Ponies stopped believing in Santa Hooves after they did the math: flying around the whole world delivering presents in a single night is impossible.
But Petunia Paleo's cutie mark isn't for math; it's for digging up old things, like the legend of Santa Hooves. Inspired by what she sees, she does something nopony has in ages: she writes him a letter.
With Petunia's belief granting him a new lease on life, Santa sees a chance to become part of the holidays again. There's just one great big huge problem with what Petunia asked for...
This story appeared in the December 2017 Writeoff, "Here at the End of all Things." Cover art by Arifproject. Featured on Equestria Daily 15Mar.2018! 
Chapters (1)
Hadn't expexted any less from Petunia. Great work! We really need more stories with her.
Petunia story!
From CoffeeMinion!
It's a Horse Warming miracle, it is.
OK this made me smile. Happy Holidays all. By the By, I like how to kill a conceptional being, you have to kill the idea behind them.
This made me smile. It was thoughtful, sweet, and funny too.
Merry Christmas, and Happy Hearth's Warming as well!
Awesome little story.
At least he didn’t remedy the situation by going full-bore (yes, correct adjective) Robot Santa.
Petunia Paleo is the mare in the picture, right? Is she the filly from The Fault in Our Cutie Marks, the one whose parents thought she was going to grow up to be a pirate?
8631894
Yes indeed! And you might also consider checking out the group we’ve got for her.
8630475
Now what we need for the sequel is Santa vs. Mecha-Santa.
8629579
8629366
Thank you, and happy belated Christmas!
8629267
That idea is one I really enjoyed in Terry Pratchett’s Small Gods, but it’s also a trope that can make things less interesting if misapplied. Fortunately it seemed to fit this story!
8629127
8629115
Thank you, and I agree!
8632251
“Look out! His belly is shaking like a bowl full of Nitroglycerin!”
You know... I half expected Discord to make Abe Vigodadactyl to appear who would then ask, "Are we stopping for a bite to eat," I don't know why but I just sort of thought it would happen. Good times though!
8634059
Would you believe I didn't know who Abe Vigoda was before this? That's a delicious pun!
Ha, ha, ha. Oh this is cute, good show. I wondered if Thanatos speaking in all caps was drawn from Disk World, and then I saw that you reference Terry Pratchett in one of your replies, so kudos for that. Now, does this mean there is a "Thanatos of Rats" somewhere in Equestria?
Awww, I hoped Petunia would have a bigger role in here instead of just being mentioned.
It's a nice story, but one scene of Petunia taking centerstage wouldn't have hurt.
And I'm wondering who Logos is. Is that somehow related to another fic of yours?
8657408
Yes, Death naturally comes to mind when writing or reading this kind of character. I wanted to distance myself from it a little bit in the original Writeoff version of this, but during editing I figured what the heck, why not just go for it and add the [ smcaps ] tag on his dialogue.
A Thanatos of Rats!
8666138
I would've enjoyed giving Petunia more screen time as well. I'll have to do another story with her again! I didn't feel like it worked for this one, though.
Logos is just supposed to be a generalized/personified concept of logic, science, reason... boring stuff like that. Imagine a straight-laced and painfully unfunny Discord, if you dare.
He's the kind of character I could probably have fun writing, but I haven't done so thus far.
8674399
Hmm, so this means that Logos is like Accord?
8684552
I need to read that arc at some point! My impression is that Accord is more actively menacing, though. I think Logos would be more inclined to play the long game and work on the edges, slowly pushing things in the direction he wants.
8685284
You should! Accord is one of the most dangerous villains we've ever seen and one of those that were the hardest to beat.
The Pratchett is strong with this story, and I love it! Really nice take on things, can feel the Discworld influences, while still keeping it different enough to be its own thing, really well done.
Hmm, and I'm seeing Logos kind of like The Auditors, if they weren't total assholes.