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// Hearth's Warming Eve...Castle of Friendship 
// Story: A Visit by St. Neighcolas (also titled A Visit by Santa Hooves) 
// by BirdsBooksBrownies 
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It was the day before Hearth's Warming Eve and all of Ponyville was still filled with the hustle and bustle of last-minute shoppers, carolers, and fillies and colts running around enjoying the freedom from the tedious and boring confines of school as only young children are capable. Aside from some of the older folks around town whose aches and pains were accentuated by the cold, most everypony enjoyed this time of year almost as much if not more than Nightmare Night.  There was a certain...something in the air call it magic if you will, that made every color seem a bit brighter, every sound a bit clearer, and everypony a bit more kind and forgiving. 

As one reached the edge of town, there stood a building that seemed like it was built especially with Hearth's Warming Eve in mind, The Castle of Friendship, a strange and wonderful (depending on who you asked) structure that to those that were not familiar with Ponyville seemed less a building and more a glistening protuberance out of the otherwise pastoral landscape around and below. This edifice of gleaming crystal was home to none other than Twilight Sparkle, village librarian, scholar, personal protégée of Princess Celestia herself, and one of the bearers of the elements of harmony. 

Twilight sighed a deep sigh of contentment as she lay on a hearth rug in front of a blazing fire, the crisp scent of pine wood filling the air. She was enjoying some peace and quiet knowing it wasn't going to be much longer until her friends and family came over to celebrate, where the act of getting away for even five minutes was a challenge. Not that she minded, of course, she loved her family and her friends and had come a long way from the solitary and self-contained bookworm she had been before Princess Celestia (in all her wisdom) decided that she needed to leave the nest. Stretching her limbs, she looked out the window to watch the fat wet snowflakes, provided by Ponyville's skilled team of weather pegasi, drifted lazily out of the blue-grey sky and let another sigh escape. As lovely as laying in front of a warm hearth was, she was getting restless, she was happily ahead of schedule for a change, but even so, she had never been truly capable of completely relaxing the way her friend Rainbow Dash was able to, she needed something to occupy her mind. 

It was with that thought she got up and temporarily abandoned the hearth and went to find something to read from her not insignificant library selection. Twilight took a deep breath of air upon entering the library, one of her favorite rooms in the castle, the scent of paper and ink was to her as the smell of fresh-baked bread was to other ponies, a scent that linked to thousands of bits of memory and thought. The massive shelves that were in some instances built right into the crystalline walls of the castle were filled with hundreds of books, tomes, scrolls, and other assorted bits of literature covering almost every conceivable subject from picture books for the youngest of library patrons to the magically protected Tomes that were filled with ancient treatises of thaumaturgy. Twilight had studied nearly all of them at least once and in many cases several times over.  Given the time of year, she decided to find something holiday themed for her reading selection. She looked high and low and found a nice selection to choose from including 'A Hearth's Warming Tail' by Charter Dickering, 
The Nutcracker by E.T.A. Hoofmann including a vinyl recording of the musical rendition by the famed Prussian composer P. I. Tchaitrotsky (which roughly translated to Stone Wing). As much as she loved these classics, knowing the girls or her family could show up at any time she decided to choose something a bit shorter. Putting the longer works back on the shelf, she discovered a dusty green tome that looked like it hadn't been touched for a while, a few years at least by her estimate, gently blowing the dust off the cover she saw intricate gold leaf etchings on the edges and in a fancy hoof or horn-script the title A Visit From St. Neighcolas by Clementine Cart More and other Holiday Poems .

Twilight didn't remember seeing this particular volume before but perhaps it was mixed in with the books that Princess Celestia had sent over when restocking the at the time new library. Never one to dismiss a new book (well maybe never was too strong a word, but she had gotten better at being less judgemental after the Poison Joke fiasco a couple of years ago) she carried the book back to the study, and settling back on the hearth rug, began to read...