- Written by Katie Cook, Art by Katie Cook, Andy Price, Agnes Garbowski, and Brenda Hickey
Holiday Special 2015: Tales of Hearth's Warming
Twilight Sparkle and Spike are trying to get from Canterlot to Ponyville for Pinkie Pie's Hearth's Warming Eve party, but they find themselves stranded in a train station when a snowstorm has blocked the train tracks, making it impossible to fly back or return to her parents. With a lonely coffee-stall clerk, Cuppa Joe, as the only other pony there, Twilight decides to dig into a book she brought, only to find it missing. Joe's stand has a number of books, but all aimed at fillies, but with nothing much else to do, Twilight offers to read them to Spike.
The stories include:
- "The Flying Reindeer" (Art by Brenda Hickey), a take on Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and supposedly written by Princess Luna, where Rainbow Dash the reindeer is the only one that can fly, but teased by the other reindeer. However, when Princess Luna on her way to deliver gift baskets runs aground after an encounter with geese, breaking her wing, she offers Rainbow the opportunity to help her complete her deliveries.
- "The Toy and the Mouse" (Art by Agnes Garbowski), a take on The Nutcracker, with Rarity as the young filly that adores her soldier nutcracker. The toy comes to live, but as soon as the Mouse King shows up, Rarity deems herself too good for this book and storms off.
- "'Twas the Night of Hearth's Warming Eve" (Art by Andy Price), a take on 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, told in prose by Big Macintosh, being woken on the titular night to find AJ and Apple Bloom making his gift, a house for his Smarty Pants action figure (and totally not a doll).
As Twilight finishes the last story, the doors to the station burst open, and the other Mane 6 are there, Pinkie refusing to allow her party to go on without Twilight and so bringing the party to her. The Mane 6, Spike, and Joe enjoy the Hearth's Warning Eve celebration.
This issue provides examples of:
- All of the Other Reindeer: In true Rudolph fashion, reindeer Rainbow Dash gets ostracized because she can fly, an ability that none of the other reindeer possess.
- Ascended Meme: "It hit me right in the feels."
- Art Shift: Since the stories are being drawn by different artists, this is usually the case.
- Author Avatar: In-Universe, Princess Luna wrote a children's book with herself as a character.
- Brand X: The coffee stand in the railway station is obviously intended to be a Starbucks.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: "The Toy and the Mouse" is the most obvious example with Rarity constantly complaining to the narrator about her story's development. Other examples include the reindeer counterparts of Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon discussing what the moral of "The Flying Reindeer" is and Rainbow Dash saying that the mane five's attempts to rescue Twilight and Spike from the blizzard require another twenty pages to explain (with Pinkie complaining that Fourth Wall jokes are her shtick).
- Edible Ammunition: Princess Luna's Author Avatar in "The Flying Reindeer" throws a fruitcake at the geese that caused her to crash.
- Kind Hearted Cat Lover: We learn for the first time that Twilight's parents own two cats. We're not sure if it will stick.
- Lyrical Shoehorn: "'Twas the Night of Hearth's Warming Eve" rhymes, but its meter is very inconsistent from line to line.
- My Little Phony: A book titled "My Little Walrus" can be seen in the mess Twilight made.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Rarity's reaction to being in a story with a giant mouse. The In-Universe reason "The Toy and the Mouse" is only two pages long is that Twilight and Spike fell asleep while reading it.
- Shout-Out:
- The cover with Spike getting electrocuted by Christmas lights is a parody of the National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation poster.
- Twilight accidentally left her copy of Lord of the Reins at her parents' house.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Rainbow to Princess Luna in "The Flying Reindeer":Rainbow: You can't just go around throwing cake at things that annoy you!
- Unsound Effect: Katie Cook seems to be really fond of these, such as "BLISSFUL IGNORANCE", "ANGUISH", "HUG", "FLUFF", "SHOVE!" and "FESTIVE BOOM!"
