The Spirit brought Collection Notice to the outskirts of the village on which lay an old sprawling home, a fine country mansion in its youth but now its dismal façade gave off an ever-present gloom. With shuttered windows and dead ivy clinging to the walls as a foal clings to her mother's skirts. A deep sonorous bell tolled the hour and the Spirit turned to Collection Notice and asked "Do you know this place?"
With a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes, Collection Notice said "Aye, this was my school." The Spirit said "Come" and pulled Collection Notice through one of the walls which surprised him to some degree not being quite used to the ways of spirits. In the dusty room that held numerous small desks with individual inkwells sat a young colt, no more than ten winters of age. The lad was curled up in front of a small fire burning in the old pot-belly stove that gave off the only warmth in the dismal chamber. With him was a great tome, nearly as large as his own head, and Collection Notice could have sworn he saw the pictures leaping off of the very page; Wise Zebra sages, Wicked Dragon magicians, Brave Kirin warriors in their strange cut armor that seemed to be a type of tree-bark unfamiliar to him. Letting out a quiet sigh, Collection Notice turned to the spirit and said "Alas, the poor lad, wherever are his friends?"
The spirit said nothing and pulled Collection Notice forward to another vision, the room around them seemed to grow even more dismal, several of the windows developed cracks and the plaster on the walls gave way to the bare boards beneath. The colt grew in front of them becoming a handsome young stallion of about 15, He was sitting at a larger desk that normally would be off-limits doing what appeared to be arithmetic worksheets. The room was quiet aside from the creaks and groans of the old house settling into its foundations.
The quiet was broken suddenly by a jubilant cry of "BROTHER! BROTHER!" A young hibiscus-colored filly came racing into the room her woolen traveling dress causing the everpresent dust to billow around her like a great cloud. Undeterred she fairly well tackled the startled young scholar, giggling with abandon. 
"What?! Who?! Oh my, it's you, Charity!" "Whatever are you doing here?" giggling as she climbed off of her older brother, she reached into a little pouch hung about her neck and pulled out what appeared to be an oddly shaped Golden Bit coin "I came to bring you your Hearth's Warming present silly, it's a letter seal I made all by my very self" "It's wonderful, thank you ever so much little sister"
The filly stuck her nose up in faux indignation and said in her snootiest of voices "I'm not little, I am nearly ten" Bowing theatrically, Collection Notice replied in great solemnity "Oh Forgive me my blunder, young madame" "That's better." They stood for a moment holding these poses before the ridiculousness of it all caused them to burst with laughter that ever so nearly rattled the windows in their frames. "It is ever so good to see you Charity" "And you as well, brother". They hugged and nuzzled each other with so much love that it caused Old Collection Notice to sniffle.
"Whatever is the matter?" said the Spirit. Trying vainly to disguise his sniffle as some other ailment, Collection Notice said "Nothing, just, some of this damned dust" The Spirt looked on with its customary bland physiognomy but one could tell that it didn't believe him. "Remember, this world has no Consciousness of us" Turning back to the scene at hoof, the Spirit said in a nonchalant tone as one uses when discussing such things as the weather "She died a Married Mare...and had foals of her own" "One foal," Collection Notice said in a strange distant tone. "Ah, yes, your Nephew...Goldheart if I am not mistaken" "No, you are not mistaken," Collection Notice replied.
From outside, in the snow-crusted yard, the sound of a jingling harness was heard as the driver called up to Charity saying that it was getting late. "I've got to go now brother, but next year we will take you away from this dreadful place forever and all and we shall have the happiest Hearth's Warming the world has ever known" The younger Collection Notice laughed warmly at the emphatic statement and said "That sounds perfectly lovely, I will count the days" Charity gave her brother a warm nuzzle and a small kiss on his nose before dashing out the door calling out one last farewell. Heaving a fond sigh tinged with melancholy he strode over to one of the uncracked windows and waved to the small Cabriolet as it departed the school grounds.