There's an eternal debate over what the real purpose of Hearth's Warming is: giving gifts, reconnecting with family, remembering the Fire of Friendship, and dozens of other interpretations. It's not a dire question, and many ponies don't give a second thought about their answer.

Rarity, however, did.

If Cadance is willing to listen, she's willing to share.

Written as part of The Incredible Amazeballs Jinglemas Secret Santa Compilation. Go read everything else there, even if you don't like this story. Seriously, it's got people like shortskirtsandexplosions and KitsuneRisu in it: it's high-quality stuff.

Fleur's an aesthete, but a job is still a job - if it pays well enough, and isn't too weird, then it's usually worth the time to stand around in a designer outfit for a couple of hours.

Of course, it wasn't obvious to her just how tyrannical Svengallop actually was until she had already committed herself to a brief part in one of his music videos.

Nothing's too weird for his artistic vision. Plus, no amount of money would be worth having to deal with HIM.

Shorter than my normal fare; i'm trying to keep things short and get a feel for how self-contained stuff works. This is more for practice than anything else. "Other" characters include Svengallop and his latest Coloratura replacement.

Twilight Sparkle worries that she might one day grow bitter and spiteful, and turn into somepony akin to Nightmare Moon. To combat this, Twilight prepares a spell that will let her go inside her mind and battle her negative personality traits while they're still weak and unformed. It doesn't end well.

Rarity and Spike eventually reconstruct the notes that Twilight used to create her spell, and decide to go inside Twilight's mind to wake her from her magically-induced coma.

It also doesn't end well.

But a bad ending isn't going to stop Rarity and Spike from trying to rescue Twilight anyway.