(Hearths' Warming Eve, 1004CR - Three years after the episode.)

“First we meet Paddock, the barman of course, something something something, something something... horse? Or maybe sauce, source?” Ruby said to herself, watching the ink-laden quill scratch along the coarse parchment. The filly had been working on a Hearth’s Warming poem for a competition at school, and had so far found it to be far more difficult than first imagined. Sighing, she looked out of the window, idly switching on the radio with her newly-found magic, tuning to EBC Radio One, anticipating the Hearth’s Warming number one to be aired that night, before her step-father took her to out for the evening to meet up with her mother.

“Ruby, sweetheart, can I have some help?” the voice of Paddock called up the stairs.

“Yeah, I’ll be down in a second!” she yelled back, merrily, putting the quill down and closing the ink-well in her desk.

Since he had first moved in with Ruby and her mother a few weeks back, Paddock had been something of an experience to the foal, who was unused to a male role-model who had never raised his voice in anger to her. She had of course been naughty once or twice, as foals often do, but the way in which Paddock reflected it had made her feel worse than any amount of yelling.

He would simply sigh, and explain how she was making him feel - he did exactly the same with her mother too, although she had heard what sounded like wailing coming from their room once or twice when they thought she was asleep, complete with something banging against the wall in a regular pattern.

As Ruby had seen Paddock have to throw stallions out of the bar before, she was naturally concerned for her mother’s safety whilst they were in the room alone together. This concern was why Ruby had eventually gone to see Captain Snapshot about it, who had laughed and told her that it was nothing to worry about; she had then gone to see Miss Twilight at the library, who simply turned red and ushered Ruby out of the building.

Taking her mind off of the bizarre behaviour of adults, the little unicorn trotted downstairs, to find the stallion almost pitch black, rather than his usual creamy colour.

“Wha... what’s happened?” she asked, slightly dumbfounded.

“Well, your mother told me about how one of her ex-coltfriends had blocked the chimney, I figured I’d try and shift some of it out.”

“And it didn’t go well.” Ruby replied, giggling as she tried to copy Paddock’s soft Cloplin accent. He smiled, and did his best not to laugh at how awful she sounded.

“I got the main load of soot out, so we can at least have a fire goin', but I need to get cleaned up. You know what night it is tonight, right?”

“Kareoke night! Did Mom say if I could come?”

“That she did. If you can do me the favour of cleaning the fireplace, I’ll take you with me, and we might even get Greasy Spoon to cook us something when we get to the Wings.”

“Deal!” Ruby replied excitedly, before trotting over to the fireplace and animating a scrubbing brush.

Over the last few months, the bar had been doing amazingly well, catering for serveral important functions in the happy town of Ponyville. With this success, Paddock and Berry needed extra help around the establishment, such as Greasy Spoon. Despite his name, Greasy was an excellent chef, and was fully responsible for all of the food to come out of the kitchens, which was taken out to the customers by Miss Colgate. Ruby wasn’t sure about Colgate. She had an odd name for a mare, and something about her didn’t feel right; her friends felt the same way about Colgate, like there was something in the corner of their eye whenever she was near, something so obvious and outright wrong, hidden in plain sight.

Ruby’s mother had explained to her that Colgate was a pony very down on her luck, found wandering near the Everfree Forest a couple of years ago by Lyra and Bonbon, only capable of remembering her name, an old style fob-watch hung around her neck - it reminded the foal of a book she thought she had read a long time ago, or maybe even a dream she had, but Ruby continued cleaning and didn’t follow the train of thought any further.

When Paddock had finally trotted down the stairs again, he was once again his usual cream colour, brown mane still wet and pushed out of his eyes. He glanced over the child’s work, and smiled.

“Alright, fetch your things, and make sure you wrap up warm or I’ll never hear the end of it.” he said as he levitated a large, thick wool jumper over his head, stepping into the foreleg holes and adding a scarf. Ruby fetched herself a warm goose-down coat - a gift from Paddock’s mother who she had taken to very well when they visited.

Wrapping herself in a scarf knitted by Berry the previous winter, Ruby topped her head with Paddock’s old flat cap and sat waiting at the door whilst the older unicorn struggled to put on his new hat; it was a deerstalker gifted to him by Berry’s father, and difficult to wear because of the fiddly straps used to hold it in place. Not being used to using his magic for such fine movement, Paddock had been trying to use his hooves, and watching him struggle reminded Ruby that even the most competent of adults still have their own difficulties in life - a lesson worth remembering. Watching the stallion struggle, a smile slowly creeps on to Ruby’s face, and she considered helping him, until he miraculously managed to do it up. He glanced at her, also smiling, with a look of triumph in his eyes, until the pair of them started to giggle.

As Paddock had finally managed to dress himself, the two of them stepped out into the bracing winds and snow of a typical mid-winters’ night. The snow was close to the top of Ruby’s legs, making her shiver, before she was magically lifted and put on Paddock’s back. Looking around, the foal could see how thickly the snow had covered most of the houses nearby, which had been almost completely bare less than ten hours ago.

“How’s that?” the stallion asked, warm underneath her, his shoulders moving up and down as he slowly walked towards their destination.

“Great, thanks” she replied, snuggling down on his back.

As the blizzard began to blow a little more, the two ponies found themselves unable to see very far ahead, relying on their knowledge of the route rather than sight to work their way to the tavern. The blizzard didn’t last for much longer, and as they passed Sugar Cube Corner, Ruby noticed a white light coming from the top of a blue box nearby - it was either flashing, or turning as if it were a lighthouse - she couldn't be sure. Paddock didn’t seem to have noticed, and continued on, the snow half-way up his legs now, but his tracks had at least began to mingle with those of other ponies going in the same direction.

Soon, the two unicorns began to feel warm as they drew closer to their destination. Looking through the mottled green and clear windows of the Wings, they could see the pub was already packed out with the residents of Ponyville, and the hum of music was heard over the whistling and howling of the wind.