//------------------------------//
// Twilight's Holiday Research 
// Story: Shoot. Let's Be Santa. 
// by RunicTreetops 
//------------------------------//

You roll your shoulders and yawn as you make your way through the large corridors of the Castle of Friendship. It’s still very early in the morning, but you already agreed to meet up with Twilight around this time.

In hindsight, it’s a good thing you did so. You have a really bad habit of not knowing when to say “no,” and as a result, you agreed to meet up with a few friends today. No, not all at once. That’d be too easy.

You’ve got six friends to visit. Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Fluttershy. On top of that, you agreed to meet up with your sister-in-law, Luna. And on top of that, it wouldn’t do to leave your lovely wife Celestia alone for all of Hearth’s Warming Eve.

…Oh yeah, it’s Hearth’s Warming Eve, too. Easy-peasy, right?

You reach a familiar set of wooden doors, and you lazily throw them both open with practiced ease. You know this room to be none other than Twilight’s study. Believe it or not, this study doesn’t actually see much use. With how much she reads, Twilight tends to do most of her work in the actual library instead of in here.

However, today there will be no need for the library, if her request is anything to go by.

“Ah, good morning Anon!”

“Hiya, Twilight.”

You give her a gentle smile and a wave as you enter the room. She’s already sitting comfortably on a large, cozy-looking chair. She motions to the identical chair across from her, and you happily oblige. You carefully remove your heavy coat, hoof-woven hat, and your warm mittens as you make yourself comfortable.

Twilight’s horn glows as she uses her magic to levitate a tea set onto the small coffee table separating your chairs. Moments later, she continues to use that magic to pour you a cup and place it gently in your hands. Steam gently rises from the tea, and you relish the feeling of the warm drink after your cold journey here.

“So,” she says with a smile, “I know it was probably strange of me to ask this of you, especially today of all days.”

“I would be lying if I said I wasn’t curious as to why you wanted to do this now. Besides, haven’t we talked about my old home before?”

“Well, yes, but not enough to sate my curiosity. And the reason why I wanted to know today, specifically early in the morning, is because Spike, my parents, and myself are all going to the Crystal Empire for Hearth’s Warming this year. Our train leaves at around noon, so I wanted to do this first.”

“Hehe, wow. I’m amazed you aren’t freaking out about making sure you have everything done.”

“Don’t worry, Spike and I went over our checklist seventeen times already.”

You chuckle. Yeah, that sounds about right.

“And I take it that hearing stories about the holidays from my world has to do with this trip?”

“Precisely! I was hoping that I might be able to use your… well, for lack of a better term, ‘foreign’ viewpoint to make things a bit more interesting. You know, try out some human games, or songs, or whatever other traditions you might have!”

You look Twilight up and down. She’s absolutely beaming at you, and you know for a fact that she means every single word. Of course, what she isn’t saying is that she’s a bit of a fangirl when it comes to learning about your world and this is most likely a good excuse for her to interrogate you about it, but you digress.

This is what she asked of you. Come visit the Castle of Friendship early in the morning on Hearth’s Warming Eve and tell tales of “your human holidays.”

“Alright,” you say after taking another sip of your tea. “Well, let’s start with Christmas since it’s the most similar to Hearth’s Warming. We’ll cover the other holidays one at a time.”

“What’s the difference between them?”

You smile. Despite how similar the holiday season is in Equestria and your old world, you have a lot of explaining to do.

“Well-”

“Wait, hold on!”

Twilight’s horn glows as a familiar purple magic envelops it. There is a bit of rustling coming from somewhere behind you, but the tall back of your chair renders you unable to see the cause. However, moments later, said cause becomes clear as a piece of parchment floats rapidly towards Twilight.

A very, very long piece of parchment.

“Okay, continue!”

“Uhh… are you really going to need all that?”

“Sure am! I want to know every single detail. So please, by all means: begin!”

…Oh dear.