***

Canterlot. December 25th, Year 1 of the New Free Equestrian Calendar (2031).

Dreamer had always been an inquisitive colt. His father, despite not being the most imaginative pony when it came to names, had been surprisingly insightful when it came to picking one for his only son. His mother had never had any say in it and never wanted any, on account of apparently leaving a few days after he had been born. His father had never said why she left them but he remembered one night overhearing his father complaining with his friends. He had said his mother had never liked Unicorns and giving birth to one had apparently been too much for her to handle.

His father had always encouraged him to explore, to satisfy his curiosity and always reach for the stars. Even during the war he had been told to never give up on his dreams. Equestria may have been engaged in a terrible conflict a world away, but that shouldn’t stop him from becoming the pony he wanted to be rather than the pony the propaganda said he should be. Two years ago, when his binocular shaped cutie mark had appeared, his father had hugged him tightly and wept, thanking Solamina and various other important ponies that his son was not destined to experience war.

Then the humans had come.

Fortunately he and his father had been sent down to the shelters when the alarm had been sounded and he had missed the battle. However when he and his father were told to leave the underground bunker they were huddling in he had found a very different city awaited him.

Solamina had been killed, the Empire was gone and some new pony had taken the throne and was saying that Equestria had returned. It never really mattered much to Dreamer, he and has father had been much more concerned with rebuilding their lives. Their house had been lucky enough to survive so they didn’t have to scrounge for a place in the limited number of shelters.

The humans had left and then, barely a few months later, they had come back. Apparently they were helping Prince Blueblood with some other wars far away but none of that had mattered to him. It hadn’t taken Dreamer long to overcome his fear of the bizarre aliens and in a matter of weeks he was trying to talk to them, to learn everything he could about the visitors from another world. They had proved difficult to talk with… largely because they didn’t talk. Talk to him anyway. He and his friends had soon forgotten about them. They were there but they didn’t do much besides stand watch over some area and they were easy enough to ignore after long enough.

Then everything had changed.

***

It was the middle of Hearth's Warming and despite the trials and tribulations of the previous year, and the strains of the war and empire that went back even further, the entirety of Canterlot had come out to celebrate a tradition as old as the nation itself.

Of course it wasn’t as vibrant an occasion as it used to be. The losses from the war, the costs of the reconstruction and the continued problems with demagogues, warlords and the last of the Solaminan Loyalists were a dampener on the holiday spirits and ensured that everypony had less than they had been used to. Still, Dreamer hadn’t let that ruin the holiday for him and neither had his friends.

Dreamer galloped down the street, weaving through the crowds of adults that still moved through the avenues and thoroughfares of Outer Canterlot. It was still morning and Dreamer had only recently opened up his presents and thanked his father for the gift of a brand new pair of binoculars to replace the pair that had been destroyed in the battle.

He quickly came to the square that stood at the centre of his local district and looked around. The clock that stood on the plinth that once held a massive statue of Celestia/Solamina said it was 10:33 which meant he was only a few minutes late.

He looked through the square, scanning the crowds of ponies as they trotted back and forth through his vision. He was expecting his friends to be standing under the plinth, waiting for him so that they could all go and celebrate Hearth's Warming together.

It took barely a few seconds for his face to light up in delight when he finally spotted a pair of foals standing under the clock. They too appeared to be scanning the square.

A brown Earth Pony colt with a dark red spot around one of his eyes, a brownish-green mane and tail and a cutie mark that depicted a pair of walking boots was practically leaning over the small wall that separated the plinth from the rest of the square. he waved at Dreamer the moment he spotted him and began excitedly pointing him out. His companion, a lilac Pegasus filly with a light blue mane and tail that were both elaborately styled and a fashionably lacy saddle-coat that covered her cutie mark, turned at the sound of the colt’s exclamations and proceeded to wave as well, a smile on her face.

They were Sound Choice and Exuberance, his friends and fellow explorers. He had known both of them for as long as he could remember. Sound Choice had been his neighbour up until the battle and the two of them had been inseparable, running through the city to find anything new that they could then write down in their exploration log for posterity. Exuberance was a noble’s daughter. She had met them a couple of years ago after getting lost. The two of them had helped her finally find her way home and by that point the three of them were sure friends and Exuberance had gained her cutie mark, a beautiful compass rose.

Ever since then the three of them would meet up to travel the streets of Canterlot and the surrounding plateau, making note of any new discoveries. They had gotten into enormous amounts of trouble at times, infiltrating buildings, causing accidents and finding out things they apparently weren't supposed to.

“Hey,” Sound Choice shouted as Dreamer ran close to them, “what took you so long?”

“Sorry,” Dreamer gasped out as he tried to catch his breath. He hoof-bumped Sound Choice before continuing. “My dad wanted me to clean up after we opened up our presents. Hey get this,” Dreamer said, quickly changing the subject as he rushed to tell his friends about his new present, “my dad got me this sweet pair of binoculars for Hearth's Warming.”

“Cool,” Sound Choice replied though his tone showed his interest was lacklustre at best. Exuberance seemed a little bit more impressed though she never voiced it, instead her eyes widened slightly and sparkled at the thought of new possibilities to discover and explore with her friends.

“So have you heard?” Sound Choice suddenly said, changing the subject.

“Heard what?” Dreamer replied, sounding a little confused.

“The humans,” Sound Choice began excitement building in his voice, “they’re…”

“They’re different,” Exuberance interrupted, finally speaking.

“Yeah, yeah,” Sound Choice continued, not caring that he had been cut off.

“Different?” Dreamer asked again, still sounding confused. He glanced around, trying to see if there were any humans around. Now that he thought about it he hadn’t seen any of the familiar guards he had gotten used to see roam about the streets. Scanning the square he also didn’t see any standing at the street corners like they usually were.

“Yeah,” Sound Choice said, “when I woke up I looked outside and I saw that the guy who usually stands outside my house wasn’t there. I checked and checked but he never showed up and when I went outside and down to the next street there weren’t any there either. It’s like they all just left.”

“Actually,” Exuberance began again, “they’re still near my family’s estate.”

Sound Choice deflated slightly at that, having assured himself that the humans were already gone.

“Really?” he asked, “Awww. I wanted to see if we could find out why they’d left.”

“Well they’re all in one place now,” Exuberance then said, “so maybe we could go and see what they’re doing?”

“Yeah,” Dreamer piped in enthusiastically, “maybe they’re celebrating Hearth's Warming as well. Oh, or maybe they’re getting ready to go fight in those other wars, or maybe there’s some kind of parade.” Despite his general discomfort around the black clad soldiers that had taken over the streets of his home, Dreamer couldn’t help but feel excited at the possibilities that this new discovery was presenting them.

“Alright,” Sound Choice then said, joining in with their excitement “let’s go.”

Their decision made the three foals shot off down the street in the direction of the upper class districts. Exuberance led the way, guiding them through the avenues of shops and gated manor houses until they reached an old Royal Guard compound and there they found the humans.

***

“So, uuuhhhhhh, how do we get in?” Sound Choice asked as they stared up at the massive wall that separated the compound from the streets around it. Beyond the wall the trio of foals could hear the sounds of moving objects, cheering and loud talking. There were definitely ponies.... people in there.

“We could try the front door?” Exuberance suggested. Dreamer and Sound Choice both shot her deadpan glances in response. “What?” She said indignantly. “It’s polite.”

“They never let us in through the front door,” Dreamer replied. “Remember the museum?”

All three ponies shuddered as they remembered the night they had spent locked in the Canterlot Museum of History. After being barred from entering without adult supervision they had managed to squeeze their way through the archive window near the cellars and ended up trapped in the building when they closed a few minutes later. The night guard hadn’t found them until it was already dawn.

“Yeah,” Exuberance said, “mother and father already don’t like me hanging out with you two. Another incident like that and I’m pretty sure they’ll forbid me from even stepping near your houses.”

“Alright,” Dreamer said, “when we do find a way in,” he paused to emphasise his instructions, “we make sure that there’s also a way out.”

“Yeah,” Sound Choice replied, Exuberance nodding.

“Right. So now that that’s out of the way, let’s find out how to get over this wall.” With that declaration Dreamer scanned the area for any opportunity to make it into the compound. Checking the area he saw several metal barrels and a pile of boxes leaning against the wall.

“Hey,” he said excitedly, “we could make a ladder out of those.”

“Great,” Sound Choice replied in agreement. “And we can get back down when we’re done as well.”

“Let’s do this then,” Dreamer said with conviction. With that declaration the young Unicorn clambered onto the first box and then used his hooves to lever himself onto the next level of the impromptu ladder. The shaking of the ladder helped indicate that at least one of his friends had followed him. Dreamer looked down for a second and saw Sound Choice just behind him whilst Exuberance used her wings to hover up, using the boxes to guide her incredibly unsteady flying.

Eventually, after almost falling several times, the three made it to the top of the wall and climbed over it.

“So…” Sound Choice began as he worriedly looked down, “how do we get down?”

Dreamer looked about as he tried to find some means of safely lowering himself and his friends down from the top of the wall. Unfortunately this time there were no boxes or other materials that could be used as a ladder and the wall was too high for them to safely jump down without hurting themselves.

“How about this?” Exuberance’s voice snapped Dreamer out of his panicked thoughts. turning his head in her direction he saw the well-dressed filly sliding down the guttering of one of the adjoining buildings attached to the compound wall.

“That’ll work,” Dreamer said as he walked along the top of the wall to the guttering. He gripped the metal pipe and wrapped his hooves on the sides. Jumping from the wall, he held on tight as his body slid down to the ground. Sound Choice followed after him, the Earth Pony gritting his teeth and shutting his eyes as he too slowly slid down to the ground.

“We’re in,” Exuberance said with a triumphantly smug grin, “you’re welcome.”

“Alright,” Dreamer said, his voice dropping to a whisper, “we’re going to have to be very quiet. We don’t want to get caught now do we?”

“No,” Sound Choice whispered back, “now let’s go find some humans.”

The three foals set off, sticking the shadows as much as they could as they walked through the compound they had just broken into.

Though they could still hear the same bustling sounds that had echoed over the walls the area of the compound they had broken into was practically empty. Whilst this was good news, as it prevented them from being caught, it had also been very underwhelming for the inquisitive foals.

“Come on,” Sound Choice whispered loudly, “there’s gotta be something. I mean there’s all that noise coming from over there.” He waved his hoof in the general direction of the noise.

All three foals quickly set off in the direction of the loudest clamour. It didn’t take them very long to make it round the building they had just clambered down from and found another empty avenue in front of them.

“Where is everyhuman?” Sound Choice whispered to his friends, a hint of frustration in his voice.

“Yeah,” Dreamer replied. “You’d think there’d be at least a few of them.”

“Well we can still hear some of them shouting that way,” Exuberance pointed down one of the avenues between the buildings. She then began to walk in the direction she had pointed.

“Wait up,” both colts said hurriedly as they chased after their friend.

The three of them walked down the avenue, the voices growing louder as they approached another empty intersection.

“So you going to the fight?” a loud feminine voice said around one of the corners.

“Probably,” another voice replied.

The three foals hurriedly ran behind a large metal box and hid, the three of them piled on top of one another. Dreamer, who was at the top of the pile, peered over the top of the box.

Two humans walked through the intersection. They were both dressed in the usual black shirt and trousers he had always seen them wear but they were missing the long overcoats and disturbing masks that he often saw them carrying. Both of them, as he had come to learn, were female and they seemed to be talking to one another.

Dreamer held his breath as he saw them walk by. When both humans had walked past them, he waited to see if any more were coming.

“What’s going on?” Exuberance, who was at the bottom of the pile and very frustrated, asked.

“I think they’re gone,” Dreamer said.

“Good,” Sound Choice grunted. “D’ya think we could move then? This is really uncomfortable.”

“How do you think I feel?” Exuberance groaned, shifting slightly to throw the two colts off of her.

Dreamer and Sound Choice tumbled to the ground with a grunt.

“Thanks Exuberance,” Dreamer mumbled, rubbing his head as he pulled himself to his hooves.

“At least we now know where humans are,” Sound Choice said, already setting off down the avenue the humans had been walking.

“Wait up,” Dreamer shouted after him, Exuberance quickly chasing after them as well.

The three of them trotted down the avenue until, once again they saw more humans. There was an entire crowd of them with their backs turned to the foals. They were all loudly shouting, chanting or cheering. The specifics of their conversations all blended into one another as they all tried their hardest to be heard.

“Come on,” Sound Choice whispered, “we’ve gotta hide and find somewhere good to see what they’re doing.”

“The roof,” Exuberance said, pointing at the drainage system that an around the roof of every building.

Dreamer scanned the area quickly, desperately searching for some means of reaching up to the roof. He then saw the box they had hid behind. It was close to another stack of boxes and storage barrels.

“Hey let’s see if we can use those as a ladder,” he said excitedly, dashing off to the pile of boxes.

“Really?” Exuberance groaned.

Dreamer had already clambered atop the box they had hid behind and used it as a means of leaping onto a stack of barrels. His friends following after him, the Unicorn colt clambered,leaped and dragged his way up until he could grab at the guttering. Soon he had lifted himself, rather awkwardly onto the roof of the cabin.

A grunt of exertion heralded Sound Choice’s arrival behind him, followed by a panting Exuberance.

“You guys know I’m wearing this thing right?” she asked, pointing to her saddle-coat. “It weighs like a tonne.”

“Hey,” Dreamer said defensively, “I didn’t dress you and you wanted to see humans well now I’ve got us the best seats in the city.” He emphasized his point by waving his hoof around him, indicating the elevated platform they now found themselves on.

All three foals walked to the edge of the roof, peered over the edge, making sure to be careful so that they weren’t spotted, and finally found what they were looking for.

They were looking into a large open square bordered by the largest cabins they had yet seen in the compound and it was full of humans. They were all dressed in the similar black and grey clothing but there was plenty of variation. None of them wore masks or carried weapons. Some wore their long overcoats but others had settled for simply donning heavy jumpers to ward off the cold of winter. There were different hues of skin colour verging from pale, milky pink to dark brown and everyone was smiling.

A small square of land had been cleared out and bordered by posts with elastic rope strung between them. The foals all recognised it as a ring. They had seen several sports that had taken place in a similar cordoned square. The humans all seemed to be clamouring around the ring, making loud declarations or tugging excitedly on the ropes.

Suddenly the sound of feedback tore through the air, drowning out much of the talking and making nearly everyone in the square give a collective wince.

“Sorry,” a feminine voice shouted over the now relatively quiet square followed by moaning and muttered curses.

Dreamer looked in the direction the apology had come from and saw a female human standing on a large metal box. She was holding a microphone and behind her was a massive array of speakers. They weren’t the small sound systems he had seen in Sound Choice’s room, they were large concert-grade machines and they had all been set up on one end of the square.

The human holding the microphone was shorter than anyone around her and looked and sounded young, like a teenager. She was wearing the dark clothing of the other humans but seemed to have changed the trousers for large dark socks and a long skirt that reached down past her knees.

She fiddled with the microphone, muttering short and frustrated sentences and then stopped with a short cry of satisfaction.

“Well then,” the woman spoke into the microphone, her voice booming over the square. She paused for a moment, coughed into her hand and then looked out over the square.

“Hello Canterlot garrison,” she shouted, “who's happy to be alive?” Every human in the square cheered and shouted.

“Kidman,” several of the soldiers shouted which others took up, chanting the name at the woman.

Kidman waved her hand and smiled awkwardly accepting their chanting before continuing. “Today we're here on December 25th to celebrate a very special day to us. It may seem a bit cliche to put our very special holiday on this day but I am happy to announce that today is our Life Day.”

The square erupted once again with loud cheering that Kidman allowed to continue. Meanwhile the three foals looked at one another in confusion.

“They have a holiday on Hearth's Warming too?” Dreamer asked, slightly confused at the odd coincidence.

“Looks like it,” Sound Choice said, also finding it hard to believe.

“Yeah,” Exuberance also conceded. “But why did they have to give it such a ridiculous name?”

“Yeah,” Sound Choice agreed. “I mean, Life Day? That sounds so stupid.”

“Shh,” Dreamer said, his attention back on the square, “they’re talking again.”

Sure enough the cheering was quieting down a bit and Kidman was speaking into the microphone again.

“Now I know there’s not that much to do here in Pony-central,” Kidman said with a flippant tone, “but we were able to scrounge this little ensemble together and set up something a bit special. Get out your stamps and place your bets everybody cause it's time to begin our free-style boxing tournament.”

Cheers once again broke out as the humans began to wave small pieces of coloured paper about.

“Now we can’t have a match without some combatants,” Kidman continued, “so I’m happy to announce our first volunteers.”

“In the grey corner,” she shouted, sweeping her hand until it pointed at a post with one of their grey uniform shirts tied to it, “is David Palmer of the Plymouth 4th, an exemplary Dead Man who made it through seven gruelling consecutive months in the hero city itself.”

The crowd cheered as a large, dark skinned man with a shaved head stepped forward. He took off his jumper, revealing a light sleeveless vest underneath that conformed to his muscular figure. The crowd cheered with several soldiers calling out to him.

“Come on Dave,” one of them shouted.

“Win it for the 4th,” another was able to call over the ruckus.

David Palmer accepted their praise with a modest bow and a small smile that quickly turned into a confident smirk.

“Now in the black corner,” Kidman then began, spinning on her stage and pointing to another post with one of the dark overcoats, “volunteering from the London 1st, veteran of a hundred battles, personal confidante to the Undead himself, you all know him, you all love him, Commander Joe Rither.”

The entire square roared in approval. Dreamer covered his ears at the noise but never took his eyes off the humans. An old and stout man with light skin and thinning hair walked forward. His face was aged and his body was much thicker than his opponent, but the man still had very obvious and very toned muscles that his own vest revealed to everyone around him.

“Joe! Joe! Joe! Joe!” the crowd chanted.

Joe stepped into the ring and saluted the crowd. He then immediately began to limber his hands, shoulders and neck, wincing occasionally as he did so but quickly recovering his air of confidence.

Dreamer gazed at the two humans intently. He couldn’t help but get caught up in whatever excitable energy the humans were now exuding with their cheering. He saw other humans pass their slips of paper between one another, chattering enthusiastically as they exchanged whatever they were holding. Those who weren’t celebrating but remained in the square seemed to have found their own corners and pockets where they seemed to be thinking over things or talking calmly amongst one another. Dreamer could only imagine what they were doing but they all shared one thing. They were all active.

“And now,” the voice of Kidman echoed over the square once again. “Begin!”

The cheering became deafening and the shouting indistinguishable as the two men in the ring held their arms up and advanced on one another. Dreamer didn’t really understand what was going on but he could guess that the two were going to fight.

“Uh Dreamer,” Sound Choice said, his voice almost drowned out by the humans below. “I don’t think we should be watching this. This getting a bit intense.”

“Really?” Dreamer replied, turning to look at his friend. Sound Choice had a worried look on his face. Beyond him Exuberance had a shocked expression plastered on her face but her eyes had an intense look of concentration as well.

“Yeah,” Sound Choice said as they watched the two humans edge closer towards one another, their arms still raised.

“Oh come on,” Dreamer replied, “they haven’t eve…”

His words were suddenly drowned out when the crowd below let out a collective roar. He turned his head quickly enough to catch Dave, the darker skinned man, swinging his fist and smacking the older man named Joe in the arm.

“Woah!” Exuberance said excitedly. “They’re really fighting.”

Dreamer didn’t notice Sound Choice had stopped talking as he watched both humans beginning to throw punches. He could tell they were thinking about every strike as they spent time watching and waiting for one another to drop their guard. Dave was throwing everything he had at Joe, hammering at the older man’s raised arms repeatedly.

“This is awesome,” Dreamer whispered to himself as watched the two massive creatures beat at one another while the crowd shouted and jeered in excitement. A quick glance away from the fighters revealed that the smaller groups and even Kidman, still standing atop her podium, microphone in hand, were cheering.

A moment later the crowd quieted with a collective gasp when Joe actually lowered his arms, blocked Dave’s strike and sent his own fist into the other man’s head. The tide of the fight immediately turned as the older man repeatedly beat on the disoriented man. The entire struggle became one-sided very quickly until, with one final punch, Joe downed Dave.

“Come on,” Sound Choice said, nudging Dreamer. “It’s over. Can we go now.”

“Really?” Exuberance cut in, her eyes finally drawn away from the fight by her friend’s request.

Dreamer still watched as another man stepped into the ring and checked on Dave. The humans in the crowd were either exchanging their pieces of paper, many of them looking annoyed, or cheering on the new combatants. Kidman was speaking into her microphone again but he wasn’t listening to what the human girl was saying. Instead he saw some of the crowd were pealing off.

“Yeah. Alright,” he suddenly said. “We can go.”

“Awwh,” Exuberance moaned, realising she had been outvoted.

“Thank you,” Sound Choice said mildly sardonically.

“Yeah, some of them are leaving too,” Dreamer continued, still watching the crowd disperse along the edges. “I want to see what they do for Hearth's Warming.”

“Oh,” Exuberance perked up again. “That sounds good.”

“As long as we don’t have to see anything like this again,” Sound Choice grumbled.

Their decision made, the trio clambered down from the roof, carefully making sure none of the humans saw them. They snuck through the avenues between the buildings of the compound once again, hoping they could find some way back over the walls.

It took several tense minutes but they thankfully found a way up one of the buildings again, clambering up the drains attached to the small structure’s side until they were able to make it back onto the compound wall. Finally they walked along the wall again until they found their makeshift ladder. Finally, they climbed back down and made it to the grounds outside the wall.

“Glad we made it out without being caught this time,” Sound Choice said.

“Indeed,” Exuberance agreed, straightening out her saddle-dress. “Am I still clean?” she asked. “I still have dinner later today and mother and father really hate it when I get dirty when I go out.”

“Yeah you’re still good,” Dreamer said as he jumped off the last box and back onto the pavement.

“Oh thank Luna,” Dreamer breathed a sigh of relief, using the new expletive the prince’s Night Guard insisted on using. “The last thing I need is another lecture.”

“So now what?” Sound Choice asked.

“Now,” Dreamer said with a pause as he looked around. “Now we follow them.” He pointed at a group of humans walking out of the main gate of the compound.

“Right,” the other two foals agreed.

***

Together the three of them set off. In front of them was a group of four humans, three men and woman. They seemed to be walking casually. Their steps matched the march he normally saw them do but they were chatting with one another, small smiles on their faces.

For another hour he saw the human group stop at a cafe and order drinks. They even gave the owner bits and sat down at a table, their oversized frames looking very bizarre in the chairs that were built for the smaller ponies. They then began to talk amongst one another, several of them chuckling at certain points. None of them were close enough to follow the conversation but all three foals were stunned by how bizarre it was to see the humans look so relaxed.

After some complaining from Exuberance, they abandoned the first group to follow another human who was walking through town with a guitar over his shoulder.

They followed the human man back to the square they had met in earlier that day. He sat down in front of the clock, took the guitar off of his shoulder and began to strum it. They stood and listened as he played a halting and slow song they didn’t recognise. All three of them confused as to what exactly he was trying to do.

By the time it was 12:00 the number of humans in the city had grown once again. They didn’t fill the streets but now all three foals could easily find them in small groups. At one point they ran away when they found two human men kissing in an alley they were passing by curiously. Another time they saw six of them were singing to one another, their songs sounding like Hearth's Warming carols but with very different words.

***

“Well I’ve got to go,” Exuberance said, as they rounded a corner and made it onto the main street leading to the upper class sections. “Mother and father will be expecting me back or dinner.”

“Alright,” Sound Choice said. “I’d better go too my mom and dad will want me back to greet grandma as well.”

“Fair enough,” Dreamer said with a shrug. “I’ll see you guys later then. Happy Hearth's Warming.”

“Happy Hearth's Warming,” the other two said with a wave. With that the group dispersed, Sound Choice running back down the street that led in the direction of his house. Exuberance walked more assuredly back to the upper class residential districts.

Dreamer sighed and fixed a small smile to his face. It had been nice to go exploring with his friends again and even if he understood why they had to go off early, he still felt a little disheartened by them leaving. He knew he had to go back home himself. His father would probably have finished preparing dinner and his grandparents would probably be coming over.

picking his hooves up, he began to trot back home. The streets had many more humans roaming them now. Dreamer continued to investigate them as he walked, sometimes taking longer routes and detours in order to check out some new sight.

Most of the humans he saw were still very casual, a few of them acting rowdy like the ponies he had seen at taverns, pubs and bars. Some of them were as happy as the ponies around them, a few even joining in on Hearth's Warming celebrations. However most still had the bizarre, coldness about them, as if they were bitter about everything going on around them.

Dreamer saw a lone human was walking down the street. He was in most of the gear he had come to familiarise with humans except for the weapons and face-covering helmet and mask.

Taking a deep breath and swallowing, Dreamer decided to do something he had been planning for weeks. He walked towards the human, a nervous look on his face and stood in front of him as he walked through the crowd.

The human paused as he saw the foal in front of him and changed his direction a little.

“Ummm… excuse me,” Dreamer said, catching the human’s attention. “Excuse me sir.”

“Yes,” the human replied, looking down at him and fixing him with a somewhat confused look.

“Well… I’m sorry to bother you but I was wondering what’s Life Day?” Dreamer felt even more scared as the human gave him an odd look with a slight smirk.

“I couldn’t really give you a proper answer kid,” the human said. “Still it doesn’t look like it’ll be much of a chore.”

He waved Dreamer over to one side of the street so that they could avoid the crowds.

“Do you know what a Dead Man is, kid?” the human asked.

“Isn’t that just a body?” Dreamer asked in response, slightly confused by the human’s question.

The human let out a short burst of laughter at Dreamer’s question. “Well you’re not wrong there,” he said. “A Dead Man, at least what I’m talking about anyway, is a person like me. Long ago I suffered something, something really bad. It was so bad I felt like I was dead. During the war I just wanted to lie down and die, it was so bad.” Dreamer blanched at the morbid story the human was telling him.

“Then the Undead came along,” the human said, a hint of pride appearing in his voice. “He said he had gone through the same thing I had, that every other human that’s now in this city had. He then said that if we felt this way we might as well be dead, walking corpses waiting to lie down. It was kinda messed up but it made sense. I mean we were at war with a race of interdimensional magical ponies, what else could happen?”

Dreamer tried his hardest to understand what the human was talking about. It sounded horrible, going through something so bad you would listen to someone who was telling you that you might as well be dead.

“So I joined the Dead Men,” the human continued, “which is what the Undead called our little group of fellow believers. It was the end of my first year in the cult, about Christmas-time, when he told me what Life Day was.”

Dreamer perked up when he realised the human was finally going to explain to him what the holiday was.

“Life Day?” the human said. “Freakin awful name for it but it was the one little nice thing in our lives by that point. It’s the one day in the year where we reconnect with our souls. We’re walking corpses going through the motions before we drop down lifeless again but on his day we get to live again. We get to enjoy ourselves and act like we did back when were fully living people. It’s difficult mind you, you can’t let go of the pain that killed you, but it's nice to be your old self.” By now the human had a sad smile on his face.

“I see now,” Dreamer said. “Thanks sir.”

“Glad I could help kid,” the human replied. “Now get going. We’ve probably both got things to get to today.”

“Thanks sir,” Dreamer said as he galloped back home, his curiosity finally assuaged. “Happy Hearth's Warming.”

“Make the most of your life kid,” the human shouted back cheerfully. “It’ll be worth it.”

Dreamer ran off into the crowd, returning home to celebrate with his family. He saw everything the humans in the streets were doing in a new light. This was their one chance in a whole year to be themselves, to enjoy themselves. It was both depressing and heartwarming as underneath the black uniforms and faceless masks was something that was, at least, capable of being like everypony else.

Snow began to fall over Canterlot again as, for the first and only time in the year, pony and human alike celebrated and enjoyed themselves and everything they had.

Author's Notes:

Merry Christmas one and all. Enjoy this "festive" piece from RoyalPsycho, who's been itching to show you it for yonks :-)