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// Story 24 
// Story: THIS IS A STORY 
// by _NAME_ 
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The colt woke up one morning to his mother’s excited and shrill voice.

Blearily opening his eyes to find his mother’s face looking at him expectantly, he groaned and waved a hoof in her general direction, reminding her that it was Hearth’s Warming Day, and he really wanted to sleep in.

The colt shut his eyes again and turned over, hoping that she would give up and go away, but as she shook him and tore the covers off of him, he knew that he would just have to get up and begin the day.

He sat up in bed, wearily rubbing his eyes, asking his mother why she felt the need to wake him up so early.

In response, she merely smiled and parted the curtains covering his window, revealing the blinding brightness of the outside world.

The colt covered his eyes with a hoof, expressing his annoyance at being roused for no real reason.

But then, as his eyes adjusted, and his sleep-laden mind began to catch up, he realized that there was something drastically different about the outside than normal.

A thick blanket of snow covered everything as far as the eye could see, the lawn, the streets, the houses, the trees, and even a few ponies as they trudged through the whiteness, braving the flakes of snow that still were falling from the sky.

The colt took a moment to take in the scene in front of him, and then a wide smile split his face as he hugged his mother, shouting in joy.

His mind was abuzz with excitement for, not only was it a white Hearth’s Warming Day, it was the first time it had ever snowed in the colt’s short life.

Needless to say, he was excited, ecstatic, even.

Bounding out of bed, the colt ran out of his room, intent on spending the day in the snowy wonderland just outside his house, but was stopped short when his mother’s magic gripped his tail, preventing him from leaving, much to his protests.

Carrying the colt back over to her, his mother forced several layers of clothing over his squirming body, ensuring that not an inch of his body would be cold.

Finishing, his mother patted his head and released him, telling him to say hello to his father as he immediately took off.

Cantering out of his room, barely acknowledging his father as he left, the colt leapt out of his house and into the fresh white snow that waited for him.

He bent down, scooping a large heap of snow into his forelegs and threw it high into the air, frolicking in the flakes as they fell down around him.

He fell backwards into the snow, giggling madly at what he knew was the perfect start to a day that would only get better as it went.

And, as the rest of the town began to wake up to the white beauty that appeared overnight, and more and more foals came out of their respective houses eager to frolic in the snow as well, it seemed to everypony like nothing at all could go wrong, that, it seemed as if the morning would never end.

Everything was perfect on that Hearth’s Warming Day.

Everypony was happy, from the smallest foal building snowponies, to the oldest couple sitting on their front porches, wrapped in blankets, watching the younger generations be young.

The colt spent the rest of the morning outside, only going back in when his mother offered hot chocolate and the prospect of presents as incentives.

And he too, was happy.