//------------------------------//
// Hearth's Warming Eve:  A Poem 
// Story: The Day Before 
// by Jet Howitzer 
//------------------------------//

	I slowly wake from my sleep,
Twilight’s form lies beside me, buried beneath a heap,
The gentle rise and fall of her chest,
My attention it manages to wrest.
With the gentlest of an embrace,
I slowly turn her to see her face,
Her eyes flutter open at my lightest of kiss,
I profess to her that through the night it was her I did miss.
With a sigh of contentment she pulled me nearer,
And with a simple kiss she made her love for me clearer.

With amounts of energy rarely seen,
I threw open the curtains to reveal a landscape devoid of green,
A wintry wonderland laid bare before my eyes,
Nary a cloud to be seen within great blue skies.
Twilight could only smile at my display of glee,
Not even the peagasi, a storm of this intensity, could forsee,
Within my body a great desire was burning,
All the fun I could have, was something for which I was yearning.
I rush to grab my winter attire,
stopping for only a moment, my hat, to acquire,
Suitably garbed for weather so chilly,
I ready myself for the games, so silly.
Snow so deep, and cold as ice,
Having fun, and laughing is the spice,
To fend off the cold, and have the time of my life,
With Pinkie around, fun is certain to be rife.

With festive joy, and bounds of fun,
Pinkie enjoys her time beneath the winter sun,
Snowball fights and angels of snow,
The faces of colts and fillies were all aglow.
Rarity models the latest winter fashion,
The scarves she works on are her passion,
With her business booming, and sales reaching new peaks,
Her voice is aquiver with happiness whenever she speaks.
Rainbow Dash, with moves of grace and skill,
Soars through the sky, ignoring the chill,
She astounds the foals with patterns in the skies,
Crafted majestically as she flies.
Applejack, her trade temporarily forsaken,
took all the pains to so early awaken,
A snow fort she constructed,
From which snow ball fights she conducted.
Fluttershy, from her home did emerge,
For her this outing was quite a splurge,
The foals who Dash did not enchant,
Came to Fluttershy’s soft singing voice, to hear her chant.
Twilight, with me, did enjoy the day,
The first thing we did, Watch The Hearth’s Warming Eve play,
From there we decided to get rid of the plan,
All the fun we could have, with sledding we began.
With all the time we could want,
We enjoyed all the time spent on our little jaunt,
But with winter the season,
Soon we return home, a setting sun the reason.

With a shiver in our step and snow in our coats,
Twilight and I enjoyed the warm air as it ran down our throats,
The chill of the world now kept safely at bay,
We turned our sights to the tree that would take the rest of the day.
Spike was nowhere to be seen,
His time spent outside still spent in the presence of his queen,
Our spirits soaring with holiday cheer,
Twilight and I take to our task with vigor unseen through the rest of the year.
For hours we worked, the time flying past,
Each attempt we tried looked better than the last.
With laughter and knowing winks,
Spike’s arrival brought a blush to his face as he recalled all his high jinks.
Together we worked on the tree for a while,
Our faces never having anything but a smile.

We look on our tree with smiles wide,
It took some time, ten attempts we tried,
But now it’s done, and quite nice looking,
We can now look forward to Spike’s good cooking.
Dinner passes in a flash,
These friends of mine make quite a splash,
An hour long dinner spent conversing,
Twilight stuck to the schedule with resolve unswerving.
With the dinner complete, and the dishes away,
To the living room we retired, on the couches we lay,
The fire snaps and crackles from behind the grate,
Today was a good day, I’ll remember this date.
Tales of old, happy stories we swapped,
The clock struck eleven, only then, we stopped.

As the hour grows late, and we all need our rest,
Twilight takes Spike to bed, grabbing extra blankets from the chest.
She comes back down to me after her task,
Beside the fire she sits down to bask,
I take up a place right beside her,
enjoying the feeling or our mingling fur.
Gently, held in my arms,
Her cheeks blushing crimson from my charms,
Twilight drifts off to sleep,
Her beauty and cuteness nearly makes me weep.
The clock strikes twelve, and the chime sounds,
My heart leaps with joy, my happiness astounds,
It’s the day we’ve waited for,
But we need to wait just a little more.
With peace and serenity abound,
A sense of calmness, in her presence, found.
A small poem I uttered, from my mind to hers,
A situation like this rarely occurs,
Whether she hears it or not,
I know what counts most is the thought.

On window panes, the icy frost,
Leaves feathered patterns, crissed and crossed.
But in our house the Hearth’s Warming tree,
Is decorated festively,
With tiny dots of colored light,
That cozy up the winter night.
Hearth’s Warming songs, familiar, slow,
Play softly on the radio.
Pops and hisses from the fire,
Whistle with the bells and choir.
My pony is now fast asleep,
on her back and dreaming deep.
When the fire makes her hot,
She turns to warm whatever’s not.
Propped against her on the rug,
I give my marefriend a gentle hug.
Tomorrow’s what I’m waiting for,
But I can wait a little more.

        Memories of celebrations past,
Just two years ago, to stay with her, I asked,
Tomorrow marks an important event,
It will be the day I ask the question, on one knee bent.