Griffons Don't Celebrate Hearth's Warming
Admiral Biscuit
One disadvantage to being a princess, daughter of nobles, and sister to a prince was scheduling holidays. A nice, peaceful family gathering for Hearth's Warming simply wasn't in the cards for Twilight. This year, Velvet and Night were going to the Crystal Empire to visit Cadance, Shining, and Flurry, and while Twilight would have liked to join them, she'd already volunteered to help with the Ponyville Hearth's Warming Pageant.
That didn't totally preclude a trip to the Crystal Empire, but it was a convenient excuse, and she could tell that Velvet felt the same way. It would give her parents more time with their grandfilly and Twilight assured them that next time she came to Canterlot, they could celebrate a late Hearth's' Warming together.
• • •
Twilight dragged herself home after rehearsal. It was hard to believe that actors could forget their lines when the story was known to nearly every foal in Equestria, and yet, they had. A frustrated Amethyst Star finally suggested that they just paint Commander Hurricane's lines on the back of his shield.
Flash cards would have been a better idea, Twilight thought as she walked through the streets of Ponyville. And that got her to thinking about Rainbow Dash, and how different ponies learned in different ways.
She almost started reading Feldflüchter's book On Education but the truth was that she was mentally exhausted, and so she had one cup of tea, brushed her teeth, and went to bed.
Sleep wouldn't come, which was not an unusual situation for Twilight. She let her mind wander where it would. Sometimes she got her best ideas when she was laying in bed trying and failing to sleep.
Other times, mostly after too many hayburgers, she had her worst ideas.
Gilda doesn't have a family to spend Hearth's' Warming with. That had come out of nowhere, but it was true. Or was it? Pinkie had mentioned a Grandpa Gruff, but were they close? She wracked her brain, trying to remember everything that Rainbow had said about Gilda and Gilda’s family. From what she knew, griffons didn’t exactly seem to have close family ties.
Her schedule formed in her mind, and there was time to visit Griffonstone; between the morning train and judicious teleportation, she could both visit the town and invite Gilda back to Ponyville, especially since there wasn't pageant rehearsal tomorrow.
Twilight pushed the covers off and went back to her library—she knew right where her copy of Bygone Griffons of Greatness was—then stretched out on her reading pillow.
Twenty minutes later, she was sound asleep, her head cradled atop the open book.
• • •
The next morning, it didn't take her very long to pack; she kept several checklists on hoof for packing on short notice. A trip to Griffonstone matched the 3B Checklist quite nicely, and she was waiting at the train station well before the train arrived.
She'd dithered about inviting Rainbow at least, although the more she thought about it, the more she thought it would be a nice surprise for the pegasus. Pinkie would have also been a good choice, but she was running herself ragged getting everything ready for Hearth’s Warming.
On Education had been a worthwhile fallback choice of travelling companion, and as soon as she'd gotten settled in her seat, Twilight had pulled the book out of her saddlebags and commenced to read.
She'd finished the book before the train made it to Griffonstone, although that wasn't her fault; the snowy weather had caused several delays when the train had to break through drifts, and Twilight added 'learn a good snow-melting spell' to her mental checklist.
Pinkie and Rainbow had given her a description of their trip to Griffonstone, but they'd failed to mention that the train station was essentially abandoned, and the train only stopped there long enough for her to disembark.
As it backed around the wye to return to the main line, Twilight swore that the hiss of the air brakes sounded exactly like a sigh of relief. Nevertheless, she pressed on, keeping an eye on the path to Griffonstone as she flew the shortest, switchback-free route to the top of the mountain.
Her first view of the city was underwhelming. She'd assumed that most of what Rainbow and Pinkie had said about the city itself was hyperbole, but upon viewing it with her own eyes, it clearly was not. Judging by what she could see, the winter snow cover was a blessing. Even Starlight's isolated village had looked nicer.
She flew around town, looking for either Gilda or the library; unfortunately, she found the latter first. There wasn't much she could do to fix it—while Twilight knew a few mending spells, they weren't up to the task of repairing the wreckage of the library. Just the same, she started sorting books and placing those which could be salvaged under shelter—when she got back to Ponyville, she could send a letter to Princess Celestia and she was sure that she could get the Griffonstone library fixed.
Twilight was so engrossed in her task that she didn't notice Gilda had landed right behind her; in fact, the griffon watched her sorting for several minutes before finally clearing her throat.
“I almost didn't recognize you with the wings.”
Twilight jerked up, two books now spinning forgotten in her aura. “Gilda?”
“The same.” She scratched a talon across the ground. "Everyone was saying there was an ube alicorn playing in the garbage—“
“Ube?”
“Yeah.” Gilda motioned at Twilight's coat. “Oh, that's right. I forgot you ponies can't see those colors. You—“
“Listen. Gilda . . . I'm the Princess of Friendship—”
"Congratulations," Gilda sarcastically interjected.
Twilight finally remembered the books floating in her aura and set them gently down with their sisters. “But when you came to Ponyville—“
“Hey—“ Gilda held up a claw in protest.
“I should have tried harder. And I'm sorry.”
An almost inaudible sigh escaped the griffon's beak, though her face didn't betray it. “So did your stupid table send you here? Or are you just here to pick at the bones of our library?”
Twilight shook her head. “No; it was my idea.”
Gilda looked around at the slightly neater stacks of books. “Dash told you about the library, didn't she? I knew you were a total egghead.”
“Actually, she never mentioned it.”
“Pinkie, then.” Gilda sighed. “Let me guess. You must think that fixing our library will fix everything that's wrong with Griffonstone, but you're wrong.”
Twilight kicked a soggy, shredded book away from her hoof. “I don't think that."
Gilda wasn't buying it.
"I'm not here for the library, or the books, or Griffonstone. I . . . well, I was the worst friend ever when I was a filly. I always had my muzzle in books and could never make time for anypony. When I tried to reconnect with my old friends in Canterlot, I—it didn't go all that great. I never even gave Moon Dancer her birthday present.” Twilight's ears drooped. “I came here because I thought that maybe you'd like to come back to Ponyville. Spend Hearth's Warming with Rainbow? If you’re not doing anything else, that is.”
“Pony holiday. We don't celebrate that,” Gilda said flatly.
“Really?”
“Really, dude. Think about it. Unification of the three tribes of ponies, discovery of the new pony homeland, friendship defeating the wendigos, and a new pony paradise. . . . Remind me again how many griffons were there in that story.”
“Well, none.” Twilight frowned. “But the pageant isn't exactly historical, anyways. There could have been griffons. Wasn't it Commander Hurricane who made peace with the griffons?”
Gilda shrugged. “Who knows? Even if she had, look around you. Whatever might've happened back then didn't exactly lead to a griffon paradise, did it? So why would we care?”
“Is it better than it was before Rainbow and Pinkie came to Griffonstone?”
“What if I said it is? Is that what you wanted to hear?”
“What I want to hear,” Twilight said, “is that you're coming to Ponyville for Hearth's Warming. Even if you don't celebrate it yourself, it would still be nice to visit an old friend, wouldn't it?”
Gilda narrowed her eyes. “You told Rainbow that I was coming, and you're not going to leave until I agree, are you?”
“She doesn't know I'm here. I didn't tell anypony.”
“But you'll tell her if I refuse.”
“That's not it, Gilda. Don't you see? I could have done better. I should have done better, but I didn't, and I can't change the past. But maybe I can change the future. Not with a spell, but by extending a hoof in friendship. I won't tell you what to do; that's inside you. There's no trickery here, no obligation, but maybe a chance to change the future a little bit.
“Think about it, that's all I ask. Hearth's Warming is the next full moon, and I hope to see you there.” Twilight stuck out a hoof.
And Gilda reluctantly bumped it.
• • •
Another week made all the difference in the pageant—while Commander Hurricane still used his shield as a crutch, he hardly looked at it at all, and the majority of his lines were delivered as written.
At the same time, Hearth's Warming decorations festooned the entire town, along with herds of snowponies in front yards and occasionally on roofs.
Of Gilda, there was no sign.
Twilight wrote a letter to Princess Celestia and obtained enough funding to build a decent library in Griffonstone.
Rainbow Dash still had no idea that Twilight had visited Gilda.
It wouldn't be fair to say that Twilight forgot about inviting her to Ponyville, because of course she didn't. But one lesson she'd learned was that sometimes things were out of her hooves, and if she wanted to keep her sanity, it was best to only focus on the things she could control and deal with the rest as it came.
• • •
The pageant went off mostly without a hitch. Chancellor Puddinghead managed to forget to wear her hat for the entire first act, but nopony really noticed that, and when the curtain finally closed, Twilight and Amethyst breathed a sigh of relief. Twilight especially; over the course of the production she had learned that she wasn't cut out to be an assistant director.
There was a certain sort of catharsis in packing the costumes and props away for next year, a reminder that while the pageant was over, it would happen again. Maybe next year somepony else would be looking at Commander Hurricane's shield and wondering about the block-printed lines on the back of it.
“Did you notice the griffon?”
“Huh?” Twilight jerked her head up. “Gilda?”
“I guess.” Amethyst shrugged. “It kinda looked like that one that came to Ponyville before, but I never paid that much attention to her. I wonder what she was doing here?”
“Maybe she came to celebrate Hearth's Warming.”
“Hearth’s Warming is a pony holiday. Griffons don't celebrate it.”
Twilight smiled. “Don't they?”
Author's Note
Pre-read and edited by theRedBrony and Brumby_Run
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