubles, the star... thingies. I like a bit of decoration as much as the next dragon, but don’t you wonder if it’s a bit much?”
“I like it,” Ocellus said quietly. “We try and decorate at the Hive, but it’s nothing like this.”
“But we’re just going to have to take it all down again. We’re creating more work for ourselves,” Smolder objected.
“But all work is fun when you’re doing it with friends, right?” Gallus said. The others just looked at him. “I-I mean, it’s not like you’d rather be back home right now, is it?” He hated how nervous he sounded, but the truth was that he’d been a little insecure after his stunt last year – almost ruining Hearth’s Warming and keeping them all kept back against their will. His friends had agreed to stay with him last year, and now they were doing it again, so he wanted to make sure they were having the best time ever.
“I mean... you guys make it a bit better, but work is still work,” said Smolder.
“Well, Silverstream looks like she’s having fun,” Gallus said. She was grinning like an idiot at every new ornament that came out of the box.
“That’s tinsel? Wow, I never realised it would be so... fluffy!” She picked up a glass bauble with a little glass tree inside. “And how did they get that in there? This is amazing!”
“If only we could all enjoy this as much as you,” said Smolder.
“Lighten up and you’ll enjoy it,” said Sandbar. “Decorating the house was always one of my favourite things about Hearth’s Warming as a colt, because it was something fun we could do together as a family. And now, it’s something we can do as friends.”
Smolder rolled her eyes. “I guess spending time with you guys is marginally better than spending it back in the Dragon Lands.”
“That’s the spirit!” said Gallus, perhaps with a little forced joviality.
“And we can’t go back home anyway, or you might try and burn the school down or something like last year.” Gallus faltered as she spoke, and though he hoped they couldn’t see it through his feathers, blushed heavily. “Hey, relax,” she said, “I was just kidding.”
“Yeah, I-I know that,” he said. Although she couldn’t know it, he was still quite embarrassed about how he’d acted last Hearth’s Warming. He’d kind of hoped that they’d forgotten.
“There is a lot of stuff here,” Ocellus said, saving him. “Do ponies always have this many decorations?”
“Yeah, I guess we like to go big. Even when I was a colt, I remember us having just as much stuff.” Sandbar let out a little chuckle. “Although back then, a lot of the decorations were things we’d made ourselves, either with our parents or at school.”
“Really?” asked Ocellus.
“Yeah,” he continued. “Every piece had its own story behind it. A lot of this stuff is pretty, but we don’t have anything like that here.”
“Silverstream doesn’t seem to mind,” said Smolder.
She didn’t; she was still busy rummaging through the second box. “I think all of this is awesome; Hearth’s Warming is my favourite time of year! We don’t have anything like this back on Mount Aris!” She pulled another glass ornament out of the box and held it aloft in front of her face. “Like, what’s this? A letter J? That’s crazy! What does it even stand for? Joy? Jackal? Journalism?”
“Why would it be ‘journalism’?” asked Smolder.
“You’re questioning that over ‘jackal’?” Gallus said.
“It’s a candy cane, Silverstream, not a J. You’re just holding it upside-down,” said Sandbar, helpfully.
Silverstream turned the candy cane over in her claws and suddenly looked at it with all new wonder and amazement. “Oh my gosh, it’s a J and a candy cane! This is the most amazing thing ever!”
Ocellus shook her head and turned back to Sandbar. “What sort of things would you make?” she asked.
“Well,” he said, “there was one tradition I always loved. Every year, me and my family would go out into the woods and collect up holly and bits of mistletoe, and we’d make wreaths. And because they wouldn’t last the year, every Hearth’s Warming we’d have to make new ones. And they’d have berries in them, and all different leaves, and every one would be unique.”
“That’s really sweet!” Ocellus said.
“Yeah... I used to love that. Eventually, though, we just sort of stopped doing it. I don’t know why. I guess I just got too old.”
“That’s a shame; it sounds like a lovely tradition.”
“Yeah, it was.”
“That sounds so awesome!” Silverstream almost shouted. “The only thing better than putting up decorations would be putting up decorations you’ve made yourself!”
“Oh no,” said Smolder, “I can see where this is going. It’s freezing; we’re not going out holly-hunting.”
“Do dragons even feel the cold?” Gallus asked.
“We feel it enough to know not to go out when there’s a foot of snow on the ground.”
“Well, it’s just an old tradition we used to do. There’s no reason we have to do it now,” said Sandbar. “It is a bit cold.”
“Yak isn’t scared of the snow!” Yona shouted.
“Well there we go,” said Smolder. “Yona, Silverstream and Ocellus can go out looking for leaves, and the rest of us will stay here by the fire like sane creatures.”
“Oh no, I’m not going out there,” Ocellus said quietly. “I just said that it was sweet, not that I wanted to freeze to death. I’m not crazy.”
By this point, Gallus wasn’t listening. He had an idea.
*****
So that was why he was out here, forcing himself through snowbanks almost half his height while all the fury of winter whirled through the air around him. He just couldn’t get what Sandbar had said out of his head. He wanted to do something personal, something heartfelt... as sappy as it was, he wanted to do something to thank his friends for sticking around and making his Hearth’s Warming as friendly as possible, and Sandbar’s wreath-making idea sounded perfect.
But now that he was knee-deep in snow, he was starting to have second thoughts.
He stopped, and turned to look back towards the town. The thick coating of snow had fallen across its rooftops and paths, but he could still clearly make out the Friendship School, nestled snugly beside the domineering figure of the Crystal Castle. Not even meaning to, Gallus smiled. They were his friends, and that was worth more than a little snow.
Last year, even after he’d attempted to sabotage Hearth’s Warming to keep his friends from going home, they’d all volunteered to stay with him. That had been the best holiday of Gallus’s life. Having someone to spend time with, and open presents with, and talk to over Hearth’s Warming had been a greater gift than anything else they could have got him. Honestly, he wasn’t sure if there was anything he could do to properly repay them, but if walking through the howling wind to collect holly to make wreaths could go some way to doing it, then that was without a doubt what he needed to do.
Coming to the edge of the trees, Gallus looked up and peered into the branches. A lot of them were bare and spiny, but most of them still had their leaves. But not just any old trees would do: he needed something special. He walked a little way into the forest, glancing between the various trees gathered around him. A few birds leapt up and took flight as he passed, shaking the branches and scattering snow on the ground.
Then he saw it.
Like rubies buried in exposed rock, a cluster of red berries caught his eye. They dangled from a tall tree, one that still had its leaves, only a little way above head height. It was as though they’d been placed there just for him to find. He reached forward and plucked the branch from the tree, shaking the snow off as he did. He turned it over in his claw, six brilliant red berries growing strong even in all this snow. If he were more poetically minded, there was probably something profound he could say here, about beauty growing even in harshness, or sweetness coming forth out of adversity.
In reality, these berries were probably bitter and poisonous and not sweet at all, but that was beside the point. He’d found the perfect flourish for a friendship wreath. A warm and happy sensation spread slowly through his chest as he smiled.
Then he remembered how much more stuff he had to collect.
*****
Silverstream had not grown up with the cold in Seaquestria, and even after the hippogriffs had returned to Mount Aris the climate was, at worst, temperate, so she should have been absolutely freezing out in this weather. She was so excited, though, at every new thing she encountered that she was barely feeling the temperature as she stared around in awe.
“Oh my gosh, what’s that?” she yelled in amazement at a bunny as it fled in terror before the mad pink hippogriff. “And what’s that?” she shouted, pointing at a snow-covered rock. “This is amazing!”
She continued to bound through the snow, flying a little way here and there before the strong winds forced her back to the ground. Sandbar’s idea about wreath-making had just seemed too exciting to let go, even if nocreature else seemed interested in doing it. She wasn’t much of an expert on pony Hearth’s Warming customs, but honestly, making something unique and original sounded like one of the best things to do with a friend.
Coming to the edge of the trees, Silverstream was relieved to find a lot of them still had their leaves. She flew up and examined each one, looking at the different leaves and berries, feeling the texture of each in her claws. It was probably safe to touch strange plants so carelessly, right?
After a few minutes flying and walking between the different trees and bushes, Silverstream was starting to put a good collection together. She’d found these broad, flat leaves she didn’t recognise, that in a strange way reminded her of Yona with their imposing size and thick stems. She was pretty sure that, of all of the leaves, these leaves were the most likely to enjoy smashing stuff.
After that, she’d found a tree that sprouted small, waxy, light green leaves and added those to her pile. These ones reminded her of Ocellus – slight, ostensibly fragile but actually very tough. Silverstream could tell that these leaves were kind and sensitive. She was sure they’d be nice to the Yona leaves.
The next to be added to the pile were tall and slender, and a beautiful, rich orange-yellow. They looked unconventional next to all the green, but once you got a good enough look at them, you could see how pretty they were really. And finally, for the pony who suggested wreath-making in the first place, Silverstream added to her pile a long, snaky tendril of leaves with its own small, blue berries. This would be strong enough and tough enough to be perfect to hold the whole wreath together.
Silverstream grinned when she looked at the bundle of vegetation in her claws. Each plant was different, but special, and beautiful in its own way. She smiled; she really was lucky to have the best friends in the world. Now she just needed to find a leaf to represent-
“Gallus?”
*****
The snow had relaxed a little, but still continued to fall upon the silent hills. Two creatures, a griffon and a hippogriff, laid down their burdens and sat beside them in the snow, overlooking the town. Their bundles were full of every bounty of the forest – a multicoloured collection of leaves and berries, holly, vines, and branches. They could make a lot of wreaths from all this.
“You didn’t tell me you were coming up here,” said Silverstream. “I would have come with you.”
“Sorry. I just didn’t want anycreature to feel obligated to come up here with me, you know? I wanted to come and get some stuff for wreath-making and surprise everyone,” Gallus said.
“Me too!” exclaimed Silverstream.
“Sandbar’s idea sounded too good not to do, right?”
“Exactly!”
As they spoke, in front of them the sun was dipping below the horizon and beginning to disappear. It was only the early evening, but in the middle of winter, daylight went early. The dying sun bathed the world in soft orange light, which reflected off the snow to give the hills on the other side of Ponyville the appearance of being covered in reddish glitter.
“Hey, are you sure everything’s okay with you?” Silverstream asked, breaking the short silence between them. “I feel like you’ve seemed a little quiet lately.”
Gallus faltered for a moment at her sudden question. “Err, yeah, no, I’m fine.” He paused for a second before admitting, “I guess I’ve just been thinking a lot about you guys staying here over Hearth’s Warming again. I know it’s silly, but I’ve been worrying that I’m just keeping you here...”
“Oh, don’t be silly, Gallus!” Silverstream said, and pulled him into a hug as he did his best to try and break free. “We’re here because we want to be here. We love spending time together!”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. I love spending time with everycreature too. I just want to make sure everyone has the best holidays they possibly can.”
“Just spending time with friends makes a Hearth’s Warming the best it possibly can be,” said Silverstream. She paused for a moment. “Although nice food, decorations, presents, cards, carolling, games,” she said as she counted them off on her claws, “also help too.”
Gallus laughed. “I can’t disagree there,” he said.
“And wreath-making!” Silverstream added. “We can’t forget our new tradition.”
“Yep!” Gallus smiled. “Speaking of which, we should probably get these back, instead of freezing our flanks off out here.”
“Oh, right, yeah,” said Silverstream. “I’ve kind of forgotten what warmth feels like.” They both stood, and picked their bundles up, holding them under their arms. “And Gallus?”
“Hmm?”
“Thanks for being an awesome friend.”
Gallus smiled and blushed a little. Hopefully his feathers were fluffed up enough by the cold that she wouldn’t see. “Thanks, Silverstream. You too. Thanks for making Hearth’s Warming the best time of year, every year.”