“What are you doing here?” Sunny asked as the sheriff brushed the snow off of Sparky and set the baby dragon on his back. “How did you get here?”
“Sparky helped,” Hitch said, patting the dragon on the head. “I saw all the snow up on the hill and figured you guys were trapped inside, so I decided to heroically rescue - I mean, assist you in getting out. Sparky helped blast through the snow with his fire, though I did most of the work.” He puffed out his chest so that his sheriff badge gleamed. “You may now present me with your undying gratitude and thanks.”
Zipp smirked. “Thank you sooo much, sheriff,” she said teasingly, and Hitch glared at her. “But actually, we don’t really need saving. We were just telling stories about our Wishentine - I mean, Wishiehoof - I mean, Wishday - winter holiday traditions,” she finally settled on.
Hitch turned back to the door, where the tunnel that he and Sparky had dug was completely caved in and filled with snow. He sighed and set Sparky down, where the baby dragon promptly ran up to Izzy and hugged her hoof. “I guess we’ll have to stay a bit, too,” he said, looking around. “I don’t think anypony’s going to be getting through this snow anytime soon.”
“Great!” Sunny said cheerfully, a smile lighting up her face. “Hitch, why don’t you and Sparky warm up, and Izzy, Zipp, and I will see if we can do anything about this snow?” She gestured to the massive pile that had come through the doorway.
Izzy and Sunny lit up their horns, creating a forcefield that was pushing the mound of snow back through the doorway, and Zipp hovered overhead, beating her wings as hard as she could to push it further. As soon as it was outside, Zipp slammed the door, and all three ponies slumped against it, breathing heavily.
Meanwhile, Sparky was running around the living room area, jumping on the couch and throwing pillows as he laughed, occasionally letting out bursts of fire that would transform the stockings hanging along the fireplace into cupcakes that he would turn back once Hitch gave him his trademarked ‘sheriff look’. Pipp was lounging under one of the tents, melodramatically waving her phone in the air. She looked at Hitch from where she was lying down, so the sheriff looked upside down to her.
“What’s going on out there, Hitch?” she asked, her hooves falling to her side. “I can’t get a signal, so I’ve been trapped with absolutely no news and it’s driving me crazy.”
“Not much,” he said, shrugging. “There’s a decent amount of snow on the ground, but nothing like up here. We’ve got ponies working on the streets, but school’s been canceled and everypony’s been advised to stay inside…”
Pipp blew a frustrated breath. “Any idea why it’s snowing so much?”
“No clue,” he said earnestly. “Maybe one of the unicorns was trying a weather spell and it went wrong or something.”
As he spoke, Sunny, Izzy, and Zipp came back over, and at the mention of unicorns trying a weather spell that went rogue, Izzy went red in the face and averted her eyes. “Honestly, what’s wrong with a little snow?” she asked, grabbing her crystal as she sat down and hugging it tight.
“Oh, there’s nothing wrong with a little snow, Izzy,” Hitch said passionately. Sparky sat in his lap, cuddling his stuffed crab and shaking it so that the bell inside rang gently. “In fact, I’ve been wanting snow since I was a little filly…” His eyes got a dreamy look in them.
“Me, too,” Sunny agreed, standing up and trotting off into the kitchen. “But no matter how many times we wished… Well, snow never came.”
“Until now,” Zipp unnecessarily pointed out, nodding at the windows, which were completely dark from the snow outside.
Sunny laughed. “Right, until now,” she added, walking back over with a tray of hot chocolate carefully balanced on her hoof, along with a plate of cookies. “Hot chocolate, anypony? I think I’ve still got some jumbo marshmallows in the cupboard somewhere…” She set the tray down and wandered off, muttering to herself and frowning at the pantry. “Now, where were they?”
“Oh, don’t worry about it, Sunny,” Hitch said, waving his hoof dismissively. “We don’t need marshmallows, right, guys?” When Zipp and Pipp nodded, he cleared his throat and added, “Right, Izzy?”
“Hm?” The unicorn looked up from her steaming mug and blinked a few times. “Oh, yes, I agree,” she said, though everypony knew that she had no idea what she was agreeing to.
Hitch sighed contentedly. “This reminds me of spending Wishday with Grandma Figgy when I was a foal,” he said fondly, staring off into space. “Every Wishday was the exact same… We would tell stories by the fire, drink coca, and build gingerbread houses. Then we would open presents… I remember that Grandma Figgy would always get me exactly what I wanted, even if I didn’t know it myself. But it was always so hard to get the perfect present for her. I would spend weeks before searching for the perfect gift. It had to be just right…”
“Really?” Izzy tilted her head, surprised. “But you always know what to get for us.”
Hitch’s mouth quirked into a smile. “Yeah, well, that was a skill that was earned through many years of hard work and tedious efforts to read ponies and figure out what they would really like for Wishday-”
“He’s exaggerating,” Sunny whispered to Zipp, who snickered.
Hitch scowled at Sunny. “Anyway,” he continued through clenched teeth, “one year, I decided that I was going to find that perfect gift for Grandma Figgy - or suffer the consequences.” He put his hoof over his heart and lifted his head as he looked out into space, clearly experiencing some delusions of grandeur with his heroic actions. His friends all giggled quietly, and Hitch tried to ignore them.
“I searched high… and I searched low.” He stood up and began waving his hooves around animatedly as he dramatically told the story. “I asked all her closest friends for gift ideas, and prowled the market every day with every single bit I had managed to scrooge up. I asked her to tell me story after story, trying to see if I could find out what one of her favorite things was from the tales that she always tells. I even asked her flat-out asked her what she wanted for Wishday, if she could have anything she wanted. But all I ever got from her was, ‘Oh, nothing, dear. I have everything I could ever want.’” He gave his friends all an exasperated look. “See what I mean?”
“Guess you were stumped, then,” Zipp snickered, hiding her smile behind her mug as she sipped hot chocolate.
“I was!” Hitch said indignantly. “Wishday was only two days away, and I hadn’t figured out a gift yet!” He took a deep breath to compose himself. “And so, I thought about the only piece of advice Grandma Figgy had ever given to me about Wishday gifts: the best gifts that we give are the gifts that come from a place of love.”
Izzy sniffed and wiped her eyes. “Beautiful,” she said softly.
“I know, right?” Hitch replied while the rest of his friends rolled their eyes. “I thought so, too. Grandma Figgy has always done so much for me. She always knew how to make me appreciate myself and what I had, and it was because of her that I finally got the courage to become a sheriff. I would never be where I am now if it wasn’t for her. And it was then that I realized what the perfect gift for her was.”
“What was it, Hitch?” Sunny asked.
Hitch sighed and cuddled Sparky close to him. “A mirror,” he said. “It seemed so simple, and yet, it was so perfect. Grandma Figgy was always helping me realize so much about myself, so I wanted to help her realize something unique and amazing about herself, like she had done for me. I was returning a long-overdue favor.”
“That’s really sweet, Hitch!” Pipp said, and her sister rolled her eyes. “What did Grandma Figgy think?”
“She loved it,” Hitch beamed. “Said it was the best present she had ever received on a Wishday. She hung it up on her wall in her room, and as far as I know, it’s still there.”
“What a great story, Hitch,” Sunny said meaningfully, setting down her mug and standing up to stretch. “It’s been great to hear about all of your guys’ holiday traditions - I feel like it’s really helping to bring us together! And I like to hear about how you guys celebrate your holidays, too! It’s so different from mine, but they all have one thing in common - we celebrate them with friends and family who love us. And we like to bring joy to other ponies during the holidays, which is what I think they’re really all about!”
“What’s your holiday story, Sunny?” Izzy asked, tossing a cookie into the air and catching it in her mouth.
“Oh! Well, I wasn’t really planning on telling one,” Sunny said, a bit flustered.
“Aw, come on, Sunny,” Zipp teased, “we all told one.”
“Yeah, Sunny!” Pipp said enthusiastically.
Sunny sighed and curled up back under the blanket tent again. “All right. Here’s the story of the best Winter Wishday I ever had…”