The Quality of Mercy

by JMac

Rating: everyone
Tags: Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Slice of Life, Cake Twins
Length: 5116

Quizzical Greystone misbehaves at Hearth's Warming. It's for a good cause, or at least all her friends hope it is.

Quizzical Greystone is being rude, hurtful, obnoxious, mean spirited, and cruel. An uplifting Hearth's Warming story.

Published 2016-12-24 03:50:01 UTC
Last updated 2016-12-24 03:50:01 UTC

Quite a Strain

The Quality Of Mercy

Quizzical Greystone sat on a bench at the edge of the school’s playground and watched the Cake twins build a snowpony. The school was already closed for Hearth’s Warming break, and a layer of snow covered all of the playground equipment. Thus, while all the rest of downtown Ponyville was filled with merry, bustling holiday crowds, the little gray unicorn and her two slightly littler charges had the playground to themselves.

Quiz was enjoying the quiet moment, and the fact that she had nothing greater to worry about than seeing to it that the children kept their mittens and snow boots on. She should have known this would not last.

Pound Cake jumped up and pointed excitedly at something. Pumpkin looked and was immediately just as excited as her brother about whatever it was they had seen. The twins went haring off across the playground, headed towards the back of the school.

Quiz jumped down from the bench and chased after the children. She couldn’t quite make out what they were saying, but it struck Quiz as unlikely that they planned to do anything she should be allowing them to do. They were running straight for the school’s trash dumpsters.

“Children, whatever you find you are not to touch,” called Quiz. “Do you hear me? No touching.”

“Miss Quiz-kal, come and see!” cried Pound.

“You gotta help, Miss Quiz-kal!” added Pumpkin. “Please?”

“At least they are not playing ‘ditch the foal-sitter’ again,” Quiz muttered to herself. But this also meant they intended to involve her personally in this, whatever this was. That was less reassuring.

“Lookie, Miss Quiz-kal.” Pound shot into the air, and hovered. He pointed down at something lying in the shadow cast by one of the trash bins.

“See? See? He needs help,” said Pumpkin, kneeling in the light at the shadow’s edge.

“Yes, children, I see. I… Oh, dear.” Quiz had at first thought the twins had found an injured animal. This turned out to be half true.

The creature looked like a pony, but it was stretched out and more aerodynamic. It was more of a caricature of a pony, made to look lean and fierce. Except this one wasn’t fierce at all; it lay helpless and completely still but for its shallow breathing. It was, however, very lean. It was absolutely skeletal. Quiz was sure she could have felt its bones, if only she could touch it. But she couldn’t. The creature was as insubstantial as a breath of air.

“Know what he is,” declared Pumpkin. “He’s just like in our Hearth’s Warming picture book. He’s a windigo.”

“Indeed he is,” said Quiz. She couldn’t think of a single other thing to say.

“He’s really sick,” said Pumpkin. “You help us get him home and warm him up?”

“What?”

“Give him hot cocoa and tomato soup,” suggested Pound. “Yum!”

“What?!”

“We could call him ‘Wispy’,” said Pumpkin.

“Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no….” Quiz shook her head so vigorously she almost lost her glasses.

“Miss Quiz-kal no fun!” wailed the little Cakes together.

“I know. And you two have lost every argument you have begun by pointing out this flaw. I do not know why you keep trying.” Quiz adjusted her glasses. When she went on she softened her tone. “Firstly, I have no idea how I would explain this to your parents…”

“Oh, that easy,” said Pound. “Tell Mommy and Daddy he followed us home.”

“Yep,” agreed Pumpkin.

“I would have thought you had enough of windigos after the last time.”

The twins shuddered. Then Pumpkin shook her head and smiled. “Wispy not like that. He’s not scary, he’s cute!”

“Yep,” agreed Pound.

“It would not work, children. Windigos are winter storm spirits, and warming him would do him harm.” Quiz didn’t know if ‘him’ was correct, and she really didn’t know how to find out. But the twins had decided that Wispy was a boy, and Quiz saw no reason not to just go with that.

“Build him little house in back yard?”

“Children, please, no. He is small and lost and needs to return his family.” Quiz knew no more about Wispy’s age than she did his gender, but it seemed likely that he was a young windigo - assuming the word ‘young’ could even be applied to eternal storm spirits. He was no bigger than Quiz. “If you were lost would you not want to get back to your parents?”

“Been lost lots of times,” admitted Pound. “Always want Mommy and Daddy. Okay, Miss Quiz-kal.”

“So, what we do now?” asked Pumpkin.

“We should find Miss Twilight, or perhaps Miss Fluttershy…”

“No grown ups!” shouted the twins.

“But surely they will know better…”

“No grown ups!!”

“But I always defer to wiser…”

“No grown ups!!!” Pound punctuated this by forcefully putting his front hooves down. This rattled the dumpsters.

“Please, Miss Quiz-kal! All the books say windigos are bad guys,” said Pumpkin. “Wispy’s not a bad guy!”

“Big ponies won’t like Wispy like we do,” cried Pound. “They’ll be mean!”

“You are exaggerating, and I… I… I…” Quiz ground to a halt under the intense pressure of two sets of pathetic little puppy-eyes.

Wispy stirred for the first time, lifting his head and turning to face Quiz. He opened his eyes. His ice blue eyes seemed to be pleading.

“Bother,” muttered Quiz. “Now I have three of them.”

“So what we do now?” asked Pound.

“I shall have to ponder that.” Quiz regarded the windigo critically. While he was helplessly weak he didn’t seem to be injured in any way. That actually made sense to Quiz. Wispy was a creature that lived on conflict and harsh feelings; he’d wandered into the happy community of Ponyville during the season of greatest good will. He must be starving.

“I believe he is very hungry,” said Quiz. “He could probably find his own way home if he only had the strength, but we must first find some way to give him nourishment.”

Pumpkin thought hard on this. “Windigos eat bad feelings?”

“Yes. And as you two have behaved so very well, and played so nicely together all day, we have nothing to offer him.”

“Oh. Well… I could punch Pound in the nose.”

“I’d buck Pumpkin in the head!” added Pound. “Be happy to.”

“No! You children will not begin fighting.” Quiz heaved a sigh so deeply that her shoulders shook. “Please do not make me regret commending you on you good behavior.”

“Be better if I bucked Miss Quiz-kal in the head?” asked Pound.

Wispy seemed to perk up a bit at this.

“Again, no. There will be no bucking any ponies in the head. That really should go without saying.” Quiz sighed again, though this time is was a much softer, more resigned sigh. “If any of us is going to be starting a fight it is going to be me.”

“Then what we do, Miss Quiz-kal?” asked Pumpkin.

“Well, the two of you wait here and watch over Wispy,” said Quiz. “And I… well, apparently I have to go start a fight.”

Quiz looked around the corner of the schoolhouse. On the street that ran by the playground she saw two mares whom she knew quite well walking by. Quiz took a deep breath in a fruitless effort to prepare herself, then trotted over to meet them.

“Excuse me, Miss Applejack, Miss Rarity, do you have a moment?” Quiz asked.

“Why, howdy there Quiz, and happy Hearth’s Warming,” said Applejack. “What can we do for you?”

“Yes, Quizzical, dear, happy Hearth’s Warming,” said Rarity. “How may we be of help?”

“Um… um…” Quiz stood in front of them, fidgeting and looking everywhere but at their faces. “Um…”

“Oh, it can’t be all that bad, Quiz. Just spit it out.”

“Yes, Miss Applejack.” Quiz drew another deep breath, then blurted out, “Your hat is stupid, Ma’am.”

“Pardon?”

“Your hat, Miss Applejack. I think it is stupid. It looks very, very stupid and I do not like it.”

Applejack could just gape at Quiz, so Rarity answered.

“Quizzical, this is very unlike you. Is there something the matter?”

“Nothing I am able to share at this time, no. Well, there is one thing. Miss Rarity, I have never like your mane.”

“What?!”

“I find the way it curls is very… stupid? Yes, stupid, I think. You have a very stupid mane, Miss Rarity.”

“Quiz, what has gotten into you?” demanded Applejack. “You did not stop us just to insult our personal styles.”

“Actually, I have apparently just done exactly that,” said Quiz. “How does that make you feel? Does it make you angry?”

“A little miffed, maybe,” said Applejack. “But mostly you have me puzzled.”

“Yes, miffed and puzzled, that describes it perfectly,” said Rarity. “Please tell us what is wrong, Quizzical.”

“Bother. Please excuse me, Miss Applejack, Miss Rarity. I… have to get back to the children.” Quiz had reached to limits of her endurance, and had to either abort this attempt or begin to hyperventilate. She turned and fled across the playground.

“Okay, we both know that if that little filly is acting up then she has a good reason, right?” asked Applejack, as she watched Quiz run away and hide behind the school.

“Oh, yes,” agreed Rarity. “I’ve judged her harshly once, and I will never make that mistake again. Something is very wrong.”

“So, we’re going to find Twilight and warn her that something’s up?”

“Yes, I feel that is an excellent plan.”

Meanwhile, when Quiz made it back to the twins she collapsed against the back wall of the school, struggling to control her breathing.

“Not go so good?”asked Pound.

“Miss Quiz-kal gonna be ok?” asked Pumpkin.

“It went…” Quiz stopped to gasp for air. “...very nearly as well…” Gasp. Gasp. “...as I expected. And yes…” Gasp. Gasp. “...I will be fine.”

Pumpkin leaned over and whispered to Pound, “Miss Quiz-kal not gonna be fine.”

“Nope,” agreed Pound.

“Part of my problem seems to be my vocabulary. When I try to think of something negative I find myself at a loss for words, which is not helpful in an already awkward situation. I really must think of something harsher to say than ‘stupid.’”

Pound rolled his eyes. “Oh, here we go, now. Miss Quiz-kal gonna do reee-search.”

“All properly done projects begin with research, young colt.” There was a soft pop as Quiz summoned a thesaurus from the library. It floated in front of her face, and she began to page through it.

Pound made a rude noise.

Pumpkin gave her brother a hard poke on the shoulder. “You hush. It how she does stuff, so let her do it. See - now that she has a book Miss Quiz-kal calmed right down. It good for her.”

Indeed, now that she was armed with a book Quiz felt bold enough to try being rude again. She started across the playground, reading aloud as she walked. “Awful, appalling, atrocious, abominable… do I really never use any of these words? Dreadful, frightful, ghastly…”

“Hi, Quiz,” called Spike. Quiz stopped just in time to avoid stumbling over him. “Whatcha doing?”

“Oh, hello, Spike. I was just... um… looking up some worlds I rarely use.”

“Yeah, I heard you reciting,” said Spike. “Soooo, you picked the week before Hearth’s Warming to practice being negative?”

“Well, um, yes. Apparently I did. That might be considered odd, I suppose.”

“A little odd, yeah.” Spike decided to change the subject. “Hey, I’m sorry you and Twilight had to make your own breakfast this morning. But I did all my holiday baking until late last night and I really had to sleep in.”

“That is quite alright, Spike,” said Quiz. She braced herself for what she had to say next. “I encourage you to sleep in more often. Your cooking is awful.”

“What did you just say?”

“Your cooking is disgusting. Your pancakes in particular are frightfully bad. They are horrific, horrendous, and horrible. Um, do I need to go on?”

“No, I think you made your point pretty clear. I get it. You can put the thesaurus away now.”

“How does that make you feel, Spike? Are you getting angry?”

“I’m kinda miffed,” said Spike. “But mostly I’m confused. What brought this on, anyway? Where’s this coming from, Quiz?”

“I really cannot talk about it,” said Quiz. “Are you sure you are not growing angry? I have been very rude to you, and you are entitled to be angry. If you are at all tempted to yell at me you should give in to that temptation. Go ahead, you might enjoy a nice rant.”

“I don’t think I should say anything to you until you’re ready to explain what’s going on,” said Spike. “And I don’t think you should say anymore either.”

“Yes, you are probably right. Thank you Spike.” There was a soft pop and the thesaurus disappeared as Quiz returned it to its shelf. She started back to rejoin the twins.

“Oh, and don’t stay out too late, dinner is at five tonight,” Spike called after her.

“I will be there on time, Spike.”

“Hmmm,” mused Spike, watching Quiz go. “You gotta give the kid this much - when she freaks out it’s a lot quieter than with Twilight.”

Spike hurried home to the library to find a parchment and a quill. He had to send a letter.

“How is our patient?” asked Quiz, when she stepped behind the school.

“Better,” said Pumpkin. Wispy was now sitting up, and he seemed to be breathing normally.

“That is surprising, as the most I seem capable of achieving is ‘miffed.’ Bother. Why will nopony get mad at me?”

“Problem not research and not Miss Quiz-kal’s ‘cablary. Problem is Miss Quiz-kal,” said Pumpkin.

“You got no mean bones in your body,” said Pound.

Wispy nodded.

Quiz glared at the windigo. “Darn it! When an empathic spirit agrees that you are not mean enough you should be able to take that as a compliment. Instead I find myself growing a bit miffed.”

Wispy made a sound that was a cross between a light breeze blowing past your ear and a derisive snort.

“Well, I am sorry you do not find my irritation to your liking. I am doing my best to find you something more substantial to eat.”

Wispy whinnied, and the sound reminded Quiz of wind in the trees. Quiz somehow sensed that the windigo appreciated that she was doing her best. She stepped to the corner of the school to where she could watch the crowds of ponies passing by.

“I do believe I could make some progress if I could just find the right person to approach. Bother, where is Mr. Cranky Doodle when I need him?” Quiz continued to scan the crowd, until she found what she was looking for. “Oh, this might work. Children, I am actually feeling confident this time.”

“Don’t say that, Miss Quiz-kal!” warned Pound. “You jinx it!”

Quiz called across the playground, “Miss Limestone? I need to have a word with you.”

Limestone Pie turned to Quiz. “Greetings and happy Hearth’s Warming, Quizzical. I hope this day finds you well.”

“Um… yes, thank you.” Quiz did not return the holiday greeting. Given what she was about to say doing so would have felt sacrilegious.

“It’s good that I’ve found you. We’ve unearthed a fine new cache of geodes and I hope you’ll get to look them over soon. Maude gets first pick, of course, but after her you’re our favorite customer.”

Quiz was taken aback. She had actually managed to catch Limestone in a good mood. Apparently, Limestone had not run into her sister Pinkie yet today. Quiz’s confidence swiftly evaporated. Nevertheless, she had to forge on.

Quiz hung her head. She couldn’t look Limestone in the eyes while telling her an outrageous lie. “Miss Limestone, there is no hurry to see your geodes. I know they will disappoint me. Frankly, the goods produced at your rock farm are substandard, and they grow worse with every season.”

Limestone almost choked from surprise. “You really think so, Quiz? But I thought our newest finds were all so good. Even the matrix we discard makes good gravel…”

“No, no, it is all just rubbish.” Quiz braced herself. Any second now Limestone would fly into a rage, and Quiz would get the tongue lashing she felt she deserved.

Limestone’s eyes began to glisten. Her lip trembled. “I do respect your opinion. You come from quarry stock, and you have a fine eye for the stones. But I thought the farm was doing so well! Even the seed crystals we’ve planted are accreting nicely. We should be able to harvest in a generation or so…”

“No, Miss Limestone. I fear you have been a complete failure at managing your farm.”

“Noooooooooo!” wailed Limestone.

This was not going as Quiz expected. “Miss Limestone, surely you are furious with me. I have said things I have no right to say. Are you not even a little angry? A bit miffed, even? Miss Limestone, are you crying?!”

“I work so hard! I try my best! How could I be a failure?!”

“Oh, dear.” This was all that Quiz could bear. “I have said too much, and I shall leave you be now, Miss Limestone.”

Quiz turned and ran.

Limestone yelled to her as she fled. “Did Pinkie put you up to this?!”

When she returned to their hiding place the twins took one look at Quiz’s face and hurried to give her a hug. Even Wispy gave her what seemed to be a sympathetic look.

“Miss Quiz-kal be ok?” asked Pumpkin.

“Perhaps.” Quiz’s whole body seemed to sag. “I am now convinced there must be no fairness in this world. If there were then I would immediately be struck by lightning.”

“Look, Wispy getting better,” said Pound.

It was true, as near as the foals could tell. The windigo was standing now. Actually, he was floating. He hovered an inch above the ground.

“That makes sense. Sadness and guilt are negative feelings, almost as strong as anger. That, at least, is good. If he is getting stronger then he might help us. Windigos cannot create bad feelings, but they aggravate existing ones and bring them to the surface. They do it automatically.”

“Think it’s working,” said Pumpkin. “I still kinda wanna punch Pound on the nose.”

“Still willing to buck Pumpkin in the head!” Pound added cheerfully.

“Do not start that again.” Quiz went back to watching ponies walk by. “I have utterly failed to irritate the most easily irritated mare I know. What pony could possibly make a better target than Miss Limestone?”

“Sweetie Belle?” suggested Pumpkin. “She think you’re infurrytating.”

“I do not always infuriate her. Anyway, the Cutie Mark Crusaders are away trying to find a dangerous hill to get their bobsledding cutie marks. Hmmm…” In the crowd she spied her friend Silver Spoon. Where you found Silver you could usually also find another filly, one who was most decidedly not Quiz’s friend. “Ah, there she is. Children, I believe I am ready to try this once more.”

“Know that look!” cried Pumpkin. “Miss Quiz-kal got an idea!”

“Indeed I do.”

“Yay!”

Wispy whinnied. It made the three foals shiver. This was strangely encouraging.

“Children, I need you to make me a big stack of snowballs.”

“Double yay! Like this plan already!”

“I thought you might. Please make the snowballs extra slushy.”

“Oh, Diamond Tiara!”

“Huh? Oh, good grief, Quiz-ik-al! What do you want?!”

“I want to give you something. It is just above your head, you need only look up.”

“What are you blathering about…” There was a soft pop as Quiz teleported a slushball over Diamond. It fell on her upturned face. “Ow! Ow, ow, ow! How dare you?!”

“How dare I? I dare very easily. You are not the boss of me.” There were more little pops, followed by loud splats.

“Quiz, what are you doing?” cried Silver Spoon. It was difficult for her that her best friend could not stand her new friend. To see them in open conflict was painful. “Please stop!”

“Yeah, you better stop!” shrieked Diamond. She was trembling with anger.

“If you want me to stop you shall have to stop me.” Quiz dropped another slushball on Diamond.

“You miserable little four-eyed dwarf! I’m going to buck those bottle bottoms you wear down your throat!!!”

Quiz beckoned to Diamond. “Come at me, then.”

Diamond roared with fury and charged.

Quiz responded by going to her favorite combat tactic. She turned tail and ran.

“You’re dead! Do you hear me?! Dead!!! I will beat you to a pulp, then pulp the pulp, then smash that into what’s left over when the pulp’s all gone!!!”

For a pony who appeared as unathletic as Quiz, she had a surprisingly good turn of speed. It was a struggle, but she managed to stay ahead of Diamond Tiara.

Since she was still responsible for watching the little Cakes Quiz restricted the chase to laps around the school and playground. Thus every time Quiz rounded the corner again the twins would jump up and down, wave enthusiastically, and cheer her on.

Silver Spoon ran behind them, desperately trying to get her friends to please stop.

As fast a Quiz ran, it was not enough. Diamond was half again her size, and even if she couldn’t match Quiz stride for stride her strides were longer and she would eventually catch up. In an effort to slow Diamond down Quiz resorted to dropping snowballs behind herself. While she was normally very precise with her Teleport Object spell Quiz was not normally casting blindly behind herself while fleeing at top speed. Diamond dodged every shot.

The same could not be said for the innocent ponies around them.

The Cake twins had made the snowballs for Quiz, and they had built them with love. But Wispy had helped make the snowballs, and love was not the secret ingredient he’d included with each of them.

Wherever a slushball fell a fight broke out.

“Vinyl, there are wet towels all over our bathroom floor! And we’re out of paper!”

“How can you say that, Limey? I would never use Quizzical to tease you!”

“Mare, you cut the budget for new textbooks? After all that the town spent on decorations?!”

“Lyra, there are wet towels all over our bathroom floor! And we’re out of paper!”

All the while Diamond Tiara slowly closed on Quiz, literally screaming bloody murder.

“Come back here, you scrawny little midget! I’m going to kill you! I’m going to murder you to death!”

“You must catch me first, Diamond.”

It was this moment that Mr. and Mrs Cake, amazingly oblivious to the chaos spreading through Ponyville in Quizzical’s wake, chose to move a seven layer cake across the street.

Quiz ducked, and she was lucky enough to hit an icy spot in the street. She slid under the cake unimpeded, and jumped up to continue running.

Diamond tried to stop and went stumbling under Carrot Cake. Carrot managed to channel his younger days as a dancer; he hopped, skipped, and jumped, and managed to let Diamond slip under him without losing his grip on the cake.

Then Silver Spoon ran face first into the cake, causing it to topple and splatter across her back. She sat in the street under a pile of frosting and began to cry.

“The cake! Oh, my gosh, the cake!” cried Carrot.

“The cake? Carrot, forget the cake!” cried Cup. “Why is our foalsitter running for her life? And why are our children cheering?!”

This was when Diamond got back on all four hooves and overtook Quiz.

“Gotcha!!!” Diamond delivered a crushing body slam that sent Quiz skidding along the pavement before crashing into a snowbank.

“Get up, Quiz-ik-al! Get up so I can knock you down again!”

“No!” The Cake twins came and threw themselves on Quiz. “Miss Quiz-kal stay down! Don’t get hurt no more, please!”

“No need! Look! Lookie look!”

Quiz looked where Pumpkin was pointing. There, circling above them, was Wispy. He had been joined by two bigger windigos.

“Oh, good,” said Quiz. “Have you come for your son? I will not say that it has not been interesting, but I have grown quite tired of foalsitting for you. Could you please take him home now?”

Quiz had not known that it was possible for a windigo to smile. But Wispy clearly smiled at her and the twins. Then the three windigos zoomed away towards the Everfree Forest.

It was not quite over yet. “Stop babbling and get up, Quiz! And don’t you dare hide behind those babies. If you don’t get up I’ll stomp on you where you lay!”

There was a roll of thunder, then Princess Luna stood between Diamond and Quiz. “ENOUGH!”

A wave of magic spread outward from the Princess and washed over all of Ponyville. It drove the ponies' anger before it. Throughout the town Ponies suddenly hurried to embrace their loved ones, all very confused about just what they had been so angry about only a second before.

“You really have to teach me that spell,” said Twilight.

“Yes, Twilight Sparkle,” said Princess Luna. “If you continue to live here then it is very important to Ponyville that you learn this spell.”

Diamond Tiara had fallen to her knees. She pointed to Quiz. “Why did I do that? Why did you make me do that?”

Quiz had no answer for her. “Go comfort Silver Spoon, Diamond. She is very upset.”

“Quiz? Do you have an explanation?” asked Twilight.

“Not at this time, no Miss Twilight.”

Twilight pointed up the street, towards the library. “Well then, young filly, you can just go to your room, until you’re ready to talk. And you can just stay in your room and think about what you’ve done.”

“Yes, Miss Twilight.” Quiz slowly rose, and then trudged up the street.

864. I will not incite the whole town to riot.

865. I will not incite the whole town to riot.

866. I will not…

There was a knock at Quiz’s bedroom door. “Quiz? Can I come in?”

Quiz had been alone in her room, thinking about what she had done, for quite long enough. “Yes, Miss Twilight. Please do.”

Twilight came into the tiny room, and squeezed onto the bed to sit next to Quiz. “We got the whole story from the little Cakes. It wasn’t easy. Their language skills get a lot worse when they’re excited, and boy were the twins excited! It didn’t help that nopony could believe them at first. It’s lucky that Spike summoned Princess Luna. She was able to recognize what had happened. She’s been through it before.”

“I did not mean to keep secrets from you, Miss Twilight,” said Quiz. She leaned against her mentor for comfort, and Twilight responded by putting a leg across Quiz’s shoulders and pulling her in tightly. “I kept silent at first as I was afraid if I confessed everything it would break the spell and Wispy would not make his way home. After that, after the moment had passed, well, I frankly just did not want to talk about it.”

Twilight look at what Quiz had been writing. “Um… nopony actually assigned this to you, you know?”

Quiz nodded. “I took the task upon myself. Do you think ten thousand repetitions will be enough?”

“I think you’re done now, Quiz.”

“Oh. Well, good then. I may then move on to the written apologies.” Quiz sighed, and it made her whole body shake. This made Twilight hug her even more tightly. “They will be very difficult to compose…”

“Nothing turned out as badly as you think,” said Twilight. “The cake, for instance. That was for one of Pinkie’s parties, and you know Pinkie can’t ever make herself angry with you. And she’s already replaced the cake with a tower of cupcakes twice the height of the cake itself.”

“Who is Miss Pinkie throwing the party for, Miss Twilight?”

“Well… it’s for Limestone Pie, to congratulate her on five straight years of record seasons. You have an invitation to the party, by the way.”

This was the last straw for Quiz’s conscience. She began to cry hysterically. Twilight just held her and rocked her until she worked it all out. Once Quiz was still Twilight finally spoke.

“Quiz, you helped a hurt villain and offered them friendship. Were you really waiting for me to punish you? For offering friendship to a bad guy? ME?”

“That was… probably not a fine example... of clear thought… on my part…”

“Just breath, Quiz. And as far as clear thought goes, you were in close contact with a windigo all day. You were also listening to the Cake twins.”

“I do not wish to use this as an excuse.”

“Very well, if you insist that I give you punishment then here it is. The Royal Society Of Friendship Studies will want a complete report on this incident. You will write it.”

“Certainly, Miss Twilight. But that is not punishment. I will enjoy the work.”

“I wasn’t finished. You will take credit as the sole author. You may list me with your other sources if you cite me, but that’s it. You aren’t going to put my name first as senior researcher, and you are certainly not going to list me as co-author. You must take all the credit for your work.”

“Do I have to?”

“Absolutely.”

“Yes, Miss Twilight.”

“You should know that we have a front room full of ponies who are worried about you and have been waiting to see if you are alright. Spike has been keeping them busy with a steady stream of nachos and other snacks. But it would help if you could come downstairs and talk to them.”

“I will be ready soon.”

“Also, you haven’t eaten tonight. Spike has been keeping your diner warm for you. It isn’t one of your favorites, but you should eat.”

“I favor all of Spike’s cooking, Miss Twilight. Would you please tell him that?”

“Spike knows, Quiz.”

Twilight left, and Quiz used her washbasin to rinse her eyes. She paused to look out her window before following Twilight downstairs.

There seemed to be a brief howl of fierce winter wind, but it soon passed. After that the night was starry and silent, as was every night through the rest of the holiday.

Author's Note

Merry Hearth's Warming, and thank you for reading.