Hearth's Warming 2016 Quests

Twilight Sparkle: Gather 'round, everybody! It's Nearly Hearth's Warming Eve -- and to get everyone in the spirit, we're going to tell my FAVORITE holiday story!

Twilight Sparkle: It's called "A Hearth's Warming Tale"... and to make it EXTRA fun, I thought we'd make it into a sort of Ponyville-wide pageant.

Twilight Sparkle: My friends and I will take turns reading the story out loud... and as we do, everypony in town will play along and act out all the good plot points!

Spike: ... And i'll provide color commentary!

Twilight Sparkle: ... And Spike will provide color commentary, I guess! Anyway, let's start at the beginning...

Part 1: Twilight

Sprucing Things Up

"It all began many moons ago in Canterlot. There was a wintry chill in the air, and the scent of evergreens carried on the wind."

Twilight Sparkle

Required Quest: —

Required Level: 5

Get Blue Diamond Trees x2: Cost: 4,000; Skip: 2
Get Double Golden Trees x3

Cost: 6,000; Skip: 3
Get a Purple Star Trees x5

Cost: 10,000

Skip: 5

Rewards

200 , 5,000

OH -- I get how this works now! Twilight talks about evergreen trees, so we go and plant some of them! I like where this is going already...

Wintry Wares

"Every home in Canterlot was filled with holiday spirit -- and the marketplace was, too! Everypony was busy buying special presents for their friends and family..."

Twilight Sparkle

Required Quest: Sprucing Things Up

Required Level: 9

Assign Bon Bon to a shop x1: Cost: Free; Skip: 1
Produce Lemons x10

Cost: Free; Skip: 5
Assign Cheerilee to a shop x1

Cost: Free

Skip: 1

Rewards

50 , 1,000

Okay, I see how that part of the story has "ponies shopping" in it... But shopping for LEMONS? Really? Who gives LEMONS as a present?!

Twilight Sparkle: But ONE pony was not happy. Snowfall Frost was a powerful unicorn magician... She wanted to be PERFECT and thought the holiday was just a waste of time!"

Snowfall's Spell

"... So she gathered her ingredients, consulted her books, and began to cast a dangerous spell -- one that would get rid of the holiday altogether!"

Twilight Sparkle

Required Quest: Wintry Wares

Required Level: 15

Send Teacher's Pet to Maintain plausible deniability at the Flower Shop x2: Cost: Free; Skip: 4
Produce Rare Books x5

Cost: Free; Skip: 5
Send Twilight to read a book x3

Cost: Free

Skip: 10

Rewards

50 , 1,200

Oh NO! I mean, I KNOW Snowfall didn't ACTUALLY cast the spell, because we still have Hearth's Warming NOW... but i'm still in suspense!

Part 2: Applejack

Applejack: "... But just then, a voice from the hearth caught her ear! It was the Spirit of Hearth's Warming Past, come to talk Snowfall out of her wayward ways!"

Days Gone By

"With li'l more than a 'how d'ye do,' the Spirit WHISKED HER AWAY to the days of her filly-hood! Snowfall was sure a different pony then... so excited about decoratin' her classroom for the Holiday!"

Spirit of Hearth's Warming Past

Required Quest: Snowfall's Spell

Required Level: 15

Get Red Ornaments x5: Cost: 5,000; Skip: 2
Get Golden Ornaments x5

Cost: 5,000; Skip: 2
Get Blue Ornaments x5

Cost: 5,000

Skip: 2

Rewards

100 , 2,000

I wonder... Did they even HAVE Hearth's Warming ornaments back when Snowfall Frost was around? Or did they use, like, oranges or something?

Applejack: "But when Snowfall's mean old professor saw her carryin' a box of Hearth's Warmin' ornaments, why... he... he..."

Applejack: LAND SAKES!!!

Twilight Sparkle: What's the matter, Applejack?! That wasn't part of the story!

Applejack: Plum right it isn't part of the story! I got so caught up in narratin', I JUST realized I ain't left nobody in charge of the farm!

Intermission

Sorry to interrupt a good yarn, folks -- but I just can't concentrate if I don't have somepony runnin' Sweet Apple Acres! We make nearly ALL of our mulled cider 'round this time of year, y'know...

Spirit of Hearth's Warming Past

Required Quest: Days Gone By

Required Level: 15

Travel to Sweet Apple Acres x1: Cost: Free; Skip: Unskippable
Produce Apple Cider x15

Cost: Free; Skip: 15
Assign Big McIntosh to a shop x1

Cost: Free

Skip: 1

Rewards

100 , 2,500

Wow... I know they say "the show must go on," but I don't think they meant "so sometimes you'll need to make sure an apple farm stays open"!

Applejack: ... Whew! Thanks for lendin' a hoof there, buddy. I think it's safe for us to get back to the story now!

Applejack: Let's see... Where was I? Oh, right! "But when Snowfall's mean old professor saw her carryin' a box of Hearth's Warmin' ornaments..."

Dreams Dashed

"... Why, he just about blew his top off! The way HE saw it, all that fun stuff was just a big ol' DISTRACTION to studyin' hard and readin' magic books -- and he drilled it RIGHT into Snowfall's head that she should think the same way!"

Spirit of Hearth's Warming Past

Required Quest: Intermission

Required Level: 15

Send Twilight to read a book x1: Cost: Free; Skip: 1
Produce Books x10

Cost: Free; Skip: 5
Send Twilight to find magic books x3

Cost: Free

Skip: 7

Rewards

25 , 750

Aww... So THAT'S why Snowfall ended up such a stick-in-the-mud! It's kinda sad, really...

Part 3: Pinkie Pie

Pinkie Pie: OKAY! So that was Snowfall's PAST, right? BUT THEN... A whole NEW Spirit showed up to show her even MORE stuff! The Spirit of Hearth's Warming Presents!

Pinkie Pie: That's "Presents" like "awesome and amazing gifts from your pal Pinkie Pie," not "Present" like "right now." That would be a REALLY boring thing to be the spirit of!

Twilight Sparkle: Pinkie... Are you actually READING the story, or just making things up?

Pinkie Pie: BOTH!!!

Present Party

ANYWAY! The Spirit took Snowfall on a LONG AND MAGICAL JOURNEY to ALMOST RIGHT WHERE SHE STARTED, at a sweet party that she'd decided not to go to earlier! And it was SUCH a good party. Don't get me STARTED on how many desserts there were!

Spirit of Hearth's Warming Presents

Required Quest: Dreams Dashed

Required Level: 15

Travel to Ponyville x1: Cost: Free; Skip: Unskippable
Produce Cherry Pies x5

Cost: Free; Skip: 5
Produce Carrot Cakes x5

Cost: Free

Skip: 15

Rewards

40 , 750

You know, I wasn't sold on it earlier, but Pinkie's actually a really good narrator! I mean, at least she's excited about it, right?

Finding the Fun

So, as Snowfall checked out this AMAZING PARTY (while being invisible due to SPIRIT MAGIC, by the way), she saw all the FLOWERS and BALLOONS and MOVIES PLAYING and started to think "Hey, maybe Hearth's Warming is actually kinda great!"

Spirit of Hearth's Warming Presents

Required Quest: Present Party

Required Level: 15

Produce Movie Passes x15: Cost: Free; Skip: 10
Send Pinkie Pie to gaze at balloons x3

Cost: Free; Skip: 12
Produce Dandelions x10

Cost: Free

Skip: 20

Rewards

75 , 2,000

So, I,m not a historian... But I'm NOT sure that there were actually movies back when this story was written.

Part 4: Rarity

Rarity: Ahem... "And it was a good thing she realized that... because the worst was still to come.

Hearthless

"The Spirit of Hearth's Warming Future showed Snowfall a grim fate indeed... What would become of her world if she wiped the holiday from existence. It was a future filled with monsters -- and unrelenting ice and snow!"

Merry

Required Quest: Finding the Fun

Required Level: 15

Get a Sea Serpent Statue x3: Cost: 9; Skip: 5
Get a Slingtail Statue x3

Cost: 9; Skip: 5
Get a Hydra Statue x3

Cost: 9

Skip: 5

Rewards

125 , 4,000

GAHH! ... Oh, wait -- they're just ice sculptures! Wow... I got so caught up in the story that I thought they were the real thing!

Note: At 9 Gems per statue, it's cheaper to choose 'skip' on each of the statues rather than buying the required number of each type.

Happily Ever After

"Back in the present -- and full of regret for what she had planned to do -- Snowfall left her spell components behind, bought present for all the ponies she had wronged, and joined them for a Hearth's Warming Eve full of laughter and song."

Merry

Required Quest: Hearthless

Required Level: 15

Assign Braeburn to a shop x1: Cost: Free; Skip: 3
Produce Fancy Hats x10

Cost: Free; Skip: 20
Assign Snips to a shop x1

Cost: Free

Skip: 3

Rewards

50 , 1,000

Aww... I just love a happy ending, don't you?

Twilight Sparkle: "And from then on, it was always said of all the Hearth's Warming Eve celebrations, Snowfall's was the Hearth's Warmingest."

Twilight Sparkle: That's it! Thank you so much for listening. And as a reward for being a great audience, I have a Hearth's Warming present for YOU!

Twilight Sparkle: One of our pageant actors has volunteered to re-enact stories from the time "A Hearth's Warming Tale" was written... whenever you'd like him to!

Twilight Sparkle: (He's even got his own period costume! I LOVE a good deerstalker cap...)

The End

Reward: Detective Pony