A Hearths Warming Tale Unabridged
 
Prologue
 
“You really don’t need to do this Starlight,” Twilight Sparkle reminded her again, “I sort my books by myself all the time. I don’t mind it, I love it in fact.”
 
“Couldn’t have guessed that,” Starlight Glimmer murmured, but quickly followed with “It’s fine Twilight. You’re already letting me live here rent free. Doing chores like this is only fair. Plus it’s fascinating to see your huge variety of books.”
 
“Yes. . . ” Twilight bit her hoof anxiously. “So many books in a specific order for a specific reason . . .”
 
Starlight rolled her eyes and continued removing books from the shelf with her horn. Suddenly, a notch in the back of the shelf caught her eye. It jutted out and was slightly off color compared to the rest of the shelving. Curious, the unicorn focused her magic and pulled. It popped open to reveal . . .
 
“More books?!” Starlight was severely disappointed. “You have so many books that you hid books behind even more books?”
 
“What?” Twilight flew up to join her from her perch on the ladder. “Oh, that. Those are just a few books I don’t want on display in the main library.”
 
“Ooh . . . why? Princess Sparkle are they naughty books?”
 
“What!? No . . . well not really. They just have a bit too much violence, controversy and, yes, explicit content for a certain dragon to stick his snout in.”
 
“I guess you’ve got a point,” Starlight nodded, floating a few closer for a better look, “Conan the Barnstormer, in a few years probably. Animal Farm freaked me out the first time I read it too. And 50 Shades of Hay should never be read by anypony or dragon. Why do you even have that anyway?”
 
“Err. . . Well-”
 
“Wait . . . What?!” Starlight held up a well-worn, leather bound book with a familiar title. “A Hearths Warming Tale? Why in the hay is this here?”
 
Twilight put her hooves to her mouth. “Oh my gosh! Mom sent this over during my move in and forgot I put it back in here. It was the first book I ever hid from Spike.”
 
“Why? We read that book last Hearths Warming Eve, no problem. It’s extremely tame compared to some of the books here.” Starlight levitated Silence of the Lambs forward pointedly.
 
“Well,” Twilight blushed “the version I read may have been the foal version. When I tried to read Spike the complete version the first time, moons ago, he begged me to stop.”
 
“Begged to stop A Hearths Warming Tale? What could possibly be in there that’s that bad?”
 
“Its not really explicit per say. Its just a bit more adult, longer, more wordy and much more of a love story-” the alicorn stopped, seeing Starlight’s expression and smiled. “You wouldn’t be interested in hearing it, would you?”
 
“Are you kidding Twilight!? You could read a tax return and make it amazing! And I’d love to hear an extended version of A Hearths Warming Tale!” Starlight floated herself down the ladder and into an armchair like an excited filly. Twilight chuckled.
 
“Okay. I think you’ll definitely appreciate it more than Spike did.” Twilight flapped down to her own armchair. “Speaking of Spike, where has he gone off to?”
 
“He went to bring us tea ages ago.” Starlight smirked. “I’m guessing he’s testing which cake tastes best.”
 
“Probably,” Twilight smiled. “Anyway, this is the story of a stallion named Snowfall Frost-”
 
“Stallion?”
 
“Yes. A stallion and if that’s the change that surprises you, you’re in for a wild ride.”