Playing Santa
"Cadence, Cadence! Look at meeee!"
Cadence laughed as Twilight jumped around in the snow, happy about how much there was. It was the first snow of the season and there had been quite a lot of it. Cadence was foalsitting and decided to take Twilight out into the snow. Cadence was very happy to see the young filly enjoying herself. Just then, from behind a large pile of snow, a small laugh was heard.
"Psst, Twilight, come here real quick," Cadence said, her eyes narrowing at the snow pile.
Twilight ran over to her foalsitter, unsure of what she wanted. The little filly was out of breath from running around and her cheeks were a rosy red from the cold.
"Huh? Cadence, what's wrong?" Twilight asked, tilting her head to the left in confusion.
Cadence pointed to the snow pile and motioned with her hooves to tell Twilight to be quiet. She used a simple levitation spell and picked up some snow, packing it into a ball.
"Twilight, you see that snow pile?"
"Uh-huh..."
"You hear how it's laughing?"
"They aren't supposed to do that..."
"No, no they aren't... I think we have a vicious snow monster hiding behind there."
Twilight gasped, "Really?"
"Mhmm... We have to surprise it and attack it with snow balls or it could... uhm... it could destroy Christmas!"
Twilight paused. "Christmas?"
"Uhh... You know what Christmas is right...?" Cadence was confused as to how the filly didn't know what the winter holiday was.
Twilight shook her head no and looked up at Cadence wanting to know of the new holiday.
"Well... There's a big, nice pony named Santa Hooves and he comes on Christmas Eve with presents. Ponies get other ponies presents as well to show how they care about one another. Christmas is a time of caring and love for all! All the ponies are especially nice to each other and we spread cheer throughout Equestria!"
Twilight looked up at Cadence with wide eyes, "Woah..." she breathed.
"Mhmm, it sounds nice though doesn't it?"
"It sounds great! We gotta stop that snow monster from destroying it!" Twilight bent down, picking up some snow in her hoof and proceeded to make a snowball.
"Okay," Cadence said when Twilight finished her snowball, "we need to get this snow monster by hitting him with a snowball, alright-"
Cadence watched as Twilight screamed "CHARGE!" and ran at the snow bank throwing the lone snowball over it. A small yelp was heard as Twilight ran at the snow pile and jumped over it to the "snow monster".
"Twilie!" the snow monster yelled, it's face covered in snow.
"HOW DO YOU KNOW MY NAME, CHRISTMAS DESTROYER?!" Twilight cried, latching onto the monster's leg.
"Twilight!" the monster laughed, falling over into the snow. Cadence walked over with a smile on her face watching the two play.
"WHOOO ARE YOU SNOW MONSTER?!" Twilight cried, wiping the snow off the snow monster's face to reveal that it was... Shining Armor, her brother.
"Twilie, it's just me! Your B.B.B.F.F.?" Shining Armor laughed.
Twilight gasped, "You're an evil snow monster?! How are you gonna be in the royal guard if you're destroying Christmas?"
"Uhhh..." Shining looked at Cadence, "What did you tell her?"
"Oh I don't know... Christmas destroyer," Cadence giggled.
"Pfft, why would I destroy Christmas? I have a Christmas list you know!" Shining said, blushing slightly from the sight of his crush standing in front of him.
"I don't know, you tell me, Christmas destroyer..." Cadence laughed louder as Twilight hugged her snow covered brother.
-------
Later that day, at the dinner table, Twilight decided to ask her mother about Christmas.
"Mommmmy, Cadence told me about Christmas and I have some questions..." Twilight began.
Mrs. Sparkle stopped eating and sighed, she was about to get hit with some of Twilight's questions. These questions usually went on for about an hour and Mrs. Sparkle had to explain everything in detail to the young filly before she would be satisfied.
"Alright... So Cadence said that Santa Hooves leaves presents, how does he do it?" Twilight asked.
"Well... He has a list, of good and bad colts and fillies and if you're good you get presents and if you're ba-"
"Nononono! I meant, how does he get them in your house? Is he some weirdo spy?" Twilight interrupted.
Shining Armor, who was listening in, laughed into his food. Of course Twilight would think Santa was a weirdo spy and would question where the presents came from, only that filly would.
Mrs. Sparkle shot Shining a glare only a mother could pull off before continuing, "Well, he comes down the chimney and he leaves presents under the Christmas tree and we leave cookies out for him to eat."
"Wait, wait, wait... You're letting a random pony into our house? And then you feed him?" Twilight questioned.
"Uhh..."
Shining Armor burst into laughter and was unable to eat. Mrs. Sparkle sighed and began picked her daughter up with magic, "Bedtime, Twilight."
"But I still have more questi-"
"Bedtime."
Twilight grumbled as her mother carried her away from the table where Shining Armor was still laughing.
-----
Twilight woke up the next day and got out of bed to grab a paper and pencil. Her mother had told her that if she wanted presents from Santa she needed to write him a letter.
Twilight began to write on the sheet of paper carefully.
Dear Santa Hooves, my mommy said that you come into our house during the night and leave presents but also eat our food. What I want for Christmas is for you to not break anything or steal anything.
Love,
Twilight Sparkle
Twilight smiled, proud of her letter. That would teach that weirdo spy not to do anything bad. Twilight thought about what Cadence had said about Christmas and about how not only Santa gave presents, but how ponies gave other ponies presents.
Twilight hadn't gotten anypony presents.
Twilight twitched slightly before running around in circles yelling.
"WHAT DO I DO?! I NEED TO GET EVERYPONY PRESENTS! Well, everypony I know! Shiny needs one, and mommy, and daddy, and Cadence! What do they even need?!"
Twilight ran over to her piggy bank, which sat on her dresser. She picked up the bank carefully and opened it, shaking the contents out. Inside was 30 bits which she had earned from doing chores. 30 bits should be enough, right? But what did everypony need? Twilight sat and decided to think about what to get all her loved ones.
Cadence liked everything, she was the princess of love! What did she really like though? She liked Twilight, she liked Shiny (everypony could tell, she wasn't very good at hiding her crush), but what did she really really like? Twilight thought for a moment, trying to remember when Cadence had been really happy from somethingm then she thought of it. Flowers!
Cadence loved flowers! Roses! She really liked roses! Twilight jumped up and grabbed another sheet of paper and the pencil to write down what she needed. She drew Cadence, (as well as she could), and drew a rose next to her.
Now... Shiny... Shiny liked Cadence, he liked his family, he wanted to be a royal guard. What did he need?
Twilight sighed. Figuring out what everypony needed was going to take awhile...
-----
Two hours later, Twilight stood in the market. The market was a large place full of ponies, it had many goods and Twilight knew she would be able to find everything. She had sneaked out of the house when her mother wasn't looking, she was sure mommy wouldn't mind! I mean, presents are super duper important!
Twilight looked around for the flower stand, she needed to find Cadence's roses. Ponies were everywhere and she got knocked forward. Twilight bit her lip and stood back up, brushing herself off. Twilight spotted the flower stand and ran forward to get to it but was knocked back by somepony.
Twilight got back up realizing something wasn't with her, the bits.
Twilight looked around before noticing a tall, unicorn colt laughing, "Thanks for the bits, pipsqueak!" the colt laughed and ran off.
Twilight sat down, defeated. How was she supposed to get presents for everypony? She had ruined Christmas. A tear dropped from Twilight's eye as she stood up and ran off. She stopped when she was out of breath and sighed. Cadence had told her how you gave everypony presents, but what if you didn't have any? Tears dripped down onto the ground as Twilight stared down in a mix of shame and sadness. A voice was heard behind her, "Twilight? Why are you crying?"
Twilight turned to see Cadence, standing with a couple of bags and a scarf on. Twilight sniffled and looked down, "I-I ruined Christmas..."
Cadence wrapped a wing around the filly, "You can't ruin Christmas, silly. What did you do?"
Twilight blushed with embarrassment as she told what had happened to her. She didn't expect Cadence's reaction.
Cadence.... laughed.
"Oh Twilight! You don't need to worry! You didn't ruin Christmas! Christmas isn't just about giving presents, it's about being with loved ones, the ones you care about! And you don't need to buy presents, the best presents are the one made from the heart."
Twilight sniffled, "R-really?"
"Of course, silly filly! Now let's get you home, Mrs. Sparkle is probably worried sick!" Cadence levitated Twilight onto her back with a smile.
"H-hey Cadence?"
"Hmm?"
"Thank you... so much."
-----
Christmas Day
Twilight jumped up out of bed and ran into Shining Armor's room.
"Shiny! Shiny! Wake up, it's Christmas!" the filly cried, jumping up onto her brother's bed and jumping on him.
"Hmm? Oof! Twilie!" Shining Armor laughed, floating her off of him with magic, "Why don't you go do that to mom and dad, I'm sure they'd love it."
"Okay!" Twilight ran into her parent's room and Shining Armor laughed when he heard a loud, "Twilight!"
"Mommy, daddy, it's Christmas! Up, up, up!" Twilight giggled. She jumped off the bed and ran into the living room where the Christmas tree sat, and where all the presents did too.
"Hey, lookie! Santa Hooves didn't break anything!" Twilight laughed, looking at the presents. She remembered she had presents for everypony. She jumped up and ran into her room, grabbing two pictures she had made. When she got back her whole family sat in the living room.
"I uhm... I made a present," Twilight said quietly, holding up a picture of her family drawn in the snow.
Mrs. Sparkle smiled and hugged her daughter, "It's wonderful, Twilight." she kissed her daughter's head lightly.
Twilight blushed slightly and laughed, this had been the best Christmas ever!