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// The Third Spirit 
// Story: A Heart's Warming Eve Carol 
// by Broccoli 
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Step by step Rarity inched forward through piles of snows. She kept her head down in order to minimize the impact from the storm. Where is a pegasus when you need one? “Would someone please stop this hideous blizzard?” She called skywards, wondering if any pegasi were working tonight. Who am I kidding? I’m the only one who works on Heart’s Warming Eve. But then, as if someone had heard her, the storm began to subside. The snow was still falling in thick flakes, but at least the wind was almost nonexistent now. 
Rarity looked around. She still had no idea where she was. The dense layer of snow made it look like she was walking through a forest of white trees. She could barely see a hoof in front of her face. Any minute now she would walk headfirst into a building.
All of sudden there was a change in the dull whiteness. A black figure could be spotted through the curtains of snow. It was not very tall. Nor that familiar either, but Rarity ran towards it nonetheless. As she got closer, she noticed that it looked similar to the shape of a pony. The figure shared comparable properties to Rarity, though it remained completely black even when she was only a few feet away from it. A white layer of snow was piling on top of it. The pony-like figure was standing so still that Rarity considered that it might be a statue. But that couldn’t be true. There were no black statues in Ponyville. Rarity noticed that it was wearing a black cloak with a large hood that covered its entire face. She tried to peek underneath the hood, though there was only darkness to be seen.
“Hello,” Rarity greeted.
The hooded pony did not answer. It just continued to stare at Rarity from beneath the cloak. Slowly it turned around and walked away.
Rarity didn’t follow it. She just gazed in fascination at the sight, unable to move. When the pony looked behind its shoulder, Rarity pointed at her chest and said, “Do you want me to join you?”
The hooded pony nodded. Then it looked ahead and resumed its walk. Rarity wandered beside it, still staring captivated at the pony.
“Are you the last spirit?”
No answer.
“You are going to show me the Heart’s Warming Eve of the future, right?” Rarity politely awaited a response, but it never came. When she had been dealing with the second spirit she had thought that she would appreciate a spirit that didn’t talk. Now she realized that silence was worse than anything he had said. “The first spirit was a pegasus, the second an earth pony. So I’m guessing that you are a unicorn.” The third spirit still wouldn’t talk. “Well, as a fellow unicorn I bet that you can comprehend the implications of the creative business. It’s not easy, I tell you. This season is terrible for my field. It’s so difficult to come up with a design that’s both practical and fashionable.” The silence that followed quickly grew awkward, so Rarity decided to speak again. “So what if I’m choosing to skip Heart’s Warming Eve one year? Yes, I understand why Sweetie Belle is mad about it, but she’ll come around. As soon as I’m done with my work, I’ll do something she enjoys.”
The two ponies walked for what felt like half an hour. Rarity saw that the snow around her began to glimmer in a slightly blue shine. She looked to the sky where the moon was gleaming brightly, unhidden by clouds.
“It has stopped snowing,” Rarity said. She was able to perceive her surrounded and noticed that she was in the middle of Ponyville. Town Hall was right in front of her, covered by snow just like it was when Rarity and the second spirit had walked to the library. Everything was tranquil and silent. The spirit had stopped moving and now it was staring ahead like its mind was heavy with thoughts. “Are we in the future now?” Rarity asked carefully. Unsurprisingly the cloaked figure said nothing.
Rarity had to close her eyes and clamp her jaws tightly in order to keep her frustration restrained. At least the others spirits were not shy to give her some information. Like whether or not she had been travelling through time. One thing was to delay her work. Another was to keep quiet about it.
“On the bright side you’re not going to preach to me about what a horrible person I am.”
Suddenly there was a sound. Rarity twitched her ear and tried to locate what it was. It was girly voices, and they were coming closer. She turned around and saw two ponies walking through the snow while talking. Rarity strolled towards them while craning her neck.
The two ponies wandered through knee-high snow next to the Town Hall. One of them was a pink earth pony with a green mane, the other a pegasus with long blue hair and a thick coat. “I really wish my husband has bought me that gown for Heart’s Warming. It’s so beautiful yet practical,” the earth pony said.
“I have heard that she is working on a new line of winter outfits.”
“Uh! Then maybe it won’t be that good if he has bought it, then. All her clothes are so expensive, and perhaps I’ll like the new line better.”
“Don’t worry. They are going to be sold in Canterlot first. I’ll take months before we’ll see them in Ponyville.”
“Canterlot?” Rarity sharpened her ears even more when she heard that word.
“Do you know if she’ll come home to Ponyville during the holidays?” the pegasus asked. “I mean; it’s not that long ago since she moved.”
The other pony shook her head firmly. “Don’t count on it. She hasn’t been visiting Ponyville since her breakthrough. You know, when she decided to focus on winter clothes.”
Rarity began to smile. There was no doubt that they were talking about her. And they had mentioned Canterlot. Rarity was going to be living in Canterlot in the future. The near future, it seemed! “It’s clear that these ponies has taste.” Rarity grinned to the spirit, though it kept ignoring her. Rarity didn’t care, though. Her body was tingling with excitement, and she continued to follow the ponies with a high-stepped canter.
“But it’s Heart’s Warming Eve. Her family lives in Ponyville. Isn’t she going to visit them?”
The earth pony shrugged. “Rarity doesn’t celebrate Heart’s Warming Eve.”
“She doesn’t?” 
“She hasn’t done it since her first international success. She spent one Heart’s Warming Eve working instead of celebrating and right after that her clothes became famous in all of Equestria. Now she believes it means bad luck to celebrate it.”
The pegasus laughed. The shill noise cut like ice in Rarity’s ears. “She is a bit weird, isn’t she?”
“All the best artists are eccentric.”
Rarity felt a cold hoof on her shoulder. She turned around in a snap. The cloak-wearing spirit was right behind her, resting a snow-covered hoof on Rarity. It turned around and walked the opposite direction of the earth pony and pegasus. Rarity saw them continue ahead into an alley. “If you want me to follow you, just say so.” She frowned while dusting snow off her shoulder. She strolled right behind the spirit who was sauntering slowly through the dark village. “So let me get this straight … I’m a successful designer. I am living in Canterlot and assumingly making a ton of money. That doesn’t sound like a manikin to me at all.” Rarity shrugged. “I don’t know why, but I had imagined that you were going to show me a future that I wouldn’t like.”
The spirit continued to a very familiar neighborhood. The distance between the houses began to enlarge, and Rarity understood where they were heading. They rounded the corner of a flower shop, and the Carousel Boutique came into view. The first thing Rarity noticed was Sweetie Belle. She wore a scarf to keep her warm as well as yellow boots. She hadn’t changed very much. Maybe she was an inch or two taller than usually, though despite this being the future, her sister pretty much looked like herself. Sweetie Belle was standing before the Boutique, glaring at the building without moving a muscle. There were shutters on the windows, and a wooden sign on the door read closed.
Rarity trotted faster towards her sister. She could not see her face, though Rarity guessed that she probably didn’t look too pleased. “What are you doing here all by yourself, Sweetie Belle?”
As if her sister had heard her, Sweetie Belle turned around. Her gaze was stiff and her face frozen in an empty expression. Even though she was looking towards Rarity, their eyes did not meet. “Hello,” Sweetie Belle whispered.
Rarity looked behind her shoulder and saw Apple Bloom walk through the snow. “Staring at the Boutique is not going to make her come.”
Sweetie Belle kept her head down and looked at the snow. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Apple Bloom passed Rarity on her way to Sweetie Belle. “You must be freezing out here. Why don’t you come back to the farm? Rarity is going to return from Canterlot tomorrow, I’m sure of it.”
“Well, I’m not.”
“She promised you she would, didn’t she?”
“No. She promised me that she would come home tonight. Obviously she has forgotten.” Sweetie Belle ran a hoof across the snow.
“That doesn’t mean that you have to spend Heart’s Warming Eve all on your own. You have us, remember? Your friends.”
“Whatever.” Sweetie Belle turned around and walked away from the Carousel Boutique. Her eyes were slightly closed as she joined Apple Bloom, and the two fillies sauntered back to the village.
Rarity nodded resolved to herself. “Okay. I get it. When I become a star and open my fashion store in Canterlot I will find time to visit my sister more often.” She smiled brightly to the spirit. “Now can we go home?”
The spirit didn’t answer. Rarity imagined that it was staring spitefully at her underneath the hood of the black cloak. Her smile began to diminish, and she looked from side to side, awaiting something to happen. As nothing seemed to occur Rarity began to growl subtly in frustration. She started to stare at the cloaked figure with annoyance. “I’m serious. Seeing Sweetie Belle like this really makes me want to do something for her. I’m not going to skip Heart’s Warming Eve ever again. Do you understand? I have changed. Why don’t you transport me back to my own time, so I can prove that I mean it.”
The spirit merely stared back with empty darkness.
“Look, there is nothing more for you to show me. I get the picture. I have to visit my sister more often when I become a success. I will remember that. Honestly.”
The black robed pony raised a leg and pointed toward the façade of the Carousel Boutique. Rarity followed the line of the pointing hoof with her eyes. She walked to a window of her former home and saw a page of a newspaper attached to the inside of the window. Rarity quickly scanned the piece of paper and discovered that it was an interview between herself and a reporter of the newspaper. She read a few paragraphs until she met a section that had her eyes widen and her mouth go dry.
After your breakthrough last winter there has been rumors that you’re thinking of opening a department in Canterlot. Is that true? the reporter asked.
Of course it’s true, Rarity had answered. In fact, I’m in the middle of closing down my Boutique in Ponyville. I’ve already held my going away party, but that was disastrous to say the least.
Why was it disastrous?
Well, you know … Ponyville is a small town. It’s obvious that they do not appreciate the art of proper fashion. It’s nothing like Canterlot, you must understand. Ponies are just more envious in the village, I guess. None of my former friends seemed interested in attending my party. They grew distant from me ever since I became famous.
Rarity had to step a few feet away from the window. She didn’t believe it. Apparently her friends had decided to stay away from her farewell party. Much like she had decided to skip Heart’s Warming Eve. “Sweetie Belle doesn’t want to visit me in Canterlot,” Rarity said out of nothing. “And neither does my friends. They want me to come home. To be who I was.” She wandered away from the window, looking out over the village. The chimney smoke and light layer of snow on the houses hadn’t changed. Ponyville looked exactly like Rarity remembered it. “It doesn’t really matter that I decided to skip Heart’s Warming Eve,” she realized. “The amount of time I spend with my sister and my friends doesn’t matter. Nothing I do will change anything. It’s me who needs to change. Otherwise this will be my future.” Rarity looked at the spirit. “Right?”
The other pony nodded.
“Is this my definite future, then? Is there nothing I can do to make it all okay? I mean, I am who I am, and there is nothing I can do to change that. Is there?”
The spirit kept quiet like the night.
“Please tell me that this is not how things are going to turn out. There must be some way out of this. I don’t want to leave my friends nor my sister behind. If that is the consequence of my success, then I’m sure that I want to experience it.”
Suddenly the top of the black hood began to glow. A purple light was emitted from beneath the fabric, and when Rarity squinted she saw the outline of a unicorn’s horn. The purple light shot from the pony. Rarity closed her eyes and everything became dark.

The moonlight’s shine was the first thing Rarity saw as she slowly ascended her eyelids. Everything around her was painted in the same silvery color. It took her a while to figure out where she was. She had to blink a few times for her eyes to adjust. Then she saw that she lying down on the second floor of the Carousel Boutique. Rarity stretched her body and yawned. She found herself on the red divan, and all of a suddenly she remembered it all. The manikin. The white pegasus, the green earth pony. Not to mention the cloaked unicorn. Quickly Rarity looked underneath the divan and found the photo album in its correct place. She smiled to herself and jumped off the furniture. Only then did she discover that her head ache from earlier than returned. She put a hoof to the head in order to calm in down. 
It was all a dream. Although, it had all felt so real. Her body was still cold as if she really had been out in a snowstorm recently. Could it really have been something she had imagined? What time is it? Rarity looked out the window. The moon was still high in the sky, and Rarity gasped. It’s still Heart’s Warming Eve. There is still time. Rarity galloped downstairs. Above the front door to the Boutique the doorbell hang where it used to. She cantered out the door without minding the hills of snow on the other side. I hope I’m not too late, she repeated to herself while sprinting towards the library.
Rarity stood before the door to Twilight’s home. She had raised a hoof, but she did not knock. Voices and laughter coming from beyond told her that her friends were still celebrating Heart’s Warming Eve. Rarity didn’t understand why she was being so hesitant. She had walked into the library a thousand times before. Why couldn’t she get herself to go in now? Finally Rarity took in a couple of deep breaths and knocked on the door.
A warm light escaped the library as the front door opened. “Rarity?” Twilight said surprised. “I thought you had to work.”
“Can I come in? If I’m not interrupting, that is.” Rarity looked down at her hooves while talking.
“Of course.” Twilight smiled.
The room grew silent once Rarity entered. All the ponies in the library had stopped talking and were now glaring at the arriver. There were so many ponies that Rarity couldn’t proceed very far into the room. She was standing beside the table of food, avoiding looking directly at anyone. “I just came over to see how everyone was doing. And to wish you a merry Heart’s Warming Eve.”
“I thought you had to work,” Applejack said with a wrinkled forehead.
Rarity sighed. “Not on this evening. There will be plenty of time to work in the future. But right now I think ...” She stopped talking.
Twilight looked around at the faces of her friends. Then she smiled awkwardly and said faintly, “Yes? What do you think?”
Rarity glared at the table on which dozens of plates with candy as well as cake stands filled with baking goods were standing. She lowered her brows while inspecting the food. A rumble coming from Applejack made her direct her gaze towards the pony. Applejack guiltily placed a hoof on her stomach. “You haven’t touched any of the food,” Rarity muttered suspiciously. Then she looked at the clock in the corner of the room. “And it’s way past midnight. You would think that there wouldn’t be much food left, but you haven’t eaten a thing. Even though Pinkie Pie is here.” Rarity pointed towards Pinkie who just watched Rarity with a frozen grin.
“Well, it’s lucky that we didn’t,” Rainbow said. “Because now that you’re here we can finally get started. Obviously we had to wait for you before we were could eat anything.” She crossed her arms while glaring at Twilight, who lowered her ears and chuckled nervously.
“What does she mean?” Rarity looked at Twilight. “You were waiting for me? Even after I told you that I would be working all night.”
“Well … you never know.”
“But that doesn’t explain why would couldn’t touch the food. It’s …” Rarity didn’t want to believe what she was going to say, though she said it nonetheless. “It’s almost like you expected me to change my mind and celebrate Heart’s Warming Eve.”
Applejack let out a loud grunt. “I told you she would find out. This whole idea was stupid!”
“We were so close, though.” Twilight sighed. “I’m sorry, Rarity. But we didn’t want you to be alone on this evening.”
Rarity felt her mind spin in circles. She stared at Twilight’s face, though she did not return her gaze. Then she looked towards the other ponies in the room. All of them avoided looking into Rarity’s eyes. Most of them were scratching her necks with their hooves. Others just smirked uncomfortably. Rarity felt her eyebrows descend as her confusion began to turn to anger. “It was you,” she hissed. “All of you. You planned this.”
“We were going to tell you, of course,” Twilight said to her feet. “Tomorrow.”
“But I don’t understand …” Rarity spoke with a slightly distressed tone in her voice as she walked towards Twilight. “How it is possible? Can alicorns travel through time?”
“No, of course not.” Twilight carefully lifted her head and looked at Rarity. “We just made it seem like you did.”
“But the first spirit … it made me go back in time.”
“No, that was me.” Rainbow Dash cautiously raised a hoof. “We were still in Ponyville when you thought that you had been sent back in time. I also controlled the weather to keep you from recognizing the place.”
“I altered her appearance so you wouldn’t recognize her,” Twilight said proudly.
“What about my parents?”
“There are in Ponyville as well. But they have gone to sleep now and will join us tomorrow.”
Rarity was relieved about that. She looked from Twilight to Rainbow Dash. “And I bet the snowstorm was your work as well.”
Rainbow shrugged. “We had to find a way to slow you down after the second spirit.”
“The second spirit.” Eagerly Rarity looked around the room. “Who was that?” She noticed how Big Mac was the only one who didn’t looked directly at her. “You?” Rarity squinted. “No, that couldn’t have been you.” The earth pony smiled shyly which caused Rarity to gasp. “Why him?” Once again she stared at Twilight with a discontent look.
“Because we needed your closest friends at the library. And he is a brilliant actor.”
Rarity had to agree on the last part. “And the last spirit?”
Twilight grinned. “I had an old costume from Nightmare Night. Did you like it? I thought if I didn’t say anything it would add a more creepy atmosphere.”
Rarity frowned. “I can’t say I’m too pleased.”
“I also controlled the manikin. Applejack did the voice.”
“And I rattled the chains and rang the doorbell!” Pinkie erupted. “I was really fun. You should have seen the look on your face.”
“Fun?” Rarity twisted her face in a disgusted grimace. “Fun! It certainly wasn’t fun for me. You had me walking through that snowstorm countless times. I am going to spend the next couple of days in bed. Not to mention the fact that you have disrupted my work!”
“Well, it didn’t seem like you were working when we visited you,” Rainbow said. “You had fallen asleep. Otherwise we would never have done it.”
“That is not the point. You have tormented me this whole night! And for what?”
“We just wanted you to celebrate Heart’s Warming Eve with us,” Twilight said. “If we had done nothing you would still be sitting at home all alone. I knew that we could never make you visit us by force.”
Rarity scowled at Twilight. “This whole devious charade was your idea, wasn’t it?”
Twilight shrugged. “Actually it wasn’t. I got the idea from a book I read a long time ago.” That answer didn’t seem to please Rarity. She kept staring dissatisfied at the alicorn while a pulsating blood vain before her right eye seem to grow bigger and bigger. “In my defense nopony seemed interested in following my script. I think I was only one who stuck to my lines. We didn’t plan on it to get so personal as it got. I’m sorry.” Twilight looked down and sighed. Then she added, “Though, we didn’t do it only because we wanted to spend time with you.”
The sound of small hooves walking on the wooden floor of the library caused Rarity to relax her face. She looked down and saw Sweetie Belle who cautiously sauntered towards her sister with her neck slightly bent. “Sweetie Belle? Are you still mad at me.”
“Mad at you?” her sister replied with a squeaky voice. “I thought you would be mad at me.”
“Are you kidding me? I am the one who has been insensitive. I should never have decided to skip Heart’s Warming Eve. I realize that now.” She ran a hoof up and down her left leg. “This holiday is not about me. It’s about us. About spending time with each other. And not just because we have to, but because we want to. I really do want to spend time with you, Sweetie Belle. Don’t think otherwise.”
Twilight smiled. “Even after you discovered that the three spirits were all a hoax you still want to celebrate Heart’s Warming Eve with us?”
Rarity nodded. “Do you still want me to change?”
Twilight pondered a few seconds. “No. You are perfect the way you are, Rarity. I think I underestimated you.”
The unicorn smiled. “Don’t worry, Twilight. Even if I one day move the Carousel Boutique to Canterlot, I will not forget you.”
“Does this mean we get to eat soon?” Sweetie Belle asked. “I’m starving.”
“Me too.” Rarity hugged her sister before they both turned to the table. The cake frosting and smooth surfaces of the candy canes glistered in the light from the dying fireplace. Rarity mouth began to water, and she took a large mouthful of a cupcake.
“I was you, by the way,” Sweetie Belle said proudly while biting off the head of a chocolate pony. “In the house that the first spirit took you to. That was me on the floor.”
“Really?” Rarity laughed with her mouth full. “I would never have guessed that. I actually believed that it was the former me who was lying before that fireplace.” Her sister’s smile gleamed radiantly. “You know, I would not be surprised if you get an actress cutie mark in the future.”
Suddenly Sweetie Belle’s smile disappeared. She eyes shined as she looked at her older sister with a half open mouth. “Do you think so?”
Rarity shrugged. “Only time will tell.”