It’s about that time of year again. When the radios start playing the jingles, and the Hearth’s Warming spirits start to come around. From the dawn of the moon to the eve of the holiday, everyone everywhere is busy. Presents are being bought, feasts are being prepared, and moments should be shared.

At least, that’s what Flitter expected Hearth’s Warming to be like. Instead, it was much colder than the others were. Being stuck out here for so long made her wings ache, and the falling snow clung to her far too easily. As soon as she reached her destination, she shook herself free of the snow. Her hooves touched the ground and the cold sent a shiver up her spine. She brought a hurried hoof to the door in front of her and waited patiently in front of it.

“I’m coming!” Flitter tilted her head slightly and raised an eyebrow. Whoever that was, it wasn’t Twilight, and they were taking an awfully long time to open the door. Flitter raised her hoof to knock again, but the door opened slightly before she could hit it. Flitter looked inside to see who opened it but didn’t find anypony. “Oh, er… Hello.” Spike pushed the door open fully and brought attention to himself.

“Spike?” Flitter remembered seeing him briefly many moons ago, but she never held a proper conversation with him. “I, uh, was hoping to see Twilight.” Spike shook his head.

“Twilight’s not home right now. You can come in and wait for her, though.” Flitter sighed. Of course Twilight was out for the holiday season. Still, at least she didn’t have to wait outside. She smiled and walked past Spike and into the foyer of the castle.

Flitter had never been in the castle proper. Even without the lights strung up near the windows, and the ornaments dangling from the ceiling, Flitter could imagine this place looked grand. The windows were caked with snow and frost tinted the windows a cool blue. Best of all, it was warm. The snowflakes stuck in her wings melted away, and the heat seeped into her bones.

“Twilight and Starlight went out to get some things for the party we’re throwing tomorrow night.” Spike trudged through the castle grounds, heading further inward. Flitter followed quietly. “They both went, so it shouldn’t be long before they’re back.”

“That’s good.” She twirled her hoof. “I shouldn’t waste too much time here, anyway.”

The two broke into the main chamber of the castle. The entrance and hallway seemed like they just threw something together in comparison to this. The main attraction was the tree branches stretching all over the ceiling, holding lights and streamers, and ornaments galore. The simple pine tree her and Cloudchaser put up back home paled in comparison.

“Living with two really powerful ponies around does have its upsides,” noted Spike, realizing her awe. While they moved further inward, she made a mental note to bring Cloudchaser here sometime. Well, if Twilight would let her, that is.

She barely noticed the tiny dragon walk over and hand her a mug of something. She looked down at the warm flagon that he placed against her foreleg with cider sloshing around in it. “We were supposed to open that up tomorrow, but I’m sure Twilight wouldn’t miss a drink or two.” Flitter smiled and grabbed the flagon by the handle.

“Thanks!” She sat down on the carpet and sipped from her flagon. It tasted like liquid gold. Easily recognizable as the Apple Family Cider. Spike sat down right next to her, lifting the flagon up and to his chin. “Are you alone in the castle? What are you doing here?”

“It’s not the first time I’ve housesat. Twilight leaves to go on adventures all the time.” He pointed towards the ceiling. “The tree is actually pretty neat. It doesn’t need water, doesn’t grow where we don’t need it to. The worst thing that could happen is that Owlicious needs to be fed.”

“Looks like you’ve got it made.” The two sat in silence until they finished their drinks. Spike took them after they were finished and put them back into the kitchen. “Looks like Twilight still isn’t here. Maybe I should come back another time.”

“Something probably came up,” said Spike. “They can handle themselves, but you’ll have to wait longer.” Flitter bit her lip.

“I suppose you could help,” said Flitter, getting up onto her hooves. “Do you know any books that foals would like? My sister and I are supposed to be reading them to the kids up in Cloudsdale, but Chaser forgot and left it up to me today.” Flitter chuckled a bit.

“If it’s a book you’re looking for, you’ve come to the right dragon!” Spike gestured down a hallway to the right branching away from the main room. “Library’s just down this way.” Flitter clapped her hooves together and followed after him. “I’ve been around Twilight my whole life, which means books are my specialty.”

“Great! I should’ve asked from the start.” The two walked down the hallway before reaching the door they were looking for shortly. It was larger than the doors around it, but Spike pushed it inwards without a problem.

The inside was dark and expansive. Flitter could only see a few bookshelves right in front of her. She looked down at Spike who didn’t seem too disturbed and started following behind him. He stepped on a crystal snowflake on the floor and light poured up the sides of the room and into a large chunk on the ceiling. The rows and rows of books were lit up under the crystalight immediately.

“Whoa,” said Flitter. “Can I have one of these?”

“Yep. All for the low, low price of saving the world once or twice.” They shared a laugh. Spike looked at the stacks and began running a claw along their spines. “So, a book for foals. I think we have a few lying around.”

“About Hearth’s Warming, preferably,” she added, as he ran down the aisle, keeping an eye on the books he was passing. After a minute, Spike disappeared behind a stack of books. The minutes ticked by where Flitter could even hear him. She tilted her head and stood up. She slowly trotted over to the bend where Spike disappeared just in time for the small dragon to pop out of a stack of books just behind her. She jumped into the air, looking down at Spike from the top of the bookshelf with shock written on her face.

“I got a book!” said Spike, pushing it up at Flitter. She sighed and landed quietly. “Oh. Sorry for sneaking up on you like that.”

“Oh, uh, It’s fine.” Flitter gave him a smile before taking the book under her wing. The cover didn’t have any words on it, but the first page said the title. “Erm… I don’t think I can use this book.” Spike looked confused.

“Uh… why not?” Flitter showed him the cover title.

“I don’t think the foals will like to hear me talk about Stephen King’s ‘It’.”

“Really?” asked Spike confused. “Twilight read this to me when I was a baby…” Flitter looked down at the book, wondering just what Twilight thought “for foals” meant. She shook her head and handed the book back.

“Maybe I should come back another time.” she put her hoof to the goggles that were resting loosely on her neck. “I’ve gotta go check on Chaser anyways.”

“Is something wrong with Cloudchaser?”

“No, she’s fine,” Flitter answered quickly and dismissively but continued. “She doesn’t like it when I leave the house alone, though.” She didn’t say anything else and pushed her goggles up to her eyes. The two headed out of the library (the lights shutting off after they left). Before long, Flitter was back at the front door, Spike trailing behind her.

“Well, when Twilight comes back, I’ll tell her you stopped by!” Flitter nodded and walked over to the door. She tried to push it out, but it wouldn’t budge. How had Spike gotten these heavy doors open? “Oh, let me get that for you.” Spike walked up to the door and pushed up against it. “Uh, that’s weird. The door is blocked.”

“S-So we can’t get out?” Flitter said, glancing down nervously. “Is there a window I could fly out of, or something?”Flitter went to the nearest window and tried to open it. The window was frozen shut, and even though frost covered it from view, outside was a pearly wasteland of snow. If enough snow had been stacked to block the doors, she was sure someone up in the clouds put too many of them together. She ran a hoof through her mane.

“If Twilight and Starlight got held up by the snow, who knows how long it’ll take.”Spike walked up beside Flitter and glanced out of the window. “And on top of all of that, it’s still snowing…”

Flitter sighed while she looked out of the window. She put her hoof against the cold glass, hoping that this whole situation would blow over soon. Spike gave her space, watching her silently.

Minutes ticked by seamlessly, neither moving to interrupt the other. Wind and snow whipped against the glass outside.

Spike stood still, head tilted. Flitter seemed to have withdrawn from her surroundings. Her ears were flat against her head, her head was pressed firmly against the glass, and against the background, her coat seemed gray. Finally, after waiting for long enough, he stepped over.

“Twilight always tells me that getting something off my chest will help me,” said Spike. “And, well, she was right. So, do you have something you want to talk about?” Flitter raised an ear on his approach, but it fell back down after he finished speaking.

“It doesn’t… It’s not really… How do I say this?” Flitter pulled her head from the glass and looked down at her hooves. “It’s not something about me. It’s my sister.”

“Cloudchaser, right?” said Spike, taking a seat on the windowsill. Flitter

“Can we head back?” asked Flitter. “I put my head against the glass for too long, and now I’m really cold.” Spike nodded and led the two back into the main room. Flitter sat down just across from Spike. She ran a hoof through her mane a took a deep breath. “You might want to get comfortable. It’s kinda a long story.”

“I’m all ears,” said Spike, waiting silently. Flitter sat for a moment, collecting her thoughts. She wondered if it was really okay to just lay her problems bare for a borderline stranger, but she’d already gotten this far. She sighed one last time before telling Spike what had happened many Hearth Warmings ago.

The Everfree forest is always played up as the big bad, scary place that no sane pony would ever want to go to. And, more often than not, it is. But, when everyone else stays inside for the holidays and snow blankets the town, Flitter leaves her home and heads there.
She’d been doing it for a few years and had never been caught before. Even this year, she was old enough to leave the house on her own and set off wherever she wanted. Even still, she didn’t like to lie, so she’d say she was off to get something from the market and go there after she was done.

But she did go there, almost every year since she first found out how beautiful it could be.

The snow was perfectly clear. Not a hoofprint before Flitter's. There was something special about being the first person to set foot here, every year. She’d always thought about bringing Chaser here, but she probably wouldn’t appreciate it like she did. For now, playing around in the snow was all she wanted to do right now.

Walking around, she could see the normally dull and dark forest shining from the white snow. At this time of year, there were no animals. They’d all gone into hibernation. Still, though, Flitter knew to keep diligent. Always ready to fly off at any moment.

Flitter could spend hours roaming the frozen forest, exploring, wondering. But It was very easy to get distracted. She’d only really noticed something when the shadows began to overtake her vision. When she looked up, hundreds of feet above her, dark clouds were being pushed into place by the weather ponies. When she looked behind her, some of the clouds had already begun the excess snowfall. Flitter stared up at the clouds.

“Why is there more snow?” she asked, slowly fluttering into the air. She looked at the town, so far away now that the buildings were almost dots on her vision. She started slowly at first but picked up soon after. She’d noticed too late, though, and soon, her vision was clouded with the flurries of snow as it hastily whipped through the wind. Flitter began to regret her decision. She hadn’t even brought her goggles. She grumbled in the flurry. She couldn’t see five feet in front of her, but she had the general direction of the town, so she wasn’t too worried.

Still, though, the unease of being caught in snowstorm weighed her down a bit. Her wings were beginning to cake with the snow, and she found herself having to fly lower and lower to even try to keep herself in the air. She began to panic. Her heartbeat became sporadic and frantic as she tried to beat her wings hard enough to stay afloat. She’d been doing this for so long. How could she not be there yet?

Just as she thought she couldn’t continue, she felt a sharp pain run up her left wing, and down her back. Worse still, she spun out of control, brushing against branches before slamming back first into a tree. When she fell onto the snow, a cool chill ran up her bruised body. Cuts and scrapes stung all over her and even thinking about moving sent pulses of pain throughout her body. She couldn’t think straight. Her body refused to move. Snow began to cover her as if nothing had ever happened, and the tree she hit was slowly beginning to settle again.

The snow fell silently. The forest was quiet. Flitter was becoming numb. Her heartbeat shook her entire body. But, her heartbeat became stronger and stronger still. Soon, the forest shook with her, a large wooden paw dug into the freshly fallen snow. It was almost surreal. Seeing a Timberwolf this close was something no ordinary pony would ever do, but its glowing eyes were staring directly at Flitter. By now, her wings were covered by quite a bit of snow. Even if she used all her strength now, there was no way that she’d be able to get up and fly away.

Maybe this was where the story should end.

Flitter closed her eyes and let the dull ache of her body carry her to sleep.

Spike sat in silence as Flitter finished her story. He was on the edge of his seat, even though he wasn’t sitting on anything. Flitter had stopped speaking, and her head was tilted downwards.

“What happened after that?” asked Spike quietly.

“The last thing I remember is my sister finding me,” Flitter beat her wings once, showing them off. “My wing was messed up pretty bad, but it healed in a few months. I don’t even have any the cuts from the accident.” Flitter pressed a hoof against her temple and shook her head. “The most surprising thing is, every time I think about it, I remember it being really pretty. Despite everything, I remember it being a good time Maybe that's just me being weird." She chuckled a bit. "But Chaser… she took it hard. She wouldn’t leave my side for a while.”

“So now you’re worried that she’s worried about you?” asked Spike. “That’s kinda confusing.”

“Yeah, I suppose,” said Flitter. She smiled. “Actually, when you put it like that, it makes us seem crazy.” Spike shook his head.

“I don’t think that’s crazy,” said Spike. “Actually, I think it’s kind of cool that you still want to fly. If anything like that happened to me, I would be way to scared to go near an inch of snow.” Flitter listened quietly.

“Yeah, I suppose you’re right.” Flitter smiled and beat her wings happily. “Nothing scares me anymore.”

The door outside opened with a thumping sound as it hit the walls to the side. The two looked over at the two figures just in front of the door. It was kind of hard to tell from a distance, but the two were certainly who they thought they were.

“Twilight's back!" Spike shot up and began running towards the door. He was already over there by the time Flitter decided to get up. "What happened to you guys? How'd you get the door open?" Twilight, who was looking completely exhausted, waved Spike away with her hoof.

“Oh, I just had a little runaround. The usual Hearth's Warming fare," Twilight. “And the door?” She pushed the door open slightly to demonstrate. "What's wrong with it?" Spike blushed. He never thought to check if the snow was cleared away afterward. While he was looking at the open door, Twilight glanced above him. “Flitter is here as well. I suppose it’s for me?” Flitter approached the three and nodded.

The two began to strike up a conversation. Almost as soon as she entered her library, she got the book Flitter was looking for. After all that had happened that day, she was relieved to find out that her problem was easily solved in a matter of minutes. Then again, she was kinda embarrassed that she'd been stuck in someone else's house for almost an hour because of it.

Now, she stood at the door, book in her bags and goggles strapped to her face. She flapped her wings a few times before pushing open the door to the outside. The warm interior was blasted away by the cold and the wind was bitter, but the snow was no longer falling. The sky was clear, sun shining down on the white, and making everything gleam.

“They really did clear the doorway, huh? Sorry about that.” Spike poked his head out from the doorway. He was here to see her off. “Oh, I completely forgot to ask you.” Flitter tilted her head to the side. “Have you been back there since? You know, the place in the forest.”

“No,” she said. “I've kinda bee avoiding it, I suppose.” Flitter ran a hoof through her mane. She'd never asked herself that. Why hadn't she gone back?

“If you ever go back, take pictures for me. I wanna see how cool it looks." Flitter paused for a moment then nodded. "Merry Hearth’s Warming!” Flitter watched as he closed the door behind him, and she was left to the cold once again. She stayed for a few moments but then took off towards the clouds.

As she was flying now, she was going to make it home soon. But, as she ascended, she looked to the outskirts of town, where the Everfree forest was. She thought of how the snow must have looked this time of year. Even better, it had just snowed. No one would be there yet.

She kept the image in her head all the way home. She'd reached the cloud her house rested on in no time. She planted her hooves on the cloud and stood there, waiting to make sure that she was doing the right thing. If she looked down now, the Everfree Forest's snow-topped trees could blend in with the snow on the ground. She walked to her door and pushed it in.

"Hey Chaser? I'm back!" She nodded, finally coming to the conclusion she'd been thinking about. "Get ready to go out! I want to show you something!"