History Recap / MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS6E8AHearthsWarmingTail

* ByTheLightsOfTheirEyes: Snowfall Frost's solo VillainSong concludes with the light dimming until only her eyes stay visible.

* FriendOrIdolDecision: Flintheart gives Snowfall the choice "Spend your time learning to become a powerful unicorn, or play with your toys and make nothing of yourself". Evidently, she chooses the former, causing her o start hating Hearth's Warming.

* {{Bowdlerise}}: Not surprisingly, in the UK, the verse where the Spirit of Hearth's Warming Presents' mentions cider and drinks a sip is taken out of the UK airing.

* Bowdlerise: Not surprisingly, in the UK, the verse where the Spirit of Hearth's Warming Presents' mentions cider and drinks a sip is taken out of the UK airing.

* {{Disneyfication}}: Unlike the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, who simply stood silent and imposing, directing Scrooge through a possible future if he didn't change his ways, the Spirit of Hearth's Warming Yet to Come introduces herself speaking with VoiceOfTheLegion and sings a song about what would become of Equestria if Snowfall completed her spell. This makes the spirit's message easier for young children to understand and is less likely to give them nightmares of silent shadows.

* FramingDevice

* SurpriseCreepy: You'd be forgiven if you think a generally lighthearted show such as this would tone down the future sequence or play it for laughs, but no: the shift from bright and hopeful to dark and bleak remains.

* DarkerAndEdgier: If anything, the vision that the Spirit of Hearth's Warming Yet to Come shows Snowfall is even darker than the original Dickens tale, where it focuses on the unmourned death of an unloved man; here, it shows ''[[ApocalypseHow the complete desolation of life as we know it]]''.

** Not the first time [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E20ForWhomTheSweetieBelleToils Luna shows somepony a bad future]], or that [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS5E26TheCutieRemarkPart2 Starlight witnesses one of her own making]].

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Or rather "What Was I Going to Do?!" as the Spirit of Hearth's Warming Yet to Come shows Snowfall what will happen if she goes through with he spell: The Windigos grow out of control and blanket all of Equestria in eternal winter to the point of causing an ice age.

%%* SillyRabbitCynicismIsForLosers: One of the lessons Snowfall learns from the spirits.
%%* SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids: The lesson Snowfall learned from Professor Flintheart, and that she had been following since then.

** Derpy is the star of the show.

* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: The trailer shows the cast singing the closing song, spoiling the finale of the episode.

* TheUnexpected: Because each of the members of the Mane Six are playing major roles and Twilight is acting as narrator, many viewers were pleasantly surprised that Princess Luna is playing the part of the Spirit of Hearth's Warming Yet to Come.

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Flintheart tells Snowfall to work towards the betterment of Equestria. Too bad she took that lesson to heart and tries to make Hearth's Warming disappear, dooming Equestria in the process.
* UsedToBeASweetKid: Snowfall loved the holiday before Flintheart got to her.

* VillainousLegacy: Professor Flintheart serves CynicismCatalyst to Snowfall losing her interest in Hearth's Warming as a filly.

* YetAnotherChristmasCarol: ''A Hearth's Warming Tale'' takes several elements from the story: a VillainProtagonist who hates the holiday, a visit by three spirits and a HeelFaceTurn at the end.

** The Spirit of Hearth's Warming Presents is a composite of Dot Warner as the Ghost of Christmas Present in the ''WesternAnimation/Animaniacs'' "A Christmas Plotz" (including the {{Pun}} and jumping out of the gift box), the character in the original ''Literature/AChristmasCarol'', and Pinkie Pie.

* {{Homage}}: The story takes elements from two well-known Christmas tales: ''Literature/HowTheGrinchStoleChristmas'' (Snowfall's attempt at ruining Hearth's Warming for everyone via a snow storm) and ''Literature/AChristmasCarol'' (Snowfall despising Christmas and three spirits that show her the past, present and future).

** Derpy breaking the ornament harks back to Minty breaking the Here Comes Christmas Candy Cane in the G3 special ''A Very Minty Christmas''. Doubles as an ActorAllusion, since both are voiced by Creator/TabithaStGermain.

* NotSoDifferent: Starlight and Snowfall are this. Both started out as sweet kids but a traumatic experience made them change for the worse. They both grow up to be bitter and angry at a concept (Cutie Marks for Starlight and Hearts Warming for Snowfall) that causes them to [[DisproportionateRetribution act against it drastically.]] They eventually change for the better when they see how [[ApocalypseHow badly the future will end up if they succeed.]]

* WellIntentionedExtremist: Snowfall honestly believes that her spell making everypony forget about the holiday would make Equestria better, as there would be nothing left to distract them from putting in more hard work and effort.

* AdaptationalHeroism: Unlike Scrooge and his obvious {{Greed}}, Snowfall dislikes the holiday mainly because she thinks it's a meaningless distraction, and she honestly believes that Equestria would be better off without the holiday. She's also nicer to Snow Dash to start than Scrooge is to Bob Cratchit.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Averted by the spirits thankfully, but by casting the spell that would make Hearth's Warming disappear, Snowfall would doom Equestria as the Windigos would return and bring about EndlessWinter.

* OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions: Deconstructed. Snowfall and Flintheart are some of the few ponies who think the Windigos were just a fabricated part of Equestria's history meant to spook foals into being nice to each other. As Snowfall soon discovers, the Windigos are all too real.

* VillainSong: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rB0x2TVu9Q "Say Goodbye to the Holiday"]] sung by Snowfall Frost (portrayed in-universe by Starlight Glimmer), where she announces her plan to make Hearth's Warming Eve disappear from the ponies' memories.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Snowfall honestly believes that her spell making everypony forget about the holiday would make Equestria better.
* WhatTheHellHero: Not said directly, but the Spirits of Hearth's Warming Presents and Yet to Come pretty much tell this to Snowfall concerning her plan to erase Hearth's Warming Eve.

** For those who prefer the name in credits for "Slice of Life", the tree has a muffin top.

* StealthPun: Derpy is the star of the show.

* {{Disneyfication}}: Unlike the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, who simply stood silent and imposing, directing Scrooge through a possible future if he didn't change his ways, the Spirit of Hearth's Warming Yet to Come [[CharacterExaggeration speaks with a booming voice and sings a song]] about what would become of Equestria if Snowfall completed her spell. This makes the spirit's message easier for small children to understand and is less likely to give them nightmares of silent shadows.

** The Spirit of Hearth's Warming Presents is modeled after Dot Warner as the Ghost of Christmas Present in the ''WesternAnimation/Animaniacs'' "A Christmas Plotz", including the {{Pun}} and jumping out of the gift box.

** Professor Flintheart's personality matches his name perfectly.

** The Spirit of Hearth's Warming Presents appears to be modeled specifically after the characterization of the Ghost of Christmas Present in the Ira David Wood theater adaptation of ''Literature/AChristmasCarol''.

* YouMakeMeSick: The Spirt of Hearth's Warming Yet to Come isn't angry at what Snowfall's actions would have caused, she's ''disgusted''.

* BuffySpeak: "...and from then on, it was always said of all the Hearth's Warming Eve celebrations, Snowfall's was the ''[[ShapedLikeItself Hearth's Warmingest]].'' TheEnd."

* LetMeTellYouAStory: Twilight decides the best way to convince Starlight to embrace the spirit of Hearth's Warming is to read a story to her about another pony very similar to Starlight. The story (or at least Twilight's rendition) also happened to be filled with [[AndYouWereThere characters similar to Twilight and Starlight's friends and neighbors]].