Minty dug through her sock drawer looking for the perfect pairs of socks to wear for Hearth’s Warming Eve. The simple white ones just wouldn’t do. Sure, they were perfect for keeping her hoovsies warm at night, but they were hardly fit for wearing outside. The sparkly red ones were certainly festive enough for the holiday, but they really weren’t designed to be worn in the snow. Short ones? Not a chance. The glow by night socks? Pointless to wear in the daytime. Red and white? A classic perfect for the occasion. An extra thick scarf decorated with snowflakes and pine trees completed her ensemble.
Socks chosen, Minty broke out a ladder. Then, after breaking the ladder, she trotted down to the hardware store and purchased a new one. Once she got that ladder home, she carefully set it up so she could access her attic. She hadn’t meant to procrastinate on putting up her Hearth’s Warming lights, but time got away from her until it was Hearth’s Warming Eve and they still weren’t up. Of course the lights she’d so patiently wrapped up back in January had become a tangled mess at some point in the ensuing year.
She trotted out her front door, and past the dozen giant holiday inflatables decorating her front yard. Some of her neighbors were insistent they were an eyesore, but they were just Snowfall Frosts who couldn’t get into the holiday spirit.
She leaned the ladder against the side of her house and grabbed the lights in her mouth as she carefully climbed up to her roof. Minty was an especially clumsy pony, and she knew she was tempting fate just by being on a ladder in the first place.
Once she was on the roof, things went fairly smoothly. So smoothly, in fact, she almost forgot why she hated stringing lights up in the first place. The lights had resisted her efforts to untangle them when she was still on the ground, but once they were woven into the thatched roof, they had no choice but to comply with her wishes and straighten out.
She’d long ago learned not to jinx herself by saying something like ‘that was easy’ or ‘that went well’ so instead she descended the ladder and plugged in the lights. And nothing happened. She facehoofed. “I forgot to check for loose bulbs.”
Minty once more climbed onto her roof and started checking each bulb to make sure it was screwed in as tightly as possible. One by one, hour after hour. She’d now spent the better part of the day on her roof. She hadn’t eaten anything. Somehow she’d managed to avoid disaster while stringing the lights up, but she wasn’t as fortunate the second time. She slipped on some ice, and her hooves grasped at anything they could, struggling to gain traction. Unfortunately, the only thing she could grab was the straw of her roof and the string of lights, and her weight was significantly more than they could manage to hold. She tumbled end over end, getting tangled up in the lights as she rolled.
Eventually she came to a stop, dangling by her tail from her home’s gutter, completely wrapped up in Hearth’s Warming lights. Straw continued falling from her roof, drifting down in front of her on its descent to the ground. She sighed. This was precisely the kind of outcome she’d been expecting since she started. At least this time she hadn’t injured anything except her dignity. Yet. That was assuming she somehow managed to get down without gravity’s insistence. The only thing missing was a witness to her predicament to complete her embarrassment.
A pegasus filly fluttered over to her. “Golly miss, I saw everything. Are you okay?”
Minty resigned herself to her fate. “Never better.”
“Want me to fly up there and get you down?”
“Nah, I’m fine.”
“Is there anything I can do at all?”
“Just plug the lights in.”
Cozy Glow blinked. “Seriously?”
“Seriously.” The filly shrugged and followed Minty’s instructions. Of course the lights lit up this time. Somehow, despite every light having been tight when she checked them, she’d managed to find the right one. Then, miraculously, she hadn’t knocked any of them loose during her fall. The lights blinked, just like they were supposed to. On. Off. On. Off. This was Minty’s new lot in life as a Hearth’s Warming decoration.
“Um, you look very festive. Are you absolutely sure there’s nothing else I can do for you?”
“I don’t suppose I could trouble you for a snack?”
“Um, sure.” Cozy reached into her saddlebags and brought out a bag of potato chips and a juice box. “Here you go. Happy Hearth’s Warming!”
“Happy Hearth’s Warming,” Minty called after the departing filly, no holiday mirth in her voice.
Next door, Flitter and Cloudchaser were long since used to their neighbor’s eccentricities. Unlike most of the rest of Ponyville, they really weren’t bothered by the mint mare’s Hearth’s Warming excesses. But even they couldn’t figure out why Minty had chosen to hang a disco mirror ball wrapped in blinking lights from her rain gutter.
“What does disco have to do with Hearth’s Warming?”
“Isn’t she in that disco band, the Gee Threes?”
Cloudchaser nodded. “She is. Still, it’s kind of tacky.”
Flitter raised an eyebrow. “More so than the rest, Cloudy?”
Cloudchaser laughed. “Okay, it’s no worse than the rest of her decorations.”
“I’m gonna go check it out up close. Wanna come with?”
“Nah, I need to get Hearth’s Warming Eve dinner started. Why don’t you invite her over? Nopony ought to be all alone on Hearth’s Warming.”
Flitter flitted over to her neighbor’s house and observed up close that the ‘disco ball’ was in fact Minty herself. “Oh Minty, Minty, Minty.”
“I know, I know, I know.”
As she started untangling her friend from her predicament, Flitter took a good look at the damages. Minty had demolished about a third of her roof – so much so that the natural insulating abilities of the straw would be ruined. And there was no way they’d be able to get a repairpony out to fix it on Hearth’s Warming Eve or Hearth’s Warming Day. Even if they could, it would probably take several days to fix the damage.
Once Minty was completely untangled, Flitter set her on the ground. “Cloudy’s making supper. You should join us.”
“I should probably fix my roof first…”
Flitter laughed. “Minty, leave that to the professionals. You can crash at our place until you can get it fixed.”
Minty cringed. “I think I’ve done enough crashing for one day.”
Flitter giggled. “It’s just an expression. It means you can stay in our guest room.” She grabbed Minty’s foreleg to guide her in the right direction. “You’re freezing. Let’s get some food in your belly and a nice warm bed to sleep in.”
Despite failing to hang her lights, despite damaging her roof, and even despite spending several hours dangling upside down by her tail in freezing temperatures, it still managed to be one of the best Hearth’s Warming Eves Minty had ever had.
