Hearth Warming's Trappings

by Georg

The Gift

“That’s the last check for the bait,” whispered Twilight Sparkle as she made sure Spike was tucked into his basket with an extra ruby for a midnight snack just in the unlikely case he woke up. She marked the last box on her list and regarded the long trail of parchment with a glowing sense of satisfaction. Equestria was a place where myth and scientific fact clashed on a daily basis, and nothing bothered the meticulous unicorn more than to find something provably false still being taught as truth.

“This myth is so busted,” she whispered, traveling downstairs to examine the carefully-arranged Sparkle household living room.

A strategic observation blind made of colorful presents skirted the edge of the large hearthrug in front of the warm fireplace, giving her the perfect place to settle down with her observation log, and a stack of books, of course. The Hearth’s Warming Tree had been decorated with every family ornament she could find in the vast collection of boxes in the attic until it fairly groaned with holiday cheer, and every one of the stockings had been hung from the chimney with care, just as the book specified. Stitching each family member’s name onto the top of their respective sock had been a stroke of genius, spoiled only by the misbehaving sewing machine and only a small fire, quickly put out and cleaned up.

Twilight squirmed a little inside at blaming it on Spike’s hiccups, but she had been exceedingly good for the entire year, as documented in Appendix C of her Hearth’s Warming list, sent by Secret Santa Post down at the mall.

“Certainly all the extra credit I’ve put in should make up for it,” she murmured to herself as she checked the rest of her preparations twice, just as the story said: Three cookies, gingerbread. One candy-cane, striped. One glass low-fat almond milk with Frosthaven’s Perpetual Chilling Spell on the glass and placed on a coaster so as not to ruin the finish on the table. Spike’s letter to Santa Hooves was placed next to it, written in his childish scrawl. Festive ornaments, lights, and hoof-crafted paper snowflakes in the windows, check. One observative unicorn in her observation blind, no check.

She moved to rectify the deficiency, settling down on a comfortable (but not too comfortable) cushion behind her giftwrapped blind and checking her field of view. With all of the objects and spells in place for bait, there was nothing to do but wait for her prey, and for that, she had the perfect answer.

She opened the first of several books and began to read.

Several hours later as the fireplace had burned down to dim coals, Twilight set her fifth book to one side and regarded the experimental zone again. All of the ritual items were still in place, the low-level trigger enchantments still hovering at the edge of her perception, and the situation remained unchanged.

“The calculated optimal hour for reindeer arrival has now come and gone,” she whispered while writing in her journal. “Given all of the constraints Mythical Creature Seven must operate under, there is currently no practical way, even with theoretical powers detailed in Appendix J1, this ‘Santa Hooves’ could possibly complete his journey and still remain within the required parameters of the experiment. I will remain at my station an additional hour in order to fully prove my theory and to finish reading Professor Cloudhopper’s treatise on inter-cloud electrification during rotational events, but there is no doubt in this experimenter’s mind that the being known as Santa Hooves could—”

A faint chill breeze wafted through the Sparkle family living room, making the ornaments on the Hearth’s Warming tree jingle as they touched each other, and an extremely faint noise filtered down from above, much as if a very tired reindeer had just gently landed on the roof. Only hesitating a moment to cap her inkwell and push the journal away, Twilight Sparkle moved closer to her observational blind and observed.

For long moments, it seemed as if the strange noise and breeze was the result of a passing pegasus, lost or just needing a quick break on the rooftop in the dark night. Then a few small bits of soot began to fall down the chimney, followed by a steady stream of sparkles wafting out of the fireplace and over to the rug, where they began to spin around in circles. As more sparkles flowed down the chimney and into the odd indoor atmospheric structure, it began to look more and more equine, until with a quiet ‘poomf’ of air, a huge reindeer was standing in the living room.

As the stories said, he was smudged with soot all across the bright red coat he wore all the way down to the shining black boots on each huge hoof. His belly might have jiggled like a bowl of jelly if he had been laughing, and perhaps there was still a twinkle in his big dark eyes, but the huge reindeer with the lumpy sack across his back appeared to be more resigned to his job than a fat, jolly old icon of Hearth’s Warming cheer. He turned to the over-decorated tree with a massive sigh, looking it over from the star on the top to the array of glitter-covered foal-created ornaments crammed together across the bottom before opening his bag with a dull golden glow from his antlers.

This was the cue the concealed teenager had been looking for. With a triumphant “Ha!” as she jumped up from her concealing observation blind, Twilight Sparkle released the spells she had been keeping in readiness for this occasion. The rag rug underneath the reindeer coiled up around his ankles to hold him tight, while the thaumaturgic crystals she had concealed in the Hearth’s Warming tree blazed into light, extinguishing the relatively weak light around the reindeer’s antlers. Startled, the huge reindeer attempted to take a step backwards, but wound up landing on his rear on the floor with a oddly-quiet thump.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! I mean, ho, ho, ho!” announced the startled reindeer.

“Don’t move, imposter!” commanded Twilight, lighting her horn with a second series of spells as the fireplace behind him burst into a bright, cheery fire to illuminate the room.

“I think you have things—” started the reindeer, only to cut off abruptly as the ribbons from all of the nearby packages neatly slithered off their boxes and wrapped themselves around him in a multi-colored cocoon.

“I knew it,” crowed Twilight Sparkle, taking a moment to dance around in a small circle in her observation blind. “You’re not really Santa Hooves. You’re a fake! Santa Hooves, if he were real, which he isn’t, would have been here two hours ago.”

“Got tied up in an unscheduled sleet storm outside of Manehattan,” growled the huge reindeer. “Some kid in Cloudsdale let sub-quality clouds out for the Hearth’s Warming snowfall they were supposed to have scheduled, and it iced up the whole eastern coast.” He harrumphed in a very elderly, cranky way. “Somepony’s going on the Naughty List for life for this stunt.”

“Likely story,” sneered Twilight. “You’re a burglar, here to steal our Hearth’s Warming presents before we open them tomorrow, just like all of the other families you’ve stolen presents from…” She trailed off as she looked inside the mouth of the huge sack the reindeer had been carrying. “Wow, that’s a lot of presents.”

“I told you,” said the reindeer with a sigh. “I’m not going to be able to make all of my stops tonight. I’m late.”

The word sent a little twitch of annoyance up Twilight’s flanks, and she turned to poke at what little of the red coat and wide belt could be seen through the wrapping of ribbons. “I see you got the costume right, but the Santa Hooves of mythology has five buttons on his coat, and you only have… Um… Well, Santa Hooves is supposed to have a bag of magic sand from the Sandpony which he uses to keep anypony from seeing him. Where is your bag of magic sand, imposter?”

“Right…” The reindeer struggled briefly with his bonds and fixed Twilight Sparkle with a questioning look, complete with raised eyebrow and a tiny bit of a smile at the corner of his lips.

“Oh, right,” said Twilight, lighting her horn and unwrapping some of the ribbons and rug tendrils holding him in place. “But just one hoof. The rest of them stay tied up until I show my parents and they have the police take you to jail.”

“I’m afraid they might do that if you tell them I’m a thief, Miss Sparkle. Night Light has always been on the Nice list, and so has Twilight Velvet.” The reindeer shook his head, waving his antlers close to the ceiling as Twilight continued to unwind the ribbons around his forehoof. “There are some advantages to being a little omniscient, Twilight Sparkle, and some disadvantages too. Sometimes if you get so carried away with the big things, you miss the little things, like somepony who sets a trap for you in her living room. I thought you were tucked into your bed tonight, little filly”

“I’m not a little filly any more,” declared Twilight proudly. “I’m Princess Celestia’s student, and the top of my class in school. I’m still physically under the age of adulthood, but I’m far older mentally. All of the children are snug in their beds,” she declared with a confident air. “I’m no longer a child, but I made sure Spike was tucked in, and we even had sugarplums at dinner tonight so he’ll dream of them. I covered all possibilities.”

The big reindeer chuckled in a deep, throaty laugh which jiggled his frostbitten jowls. “You’re a bright one, just like your brother.” One boot-clad hoof was cautiously shaken free of the loose ribbons around it and flexed as if to relieve a cramp. “I’d be honored if you would shake my hoof, Twilight Sparkle.”

“Certainly, Mister Burglar.” Twilight stuck out her hoof to shake, but instead, the reindeer made a quick motion at his belt that covered the bottom of his hoof in golden sand, which he then blew into her face with a quick puff.

“Sandy’s sand gets ‘em every time,” he said with a chuckle, which slowly died out as Twilight Sparkle looked back at him with a growing grin.

“Sunbeam’s Studious Student Spell,” said Twilight Sparkle. She took a deep breath of the sparkling sand drifting through the air and let it out with a contented sigh. “Smells like peppermint.”

The reindeer blinked in surprise. “You cheated.”

Twilight smiled back at him. “I took precautions. Since I cast it, I can’t fall asleep until dawn, so your sleeping powder didn’t have any effect on me at all. Now, look at the camera and smile. I want to take a picture of us for my report to Princess Celestia.”

The huge reindeer gave an equally huge sigh. “Go ahead. I know when I’m beat.” He barely blinked as the camera flash went off, then took a deep breath and continued, “It’s just not my night, I suppose. It hasn’t been this bad in almost a thousand years. I just got done reading a letter from a little farm filly who lost both of her parents, and I’m not in the mood to argue.”

“She… lost her parents?” Twilight looked upstairs instinctively at where her own parents were sleeping soundly even though she could not see through the wood and plaster to reassure herself they were still there. Even though the big reindeer was not really Santa Hooves, he had spoken with such decisiveness that her confidence was beginning to waver. “What did you do to them?” she asked, trying to maintain her scientific neutrality.

He shot Twilight a cross look, a deep frown replacing the laugh wrinkles at the corner of his eyes with unaccustomed grooves. “I’m not some sort of monster, Miss Sparkle. I would never hurt any creature. There was an accident on their farm just a few months ago, and now she’s facing her first Hearth’s Warming with only her siblings and her grandmother for support. As an immortal, we forget how mortals can be taken away from us so quickly.”

Twilight ducked her head for a moment. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to imply you were… If you’re really Santa Hooves, can’t you do something for her?”

“There’s nothing I can do for a broken heart, Twilight. I can’t bring loved ones back, no matter how much they’re missed. All I can do is help families across Equestria and beyond pull together on this one magical night. Or at least try.” Tears began to well up in those dark eyes as he sniffed. “Maybe it’s time to pack in the sleigh and retire if I can be caught by a little… I mean young mare such as yourself.” The reindeer started to wipe his nose on the sleeve of his red coat, only to have Twilight Sparkle levitate an entire box of tissues over to him instead. “Thank you,” he added before blowing his voluminous nose.

“You’re welcome,” she replied. “You’re very polite and convincing for a burglar,” she added. “I mean, dressing up as Santa Hooves to rob houses on Hearth’s Warming Eve only gives you one night a year to steal all of the presents from as many houses as you can reach, but even if you managed to steal every present under every family tree in the block, you would still—”

The reindeer raised one large hoof. “Little Acorn next door is still on the Naughty List for putting a rock in the snowball he threw at you, and Evangeline Nightingale at the end of the block has been reading off of her friend’s tests in school, so she’s out too.”

“Well, good,” said Twilight, unconsciously raising one hoof to rub at the back of her head where the knot still was. “Excepting houses where children are on the Naughty List—”

“And most houses where there are no children,” said the reindeer. “Sometimes I’ll slip a little necklace or shawl under the tree for some of the older folks, but mostly I keep to ties.”

“Ties,” said Twilight slowly. “Right. Like the one—”

“—with the Hearth’s Warming trees on it which your father wears when you unwrap the presents every year,” said the reindeer as a little twinkle began to show in his dark eyes again.

Twilight Sparkle eyed the reindeer, keeping her brows drawn together and her lips set in a thin line. This was getting far too close to something she was not willing to admit. Either the burglar was the most talented and convincing crook in Equestria, or…

“Lyra Heartstrings,” said Twilight. “What did I give her for a present this year?”

“A copy of Plotemy’s Harmonics, which you gave to her already last year and forgot about it.”

“Twinkleshine,” said Twilight quickly.

“She wanted a gopher snake for a pet. You got her a rare copy of Vicca’s Venomous Vermin, third edition, slightly used with a crease on the cover. You forgot to get your brother a present this year, like you do every year, you got your father a copy of Plotemy’s Syntaxis and Tetrabiblos which he already has two copies of, and your mother a fern.” He clucked his tongue and shook his head, making his jowls wobble again. “A fern. Really?”

“She likes ferns,” said Twilight Sparkle, feeling a little defensive as well as nervous.

“You like ferns,” said the reindeer. “Spike doesn’t eat them, they’re tolerant of being left dry for a while, and you can’t think of anything else to give her. What she really wants for Hearth’s Warming… is you. Every year, you come home from the castle, spend the night, and are back with Princess Celestia by noon. The little farm filly who lost her parents would give everything she has just to spend another hour with them, and you treat your family as if they were an inconvenience.”

“I do not,” objected Twilight, although without much of the vigor she would have preferred. “I love them, and I’ve spent…” She paused to think, counting up the hours she had spent with either of her parents or Shining Armor over the last year. It did not take much time, even going back and checking her calculations twice. “They’re busy a lot, and Shiny is assigned to Cloudsdale with his job in the Royal Guard, so he’s not home very often,” she mumbled.

The reindeer gave out another sigh. “I don’t have any young ones to spend time with, which is why I love to give what I have to all of the children of the world. Ponies, griffons, donkeys, dragons. It doesn’t matter. The joy they have from being with their families and opening up their presents, that’s what I do this for. When you give from the heart, it comes back ten times, a hundred times as strong.”

Twilight Sparkle paused, victorious in her test but feeling as if she had just received an ‘F-’ on her final. She lit her horn again, and the ribbons all dropped away while the thin rags of the rug spun back together, releasing the ancient mythical creature who she had spent so much time and effort capturing. A second and third flash of her horn released the rest of the enchantments holding him captive, and the fireplace died down to dim, glowing coals.

“I’m sorry, Santa,” said Twilight in a bare whisper. “I was thinking so much about myself that I forgot how much you mean to others. Go ahead and put me on the Naughty List from here on. It will give you more time to spend with ponies who deserve you.”

“You really mean it, don’t you?” rumbled the huge reindeer, moving slowly through the living room until he could drape a warm, coat-clad foreleg over Twilight’s shoulders. “I’ve seen a lot of youngsters try to get off the Naughty List in every way possible, but now I’ve seen something I seldom see on my yearly trip.”

“What?” asked Twilight with a sniff.

The reindeer lit his own broad horns and floated the tissue box back over to Twilight, waiting until she had finished blowing her nose before continuing. “Sincerity. It’s the sign of a large heart, Twilight Sparkle. Someday, you will be an even greater unicorn than you can imagine. Ponies and all other creatures will look up to you.”

“Like Santa Hooves?” asked Twilight Sparkle.

“Like I used to be,” admitted the reindeer.

“Like you are,” insisted Twilight. “I thought you were a myth because nopony… I mean noreindeer could possibly be all the things I was told.”

“That’s the problem, Twilight Sparkle,” rumbled the huge reindeer. “No pony or reindeer could possibly be all I’m supposed to be. The more Santa Hooves is looked at and examined in a scientific fashion, the less he becomes, until someday he just fades away into nothing. Santa is belief in all which is good and happy about Hearth’s Warming, not photographs and scientific articles.”

There was a very long and silent space of time, broken only by the faint pop of dying coals in the fireplace that filled the Sparkle family living room with dancing shadows, much as it had done for the many generations who had lived in the house over the centuries. While Twilight had been decorating the tree, she had found many hoof and horn crafted ornaments from distant ancestors who had grown up under this roof. Few of them had been familiar to her, other than the dusty linked horseshoes with ‘Shinging Armor’ and ‘Twight Sparkl’ drawn in sparkly crayon across each section. It was one of the first memories she had of being a family, as they all had gathered around the kitchen table with glue and glitter on a Hearth’s Warming Eve so many memories ago. There had been no shared ornaments more recent than a few years ago when Shiny had bronzed his first Colt Scout achievement badge in Foalsitting, and nothing at all from this year which she had spent mostly in silent planning for this shattered moment.

“I believe,” said Twilight Sparkle in a near whisper. “Just for this one night, I’m willing to set aside my journals and my reports. You’re late making your trip this year, and I believe you can still make your rounds, with a little help.”

“Or a little helper?” asked the reindeer, cocking his head to one side as the twinkle came back into his eyes and the smile crept back onto his face, settling down in the comfortable laugh wrinkles and dimples as if it had never left. “Are you volunteering to help guide my sleigh tonight?”

“Yes!” Twilight cringed and looked upstairs, as if she expected to hear heavy hoofsteps coming downstairs to check out the noise. “Yes,” she added, in a much quieter voice. “Please?”

“How could I refuse? But first, we need to get you dressed for the trip. It’s a cold night out there, and I cover all of Equestria. I think… this one should do the trick.” A present labelled ‘To Twilight Sparkle, From Mom’ floated up in the air and unwrapped itself, and the resulting festive hoodie revealed was quickly wriggled into by the new assistant Santa, with an additional stocking hat snugged down over her head.

“I’m ready,” declared Twilight Sparkle. “If you let me hold the list, I’ll get the presents out before you land at each house. We should be able to save enough time to catch up with your schedule and still finish on time, if we hurry.”

“Very well, Twilight Sparkle. We should get started right away.” Santa shouldered his bag and turned towards the fireplace with Twilight right behind him.

“You go on up the chimney like you normally do,” she started, “I’ll sneak out the front door and climb up on the roof—”

A cloud of glittering dust surrounded the two of them, whirling around in a tornado before vanishing up the chimney. There was a pause, the sound of quiet retching, and a very soft voice filtering down from the roof.

“Next time, let me use the door.”

Impending dawn was tinting the snow-covered towers and houses of Canterlot with a soft pink glow in the magical moment before the young ponies of Equestria would throw off their blankets and rush to the tree to find out what presents they had been given. In the Sparkle household, it was still very quiet. Night Light and Shining Armor were in the kitchen, sneaking a few nibbles from Twilight Velvet’s table where she was whipping up a few snacks for the Sparkle family tradition of opening their presents at dawn, but the rest of the house was still quiet and dark.

Except for the fireplace in the living room.

A familiar trail of sparkles swept down the chimney and formed into the shapes of a large, tired reindeer and a small, exhausted unicorn, who seemed too tired to be disturbed by her odd method of transportation. The fireplace had long since gone cold, and Twilight Sparkle rubbed her forehooves together to chase away some of the chill seemingly embedded throughout her coat all the way down to her tail.

“Next time, I’m bringing a heavier coat,” she whispered through chattering teeth.

“Next time?” The jolly but tired reindeer at her side shook his head. “I’m sorry, Twilight Sparkle. You’re a mortal. There can’t be a next time. I’m a myth, just like you said, and if I were to take you on my yearly journey every year, I would become real to you, and that would mean the end. No more Santa Hooves. Ever.”

“But what about your trip? There are more and more good little ponies every year in Equestria, and we just barely managed to get done on time this year. We don’t want to miss any of them!” Twilight scurried over to her observation blind and held up her notebook. “I can make us an optimized Traveling Salespony route to cover every house and the Griffon kingdoms too. There are package packing algorithms to consider, and…” Twilight Sparkle slowed to a halt in the middle of her observation blind. “And all of that would take away from the magic of the season and make you more real.”

“I’m afraid so.” The reindeer plodded over to Twilight, still huddled up behind her stack of presents as the bright light of dawn pierced the house windows and illuminated her hiding spot.

“I see,” said Twilight Sparkle, sitting down and putting her head between her forelegs. “At least I’ll have my memories of tonight.”

“I’m afraid not.”

Twilight Sparkle looked up just as the cloud of sand was blown into her face.

“Twiley? Hey, Twiley. Wake up, kid. Did you spend the whole night down here?”

Twilight Sparkle blinked in the bright light that filled the living room, looking at the rest of her family gathered around a crackling fire in the fireplace. Presents had been sorted into various piles, and Twilight Velvet had a foreleg around Spike, who could hardly be restrained from diving into his nose-first. Shining Armor loomed over her with his irresistible smile, reaching down with one hoof to help her up.

“Shining Armor! I’ve got to tell you where I’ve been!” Twilight stumbled to her hooves and moved the boxes out of the way while her brother chuckled.

“Twiley, you’re as cold as ice. Come over by the fire and warm up. Here, Cadence sent you a pegasus down fleece blanket from Cloudsdale.” He tucked the sky-blue blanket around her shoulders and moved her in front of the fireplace where Night Light, wearing his traditional holiday tie, floated over a mug of hot chocolate with a thick froth of melted marshmallows.

“Thanks, Dad. Shiny.” She took a deep drink of the hot chocolate and bounced in place. “You’ll never believe it! I got to ride on Santa Hooves’ sleigh tonight, and we went all over the world, delivering presents!”

“I see you opened up some of yours early,” chided Twilight Velvet as she used her magic to smooth out the wrinkled sweater across Twilight Sparkle’s shoulders. “And isn’t that the hat I got for Shiny?”

“Yes. I mean, no! I mean why don’t you believe me?” Twilight Sparkle looked at her family and their happy smiles, all with a sense of head-shaking at the silly antics of the ‘little sister’ of the house. “It was real,” she continued with a fading enthusiasm. “We went to… somewhere. And a bunch of cities. There were so many presents.”

“None for me again this year, sis?” said Shining Armor with a chuckle. “I’ll have to get Spike to add it to your checklist for next year.”

“Checkliss!” declared Spike, attempting to wriggle out from Twilight Velvet’s experienced grasp. “Presents?”

“Wait a minute!” Twilight dashed across the living room over to the camera, where she pulled the photo out of the bottom with a flourish. “I have proof!” she declared, waving the photo in her magic as it developed. “We were standing right there where…”

The picture did indeed show a pair of hooved quadrupeds, caught by the inescapable light of the camera flash. Shining Armor was hunched over the table with his cheeks bulging due to being stuffed with his favorite gingerbread cookies, while Night Light was drinking the milk.

“Busted,” said Shining Armor as he floated the picture over to their parents and nudged Twilight back towards the warm fireplace again.

“This one is going in the scrapbook,” declared Twilight Velvet. “Now, if everybody is ready, I think it’s time to open the presents before a little dragon gets cranky.”

Spike let out a happy cry and plunged into the giant pile of boxes with all the skill of a cliff diver, but all Twilight Sparkle could do was sigh and lean up against her mother, who ran a warm hoof up her cheek and held her close.

“It seemed so real,” whispered Twilight Sparkle. “I guess I’ll never know if Santa Hooves is real or not. This was the last year where I was too young to be an adult and too old to be a child.”

“We all grow up,” said Twilight Velvet with a long stroke of her hoof down Twilight’s mane. “The Winter Wrap-Up Rabbit, Buck Frost, Santa Hooves. They’re all creations of our foalhood. I thought you were too old to believe in Santa Hooves any more, dear.”

“Yeah.” Twilight Sparkle leaned harder against her mother for a moment, and then sat up straight. “Let’s get the presents opened up. I need to go tell Princess Celestia how my weekend went.”

“Twilight! Twilight!” The little dragon came bounding out from his nest of boxes with a smaller box in his claws. “Present! Present!”

“Thank you, Spike,” said Twilight Sparkle, floating the box out of his tight grasp and taking a look at the tag. “To Shining Armor, From… me?”

“Hey, I guess my little sister didn’t forget her Big Brother Best Friend Forever after all,” said Shining Armor as he floated the box over to him and began opening it. “What kind of book did you get… Hey, this isn’t a book.”

‘This’ turned out to be a glass snow globe containing a small but intricate crystal castle which seemed to fairly spring out of the base in tall spires and impossible arches, and was covered in a thick blanket of snowflakes that drifted around lazily when shaken. It was a beautiful work of fantasy art which brought a smile to Shining Armor’s face as he turned it around and examined the contents from every angle.

“I don’t think I’m familiar with this particular castle,” said Night Light, peering over his new reading glasses. “It could be something from Lithuaneigha or Maretonia, I suppose.”

“More likely somepony just dreamed it up,” said Twilight Velvet, taking a moment away from inspecting her new fern.

“Well, I love it,” declared Shining Armor, giving it a shake to watch the snow fly. “Where did you find it, little sis?”

“I-I don’t know. I did so much shopping this year.”

Twilight Sparkle remained fairly quiet throughout the rest of the present unwrapping and distribution, even when Spike got a little piece of ribbon stuck up his nose and started a small fire with his sneeze. Her mother’s warmth felt good against her side, and entirely too infrequent an occurrence lately. By the time all of the presents had been unwrapped, adored, and cleaned up, she had made a decision.

“So, honey.” Twilight Velvet tried to stand up without tipping her daughter over, which was difficult as she had been leaning against her mother through the whole morning. “I suppose you’re going to trot off to the castle now?”

“I thought… today I would try something different,” said Twilight. “After all, I only have one family, and it would be a shame not to spend more time with all of you. I can always tell Princess Celestia about my weird dream tomorrow. Today, I’m going to spend here.” She leaned over and kissed her mother on the cheek. “Tomorrow, I’ll get you something better than a fern.”

“Oh, honey.” Twilight Velvet wrapped her hooves around her daughter in a rare hug. “This is a far better present than anything.”

Many years later, Princess Twilight Sparkle sat in front of a fireplace in her crystal castle while outside in the snow-covered town of Ponyville, the stars gave the night a brilliant glow. Spike had been put to bed long ago, and a small cedar tree nearby glittered with hoof and claw made decorations from him and all of their friends. Three generous gingerbread cookies and a glass of milk on the table completed the scene, along with Spike’s traditional claw-scrawled note to Santa Hooves.

The evening had been filled with friendship, food and family among the six young mares and one dragon who had been through so much together, but this time was just for Twilight, alone in her castle with a book.

Waiting.

When the trickle of brilliant sparkles came sweeping out into the room, Twilight put a bookmark in her reading and waited with a smile for what was to come next. A thick winter coat and scarf was sitting by her side, along with a set of snow goggles and warm winter boots, the mark of an older and wiser pony who learned from her experiences. At last, the swirl of colorful sparks swept together with a quiet ‘poomf’ of displaced air, and a large reindeer in red coat and black boots appeared.

“Hello, Santa,” said Twilight Sparkle. “Don’t bother with the sand. I’m prepared.”

The big reindeer paused with his hoof raised in front of his face and his cheeks puffed out, then blew the sand in her face anyway. “Can’t blame an old reindeer for trying,” he rumbled with a growing smile which matched the young alicorn princess. “I take it as an alicorn, you finally managed to break Sandy’s memory enchantment.”

“I remember,” said Twilight Sparkle simply. “I remember our trip now.”

The ancient reindeer shrugged and raised an eyebrow while looking at the winter weather gear at her side. “You were my best little helper. Would you care to join me again this evening? I’m running just a little later than usual.”

“Then we shouldn’t waste any time, Santa.” She shrugged into her coat and boots with a quick spell and turned to face him. “By the way, thank you. I’ve spent every Hearth’s Warming day with my parents ever since that night. Tomorrow, Spike and I will be spending the day with my parents, just like we always do, and I never would have started the tradition without you giving me a little nudge in the right direction.”

“He’s a good little dragon,” said Santa Hooves. “Nice List all the way, except for one time when he got blamed for starting a fire.” He rubbed his bearded chin with one hoof. “I seem to have forgotten to put somepony on the Naughty List for that.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Alright, I’ll tell my parents tomorrow. Now can we please get go—”

A cloud of glittering dust surrounded the two of them, whirling around in a tornado before vanishing up the crystal chimney. There was a pause, the sound of quiet retching, and a very soft voice filtering down from the roof of the castle.

“I told you, next time, let me use the door.”