Canterlot, Thirteen Years Ago

A lone unicorn mare made her way through a snow covered forest as the bright moonlight lit it up in wondrous fashion, the mare of the moon watching over all.

A single cottage lay up ahead, few decorations littered the walls but the festive spirit was there none-the-less. A single mare could be seen through the windows seemingly sitting at a desk, writing. Knocking on the door the unicorn mare didn’t have to wait long before a Pegasus mare opened the door. The mare’s coat colour was somewhere between dark khaki and arylide yellow, her eyes were magenta and her mane was like a greyscale rainbow.

“Hello? What do you want?”

“A.K. Yearling?”

“Yes?”

The unicorn mare adopted a sly smile. “Or perhaps I should call you Daring Do.”

Daring Do adopted a slightly alarmed look, and scrutinised the mare before her.

“What do you want?” Daring hissed threateningly.

“Oh I assure you I hold no ill will and have perfectly reasonable intentions, I simply have a request.”

“Go on…”

It was roughly six in the morning, Hearth's Warming Day. The silence in the household of Night Light and Twilight Velvet was broken when a small ball of lavender adorableness excitedly jumped up and down on the couple’s bed.

“Mum, dad! It’s Hearths Warming! It’s Hearth's Warming!” Twilight shouted excitedly.

Twilight Velvet groggily opened her eyes to examine the ecstatic filly.

“Oh Twilight, it’s six in the morning.”

“But it’s Hearth's Warming!”

“Now come on Twilight, you don’t see Shining being silly like this do you?”

“But… it’s Hearth's Warming,” Twilight said, tears forming in her eyes.

Now it was Night Light who spoke up, “Come on Twilight please don’t get upset, two more hours OK? Then we can open up presents.”

“O- OK...” The little filly finally relented, despondently jumping off the bed and walking out of the bedroom door.

Velvet sighed. “OK, now I feel bad.”

“She’ll be fine, in two hours she will be running on the ceiling in excitement.”

Velvet chuckled. “Yeah she will, come on, let’s get some sleep while we can.”

Snuggling up they closed their eyes and began to let sleep reclaim them.

It was moments later that the door opened again and the jumping started once more.

Both ponies opened their eyes to see Twilight was back jumping above Twilight Velvet with the same excited expression as before, however this time she was joined by a teenage colt with the exact same expression jumping over Night Light.

“It’s Hearth's Warming!” both of them chanted over and over.

And thus, with the realms of sleep taken cruelly from them, Night Light and Twilight Velvet had little choice but to waken and follow the excited pair downstairs.

The Hearth's Warming tree sparkled magnificently and all the colourful wrapped presents sat in anticipation. Four ponies came into the room, the elder two walking calmly, if a bit tiredly while the others sprinted in as fast as they could.

Joy spread throughout the four as they began trading and opening their presents, soon enough all the presents were opened and wrapping paper filled the living room. As the kids enthusiastically lauded through their gifts Night Light noticed something odd, one last package adorned in red and gold wraping paper, yet unopened.

“Honey, do you remember who gave that one?” he whispered quietly to his wife.

Twilight Velvet looked to what he was pointing at, adopting a confused expression. “I don’t remember that one being there yesterday.”

Shining too finally noticed the lone present and bounded over to it, looking at the label.

“Hey Twily, it’s for you!”

Twilight Sparkle instantly perked up and scrambled over to her BBBFF, who hastily handed her the gift. With the gift in her hooves Twilight too inspected the label to see who it was from.

To Twilight

Have a wonderful Hearth's Warming my dear, and enjoy.

“Huh, there’s no name…” Twilight pointed out.

“Well what are you waiting for, open it!” Shining Armor encouraged.

Smiling, Twilight gripped the paper in her magical aura and ripped it off in one fell swoop. Her eyes widened as she saw it’s contents.

“Daring Do and The Eternal Flower!” Twilight shrieked excitedly, hugging the book tightly, “And it’s signed!”

Night light and Twilight Velvet gawked. Daring Do and The Eternal Flower was the newly released book in the Daring Do series, they had tried to get one for Twilight but it had been sold out everywhere, who could have got her a copy? Let alone a signed edition? But another shock was to come.

Twilight opened the cover, to find a note on the inside.

To Twilight, enjoy this super special edition for a super special filly. Keep on being awesome.

- A.K. Yearling

Now Night Light and Twilight Velvet were really confused, in contrast however Shining Armor scooped Twilight up into his lap and they started to read the book together.

None of them noticed a unicorn mare watching them from the living room window, small snowflakes falling into her mane under the beautiful early morning sky, with carol singers already starting to sing in the streets intent on brightening that morning of goodwill and friendship among all ponies and beyond.

“Happy Hearth's Warming my daughter, I love you,” Queen Chrysalis smiled, a single tear falling down her cheek.

Author's Notes:

Merry Christmas one and all!