Author's Note
Just for the record, I DO know they celebrate Hearth's Warming, but if the ponies can come out with a legit Christmas album which features Fluttershy singing Silent Night and giving everyone diabeetus...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd72-9PZDYY
...I think we're good
Act One
A few days before Christmas, and the air was filled with holiday anticipation and snow. A whole lot of snow, to be precise. In recent days, a significant cold front had been moved in by the hard working pegasus teams, who had a brilliant white Christmas Day planned which required quite a few extra clouds. As such, the temperature had dropped quite suddenly overnight, and swirling flakes and howling winds filled the air. Most of the streets were deserted as smarter equine folk stayed home in front of their fires, but a few braved the elements.
A four legged figure clad heavily in a jacket, boots, and scarf obscuring most of its face was struggling through the howling winds, pushing its way through the incoming blizzard only to look left, then right, then cross the street. The street lamps were lit with illumination magic but even they could hardly be seen through the snow. The figure pushed its way into a tidy little storefront with toys of all sorts placed lovingly in the front windows. The act of opening the door set off the furious tinkling of a bell overhead, which in turn drew the attention of a young male gryphon who was minding the counter, doing a crossword puzzle and looking bored out of his mind.
"Whoa, hey, first customer I've seen today." He sounded more concerned rather than excited. "You sure it's a good idea to be out in a storm like this?"
The figure in question drew back its hood and scarf, revealing a startling abundance of purple and a long, spiraling horn. "It's not a matter of good or bad," she said. "I've just GOT to get a few extra things for my niece. I was worried I wouldn't have enough for her."
Enter Twilight Sparkle. An alicorn with a mind for science and love of all things literary. Miss Sparkle's life has, thus far, been formulated with an abundance of logic and precision. Even the magic spells which she so frequently practices must be carefully crafted. Today, however, Twilight Sparkle is about to embark on a journey not of logic but of chance, finding herself caught up in an equation who's answer can only be found...
...In the Twilight Zone.
"Well, let's see here," the gryphon rubbed his chin. "What's your niece's name? What's she like to do?" He crossed his scaley front legs and leaned them on the counter, trying to appear invested in the conversation. Christmas was still two days away, and every sale mattered, after all.
"Skyla," Twilight replied. "She's one. She likes pretty much everything." Twilight looked around for a moment, glancing occasionally outside, her brow furrowing with nervous uncertainty at seeing the progression of the storm. She fidgeted slightly, poking through a large bin of alphabet blocks. They were a little on the foal's side of things, too much so for Skyla.
The gryphon, who had disappeared into the back, returned with a bright red airplane with a spinning propeller, a small racing car that had to be pushed back and forth on spinning wheels, and a blue phone with large, colorful buttons. "This is about all I have left in the back, it's almost Christmas you know. This and whatever's left in the store," he said, sounding apologetic. "Anything look good to you?"
Twilight, who at this point had decided she'd drastically underestimated the storm and wanted to get home, nodded with enthusiasm. "I'll take it."
"Which one?"
"All of it."
"Well, hey, alright," the gryphon seemed pleased, and swept everything into a bag. "Fifteen bits, madam."
Twilight slid over twenty across the counter. "Merry Christmas, ah..." she raised an eyebrow.
"Oh! I'm Darwin." He flashed a kind smile. "Hurry on home safe, now. It's bad out there."
"Will do!" Twilight assured him, and set off the tinkling bell again as she pushed her way out into the snowstorm with the bag of toys for her niece.
The snow was thick and cold, the winds fierce. The increasing chill bit right through Twilight's winter clothes and stung her ears as she made her way back towards the Castle, practically kicking open the door when she arrived and slamming it shut seconds later. Her young assistant, Spike, was busily rearranging tableclothes so that all of the edges were even and draped over the sides of the tables at identical lengths.
"Hey ho, Twilight!" He waved. "Did you get what you needed? Can I help you with your bags?"
"That's okay, Spike." She smiled. "I got it."
Twilight went upstairs to her desk, and sat behind it. The toys were carefully unpacked, the plane sat on the left, the phone in the middle, the racecar on the right. The phone jingled and rattled as she set it down, the plastic reciever falling off its cradle. Twilight sighed, the storm outside having sapped her of both warmth and patience. Her horn lit up with hardly any effort, picking up the recieve to return it to its proper place.
Twilight?
The purple alicorn froze. Had she heard... no, that was impossible. She hesitated for a moment, then held the plastic reciever up to her pointed ear.
Twilight? That wasn't just any voice. She'd know it anywhere.
That was Spike.
"Agh!" Twilight shrieked before she could stop herself, and flung the reciever across the desk on its stretchy cord.
Nothing. Silence filled the room, the only sound coming from her own beating heart. A few minutes passed. Slowly, very slowly, she picked the reciever back up. She was no stranger to unusual things happening in Equestria, but this was ridiculous.
Twilight?! Aaaaaggggggh! It WAS Spike, and he was in trouble! At least... he sounded like he was in trouble. Her friends didn't usually cry out in terror like that because they'd just won the lottery.
Twilight yelped again and threw the phone down, bolting at once for the stairs. "Spike? Spike!" She called.
"Twilight?" His voice called in response, distant, sounding confused.
Twilight ran closer, towards the sound of his voice. She was absurdly alarmed, knowing that a phone was just a phone, but hearing his voice cry out in terror like that, it shattered her heart, real or not. "Spike!"
"Twilight?" Spike called again. This time she pinpointed his voice exactly. It was coming from the library, where he was probably either organizing books or decorating the room for Christmas. Twilight wasted no time, abandoning the rest of the hallway entirely and teleporting directly into the room, intent on finding out what was going on.
Twilight arrived in a burst of purple light without much warning, just in time to see Spike up on one of the ladders. He was holding onto the rail with one hand, the other busily setting up strands of green garland across the shelves. His eyes widened at Twilight's sudden, unexpected entrance, startled into tottering right off the edge of the ladder.
"Twilight?! Aaaaaggggggh!" He cried out as he lost his balance and tumbled off the ladder, but Twilight was on him in less than a second, and the dragon fell neatly, unharmed, right onto her back. "Twilight, I've told you a hundred times, don't do that!" His clawed hand grasped his chest. "Jeez, you're gonna give me a heart attack one of these days. What's wrong with you, anyway? You look really pale. Everything alright?"
Twilight heard him speaking, but his voice sounded underwater, distant and far away. Her heart was pounding in her ears, her thoughts focused on that plastic phone upstairs. That stupid, plastic phone.
"I don't know, Spike. I don't know."
