Hearth Warming Eve Gift Exchange

[Whammy]

The moment you have all been waiting for: the Gift Exchange! All posts related to the exchanging of gifts between ponies, all paired up randomly, are to go here. Have fun, and remember to thank your partner for the gift; this is not a time to be a grumpy-pants after all.

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It was nearly midnight now, and time for secret gift exchange! Everywhere Sweetheart looked, presents were appearing, out of pockets and out of saddlebags, with that subdued rustling, presents of all different shapes and sizes, colored papers and ribbons. Though she was a mare now, and supposed to be mature, she still felt the butterfly flutter of excitement and she was afraid she had a happy, and somewhat foalish grin on her face.

Sweetheart glanced around eagerly. Trixie Lulamoon, Trixie Lulamoon... She didn't know this pony personally- yet! Had Braeburn been nearby at the moment, she would have asked him about them. Nervously, she patted the pocket in which her present resided, mostly to reassure herself that it was still there. Let's see... With a name like Trixie, we can probably discount the Stallions... Which only left her... half the attendees. Brilliant.

With a chuckle, Sweetheart turned to a mare who didn't look too busy and asked her if she could point out Trixie Lulamoon. The mare apologized but said she didn't know any such pony. The first stallion she asked, who was trying on a neat hat that he'd just received, looked like he was about to say the same thing, but he hesitated.

"Wait, do you mean, The Supposedly Great and Powerful Trixie? I saw her... yeah! Over there. That blue unicorn mare with the light blue mane and tail, almost white. That's Trixie. Why do you ask?"

When she explained, the stallion gave her a rather odd look that Sweetheart really couldn't read. It was like a mixture of wariness and pity, overlaid with either sarcasm or scorn. Very odd! Sweetheart shook it off and, her smile brightening, she approached the unicorn.

"Excuse me, please," Sweetheart began, gently tapping her on the shoulder with a hoof. "Are you... Trixie Lulamoon? I, um.. This is for you!" Sweetheart quickly pulled from her pocket a creamy white envelope, decorated only with a festive red curling ribbon, and presented it. At first glance, it may have looked rather simple, perhaps just a card, but inside was an engraved invitation for Trixie to come and be a VIP guest at Sweet Hearth Stables in Appleoosa for an entire week, all expenses paid!

[Trixie Lulamoon]

Trixie had no idea why she had agreed to this gift exchange thing. She still wasn’t sure about being involved with such a big event; actually, she’s surprised she was invited at all. Twilight was Celestia’s student after all, and considering the past Celestia would have been in her right to ban Trixie from the party. But then again, her relationship with Twilight and her friends had started getting a little better lately. Twilight had forgiven her, so maybe she had told Celestia not to? Or maybe Trixie was just being conspiratorial and nothing had happened.

Whatever the case may be, she was here now, it was almost midnight, and she had to give this gift to somepony. Without really having any pockets in her star-studded cape, Trixie had kept it under her hat the entire night. Her lack of funds, or possessions, had limited her options in terms of what she could give. Magic stuff would have been great, but Trixie had no idea if the recipient was a pegasus, unicorn, or earth pony; magic would only be useful to one of those three. And Trixie was not famous enough that her autograph, or free tickets to her (admittedly free) shows would suffice.

About all she could work off of was that Sweetheart was probably a mare, though in the past such assumptions had proved troublesome for Trixie. Still, whoever this pony was, she would have to live with the little trinket she had gotten in her travels. It was a brooch, similar to the one that she wore on her cape. She occasionally wore it if the other one got dirty, but other than she rarely used it because it was a ruby she guessed. Her preferences leaned towards blue colored gems for the most.

So now that just left the question of where to find…

“Excuse me please,”

Trixie felt a tap on her shoulder, leading her to turn around to find herself facing a mare with a very pink color scheme to her. That was good; if this was Sweetheart the gem would go with her.

”Yes, I’m Trixie. You must be Sweetheart then if Trixie got the rules right…just give me a moment to get your gift,” Trixie said as she levitated her hat off, revealing the brooch strapped onto her horn. Freeing it, she levitated it towards Sweetheart while taking a hold of the envelope.

Opening it, she read the whole thing with some slight amusement. An all expense week at a hotel in Appleloosa…just at around the time Trixie had been offered work there. Trixie couldn’t help but laugh a little bit.

”Sorry for laughing, but Trixie just got a job offer to perform her outstanding feats of magic in Appleloosa, so this worked out quite nicely. Thank you.”

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Dinky accidentally bumped into Trixie. "Uh, sorry Trixie! Uh, I-I gotta, uh, bye!" She galloped off, her eyes looking around rapidly. She was not comfortable in a place with so many ponies. They were everywhere! She was supposed to give a gift to, thankfully, her classmate Shady Daze.

Dinky dove under a table, huffing out. Normally she was fine with other ponies, but she was getting claustrophobic. She'd never seen so many ponies in one room at one time! She hoped she could find Shady Daze so she could get this over with... She slowly stuck her head out from under the table, looking around.

[whammy4]

Cotton Cloudy trotted along very carefully through the crowds, her gift safely held onto by her teeth (good thing she had gotten it into a bag). At the moment her parents were off doing something else, leaving her to her own devices. In this particular case, it was actually being allowed to be up really really late and hanging out with her friends. All the foals had been invited to participate in a gift exchange, of which Cotton Cloudy was now trying to find the recipient of her gift. She was surprised to have gotten her friend of sorts, Dinky Hooves.

They weren't all that good friends, so Cotton Cloudy wasn't sure what to get her. Dinky was a unicorn as well, and Cotton didn't know all that much about unicorns either (outside of what Miss Cheerilee taught them). Having asked her parents for help, since they knew Dinky's mother from the post office, Cloudy had gotten Dinky a Beginner's Guide to Magic. Apparently Dinky had been having trouble with learning magic, though she had found a mentor of some sort. Still, Cotton Cloudy thought the book might help. It seemed like it had a bunch of good information about magic and stuff.

Still, she was having little success in actually finding Dinky; it was almost as if they were still playing hide and seek with Pinky. Since running around wasn't doing anything, Cotton Cloudy decided to stop and look. Glancing around, she noticed a familiar gray unicorn's head poking out from underneath a table. Excited, Cotton Cloudy ran over. After arriving, she dropped the bag down before speaking.

”Hey there Dinky! I got you for the gift exchange. Happy Hearth Warming Eve!”

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At first, Shady Daze had been excited about going to Canterlot for Hearth's Warming. While his dad worked on a train for a living, neither he nor his mom did a lot of traveling and it wasn't like his dad's travels were a vacation. So, going anywhere was pretty neat, but the capital was huge and full of ponies. On top of that, Shady Daze loved parties. Parties were events dedicated just to enjoying yourself and everypony else at the party. There hadn't seemed to be a downside to the plan.

However, the reality was a bit of a let down. This was nothing like the parties he had been to back in Ponyville. There were plenty of things to do, just not as much as his mind had concocted while they had been on the road. So, he was enjoying himself, but a thought in the back of his head just kept reminding him of all of the cool things that hadn't become reality. And that reminded him of how his mom always told him to be thankful for what you have. So he was essentially giving himself an old lecture over and over.

Shady remained hopeful as the gift exchange started. He had put a lot of thought into Cotton Cloudy's gift. If she liked his gift, then the evening would be awesome and he would take back all of his negative thoughts about fancy parties. It took him a while to track her down, but eventually he stumbled upon her and Dinky Hooves, who was another pony in his class. ”Hey Dinky,” he greeted, not wanting to be rude, Cotton Cloudy, I have a gift for you,” he trailed off slightly as something else took his attention, ”Dinky, why are you hanging out under a table? Are you hiding from somepony?”

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Dinky was definitely surprised to see Cotton Cloudy break through the crowds. Dinky had been convinced she had been the only foal at Hearth Warming. No, that's not right. She got Shady Daze's name. Of course there would have been another foal there.

Then, a bag was dropped in front of her. C-Cotton Cloudy got her? She thought ponies got each other... But, she shouldn't be rude. "Thank you, Cotton Cloudy!" Dinky took the bag, slowly opening it. Oh, Celestia! A magic guide!! "Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!" Dinky grinned very widely, hugging the guide to her chest.

But, she was drawn away from her gift, by the voice of a colt. She looked up, to see Shady Daze himself! Perfect! "O-Oh! Shady! I have something for you..." Dinky disappeared underneath the table so she could dig through her bag. Muffin, muffin, muffin, muffin, present! Dinky came back out, and pulled out a nice camera. Dinky hadn't just cone across this. She had had to do chores all over town in order to get enough bits to buy it... And she still needed to work a bit. But, it was the only thing she knew to get him. They weren't exactly friends, but they didn't dislike each other either. They just hadn't gotten to know each other.