Good evening everypony! It's time to announce the winners of our latest fanfiction contest!!! First, I want to apologize for taking so long to announce the results. Just haven't been able to make time for it lately, what with grad school being super busy this semester and all. Anyways, onto the results! We had some great fics submitted to this contest, and I want to thank everyone who took the time to write and submit an entry for it. They were a lot of fun to read through and I'm sure many members of our community have enjoyed reading them as well.

Without further ado, here are the winners of the Poniverse Fimfiction Hearth's Warming Eve Contest 2.0!!!

Winners

First Place: Facing the Cold by TooShyShy

Our first place winner most thoroughly captured this contest's theme of charity during Hearth's Warming Eve out of any of our entries. This lovely little one-shot by TooShyShy features Scootaloo pretty down in the dumps on Hearth's Warming Eve, and for good reason, mind you. However, when she meets an unexpected visitor, some even more unexpected holiday bonding occurs, and both she and this stranger learn a little something special. What made this fic stand out is how it so thoroughly captured how giving one's company to another alone during the holiday season can be charitable in and of itself, as can the smallest acts of kindness, even if in the grand scheme of things they don't change that much. Beautiful in its simplicity, this fic is without a doubt the best one we had this time around. Congratulations TooShyShy, and thank you for writing such a lovely fic!

Second Place: A History of Giving by Silver Letter

The newest addition to Poniverse Mascot canon, A History of Giving follows Pixel Wavelength's youngest daughter, Prism Wavelength, from her own POV. It's a very quiet story largely consisting of Prism's internal monologue, which made it actually very unique in its own right. But what made it truly special is how this fic tackled charity too. In this case, the reader gets to see how one who's come from a privileged background is able to develop a charitable spirit, even if things aren't going so well for them. Once again, as in our first place winning fic, charity is more than simply giving material goods; it's an aspect of one's character and behavior, and while a bit melancholy at times, overall this fic makes for a very pleasant and relaxing read.

Third Place: The Gift of Music by Paradox Pon3

Our third place fic probably tackles charity the most traditionally of any of our winning fics. The Gift of Music is basically your run-of-the-mill, standard holiday romance story, though that's not to say that just because it covers some tried and true tropes that it isn't a delightful read, it very much is. Paradox Pon3 handles both Octavia and Vinyl Scratch here splendidly as they work through a rough patch in their relationship in the midst of the holiday season, and while some problems are possibly resolved a bit too easily, overall, this fic is well worth taking a look at and very fun all around. A very, very solid read indeed.

Honorable Mentions

While we didn't have too many other entries this time around, there is one which I would like to call attention to. Our final entry of the contest, The Merry Mystery by SilverStream2 is her first Fimfiction fic ever, as well as the longest entry we received. While it's a bit rough around the edges, it's clearly a story that the author put a lot of heart and passion into, and that alone actually makes it an enjoyable read. The story itself is pretty basic, though ambitiously combines both Poniverse mascots with many, many canon characters, including the Mane 6, and it's hard not to enjoy a story when it's clear the author cared about writing and telling it so much. If you have the time, I'd definitely say it's worth taking a look at.

Well, that's about it for this contest everypony! Once again, a very big thank you to everyone who participated, and to anyone looking for a good read, I'd highly recommend you check some of these stories out! Till next time everypony, this is Batbrony signing off. I'm off! *cue dramatic exit*

WOO-HOO!!! Congrats to the winners <3 your stories were really enjoyable. You guys deserve it!

Congratulations to all the winners as well as the Honorable mention. All were very well deserving of praise. Congrats once more.

Midnight Blossom