Princess Celestia said, "But I mustn't go in the East Garden right now. We'll have to go around." She grinned. "Or I suppose you could blindfold me and lead me through yourself, so I can go through without peeking."
Raven Inkwell snorted. "Why shouldn't you see your own palace's grounds?"
A little hoof gently tapped on the door.
"Come in," Celestia called out. The door swung open. A little purple filly wearing a red scarf said, "We're ready, Celestia! We're ready! Just, um, give me five minutes to run back there, and then you can come see."
Celestia nodded. "I look forward to it, Twilight." She turned towards Raven. "Would you be willing to take a little break? I don't think it will be more than fifteen or twenty minutes."
Raven glanced at a clock. "That isn't much time for me to go anywhere else and come back. Might I come along?"
"Surely!" Celestia smiled. "I suppose they might even appreciate the extra audience."
***
Just outside the East Garden, the little purple filly said, "To keep from spoiling the surprise...would you mind putting on a blindfold?"
Celestia levitated her own scarf up to her face, tying it around her head. "Will this do?"
"Yes!" Twilight said. "That should be perfect!" The foal led Celestia out the door, into the cold yet sunny day. Snow blanketed the ground, as well as some trees and shrubs.
"We had to knock all the snow off one of the trees," Twilight said. "I hope you don't mind. We didn't break anything."
"I'm sure it's fine," the blindfolded alicorn replied. "But what's the surprise?"
Celestia was sure she heard at least three more fillies, giggling and shushing each other.
Twilight cleared her throat. Celestia heard papers rustling. "Princess Celestia...I was thinking, about how old you are."
Celestia stifled a giggle of her own. "I suppose I AM very old indeed. I'm even older than your parents."
Raven chuckled.
The papers rustled again. "I was wondering about the Hearth's Warming customs when you were younger. I thought, maybe sometimes you miss those days."
"Sometimes," Celestia whispered, almost too softly for the foal to hear.
"So I did some research, in some old books! And I turned up something interesting. A way ponies used to show appreciation for you, a way everypony seems to have forgotten."
Celestia nodded.
"You can take off your blindfold now."
Celestia pulled the scarf upwards, off her head. She gasped. "Oh, my word."
In the sunlight, a broad shrub glittered with flat, slightly wrinkled shapes, which appeared to have been cut out of metal foil with blunt scissors. Half the ornaments were brassy yellow suns, and the other half were tinfoil moons.
Faintly, the princess said, "It's...been a long time."
Five more foals, classmates of Twilight's from the School for Gifted Unicorns, trotted out from behind the shrub. All the foals sang the Hearth's Warming Heart's Carol:
"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!"
"Thank you," Celestia wiped her eyes. "This is very nice." She looked closely at Twilight. "I do wonder, though. How did you decide to use THESE ornaments, on the, um, tree?"
Twilight grinned. "Because everypony knows you raise BOTH the sun and the moon...but they only ever use the sun as your symbol. That isn't fair, because it only gives you half the credit you deserve. Don't you think so?"
The foals cheered. "Yeah!" "You say it, Twilight!" "Hooray for Princess Celestia!"
Celestia sniffled. A moment later, she turned and ran.
Twilight and the other foals looked at each other uncertainly. "What happened?" Minuette asked. "Did we make her upset?"
"I was afraid this wouldn't work," Moon Dancer grumbled. "I hope we aren't in trouble."
Twilight ran after her princess-mentor.
***
Twilight found Celestia in a secluded corner of the East Garden, crying.
"I'm so sorry!" Twilight said. "I didn't mean to make you sad."
Celestia turned around. "Don't worry, Twilight. I'm only crying because I'm happy."
"Oh." Twilight didn't seem convinced.
Celestia said, "Those ornaments. Those sun and moon designs. That's...a very old custom. I wonder how you learned about it."
Twilight explained, "I went into an old storage room, in the back of the Palace Library. I'd been looking for books about how ponies celebrated Hearth's Warming when you were younger, and I hadn't found much. But finally, I found a picture in a book that was a thousand years old, a book for little foals."
"You did?" Celestia said faintly.
"I did! Towards the back of the book, I found a picture of a tree with sun and moon ornaments on it. But there was a mistake in the caption."
Celestia whispered, "What was the mistake?"
The caption said 'Palace Gardens, Hearth's Warming Tree, Specially Decorated For Equestria's Alicorn Princesses.' But a thousand years ago, when the book was printed, Equestria only had one alicorn princess. Wasn't that a silly mistake?"
"Yes," Celestia agreed. "How careless of them." How careless of them, she thought, to have left that page in the book. Even if that page was only indiscreet in one single word...the Palace librarians still should have destroyed that page. They probably should have destroyed the entire book, just to be safe.
Celestia forced her face into a smile. "I'm fine. It's just...remembering how Hearth's Warming was celebrated a thousand years ago...it reminded me of ponies I knew and loved. Ponies who are no longer with us."
With big, round eyes, Twilight said, "I don't think I could BEAR to be an alicorn. Watching everypony I know get old and...you know."
"Yes," Celestia agreed. "It can be hard. But even though time takes so many ponies from us...if I keep my heart open and welcoming, there's always chances to make new friends." She nuzzled Twilight. "Happy Hearth's Warming, Twilight. And thank you. Please tell your friends I send my thanks to them, too."
"You can't go back and tell them yourself?"
"I'm sorry, my dear. Raven has me on a tight schedule today. I need to hurry to my meeting with the kirin ambassadors, or they might get upset. You don't want to see an angry kirin." She hugged Twilight. "Thank you. I thank all of you."
Celestia spread her wings and took to the air, leaving Twilight behind in the garden.
