‘Twas the second night before Hearth’s Warming, and I was a very busy woman. There were a bunch of Gamer Drivers to wrap, and I was not having an easy time of it. There was gift wrap, tape, and ribbon all over my room, both on rolls and in pieces. My goal was to make each wrap job unique, and the easiest way to do that was to have five patterns of paper and six different ribbons. I had seven done and not so neatly wrapped before I leaned back in my chair. “How did mom do this?” I asked the empty room.

The room gave no answer. It was, after all, a room with no fancy (or basic) computer technology in it, so it was physically incapable of answering me. I wasn’t counting the Drivers as computer technology as they operated on magic. The only sound I heard was the wind outside and Asada quietly snoozing in her favorite corner.

After a few minutes of moping, I got back to work on wrapping up the remaining Drivers. ‘Twas a long night that night, not just from the mess of paper, but also the very short day.

The next night, after the Carne Den was closed and everyone was gone, I started the kitchen back up and started making a banquet for Hearth’s Warming. A banquet big enough for my employees and their families to enjoy.

There was much cooking to be done.

Some claws gripped my shoulders and gently shook me in my chair. “Wake up, Yang” Fuzz gently said. “It’s Hearth’s Warming.”

I slowly opened my eyes and saw everyone in the restaurant, along with their families and a whole bunch of colorfully wrapped things. There was a blanket over me as well. “When did I fall asleep? And how did I get here?”

“No idea on the first, or the second, but seeing as some of the food you made is still warm, probably not that long ago, and Asada probably helped. On the bright side, you did take care of closing the kitchen properly, so there’s that.”

I got to my feet, yawned, and took the blanket off. “So, did you all take care of-yes, you did take care of bringing out the food. Well, there goes the surprise there. I’ll be right back then.” After collecting the blanket, I went upstairs to my room, where the Gamer Drivers were boxed up. “Okay, everyone’s here and I just remembered I have no cards for them. Expletive. Oh well.” I picked up the box and just as I was about to leave the room, there was a tapping on the window.

I opened the window (thankfully with warm clothes on) and saw a bright red unicorn stallion with a white mane and tail who was likely using magic to walk on the wall. “Miss Xiao Long?” He also had a large bag with him and a beard on his face.

“Who? Are you Santa?” The stallion certainly had the looks for it.

“No, I’m an assassin paid by a bunch of nobles to off you as a Hearth’s Warming present to themselves.”

I found myself laughing for at least a solid minute before I realized that he hadn’t used sarcasm. “Seriously?”

“Yes. I was given a nigh impossible task and paid appropriately and in full up front. They didn’t give me a chance to object before the job and payment were given to me, along with a location tracking spell, so here’s what I need to happen: you get this bag of bits, and you punch me in the face. I go back and report my failure, get treated for the injury, and retire for the rest of ever in Haywaii.” He floated the bag inside. “How about it?”

“Violence on today of all days?”

“Unfortunately, yes.” It seemed I wasn’t the only one against it.

“I hope this is the only time I have to do a hit job like this.” As the stallion cringed, I gave him a solid punch to his face. “Was that good enough?”

“Yeah, it was perfect. Oh, that stings so much.”

“Thanks for the bits. Have fun in Hawaii.”

“Haywaii.”

“Right, right.” I closed the window and the stallion went back down the wall. “Well, that was surreal.” Once I had the box again, I went back downstairs. “Alright, I’ve got presents for everyone that works here!”

All my employees came up to me and I started handing out the wrapped Gamer Drivers. Once they were all handed out, everyone started opening them. Some were gentle and precise, others tore the paper apart. There was both confusion at what the Drivers were and awe as it was clear to them that they cost a lot of money.

There were questions about the Drivers, and I answered them to the best of my abilities. I wanted to demonstrate with mine, but decided against it since everyone and their families were here.

There were still other gifts, some of which got sent my way because they had my name on them. They also happened to be mostly large things that I got. Everyone insisted I open mine, despite my insistence on them opening theirs. We compromised and I opened one of the larger gifts, which turned out to be a very well done portrait of myself in my combat outfit, meditating on a cloud with the sun behind me and an array of bits, cooking utensils, shell bands, and bars of music radiating out from me. “This is. . . interesting” I commented before noticing a placard at the bottom of the frame. “ ‘From the Carne Den staff, for the one who reached out and saved us.’ Well, I guess I’m going to have to find a place to put this. So, it’s your turn to open presents now.”

Many talons and a few hooves started working at the gifts in front of their owners, revealing a myriad of objects, from cutlery to gardening supplies to toys (Ají got a lot of those, to her annoyance) and basic tools. While that was going on, I set the portrait by the stairs.

Gilda handed me an envelope with a bow on it after they were done. “This was in the mailbox, addressed to you. I suspect it’s from Applejack.”

A glance at the envelope showed Applejack’s cutie mark in the upper right corner. “Yeah, it does look like she sent it.” I opened the envelope and read it out loud. “Dear Yang: Twilight told me about your fancy new machine and that you can ride on it to go places. I figure that, like any good wagon or cart, it should be covered and protected, so whenever you want some shelter built for it, just ask and we’ll build it for you. That’s the Apple Family’s Hearth’s Warming present for you. Sincerely, Applejack.”

“Well, that’s nice of them.”

“Yeah, it is. I guess I’d better open some more presents so everyone’s happy.” A series of nods answered me, so I opened the next box, a rather bulky one. I opened it and, inside the case within, found a light tan acoustic guitar, adorned with my burning heart emblem in darker wood. The emblem was positioned in such a way that it took up most of the body and was straight up when I held the instrument. “I guess I should play a piece?”

“Yeah!” came a chorus of shouts, mostly the young ones.

I took a breath, focused my magic, and started playing a song.

“That was beautiful” Sylvia said as she wiped a tear away. “It sounded like a song of salvation at the last moment.” Her sentiment was shared by nearly everyone present. I even found myself wiping some tears away.

“I guess it is.” Despite having never heard the song before, I could faintly feel the lyrics in the air, kind of like a spot of THE TRANQUILITY gently fading away when waking up after a very good night’s sleep.

Magic is weird like that.

I looked back in the case and saw a stand for the guitar. Instead of setting the guitar out, I just put it back in the case and set it over by the stairway by the portrait, along with Applejack’s letter.

The next present that I opened was a new set of grilling utensils, done in my combat outfit colors and with my emblem on each piece as well. They were made very well, but I had no immediate need to replace the current set, so it would be a backup. Having backups of anything is always good, after all.

Up next was another large gift: an expertly crafted rocking chair. Compared to the recliners back on Earth, this was very old fashioned, but I liked it a bit more for that simplicity. There was also a smaller gift on the seat of the chair, and in it was a wooden jewelry box. Like the chair, it was simple, but very well made.

The last gifts I got were in a bag, from multiple griffons. They were art supplies for drawing and painting. There was even a cute little easel for a desk, and it came with a pad of paper as well.

“Wow. Thanks everyone. I just-” I was tearing up. “-This is so much.”

“Best Hearth’s Warming ever?” Gilda asked.

“And better than all the Christmases where I’m from.”

“Christmas?”

“A holiday that happens on December 25th. There’s gifts, there’s decor, there’s food.”

“Sounds good.”

“Except that the good stuff I got back then was watered down by a bunch of mean cards from basically everyone who liked to pick on me, so my Christmas memories are mediocre at best. I don’t know why they did it, but it wasn’t nice.”

Gilda was quiet, and her face was stern. “Everyone, listen up: we need to give Yang a serious group hug. Do not let her escape.”

A few seconds after I stood up, I was tackled by practically everyone and put in the middle of the group hug. I could have escaped since I was strong enough to do so, but it was so nice, I didn’t want to try. “Congratulations, sad Yang is gone. Will you let me go?”

“Yes, but we have to make absolutely sure” Honey Suckle said.

“And how long will that take?”

“Not long.” A few seconds later, the hug broke and I was free. “That was nice.”

After cleaning up the wrapping paper and gifts, we all sat down and started on the meal properly. It had gone cold, but we didn’t care. We had each other.

It turned out that it had been a good idea to make the feast that I had, since a blizzard started up outside very quickly while we were eating. “I thought that wasn’t supposed to happen today?”

“It shouldn’t be” Gilda affirmed. “Dash always told me that before the weather pegasi take the holidays off, they put in extra effort to make sure their weather systems are stable enough to last two days without maintenance. That, or there are wendigos out there.”

“Wendigos?”

“Equine shaped spirits of ice and malice that feed off negative emotions and bring the cold with them. I’m sure you could just fire punch one in the face and send it away.” There was a sudden pastel rainbow blast of light outside and the blizzard went away. “I’ll save that idea for War Time Commander then.”

“Ooh, we should try playing together real soon” Silver suggested. “How about tonight?”

“Nah, let’s not” I said. “Tonight’s a night for peace, warmth, and coziness in the face of the raging cold.”

“It’s not that bad out there.”

“It is for me. All of winter is bad for me.”

“Hearth’s Warming has been pretty good for you” Cloverleaf pointed out. “And you did win Entrepreneur of the Year.”

“Those are events that happened during winter. Winter is still bad for me. The cold hurts me and I think I’m getting some cabin fever. Maybe. Once it gets warm out there, I’m going to enjoy it for all it’s worth.

“Speaking of warmth, I think a nap would be nice once we put all the food away.”

During the nap, I used Ají as a pillow, which was nice. I also came to the conclusion that mass naps were awesome and realized how much of my recent time was spent just eating, sleeping, and using the bathroom. Despite the recent bout of low activity, I was still thin and had good curves. I partially credited my body temperature of 103 degrees for that.

I woke up for a little bit during the nap and felt THE TRANQUILITY, which was powerful enough to almost send me back to sleep, were it not for my bladder. After taking care of it, I came back and went back to sleep. It felt like nothing could go wrong, and that all was well with the world.

Author's Notes:

So there were some wendigoes, but Twilight and co. took care of them really fast. Not every fight has to involve Yang, after all.

I also think a nap pile is a good deterrent against wendigoes. Nothing screams friendship like everyone trusting each other enough to sleep with everyone else.

Maybe I should see about incorporating the fire of friendship somehow?