Discord's First Hearth's Warming
Equestria was enveloped in cold snow, glimmering under the stars, but ponies were enveloped in warm feelings. It was Hearth's Warming Eve, the holiday dedicated to closeness and warmness, to family and friends. In fact, there was but one being in Ponyville who didn't feel the same joy ponies did.
Discord, master of chaos, lazily hung from a tree branch. He watched the warmly lit houses of Ponyville and pondered. He had a feeling he couldn't quite place. Was he sad? No, he couldn't be. Displeased? That's more like it, but not quite. Jealous? He, jealous? Of whom?
But the answer was quite obvious, and Discord was quite intelligent. He was indeed jealous. Jealous of ponies. Not just because they were inside their warm houses when he was outside in the cold. But because they had another warmth he didn't. For Hearth's Warming was indeed dedicated for family and friends, which Discord sorely lacked.
Of course he did have friends now. Technically he could spend the night with them, but who? Fluttershy was the first choice, of course. But no. She would've made plans for the night and would have told him if he was involved. She was probably spending the night with her family or her friends. Or her animals, who were her family and friends in a certain sense. Any plans she would have made for the night would no doubt be ruined by the appearance of a certain chaotic dragonequus.
Twilight Sparkle was the next to pop in to his mind. They had become closer friends after the whole 'Tirek incident'. But that was out of the question. Twilight would be nothing but angry if he were to show up uninvited. And not the good kind of angry either, the disappointed kind of angry. While Discord found it quite funny when Twilight yelled at him, he hated it when she sighed and stared at him with disapproval.
Applejack had the Apple family of dozens of ponies to choose from and Rarity probably spent the night with her sister and parents. And besides that, both of them had a slight distaste for his chaotic personality. Rainbow Dash even more than that. She would rather eat her own tail than spend a single minute with Discord.
And Pinkie Pie? Well, Pinkie Pie scared him a little. She was admirably chaotic and her laughter certainly was the kind to bring a smile to even his face. But the thought of actually spending time with her was unnerving.
How about dear Princess Celestia? No, the Princess would certainly not appreciate Discord's sudden appearance. Besides, she was most likely spending the night with her dear sister.
No. As much as Discord thought, he couldn't figure anypony -or anycreature for that matter- to spend the holiday with. And that made him jealous. And displeased. And yes, even sad. And when he realized that his face fell. He still wasn't used to feeling sad. It was hard to be anything but happy when you could have anything you wanted with just a snap of your fingers.
He did snap his fingers, and flashed next to a lit window. Peering inside he saw three ponies, a mare, a stallion and a young filly, all in front of a fireplace. Not doing anything, just, sitting. Enjoying the fact that they had each other.
Seeing them made Discord feel even worse. It felt as if he had a hole in his chest. The freezing wind crept in through that hole and made him shiver in cold. The feeling was so real that he had to bring a talon up to his chest to see if there really was a hole. There was not. Somehow it didn't make him feel any better.
Discord wiped a small tear off the corner of his eye and looked back inside. He saw something curious. A tree inside the house. A spruce by the looks of it, though trees weren't Discord's area of expertise. Even curiouser than that were the varieties of beautiful trinkets hung from the trees branches. And on top of the tree was a golden star, covered in glitter twinkling in the light of the fireplace.
Curious decoration, he thought. It had to be decoration. The entire town was decorated in a similar fashion. Bells, streamers, candles, garland, wreaths and other decorations gave the town some much needed colour in the white snow. Ponies hung up mistletoes and then avoided them while blushing. Odd traditions that the Master of Chaos didn't much care to understand.
But ponies cared. Hearth's Warming was one of the most beloved holidays, dwarfed only by the Summer Sun Celebration and maybe Nightmare Night. And why wouldn't they love a holiday dedicated to love and friendship, arguably the two most valued aspects to everypony. This time of the year was very important to so many ponies.
And then, a thought. A mischievous thought. So many ponies would be left so very devastated if that very important holiday were to disappear. A devious smile decorated Discord's face but quickly disappeared. He pondered. What would Fluttershy think? It was a relatively harmless prank compared to other things he'd done, but she was a very sensitive pegasus. Then again, he thought with a frown, she didn't think to invite him for the eve.
A prank was a prank, he decided. Nopony would be hurt but the looks on their faces would definitely be worth it. So he set out on his less than upstanding quest, starting with the decorations outside. He flew past the houses of Ponyville, followed by blinks of light as one by one the decorations disappeared. It didn't take him long to clean out the town.
He admired his handiwork as he thought about where to go next. Rainbow Dash's house seemed like a good place to start. She lived alone so there'd be a smaller chance of getting caught. And with a snap of his fingers, he was in the rainbow haired mares cloud house.
The place was surprisingly big. Though, now that he thought about it, it was made of clouds, so she could probably just make it as big as she wanted. The lights were out now, perhaps she was already asleep?
Discord looked around the house and wasn't so very surprised about the lack of decorations. Rainbow Dash didn't seem like the type of mare to fuss over decoration. He ended his search in her bedroom and was a little surprised to see it empty. She wasn't home? Well, she was probably spending the night with friends or family.
He did find what he came for though; a decorated tree shaped cloud in the corner of her bedroom. With a snap of a finger and a flash of light, the cloud tree was gone, and Discord moved on.
From the cloud window he saw his next target; Sweet Apple Acres. He could work his way from there through every house in Ponyville. With a snap of fingers, a crackle of magic and a pop as he reappeared, he was standing outside of the Apple residence. The windows weren't lit. Farm ponies did have an early morning wake up, after all. His work here started outside with the decorations hanging from the apple trees nearest to the house. After that he sneaked inside.
The tree in the living room, Apple Bloom's merry crafts projects on the fireplace mantel, the barrel labelled 'Hearth's Warming Cider' from the kitchen, every single piece of decoration. He made his way upstairs, room through room, getting rid of the decorations, room by room. Curiously though, the residents seemed to be gone. Funny, he thought, as the last wreath on Granny Smith's wall disappeared.
The lord of chaos worked his way from Sweet Apple Acres around the edges of Ponyville. House by house, he made everything disappear. And house after house he found empty. Where was everypony? He was sure most of the houses were lit before he started but now they were all dark. It bothered him, though not enough to stop the prank.
Finally he came up to the Crystal Castle of Friendship, also known as the home of Twilight Sparkle and her assistant, Spike the Dragon.
He had already cleaned away the holiday lights outside the castle, but now worked his way inside. The decorations there were assembled neatly like they were put out following a guide book. Discord guessed a lot of time and effort was put into making everything perfect. Snap of a finger, flash of light, and everything was gone. Again, neither Twilight or Spike seemed to be home. Curiouser and curiouser.
As Discord worked his way around the town towards the Carousel Boutique, he came across more and more empty houses. In fact he was now certain that nopony was home. It made his quest easier but he couldn't help that it bothered him.
But then he came to the Boutique and his pondering came to a halt. Everything in the building was decorated. From the jolly coloured carpet, to the garlands on the walls, and the candles in the windows, to the mistletoe and the bells on the ceiling. Even the plastic ponies were wearing red and green.
Discord shivered as he looked at the faceless pony forms. The first snap of his fingers drew a funny face to each of them. It made the next snap much more comfortable as their outfits flashed and turned into tutu's. He might have been getting a tad distracted, and falling back to his chaotic nature.
The next snap emptied the room of all the red and the green, leaving behind only the blue and purple that dominated the shops own decorations.
And once again, the only one home seemed to be a sleepy cat. One last snap and Opalescences tiny outfit disappeared, though Discord had to admit, the cat had done a good job ripping the outfit apart already.
Moving along the edges of Ponyville, the lord of chaos suddenly stopped. Fluttershy's cottage loomed in the horizon. Should he? He wasn't sure if he wanted to. But he didn't want to leave the job half done either. But what would she think? What would she say?
Discord's eyes clenched and he took a deep breath as he prepared for the shame he was about to feel for what he was about to do.
Then he was inside his most dearest friends cottage. The animals were all asleep and he was allowed to work undisturbed. His stay at Fluttershy's was by far the fastest. The longer he stayed the harder the lump in his throat grew. And again, the animals were the only ones home. He would've been concerned for Fluttershy, were he not distracted by the empty feeling of shame in the bottom of his stomach.
From the cottage, he moved in a spiralling motion around Ponyville, closing in towards the centre of the town. This brought him to the shops surrounding the town square, and to his personal favourite, Sugarcube Corner.
The bakery's resident's weren't there either but he didn't care as much at this point. If everypony wanted to just up and disappear who was he to argue with them. They'd come back eventually. And if not, he'd just snap his omnipotent fingers and bring them back.
Pinkie Pie's room was by far the hardest one yet. Not only was it absolutely filled with Hearth's Warming decorations, it was also filled with all kinds of other decoration that had nothing to do with the holiday.
Once he got done separating the empty balloons from the merry ribbons, he finally moved on to the last building: The Town Hall.
He flashed inside and froze. He was standing at the back of the stage. Immediately in front of him were his six little pony friends, along with Spike, with their backs towards him. And beyond them, an audience of what looked like everypony in Ponyville. Nopony noticed him yet as they were caught up singing.
The fire of friendship lives in our hearts
As long as it burns we cannot drift apart
Though quarrels arise, their numbers are few
Laughter and singing will see us through
We are a circle of pony friends
A circle of friends we'll be to the very end
The beautiful song ended in a loud shocked gasp from the audience that had just noticed the draconequus. The six performers turned around to face him and Discord found himself speechless, an annoying occurrence that had surely never happened before his reformation.
“Discord! I'm so glad you made it," Fluttershy beamed.
“Made it?" Rainbow Dash asked. “What's he doing here?”
“Oh. I invited him to see our Hearth's Warming Eve pageant,” Fluttershy explained. “Did you like it?”
“What pageant?” Discord wondered out loud and immediately regretted his words as a disappointed sadness washed over his friend.
“You missed it? Oh goodness, didn't you get the invitation?”
He did get an invitation. He vaguely remembered chuckling at the thought of crashing some poor pony's party after getting a letter he thought had been sent to the wrong address.
“I'm sorry Fluttershy,” he said. “I'm sure it was great. Maybe I can go back in time and sneak in to see it?” Following those words a silent pop could be heard from up the rafters to anyone listening for it.
“Well, you're welcome to spend the rest of the night with us,” Twilight said. “We're heading to the castle for the rest of the night.”
Rainbow Dash groaned. “It's Hearth's Warmin', Rainbow,” Applejack scolded. “And Discord's our friend. He should be welcome to celebrate with us.”
A smile graced the draconequus' face and quickly fell as Twilight spoke again: “Well, let's get going then.”
“Wait!" he yelled. “You can't go yet.”
“Why not?”
“Because, umm...”
But before he could come up with something, a cyan pegasus dashed through the front door to the snowy outside and screamed.
“What did you do Discord!?”
Before he had time to stop them, everypony in the building ran outside to witness his prank. A long silence fell over the crowd. Finally, a shy uncertain voice ended it.
“Tadaa,” he sighed as he stood on the door to the Town Hall.
Fluttershy looked disappointed. Twilight Sparkle stared at him with disapproving anger. Applejack and Rarity refused to look straight at him and instead directed their disapproval somewhere just behind him. Rainbow Dash looked ready to pummel him.
“Why would you do such a meanie pants thing, Discord?” Pinkie screamed. “You're supposed to be a nice evil lord of chaos!”
“I'm sorry Fluttershy,” he whispered.
“I'm sorry,” he continued, now louder so everypony could hear. “It's just a harmless little prank, right? I just- I thought none of you wanted me with you on Hearth's Warming and I- I'm sorry...”
Fluttershy's disappointment melted in to a warming smile.
“It's okay, Discord,” she said as she pulled him into a friendly hug. “Just bring everything back, alright?”
With a weak smile, Discord brought up a talon and snapped his fingers.
Flashes of light spread out across all of Ponyville as all the decorations reappeared, both on the outside as well as inside every house. All the lights came together in the middle of the Town Square to form the largest of the decorations. A tree as tall as the surrounding houses, covered from top to bottom in all kinds of different decorations.
And above that tree was something he was sure wasn't there earlier: a twinkling purple magical heart, at least twice the size of Discord, shining a gentle light all over the Ponyville residents below.
“Happy Hearth's Warming, everypony!” he exclaimed, getting a roar of cheers for return.
Twilight glanced above Discord, and smirked mischievously. She nudged Fluttershy, who looked up as well and blushed. With a simultaneous nod, both the pegasus and the alicorn took off the ground.
Discord looked up as well and noticed a mistletoe on the door frame above him. Just as he looked back down, his two pony friends landed a friendly kiss on both sides of his face.
Discord could feel his face burning as a blush covered his cheeks, a soft tingling left behind by the lips of the two mares. The six pony friends laughed as the draconequus beamed and steam started to blow out of his ears.
And so, Discord's first Hearth's Warming turned out to be his best Hearth's Warming.
Author's Note
I'm feeling weirdly jolly about Christmas this year. I honestly can't remember when I last got this much to the spirit of the season. So that's mostly why this happened. I nearly ended the story with the 'his heart grew three sizes that day' line but I just couldn't bring myself to do it.
So, if you read this story, I wish you'd give your opinion as well as point out any grammatical errors. Just any constructive criticism that helps me improve my writing.
