On a snowy night in Ponyville, a light brown unicorn mare was galloping down the streets. Her green manes were held with a pink beanie. The mare had a look of terror as she was running away from something dangerous. Unfortunately, she took a wrong turn and ran right into an alleyway. The light brown mare ended up stopping as she reached a dead end. Before the light brown mare could turn around, she froze as her chaser was standing right in front of her. Standing in front of the light brown mare was none other than Princess Twilight Sparkle. Normally, most ponies of Equestria would be surprised and thrilled to see none other than the Princess of Friendship stand before him or her. This was different as the light brown mare felt a lot of fear as the alicorn princess had an obsessed look on her face.
"There you are, Mocha." Twilight said in a raspy tone. "I have been looking all over for you!"
"W-What do you want, Twilight?" Mocha asked while still shaking in fear.
"You have something I need. I really need it now!" Twilight said as she lit up her horn. Before Mocha prepared for what Twilight was about to do, she suddenly turned to the reader.
"You're probably wondering how this all started." Mocha said to the reader."Well, it all started this morning."
Earlier this morning...
It was a bright morning in Ponyville and everypony was out shopping and trotting all over as it was Hearth's Warming Eve. The citizens and visitors of Ponyville were extremely busy as they were making last-minute preparations to celebrate this annual holiday. Princess Twilight wasn't so different as she was busy with her own Hearth's Warming shopping. Twilight flew from one store to another while using her magic to carry all of her boxes and bags that she purchased. Most of the ponies who saw Twilight this way didn't mind her as they were so used to her quirky antics.
Twilight felt a lot of relief as she was able to get what she needed from the stores of Ponyville. As she prepared to fly back to her castle and unpack her stuff, she smelled something sweet in the air. She sniffed around until she turned to where the smell was coming from. It was from a large cart that was serving different kinds of hot cocoa. As Twilight trotted closer to the cart, she spotted a familiar light brown unicorn mare who was running the cart.
"Hey Mocha Bean!" Twilight called out as she made her way to the hot cocoa cart. Mocha turned and smiled as Twilight was approaching.
"Greetings, your majesty." Mocha jokingly said as she pretended to bow down to Twilight.
"Oh Mocha, you don't have to be so formal with me." Twilight replied.
"Most ponies would. I mean, how often are you practically neighbors with a princess of Equestria?" Mocha asked.
"I guess not too often. May I have a cup of hot cocoa?" Twilight asked as she levitated some bits from her money bag.
"There's no need to pay me, Twilight." Mocha said as she used her magic to bring out a big cup of hot cocoa to Twilight. "This one's on the house."
"But Mocha, I couldn't take this for free." Twilight said as she attempts to pay Mocha.
"It's fine. Consider this as payment for saving me and all of Equestria loads of times." Mocha said as she kept on giving Twilight the cup of hot cocoa.
Twilight sighed in defeat and took the cup with her magic. She blew on it before she took a sip. Her face lit up with joy.
"Wow! Mocha, you always make the best cups of hot cocoa!" Twilight said while smiling.
"How do you think I stayed in business?" Mocha said while giving more cups of hot cocoa to customers.
"Do you have plans for Hearth's Warming Eve?" Twilight asked.
"I'll probably close up shop early and hang out with some of my friends who are throwing a holiday party." Mocha answered. "What will the Princess of Friendship be planning for this holiday?"
"My family will be staying at my castle for the holiday. I'm getting some snacks and other things to celebrate with them." Twilight answered.
"Whoa! Does that mean Princess Cadence and her family will be coming as well?" Mocha asked while feeling interested.
"Of course! She will also be bringing Flurry Heart, my favorite niece of all time!" Twilight said excitingly.
"Wow! You must have a lot to plan for, Twilight." Mocha then used her magic to bring out a big burlap sack that looked really stuffed. "Here, take this bag of hot cocoa mix. This should be enough for your family's party." Mocha also pulled out a scroll and used a quill to write something. "Also, take this. It's my usual recipe for hot cocoa."
"Are you sure you want me to take this?" Twilight questioned.
"It's fine, Twilight." Mocha assured. "I have plenty of hot cocoa to serve. Besides, you can't have a great Hearth's Warming Eve party without a nice, hot mug of hot cocoa."
"Thanks, Mocha. I hope you have a happy Hearth's Warming!" Twilight said before she flew up and straight towards her large castle.
As Twilight entered her castle, Spike was in the middle of putting up the last of the Hearth's Warming decorations in the front hall.
"Welcome back, Twilight." Spike said as he finished hanging up an ornament.
"Thanks, Spike!" Twilight said. "I appreciate you for putting out more Hearth's Warming decorations."
"I still got lots more to bring out. It would be easier if I had some 'magic' so I could levitate all of the decorations." Spike said while sounding a bit peeved. Twilight blushed as she understood what Spike was implying. Twilight used her horn to levitate all of the decorations and placed them all over the castle in an organized manner.
"Thanks!" Spike said while feeling really relieved.
"I'll be sure to reward you with a nice mug of hot cocoa." Twilight said as she levitated the sack of hot cocoa mix near Spike.
"Wait a second," Spike said as he took a big whiff. He formed a big smile on his face. "Is that from Mocha Bean! She makes the best hot cocoa ever!"
"Yeah, she gave me a big bag of it for our family's party. I'll whip some up while making some snacks in the meantime."
"Sounds great! I'll do some last minute clean up before everypony else arrives." Spike said as he started sweeping up the floor with a broom. Twilight flew to the kitchen while levitating her other stuff as well.
Twilight was done with making all of the snacks for her family's party. The only thing Twilight had to do was make some hot cocoa. Twilight made sure to read Mocha's recipe before she started. She was in front of the stove while heating up a large pot of milk. Twilight waited patiently for the milk until it was hot enough to pour the hot cocoa mix into the pot. Twilight placed a cooking thermometer into the pot and carefully examined the thermometer. Once the milk reached the perfect temperature, Twilight pulled out the thermometer and carefully poured some of the hot cocoa mix into the milk pot. Twilight then levitated a wooden spoon to mix up the hot cocoa in the pot. The milk turned brown and it had a chocolatey aroma that Twilight smelled. Twilight sighed as she really enjoyed the sweet scent of the hot cocoa. She used a spoon have a taste.
"This hot cocoa tastes so good!" Twilight said as she licked her lips. As she brought out the mugs, her mind started to wonder about something. "Hmm, perhaps I should add some more cinnamon into the hot cocoa." Twilight used her magic to bring out the small bottle of cinnamon and added some of the spice into the pot. Twilight stirred the pot and gave it another taste. "Mmm! Now it's better!" Twilight brought out a bag of marshmallows as those will be perfect for the hot cocoa. Before Twilight was about to put the marshmallows into the mugs, her curiosity came back about the hot cocoa's taste. "I know it tastes great, but maybe the hot cocoa can be tweaked some more to taste absolutely perfect. I better do some research on this." Twilight brought out some more ingredients that would improve the hot cocoa. Twilight couldn't help but smile as she was about to perform an important experiment.
Knocks were coming from the front doors of Twilight's castle. Spike flew over and opened them to reveal Twilight's parents, Cadence, Shining Armor, and Flurry Heart at the front steps.
"Happy Hearth's Warming Eve!" Most of Twilight's family members called out at the same time. Flurry spoke gibberish as she was still a baby.
"Hey! Happy Hearth's Warming Eve, everypony! Come on in!" Spike said as he moved out of the way so Twilight's family could enter.
"Wow! The decorations look as festive as ever, Spike." Night Light said as he looked up at the ceiling.
"Thanks, I did most of the work. Twilight did some of the work as well." Spike claimed.
"We brought some really great presents for you and for Twilight, Spike." Twilight Velvet said as she and the rest of the family placed their wrapped presents under the decorated Hearth's Warming tree. Cadence looked around and noticed something isn't quite right.
"Hey Spike, where's Twilight?" Cadence asked.
"She's preparing some snacks in the kitchen. She's also making some hot cocoa for all of us."
"Oh! I do love a nice cup of hot cocoa!" Shining Armor said as he licked his lips. He then turned to his daughter. "Do you agree, sweetie?"
Flurry responded by happily speaking in baby.
"I'll check on her. I'll be right back." Spike said as he flew towards the kitchen. He arrived to the kitchen door and opened it. "Hey Twilight, our family's here-" Spike stopped speaking as he was stunned from what he saw. The kitchen was in a complete mess as there were cookbooks scattered all over on the floor and counters. Bottles of spices and other ingredients were placed in different areas or were dropped to the floor. There was also a large chalkboard that had different equations and illustrations of ingredients. Spike spotted Twilight near the stove while mixing up multiple pots of hot cocoa. Spike immediately knew that Twilight was obsessed about something again. He couldn't count how many times Twilight would starts to do research or experiment on something that peaked her interest. He knew he had to get Twilight out of her researching before things got worse. As Spike flew closer to Twilight, she suddenly turned her head which spooked him.
"Oh Spike! There you are!" Twilight said while forming a wicked smile on her face.
Spike could tell that Twilight was at this for a long time from the messy manes and eyes twitching. He recomposed himself before he spoke.
"Hey Twilight, what's going on? I thought you were just making some hot cocoa." Spike said.
"I am! I'm just adding several more things to make the perfect mugs of hot cocoa!" She levitated some mugs of hot cocoa to Spike. "Speaking of which, could you be my hot cocoa taste tester? I could use some feedback."
Spike calmed himself before he responded.
"I just wanted to let you know that our family's here. You don't have to do too much for the hot cocoa. It looks good to me."
"I'm not doing too much." Twilight claimed. Spike waved his claws to show Twilight the mess she made. Twilight took a good look around the kitchen and realized that she really was going overboard.
Twilight sighed in defeat. "I'm sorry, Spike. I was just trying to make the best hot cocoa for our family."
"Look Twilight, not everything needs a formula. Let's just use whatever we have and our family will still appreciate it." Spike said as he started to pick up some of the plates of snacks.
"Okay, Spike, I'll meet you out there. I just got to tidy up in here." Twilight said as she used her magic to pick up some stuff on the floor.
"See you then." Spike said as he left the room. Twilight went on to clean up the kitchen a bit. Once she was done, she looked at the multiple pots of hot cocoa.
'It would be a waste to get rid of most of these batches.' Twilight thought. A sinister smile formed on Twilight's face as she knew exactly what to do with all of the hot cocoa.
Spike and the rest of the family socialized with each other while near the fireplace. Twilight finally arrived to greet her family.
"Hey everyone!" Twilight called out get there attention.
"Twilight! It's so good to see you again!" Twilight Velvet said as she hugged her daughter. Flurry flew up and gave her aunt a hug as well.
"It's so good to see you all too. Sorry if I couldn't say hi when you arrived. I was just making the snacks, that's all." Twilight said.
"Spike mentioned that you were also obsessing over making some hot cocoa. So it's usual Twilianas stuff." Shining Armor said.
"I was just whipping up some great-quality hot cocoa to share with all of you. It's not often that we get together like this." Twilight replied.
"It's fine, Twilight." Cadence assured. "Whatever you make will be delicious to us." The rest of Twilight's family nodded in agreement.
"Good, because I made some mugs of hot cocoa already!" Twilight used her magic to bring out a lot of mugs filled with hot cocoa. Twilight's family noticed that there were more mugs than the number of guests here and there were specific letters labeled on each of the mugs. Spike couldn't help but give himself a facepalm as he should have known Twilight would turn this into an experiment. "I put different letters on each mug to indicate which batch of hot cocoa I made. I just need you all to tell me how they taste." Twilight have each family member their mugs of hot cocoas.
"Twilight, we've been over this." Spike reminded Twilight.
"It's fine, Spike." Twilight replied. "I'm just using up all of the hot cocoa as I made so much! Plus, it never hurts to get feedback in order to make improvements."
"It will be okay, Spike. It's just hot cocoa." Shining Armor said as he took a sip of his mug that had the letter A on it. Twilight's parents nodded in agreement and took their sip of hot cocoa from their mugs that were also marked with A as well. Spike stared at his mug and was concerned for Twilight's well-being.
"I guess it wouldn't hurt." Spike said as he took a sip.
After two hours, Spike and the rest of the Sparkle family groaned while laying around due to their stomachs being full of hot cocoa. As the family continued to groan, Twilight was jotting down notes on a clipboard. Throughout the tasting, Twilight asked each family member specific questions regarding the mug of hot cocoa they were drinking. Each time a family member answered, Twilight wrote on her clipboard and gave her family member a new mug of hot cocoa.
"Hmm, it seems that Batch Z had a bit too much dark cocoa powder." Twilight said to herself as she wrote on her clipboard. “Twilight!” Spike whined. “Please! No more hot cocoa!”
“But I’m so close to figuring out the perfect hot cocoa formula!” Twilight said.
“Uhh, I never thought I would get so sick of hot cocoa! I can’t even look it!” Shining Armor said as he covered his face with his hooves.
Twilight was too busy looking at her clipboard. She went into a panic as she realized that Batch Z was her last batch of hot cocoa.
“T-This can’t be! I tried every possible ingredient that would improve the hot cocoa! What am I missing!?” Twilight recalled when she tasted Mocha’s hot cocoa and it was absolutely perfect. “Mocha, Mocha is the key to all of this!” Twilight quickly flew out of the castle and searched for Mocha. It was a bit hard for Twilight to look for the hot cocoa mare as it was dark and snowflakes were falling. Twilight lit up her horn to provide some light. Twilight went to the spot where she last saw Mocha and her cart. Luckily, Twilight spotted Mocha packing up her cart for the night.
“There you are!” Twilight yelled as she flew down towards Mocha.
As Mocha was finish closing up, she heard something from the distance. She turned and was shocked to see Twilight flying towards her. At first, Mocha wondered why Twilight was flying to her. Mocha became a bit scared as she saw the wicked smile on Twilight’s face. Out of instinct, Mocha quickly ran the other way in attempt to get away from Twilight. Mocha ended up reaching a dead end and Twilight blocked Mocha’s only exit.
Present Time
"There you are, Mocha." Twilight said in a raspy tone. "I have been looking all over for you!"
"W-What do you want, Twilight?" Mocha asked while still shaking in fear.
"You have something I need. I really need it now!" Twilight said as she lit up her horn.
Mocha turned back to the reader. "Okay, you're probably caught up by now." Mocha said before she turned back to Twilight. Twilight used her magic to bring out her clipboard and quill.
“Could you tell me the recipe for your hot cocoa?” Twilight politely asked.
Mocha was confused from Twilight’s question. “Excuse me?” Mocha asked.
“I just want to know how you made the perfect mug of hot cocoa. That’s all.”
“D-Didn’t you read the recipe I gave you?” Mocha questioned.
“I did! I made sure to follow the recipe to every detail! Even so, it still wasn’t as good as the hot cocoa you made! I just got to know how you made it!”
Now that Mocha heard all of this, she started to feel less scared of Twilight and more sorry for her. Mocha took a deep breath before she spoke.
“Alright Twilight, I’ll tell you the secret to what makes my hot cocoa so good.” Mocha said.
Twilight leaned closer to Mocha as she waited in anticipation for the answer.
“It’s nothing.” Mocha answered.
Twilight blinked a few times from hearing Mocha’s answer.
“Wait, it’s nothing?” Twilight said while confused.
“I wouldn’t exact say nothing.” Mocha confessed. “I do add a few spices and other stuff when I ask my customers if they want it in their hot cocoa. The recipe I gave you is what I normally make.”
“It doesn’t make any sense.” Twilight said while shocked. “How come your hot cocoa taste so much better than what I made?”
“That’s because you believed that my hot cocoa was special.” Mocha said. “You appreciated my effort into making such a nice mug of hot cocoa. I believe that was missing with your hot cocoa.”
Twilight finally realized what Mocha said was true. She was so busy figuring out the best formula for hot cocoa that she forgot to appreciate her own efforts.
“Thank you, Mocha. I appreciate you for telling me that. I also want to apologize for chasing you.”
“It’s fine, Twilight.” Mocha smiled. “I actually feel a bit flattered that the Princess of Friendship herself wanted to find me. But just don’t make it a habit, okay?”
“I promise.” Twilight said. “I’m heading back home and I’m going to apologize to my family. I hope your holiday party goes well.”
“Thanks, Twilight.” Mocha said as she waved. “Happy Hearth’s Warming Eve!”
“Happy Hearth’s Warming Eve, Mocha.” Twilight replied before she flew back to her castle.
When Twilight made it back inside her castle, her family was able to recover from their stomach aches.
"You're all better now! I'm so glad!" Twilight said while smiling.
"We just had to rest. That's all, Twilight." Twilight Velvet said.
"So where did you go while we were recovering?" Spike asked.
"I went to Mocha and asked her about her hot cocoa recipe." Twilight said. "Let's just say that she taught me an important lesson involving not needing a perfect recipe for hot cocoa."
"I'm glad you understand, Twilight." Spike said.
"Still though, I want to apologize for making you all go through such a thing." Twilight sadly said.
"It's fine, Twilight." Cadence assured. "We're just glad you were able to calm yourself from making hot cocoa."
"Yeah, I'm not even sick of hot cocoa anymore. It was just the tummy ache speaking." Shining Armor said which caused the whole family to laugh.
"How about we get back to celebrating Hearth's Warming Eve?" Twilight suggested. "There's still so much to do before the evening ends."
"I'm still a bit parched though." Shining Armor said. "Do you have any eggnog?" Twilight's eye twitched while the other family members glared at Shining Armor.
"What? I'm kidding! Hehe," Shining Armor said while laughing nervously.
