Tinsel was flying across the early morning skies, northward, toward home. Her sleigh jingled softly behind her as the bells on her harness danced. The soft, rhythmic flapping of her wings was the only other sound on that frigid night. On her hooves, she donned 4 silky boots, red with white trim. On her silver mane rested a red hood-like hat, a white fluff trimming the edges and was the colour of the pom pom on it's tip. She smiled when she entered the North Pole, her breath living clouds of peppermint scented mist behind. She saw her elf ponies guiding her toward the runway with small orange cone lights, motioning her toward the hangar. The lights lit up, dotting the edge of the lane and she slowly and gracefully made her decent toward the snowy ground. She landed easily enough, she and her sleigh sliding to a soft stop. She trotted along, humming a little tune to herself as she made her way into the hangar.

A few elf ponies helped her remove her harness and saddle, then take it to the workshop for cleaning, repairing and eventually, storage. The sleigh would have to go through a similar process. Luckily for them, they had another 364 days before next Hearth's Warming Eve. She smiled and made her way into the largest building on the site. However it was much bigger on the inside than out. Hundreds of thousands of workbenches, machines, conveyor belts and other manufacturing equipment filled the main area, each with a multitude of elf ponies working at it. She took a few steps in, removed her boots and hat, and a small elf pony ran up to her, expertly balancing a silver tray on his head. On the tray rested a kettle and cup, each of them sending a torrent of steam from it's opening. Tinsel thanked the little elf pony and took the cup with her wing. She made her way through the main aisle between all the machines and climbed a long staircase to her office. She sipped the contents of the cup, hot cocoa, daintily so as not to burn her mouth or muzzle as she climbed the stairs, then entered her office. The office was very large, with a lone desk and black chair.

She put the cup down on the desk before making her way toward the viewing window. The window took up one entire wall of her office, and it had a set of doors that led to a large balcony. She pushed the door open and stepped onto the balcony, watching over her diligently working little elf ponies. She then approached a lone mic stand, upon which rested a golden microphone. She gently tapped it, causing a soft tapping noise to pipe over the intercom system. The noise caught the attention of all the elves, and they all looked up at the balcony expectantly. Tinsel smiled wide before speaking.

"Hello, my little elf ponies!"

"HELLO TINSEL!!"

The response boomed throughout the workshop, causing Tinsel to close one eye and tilt her head away a bit with a big smile on her face.

"Thanks to the exceptional efforts of all of you, and the amazing modifications made to my sleigh this year - to which I thank the engineering department especially - I declare this years Hearth's Warming Eve a phenomenal success!!"

Loud cheering and applause roared in the workshop, with elf ponies stomping the ground happily and others leaping up and down. Tinsel smiled and raised her hoof to calm them down and let her finish. After the cheering died down and silence rung in the air again, she continued.

"Enjoy your day off, everypony!"

The elves all cheered once more, flooding out of the workshops doors. Tinsel watched as her little helpers briskly left the workshop, eager to enjoy their day off for that week. Contrary to popular belief, the Elf Ponies are actually paid wages, they enjoy weekly days off (with no chance of a call in) and most of the time (or, more accurately, ALL of the time!) the gifts are all manufactured, assembled, packaged and wrapped months before Hearth's Warming! So they are not mere unpaid slaves. Tinsel found ways of increasing productivity, while not having to sacrifice wages, jobs or time off. The Elf Ponies loved Tinsel for that, and Tinsel, in return, loved them. They were her only family.

She turned and walked back into her office, and her diligent little assistant elf stood by her the entire time. Tinsel smiled and turned to him.

"And what are you still doing here?" She asked sweetly.
"I'm...I'm working, Miss Tinsel."

Tinsel pat him on the head gently with a big smile.

"It's your day off, you have no need to work today!"
"R-Really Miss Tinsel?"
"Yes, really. Go enjoy yourself. No sense cooped up in my office!"

The Elf smiled and ran out the door to play with the others, and Tinsel sighed happily, the big smile never leaving her muzzle.

"What am I gonna do with them?~"

6 months have passed, and all the presents were already wrapped and stocked. Tinsel sat in her office, stacks and stacks of letters, papers and notes, all hand-written by fillies and colts, were towering on, around and even in Tinsel's desk. She grabbed one from a pile and opened it up, giving it a read.

"Dear Tinsel, Ive ben verry gud thisyear. Can I pleez have a JoyBoy this year?
From Soda Pop, Age 4"

Tinsel giggled, then set the letter into a special machine which took his Hearth's Warming wish and found the corresponding gift, tagged it, then put it into Tinsel's bag of holding.

"Don't worry, Soda Pop." She said, watching the present get set down into her bag from her desk. "You'll get your JoyBoy."

Tinsel grabbed another letter, this one was inside a pink envelope, with magenta trimming. When she opened it, she was a little startled at the party horn sound that played, sending confetti into her face. She smiled, knowing well enough who this one was from. She pulled the cotton candy scented paper out of it's envelope and flipped it open to read it.

"Dear Tinsel. I've been super duper extra good this year! I even threw parties for all of the ponies I pranked this year too! Except Rainbow Dash, but her birthday is coming up real soon. Actually, now that I think about it, Twilight hasn't had a good party in a long time. OOOH! I should throw her a book party! Or a writing party! But that sounds an awful lot like school. And school is BOOORRR-INNNNG! Ooop, I'm sorry, I'm going on a tangent again. Twilight says I tend to do that. Oh I should tell you about the really funny joke book that I borrowed from her! Well, actually I read it over her shoulder. She doesn't like that much. Oh I'm doing it again! Drat I'm running out of paper. Lemme get another sheet. Oh wait! I can just write on the other side! Flip it over!"

Tinsel giggled again, flipping the letter over.

"Okay okay okay. So I've been really super duper extra good this year! Oh wait I already said that. Maybe you needed a reminder. But I already GAVE you a reminder..But maybe you need to be reminded that I reminded you! Okay, if you look at the back of this letter...oh wait this is the back. I mean if you go back to the start of the letter, you'll see how good I've been! Wait if you read this far you probably already read that....Oh nevermind, I'm running out of paper again and Mrs. Cake is telling me to get back to work. Okay, I really really really really really really really REALLY want a brand new cupcake oven this year! A pink one! With lots of candy and sugar! Kinda like a giant Easy Bake, only real! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!

From Pinkamena "Pinkie" Diane Pie, age 24

P.S.: I still believe in you!"

Tinsel sighed happily and tossed the letter into the ever growing pile of pink, cotton candy scented discarded letters. She's already sorted the gift and has it in her bag. The rest were just extra letters Pinkie wrote to make sure she didn't forget. It was cute, honestly.

Only 3 months remained before Hearth's Warming, and Tinsel had to make sure to double check her Naughty and Nice lists. They were both written on magical parchment paper. One scroll was written entirely in green ink that was scented like pine trees, the Nice List. The other was written entirely in red ink that smelled heavily of peppermint, the Naughty List. She unraveled the scrolls, marveling at the magic of it. They were self updating, constantly adding or removing names as ponies come and go. They also transferred names from one to the other or vice versa should the pony in question perform one bad or good deed more than the other list. She watched as names appeared and disappeared from both lists. The magic was still working. Good.

She rolled them back up and went out to the Global Tracking system she had in her workshop. Hundreds of Elves were constantly watching from their stations, each screen showing multiple ponies (and other Creatures too. Tinsel isn't biased.) doing things. She walked down a few of the aisles and suddenly a loud alarm sounded in the room.

"NAUGHTY" flashed in big red letters across the main screen which took up the entire far wall. The monitor changed to show a little filly had knocked over a vase and lied about it. Tinsel's mouth twisted softly into a small frown as she watched the little filly on the screen. "She was doing so good." Tinsel thought to herself. A mare's hoof entered on the edge of the screen, presumably the filly's mother.

"Raspberry....Did you knock over this vase?"
The little filly frowned and shook her head. "Noooo...."
"Don't lie missy...You know Tinsel is always watching you."

The filly gently kicked the ground a bit and her ears flopped downward.

"Come onnn..." Tinsel bit her lip. "Just say that you did and you won't be put onto the Naughty List...."

The elves all watched the main monitor with a hushed silence, awaiting the filly's moral decision.

"Okayyy I did it..I'm sorry....I'll clean it up."

The elves all cheered and Tinsel breathed a sigh of relief, then turned to the elf in charge of the records.

"Mark this as 'Reformed', not 'Naughty'."
"Yes Miss Tinsel."

Tinsel smiled, shaking her head slowly as the elf ran off to mark it in the records.

Finally, the day before Hearth's Warming was upon them and Tinsel needed to get ready. She donned her boots and hat, then made her way out to the hanger. The Elf ponies quickly pulled the harness down from storage and helped Tinsel into it, tightening the straps so as they weren't TOO tight, but they were tight enough. She wiggled her hips a bit, making the bells on her harness jingle softly. She looked at the elves and nodded, signalling them to get the sleigh. They saluted and ran to the back room, and pushed the sleigh out into the hangar, hooking Tinsel's harness up to the hooks on the sleigh. Once she was hooked up and ready to tow, she trotted out of the hangar doors.

The runway was lit up on both sides with red and green lights, and the Elf ponies were directing her flight path with the same orange cone lights. She nodded and started to trot, then gallop, then sprint toward the edge of the runway before spreading her wings, letting the air catch them and she started to glide upward slowly before she flapped them a few times. Soon she and the sleigh lifted off the ground and flew off into the night sky.

Her last stop this year was Ponyville, much like last year. She smiled when she remembered Twilight's discovery of her. Perhaps she'll let her spot her again. She softly landed on the roof of Sugarcube Corner and slid out of her harness. She grabbed her bag of holding and leaped into the chimney. "They never clean these things...." Tinsel thought to herself as she felt her coat rubbing against the sooty bricks. She landed in a pile of ashes, tumbling out into the den. It was always hard to land after sliding down a chimney. She opened her bag and pulled out a few gifts, then set the bag down. She poked her muzzle into the end of the bag, bit down on something, then started to pull. The bag spat out a pink confectionery oven, dragged by Tinsel. She certainly got a huge workout this year. It's no wonder how she manages to melt off those pounds of milk and cookies and stayed so thin. She sighed heavily after getting the oven in place beside the tree, then made her way back toward the chimney, bag of holding dragged behind her.

She popped back out of the chimney again, covered in another layer of ash, then shook herself clean and strapped herself into the harness again. From house to house to house to house she went, dropping off gifts and coal to the assigned pony. The truth is, she could never just leave a filly or colt a lump of coal and nothing else...She usually put a lump of coal into their stocking, but delivered their gifts too. If it was a repeat offender, a lump of coal would replace another goody in their stocking. Soon, if they were nothing but naughty, they would get nothing but a stocking full of coal, and no gifts to boot. Sometimes, they needed to be taught a lesson.

Diamond Tiara never seemed to get it, and every year she would unload a mine cart worth of coal. Silver Spoon got a similar treatment. The CMC got gifts and goodies, generally not getting a single lump of coal. Except that one year she accidentally left a lump for Sweetie Belle....

Finally, she made her way to Twilight's house. Down the chimney she went, and she emptied out her bag. She set the empty bag down and went into the kitchen. Lo and behold, there was a plate of cookies and milk like every year. She sat down and had her snack quietly, with a big smile on her face. She was glad she could make so many ponies happy. Soon she was finished with her snack and she grabbed her bag. It was oddly bumpy for an empty bag...She thought nothing of it and went back up the chimney, tossing the bag into her sleigh and strapped herself into the harness. She then took off toward home.

Arriving back home, much like last year, she sat in her office after her yearly announcement of another successful Hearth's Warming. She put the bag beside her desk in her office and sat down in the chair, humming softly as she started to sip her hot cocoa...

Only for 6 mares to tumble out of the bag unexpectedly. Tinsel spat out her cocoa in surprise and dropped the cup. She stared, gawking at the 6 ponies....Pinkie, Rainbow, Fluttershy, Rarity, Twilight and Applejack...They seemed a little dazed. Twilight shook off the daze, then grinned wide and pointed to Tinsel excitedly.

"SEE! SEE! I TOLD YOU SHE WAS REAL!!"

"Ohhhhh horseapples."

Author's Note

Yet another Christmas is coming up (or for you others out there, Hanukkah or Kwanzaa) and as a little something special for bearing with me, you get a sequel to the Tinsel story! Hurrah! Don't worry, fillies and gentlecolts. I will finish up the Human VS Five Nights at Pinkie's 2 story arc. For now, let this keep you sated.