In school, every student stared at the clock as it was ticking before letting them out for winter break which was their favorite vacation time maybe after summer vacation. No one though was probably more eager than Darla and her friends.

"I hope you all have happy holidays with your friends and family." The teacher smiled to her students.

'Oh, she has no idea.' Darla thought to herself with a smile.

The bell soon rang and the kids rushed out happily from school to start their winter vacation.

"Ah, there's nothing like the winter holidays." Darla smiled as she walked with Amber and Annabelle.

"You said it." Amber smiled back.

"Who wouldn't?" Annabelle added.

Suddenly, a snowball was thrown at Darla.

"Hey!" Darla glared.

Alvin laughed as he hid behind a tree, up to no good again.

"Oh, you're in for it now." Darla glared playfully.

"Come and get me!" Alvin laughed before throwing another snowball.

Darla then ducked from that one as Brittany hummed to herself as she looked like she was going to go ice-skating.

"Watch out, Brittany!" Amber called out.

"Huh? Wah!" Brittany yelped until she got hit by the snowball.

"Oops." Alvin cupped his mouth.

"ALVIN! YOU DID THIS, DIDN'T YOU?!" Brittany glared.

"Well, we're off." Darla said as she Amber and Annabelle took off before they would get caught in between the snowball fight.

"That was close." Annabelle said, but found herself laughing.

"I'm excited that we can experience Hearth's Warming this year though." Amber smiled to her best friend.

"Same here." Darla smiled back.

"When are we going?" Annabelle asked.

"Well, Atticus said we should meet at the house, and we'll go over some plans from there." Darla replied.

"Wahoo!" Amber and Annabelle smiled.

"You told your parents, right?" Darla asked them.

"Of course." Amber smiled and nodded.

"I sure did." Annabelle smiled.

"All right," Darla smiled back. "This'll be fun. Mom and Dad have said about how much they've loved Hearth's Warming whenever they visited Equestria in the past."

"This is gonna be so much fun." Amber beamed.


Inside the Fudo house...

"Oh, Merry Christmas indeed!" Cherry smirked as she was with Atticus, Mo, and Patch. "Drell promised us no missions or adventures during the holidays! It feels like I'm in Heaven!"

"Well, it is the holidays." Atticus smiled.

"So, you think the School of Friendship is out for winter break by now?" Cherry asked.

"I'm sure it is by now." Patch nodded.

"Yeah, besides, it's Hearth's Warming Eve there." Mo said.

"When do we go?" Patch asked eagerly.

"Once the girls come back from school." Atticus smiled.

And which wasn't a long wait as the girls soon came in through the front door.

"Ah, girls." Atticus smiled to his little sister and her friends.

"Ready to go?" Mo asked the girls.

"Uh-huh! Uh-huh!" The girls beamed about visiting the School of Friendship again.

"Alright then, let's go." Mo smiled.

The girls beamed out of excitement.

Atticus, Cherry, Mo, and Patch then activated their medallions which summoned a portal.

"After you." Atticus smiled to his little sister.

Darla, Amber, and Annabelle soon went through the portal. The teenagers and Patch then followed after them as they came to the land of Equestria as it was snowing.

"This is going to be so much fun." Darla smiled.


They soon came back in their Equestrian forms.

"To the school!" Atticus proclaimed.

"Nerd." Cherry smirked.


They soon rushed into the school. They soon came inside, and there seemed to be caroling about already.

"Ponies' voices fill the night, Hearth's Warming Eve is here once again~" Sandbar was heard singing before looking to the others. "Come on, everybody! Sing!"

No one else seemed to sing along as they kept on talking to each other.

"La-la-la-la, la-la-la-la, La-la, la-la, la-la, la-la~" Sandbar then kept singing to himself.

"La-la-la-la... La..." Ocellus weakly chimed in.

"Sandbar, you do know that not everyone in Equestria celebrates the same way, right?" Darla asked as she entered the room with Amber and Annabelle.

"Girls!" The Young Six beamed to their new friends.

"Happy Holidays, everyone." Annabelle smiled.

"Are we late?" Amber added.

"Not at all," Sandbar smiled. "I just wish you guys could've stayed in school. It'd be way more fun with you."

"Yeah, but if we did, then everyone back home would start wondering where we were." Darla said.

"I guess that's true," Sandbar replied. "It's nice to see you again though."

"It's nice to be back, Sandbar." Darla smiled to him.

"Anyway, pink pony girl right," Yona said. "Not everybody celebrate same way."

"Yeah," Smolder added. "Dragons don't do pony holidays."

"Sure we do!" Spike piped up out of excitement. "I love Hearth's Warming Eve! It's all about friends and presents and family and... Presents!"

"It's more than that, Spike." Atticus said.

"Atticus is right," Twilight added. "It's also about putting aside differences to come together, like the Earth ponies, Pegasi, and unicorns did on the first holiday."

"Oh! Is that why you put their Fire of Friendship on top of the tree?" Ocellus asked. "To help us remember their unity?"

"And 'cuz it looks cool." Rainbow Dash added.

"It sure does." Mo smiled.

"This is my favorite day of the year!" Silverstream beamed. "Not that I don't like the other ones. Tuesdays are great!"

Smolder groaned as the hippogriff's excitement knocked her down on the floor.

"Yona like any day that start winter break." Yona smiled.

"Two whole weeks without classes, how will Ocellus survive?" Gallus teased with a playful smirk at the female Changeling.

Ocellus laughed bashfully in response.

"I think you'll all enjoy the time off to be home with your families, to celebrate your own traditions," Twilight smiled before announcing to the others as it was time for them to get out of school themselves. "Attention, everybody! School is officially out! Happy Holidays, and we'll see you after the break!"

Most of the students began to leave the school.

"Ah, Winter Break is always so exciting." Darla beamed.

"You know, in the orphanage me and Cherry grew up in, we usually got to celebrate Christmas in someone else's house," Atticus smiled. "We spent one year with Donald Duck and his nephews."

"I know; you told us that story." Darla smiled back, referring to herself and the family.

"Oh... That's right... I did..." Atticus smiled bashfully. "I almost forgot about that. I guess I just love that story so much because we got to experience a real family Christmas that year."

"Yeah, we really did." Cherry nodded.

"And for those of you traveling outside Equestria..." Twilight soon added.

"Yeah, shouldn't you guys be getting ready to go?" Rainbow Dash then said before smirking to the Young Six. "If you miss that train, it's a really long walk."

"Go pack up, and we'll take you to the station." Twilight told them.


The Young Six soon went to start packing, but Darla could tell in Gallus's eyes that he didn't want to go back home for the holidays.

"Uh, you okay, Gallus?" Darla asked the griffin.

"Whatever." Gallus muttered to her.

"I just wanted to know if you were okay." Darla frowned.

"I'm fine," Gallus replied. "Guess I better go then."

"Um, you do that..." Darla said before looking over. "Ooh... Presents..."

"That aren't for you." Cherry reminded her.

"Dang it." Darla groaned before seeing Spike shaking one of the presents.

"Spike...?" Mo smirked playfully to the young dragon.

"It's that new bow-tie I wanted, isn't it?" Spike replied.

"You'll have to wait and see." Twilight smiled to him.

"I'm waiting, but in the meantime, I'm shaking!" Spike replied.

"Of course." Patch rolled his eyes playfully.

Spike smiled bashfully.

"Never change, Spike." Cherry teased.

They soon noticed something going on with the Fire of Friendship.

"Guys, what's that?" Darla pointed to the tree.

A cloaked figure soon took out a jar and poured something onto the Fire of Friendship. They soon looked at what was happening to the Fire of Friendship, and where what happened next was messy.

"What was that?!" Cherry yelped.

Everyone soon gasped once they saw what happened to the Fire of Friendship as they were all nearly in a literal sticky situation.

"I don't know, but now everything is all sticky." Mo said.

"This is stickier than honey." Cherry complained.

"You okay, Spike?" Patch asked the dragon.

"Having... Trouble... Flying!" Spike grunted.

Atticus soon used his magic to get the purple goo off Spike.

"Thanks, Atticus." Spike sighed in relief.

"No problem." Atticus smiled.

"What happened?" Spike wondered.

"Everything's ruined," Twilight frowned. "That's what's happened!"

"And I don't think it was on purpose." Cherry said as she flew up to the banister close to the tree.

"Say, what's this?" Rainbow Dash asked as she found a bucket with Cherry. "Somepony was up here!"

"But who?" Cherry narrowed her eyes with Rainbow Dash.

A cloaked figure was then shown running out of the room.

"Wait, stop, right there!" Amber told the cloaked figure.

The figure seemed to ignore her as they came to the window to escape.

"After that figure!" Annabelle proclaimed.

They soon came to the window, but the figure was gone, so they went out the doors to go outside into the cold. Cherry's teeth chattered as she felt a lot more cold than the others.

"Now where did that figure go?" Mo asked.

"I dunno, but I can't feel my toes..." Cherry replied before looking to her hooves. "I DON'T HAVE ANY TOES!"

"I see the figure!" Darla told the others as she saw the figure rushing into the students' quarters.

Atticus put Cherry on his back briefly and they all rushed inside, seeming to just miss the figure.


"Might as well give up, whoever you are!" Rainbow Dash glared. "We got ya cornered!"

No one seemed to come out of any of the students' quarters.

"Hello?" Twilight called out. "Is anypony there?"

"I'll check the back door." Rainbow Dash decided as she soon flew off to go and do just that.

"This sure is mysterious." Mo said.

"Mysterious like in mystery." Cherry hinted to Atticus.

"And where our culprit is somewhere in here." Atticus said.

"What's happening?" Silverstream asked before gasping. "Another decorating party?"

"Has anybody come in here?" Twilight asked.

"Well, yeah. All of us did," Smolder deadpanned. "To pack? Like you told us to?"

"She means after that." Mo said.

"Did you hear anything?" Spike added.

"Uh-uh." Silverstream and Smolder shook their heads.

The rest of the Young Six soon came out.

"What's up?" Gallus asked.

"Yona done packing!" Yona announced happily.

"So then, no one else came in here?" Patch asked.

"The back door's locked!" Rainbow Dash said. "No way out!"

"We better explain what's going on." Amber said.

"Which one of you punks did it?!" Cherry glared at the Young Six.

"Cherry!" Atticus scolded slightly.

"Did what?" Gallus asked.

"You know what you did!" Cherry glared.

"What... Are you talking about?" Gallus asked.

"We better show them what happened before a certain 'somepony' decides to blame one of them without knowing who did it." Mo said as she glared at Cherry.

"Hey, that's how Batman interrogates people." Cherry defended.

"Yeah, but they're just kids." Mo said.

"Yeah, well... One of them is guilty, I know it!" Cherry replied.

"Is something wrong?" Ocellus asked.

"Like you don't know, Changeling!" Cherry glared.

"Cherry, you know better than that!" Atticus scolded.


They soon decided to show the Young Six what happened with the decorations.

"Whoa... That is so not cool!" Sandbar winced.

"And whoever did it ran into your rooms," Spike added, suspiciously. "No one came out, and all of you are still here."

"One of you must have done this!" Rainbow Dash added. "But... Why would any of you want to sabotage Hearth's Warming Eve?"

"Yeah, it doesn't make any sense." Mo said.

The students seemed to mutter to each other.

"Ugh! Yak not do this!" Yona glared. "Yona offended by accusation!"

"We don't know what happened. Maybe this wasn't even on purpose, but I want to give whoever caused this mess a chance to tell the truth and explain themselves," Twilight told them. "I'll make it easy for you. Close your eyes. Now, if you did this, raise your hoof. Or claw. Or whatever."

No one seemed to raise their hoof/claw/wing.

"Come on, Spike. Looks like we have to-" Twilight sighed before seeing that the young dragon covered his eyes. "Spike, you can open your eyes."

"What? Oh!" Spike replied once he uncovered his eyes.

Twilight rolled her eyes to that.

"What about me?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Yes, you too." Atticus sighed.

"You all can," Twilight added. "But since nobody took responsibility for this mess, you're all gonna have to help clean it up before you can go home." she then told the students.

The Young Six began to complain after hearing that.

"Why do I have to stay?!" Smolder complained.

"Aw, but the holidays!" Sandbar added.

"While you're cleaning, we'll bring you into my office one at a time," Twilight told them as she gave them cleaning tools. "Since honesty is one of the Elements of Harmony, we want to give you each a chance to tell us the truth."

"And when we find out who did this, we'll... Uh, what'll we do?" Cherry asked Twilight after not knowing what would happen after finding out who messed up the decorations.

"The guilty party won't be going home over Hearth's Warming break," Twilight informed. "She or he will stay here for some one-on-one friendship lessons."

"But what if none of us confesses?" Silverstream frowned.

"Then... I guess there's no holidays for anybody," Twilight sighed. "You'll all stay over the break."

The Young Six gasped to that threat.

"Sorry, but that's the punishment." Atticus informed the Young Six with a frown.

"Atticus...?" Darla raised her hoof. "Can me, Amber, and Annabelle help?"

"If you would like." Atticus replied.