With the Winter Wishday holiday approaching in Maretime Bay, Sunny is planning to spend it with her friends, ending with a gift exchange under the Wishing Star. However, the others have plans of their own: Hitch wants to visit his Grandma Figgy, Izzy wants to go to Bridlewood and hang an ornament on the Wishing Tree as part of the unicorns' Wishiehoof Festival, and Pipp and Zipp are scheduled to sing at a Wishentine concert in Zephyr Heights. Sunny's magic lantern turns a broken-down tram car that Izzy and Zipp have been trying to fix up into the Marestream, a flying RV, so they can get to each location and still make it back to the Crystal Brighthouse in time. Sunny notes that snow is falling in Maretime Bay, which has never happened before.
The group spends time at the three locations, staying longer than expected at each for various unforeseen reasons (building gingerbread houses, hearing a long winter poem, and having the concert run extremely long). By the time they get ready to go home, the snowfall has worsened into a blizzard and the Marestream is buried. They find it by using the lantern, and a book of stories borrowed from Figgy leads Zipp to conclude that the unicorns' holiday greeting of "Frosty Shivers" is really an ancient spell that is causing the snowfall. The group flies back to Bridlewood, where Izzy teaches the unicorns a new spell to stop the blizzard, and reaches the Brighthouse just in time to see the Wishing Star interact with its magic and project their cutie marks into the sky.
The others are saddened that they never had a chance to get any gifts for the exchange, but Sunny points out that they have shared their holiday traditions with each other. She adds that the wish she made on the star has already come true — a chance to enjoy the holiday with her friends.
Tropes:
- Achievements in Ignorance: The knowledge of how to cast spells has been lost to unicorns for many moons. As a result, they don't realize that their traditional holiday greeting of "Frosty Shivers" is actually a spell that causes snow to fall.
- Added Alliterative Appeal:
- Hitch refers to Grandma Figgy's kitchen as the "cookie cottage crafting creation corner".
- Izzy describes Wishiehoof as "a day of fun, friendship, and frolicking."
- The Alleged Car: The prototype Marestream is a busted old tram car with wings haphazardly slapped on by Izzy and Zipp, and the idea that it can fly anywhere is ludicrous. That is, until the lantern's magic transforms it into something more airworthy.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!:
- Izzy briefly spaces out while in the midst of bringing up the Marestream.
- When Izzy suggests everypony visualize landing at Zephyr Heights, Pipp is briefly distracted by wondering if they will have the "sparkly" decorations up.
- Attentive Shade Lowering: Zipp does this with her sunglasses from time to time.
- Badge Gag: When Hitch jokingly asks Izzy if she has a license to drive the Marestream, she creates two on the spot for herself and Zipp. They're not much more than crude pictures of the mares, but Hitch says that everything looks good and lets them get on with trip preparations.
- Bait-and-Switch: While preparing the Marestream for the trip to Grandma Figgy's, Zipp suddenly gets a serious look on her face.Zipp: Hmm... Yup. Just as I suspected.
Sunny:: What is it?
Zipp: ...Still awesome! - Bat Signal: The magics of the Wishing Star and the Brighthouse combine to project the group's cutie marks into the sky in this fashion.
- Blatant Lies: Hitch insists his grandma is particular about traditions, even as it becomes apparent that he's the one who cares about everything being exactly the same.
- Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: When Izzy unintentionally causes the lantern to locate the Marestream, it's declared "magic", "a miracle", and finally a "magical miracle".
- Breather Episode: For the most part, the focus is on the Main Five celebrating of the holidays with the only drama being why the snow has continuously been falling. Turns out it was all the unicorns unknowingly making it snowy via a spell made into a holiday greeting. Opaline and Misty aren't even referenced in passing or otherwise.
- Brick Joke: Thunder and Zoom claim that the "gift boxes" (actually decorations) aren't empty, but contain clouds. At the end of the special, Izzy gifts her friends with boxes that also contain "clouds".
- The Cameo:
- Sprout makes a brief appearance at the beginning of the special, helping decorate the bridge.
- Argyle is seen in a photo of himself, Sunny, Hitch and Grandma Figgy.
- Chekhov's Gun: During the visit to Figgy's house, Zipp borrows a book of holiday tales. Near the end, she shows the others a story in that book to explain the cause of all the bad weather — a unicorn greeting that was once an ancient spell for snow.
- Christmas Episode: A first for G5, in which each pony race celebrates a different Christmas-esque holiday. The earth ponies have Winter Wishday, the pegasi have Wishentine, and the unicorns have Wishiehoof. These act as a counterpart to Hearth's Warming in G4.
- Clap Your Hands If You Believe: When the Marestream struggles through the storm, Izzy suggests that the Mane Five think of landing safely, in hopes that it will actually happen. Thanks to the Hope Lantern's magic, it does.
- Continuity Nod:
- The Brighthouse's "Critter Corner" (introduced at the end of "The Cutie Mark Mix-Up" is briefly seen.
- The Marestream is built from the old tram Izzy found in "Have You Seen This Dragon?"
- The creation of the Marestream is largely similar to how it took place in the My Little Pony: Tell Your Tale episode "Take Flight in the Marestream", though in that episode Izzy and Zipp created (and tested) the Marestream prior to showing it off to their friends.
- Izzy brings along Señor Butterscotch for the trip in the Marestream.
- The unicorns' Wishing Tree is said to keep "the jinxies" away.
- Izzy once again uses the word "belizzle".
- Cool Car: The completed Marestream, created by the magic of the Hope Lantern, is a flying RV that can seat six comfortably and is powered by the lantern.
- *Crack!* "Oh, My Back!": A Lighter and Softer example. After Izzy teaches the unicorns a counter-spell to stop the blizzard, Alphabittle is glad he doesn't have to worry about breaking his back shoveling snow. His full-body stretch is accompanied by the distinct crackle of vertebrae.
- Creature of Habit: Hitch is quite insistent on Wishday with Grandma Figgy being just the same as it was when he was a colt.
- Embarrassing Old Photo: Subverted. Hitch isn't embarrassed by his old photo album because it's tradition, even though he claims he would be if Granny didn't want to show it off.
- Foreshadowing:
- The floor of the Marestream's cockpit has six spots marked off for ponies to stand, but there are only five primary passengers (not counting Sparky, who rides on Hitch's back or in the cabin). Izzy brings along Señor Butterscotch to fill the spot, but it seems doubtful that was the intent when the lantern created it.
- It's unseasonably cold and snowy everywhere the Mane Five go, and the unicorns have glowing horns every time they say "Frosty Shivers". It turns out to be an ancient snow spell that they are recklessly casting, creating a blizzard.
- Implausible Deniability: While looking over everypony's cookie cottages, Grandma Figgy says that they must taste as good as they look. Zipp, who has just taken a bite out of hers, claims that she wouldn't know.
- Laughing at Your Own Jokes: Izzy twice laughs at her own wordplay.
- Letting the Air out of the Band: Happens when Izzy tries to start up a sing-along, but finds that the earth ponies and pegasi know different words to the same carol.
- Lots of Luggage: Pipp tries to bring lots of suitcases onboard the Marestream, but is turned down by Izzy.
- Magitek: The Marestream is fueled by the lantern's magic, and was largely created by said magic.
- No Ontological Inertia: It took days for the unicorns to create the massive snowfall through their unknowing use of the "Frosty shivers" spell. Yet when Izzy encourages them to say "Warm Wishiehoof" instead, the snow and clouds clear up in seconds.
- No OSHA Compliance: The Prisbeam lantern turns an old trolley with all the airworthiness of a brick into a magic-powered flying van, but evidently didn't consider seatbelts worth installing, as Zipp lampshades.
- Oh, Crap!: Pipp and Zipp trade glances to this effect when Haven tells them she's arranged for the concert to run twice as long as usual, and with both of them singing extra songs.
- Only One Finds It Fun: While most of the Mane Five (plus Sparky) are mortified by Onyx's overly-long poem, Izzy enjoys it (and even thinks it was "a bit short").
- Pun:
- Izzy announces to Sunny that she has the "Snow-lution" to the Mane Five's problem of how to visit so many places in one day.
- When their departure from Zephyr Heights is delayed by more snow, Izzy says she "can't belizzle it's be-lizzarding right now!"
- Puppy-Dog Eyes: Sunny, Hitch and Izzy all have these when they see the "gift boxes" are empty.
- Safe Driving Aesop: A quick gag has Zipp snap at a couple pegasi for paying attention to their phones while flying, after nearly running into them with the Marestream.
- Something We Forgot: After returning to the Brighthouse, the Mane Five realize that they forgot to get each other presents.
- Spit Take: Sunny spits out her drink when Queen Haven announces that the Zephyr Heights Wishentine Royal Carousel Concert will have six acts.
- Squee: Zipp finds a picture of Hitch as a colt wearing a homemade sheriff's outfit adorable.
- Sweet Tooth: Zipp is initially less than enthusiastic over window shopping with her family, she perks up when Pipp points out a store is having a free maple syrup tasting.
- To the Tune of...: Twice during the start of the special, Sunny sings a song about baking Wishday cookies to the tune of the carol "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." The first time, she tacks on a snippet of "Deck the Halls" at the end.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: With magic having returned, the unicorn tradition of saying "Frosty Shivers" to each other actually casts a spell that creates more and more snow with each utterance.
