Gilda awoke with a start, looking up to realize she had fallen out of the bed, the covers strewn across the floor beneath her. She stood up, still feeling slight pain all across her body, walking around a bit to shake it off.

"That...that wasn't a dream...that was way too real. I can't let something like that happen to Ponyville...and I can't just do it for Dash's sake. I have to actually be...nice."

Gilda fixed up the bed as best she could, glancing around the room to ensure that she had woken up. It was real enough, but so were the visits from the ghosts. She double checked and triple checked everything in the room, looking out the window several times and checking under the bed almost half a dozen times. Everything seemed to check out, so she made her way out of the room and down the stairs to the small inn's lobby area. It was rather vacant; only a few ponies were standing around, but none of them even paid any attention to the gryphon.

"Good morning, Gilda. Sleep well?"

Gilda took notice to Malt, standing behind the counter just as he was the night before.

"Morning, Malt. Yeah, actually, I did," she replied with a smile, surprising the earth pony.

"Well, you seem rather pleasant this morning," Malt noted.

"You could say that," she replied. "Had a little dream that opened my eyes to some things."

Malt returned Gilda's smile. He could tell that hers was sincere somehow.

"I'm heading over to Sugar Cube Corner," she said, walking toward the door.

"Oh, but they haven't set everything up yet," Malt said. "They're still working on the decorations and food preparations."

"I know," the gryphon replied, still smiling, and to the earth pony's surprise, added, "I'm going to help. It's the least I can do."

Malt was left speechless as Gilda pushed the door open and walked out onto the freshly-coated snow roads of Ponyville. Though the snow was deep, her claws made for excellent traction as she marcher her way through the town, shocking any of the ponies nearby into submission with the sole fact that she held a smile on her face instead of the glare and scowl they all expected.

Inside Sugar Cube Corner, last-minute decorations were tossed up all around the room: green and red tablecloths were thrown across the tables, a few freshly-made candy canes were hung up on the small trees acting as the centerpieces, and the large tree in the room had just been lit up with strings of special lights made from Cloudsdale's rainbows. The prismatic fir was the brightest and most beautiful object in the entire room, and the pink party pony who had activated the lights was the first to look in awe.

"Ooh, really pretty! Thanks for letting us use your rainbow stuff, Dashie!"

"No problem, Pinkie Pie," Dash said, eyeing the multicolor tree to make sure every light was lit. "It's the season for giving, after all...and the pegasai in the weather factory were glad to accept those snowmare cupcakes you made as payment."

"Guess that confirms the theory then," stated Twilight Sparkle, securing a wreath in the window with her magic aura. "Pinkie Pie's baked goods can do pretty much everything."

"And there'll be plenty more where those ones came from," added the farmer earth pony Applejack, pushing several tables together. "Next batch should be done soon, right, Pinkie?"

"Oh, yeah! I should check the oven! Coming through!"

Pinkie Pie bolted past her friends into the kitchen, and just as the 'ding' of the oven sounded out, a knock came at the door.

"I wonder who that could be," mused the fashionista unicorn Rarity, levitating a majestic gold star to the top of the prismatic tree. "The party isn't supposed to start for another hour. Did any of you girls give out the wrong time?"

"I don't think so," Twilight thought aloud. "Still, we can't leave anypony out there in the cold."

"Darn right!" Applejack exclaimed. "Whoever's out there, c'mon in and enjoy the warm, partner!"

The door was pushed open, and to the girls' surprise, Gilda entered with an unexpected expression on her face.

A smile.

"G, what're ya doing here so early?" Rainbow Dash inquired, trotting forward to greet her friend. "I said ten. It's still only nine."

"Yeah, well, I thought, you know, maybe I could...help out? Lend a claw? Or hoof, I guess, as you'd say it."

The girls noticed that GIlda's speech was a bit awkward. They could somehow feel that she was sincere, but was clearly not used to being this...generous or kind. None of them could form a single word until Pinkie Pie broke the silence, returning from the kitchen with a big grin on her face.

"The cupcakes are done, but they need time to-"

The pink pony finally noticed Gilda standing at the door, and as impossible as it seemed, her smile got even bigger.

"It's Gilda! Gilda's here! She actually showed up!"

In an instant, Pinkie bolted across the room, faster than Rainbow Dash, and tackled Gilda to the ground in a hug.

"Wait just a minute here...you don't hate me?" the gryphon asked, her curiosity overpowering the pain from the tackle. "After everything I did back then?"

"Forgive and forget, Gilda!" the party pony replied with a smile. "Forgive and forget!"

"...Thanks," Gilda finally managed to say. "Say, not that this is bugging me at all, but you think I can maybe stand up now, please? I'm kinda sore."

"Well, since you asked so nicely, then all right!"

Pinkie released Gilda from the hug and stood up. The gryphon stumbled to her clawed feet. She chuckled to herself, remembering the first time she'd heard the party pony say those words in her recent dream.

"G, not to sound offensive or anything, but you seem a lot...different than yesterday. Something happen?"

Gilda gave a half nod. "Let's just say I had a dream that changed the way I've come to see some things...you and your friends in particular, Dash."

"What do you mean?" Dash inquired, tilting her head in curiosity.

"Guess what I really learned is...you don't know what you have until it's gone, so cherish it while you can and don't do anything to lose it."

Gilda looked to the others in the room. "I'm sorry for how I acted back then. I realize now that I was acting like a big jerk. I want to try and make up for it. I just need to know that you'll let me try."

The room went silent. The girls seemed to contemplate Gilda's request, when to everypony's and Gilda's surprise, the gryphon found herself with a pair of pale amber forelegs gently wrapped around her frame.

"F-Fluttershy?"

"I want you to try, Gilda. I...I want you to be our friend."

The rest of the girls could only smile at the sight they now beheld: Fluttershy, of all ponies, forgiving the one who had done the worst possible thing to her.

"Well, if Fluttershy thinks yer really gonna try, then ah'm willin' ta accept it too!" proclaimed Applejack, heading over and joining the hug.

"Group hug!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie, and one by one, the girls had surrounded Gilda in a full-circle embrace of friendship.

"...I'm not getting out of this for a while, am I?"

"Nope!" the party pony exclaimed.

Gilda sighed. "Guess I have to get used to it...now that I think about it though, this...hug thing...ain't all that bad. Actually...it's kinda nice..."

Later on, with Gilda helping out with the last-minute decorating and baking, Sugar Cube Corner was ready for a Ponyville-wide celebration of the Winter’s Festival. Tables had been set up around the room as a buffet, with a wide selection of food. Soups and salads for appetizers, fresh-baked dinner rolls and corn bread, several plates of veggie loaf, spinach pot pie and the grand finale: winter squash risotto. Pitchers of eggnog and cider sat all across the table, fitting in aesthetically with the food.

Precisely at ten, ponies began entering one by one, then two by two, then three by three until most all of Ponyville was inside Sugar Cube Corner and seated. The last to arrive, giving Twilight a massive shock, were the princesses of Canterlot, Celestia and Luna. Twilight immediately bowed upon the alicorns' entrance, which earned a slight chuckle from the sisters.

"Rise, Twilight Sparkle. I am here as a party guest today, not as a mentor."

Twilight's head and body slowly lifted up from the ground. "Sorry, Princess Celestia...it's just instinct."

"I understand," Celestia stated, looking around the room at the wondrous decorations.

Luna, mystified by the beauty of the room, finally managed to say, "What an amazing display of decoration thou hast lined these walls with. What say you, sister?"

"I agree, Luna," Celestia said with a nod. "It looks beautiful."

"Ah don't mean ta correct ya, yer majesties," Applejack said, "but t'wern't just us six that did all the work, and our seventh ain't no pony, neither."

"Oh? And who might you be referring to?"

From the back of the room, Rainbow Dash pushed an unwilling Gilda toward the princesses.

"C'mon, G, it's not like you're not allowed to be here. 'Sides, the princesses are really cool!"

Gilda reluctantly allowed the cyan mare to continue moving her closer until she was finally standing before the two alicorns. Despite how hard she tried to hide it, Gilda was actually trembling in fear of the two.

"Ah, you must be Gilda. I'd heard you visited Ponyville a while back, and left on rather unsteady terms with Twilight and her friends."

"Y-yeah...you could say that, your majesties..."

"Yet you are here now, and it seems you are actually enjoying yourself."

Gilda shrugged. "What can I say? Something just opened my eyes to what I was missing."

Celestia leaned in closer. "And what might that be?"

"Friendship. Plain and simple."

"Interesting," Celestia mused. "And would you, by any chance, care to make this an official friendship report, much like the ones Twilight sends me?"

"Uh, s-sure," Gilda stuttered. "How 'bout I send it officially though?"

"You mean as Twilight does? That would depend on her decision."

Gilda looked to Twilight, who simply nodded. "I would be more than happy to. I'm sure Spike wouldn't mind either."

"Well, now that we've settled that," Celestia declared, "I would very much like to sample the buffet."

"Help yourself!" Pinkie exclaimed. "But you might wanna hurry! These ponies are tearing into the food like a swarm of Parasprites!"

The room suddenly became filled with echoing laughter as everypony, and Gilda, partied on, eating and laughing the day away.

Later that night, during the party clean-up, Spike had returned from Twilight's library with ink, quill and parchment.

"Ready, Spike?" Twilight inquired.

"Ready!" exclaimed the baby dragon.

"Gilda, it's all you."

"All right then," the gryphon said, nodding to Twilight. She cleared her throat and thought for a moment, trying to figure out just how to word it. She half nodded, confirming to herself that she knew what to say, and thanks to Twilight's instruction, she knew just how to start the letter as well.

"Dear Princess Celestia..."