The giving tree (Social, beginner friendly)

In the midst of the Canterlot park stands a mighty tree, regal in all its splendour. On each and every branch, on each and every twig are decorative ornaments to be found. Where snow dosn´t touch it does the colours of gold and ruby and sapphire, the shine of the tree matching that of Lunas night sky.

At the trunk of the tree stands hills and valleys, ravines and canyons would it almost seem for the foals and fillies, of presents stacked up around it. Encircling the tall tree, just outside the court of presents and still under the roof of the graceful pine, stands a wide circle of tables booming with foods, plenty enchanted horns of plenty feeding the merry ponies that went too and fro, laughed and joked, frolicked and was all merry as the foals they once was.

Each and all came walking trough the evenings light snow shower, all bearing smiles on their lips from the yearly show they just had seen to its end, with gifts on their back to lay at the trees trunk, some with gifts born from labour, others with gifts directly from the heart, the heart warming plentifulness banishing any greed away that there once could have been found.

Only for one night would the ponyfolk gather like this, only once would smiles and laughter and the hearts harmony be seen and heard so loud, only once an year would it be Hearts Warming Eve.

(A Yuletide greeting from your all Viking Doom,this time being on time!

The idea with this thread is rather simple, have some Christmasy fun and give each other gifts, as the introduction hints at does not all gifts have to be packed in with a bow and paper, so be creative and see how you all can make each other smile Very Happy Its public as the title say, so come one come all! Get right to the fun without any sign up or spots to think on!

As a new thing will this being beginner friendly, so all posts lengths and qualities will be allowed and not complained over, constructive criticism will be offered if needed thou! Being a social thread are all welcome to join up whenever they want.)

" I love the holidays, chill in the air, hot coco,  pretty snow, And boat load of orders, follow by a boat load of money. cha ching" Sickle talking to herself while browsing the desserts.
"A bowl of lollipops, lame." Sickle declared before garbing the bowl and tossing it high in the air. 
Blowing a small pile of snow on the table, and with her magic turn the snow into a small ice pine tree. Which she then magic garbed the falling lolis  and started to stick them into the ice tree.  "Ice tree lollipop holder. I so need to trademark this."
( for the season, Sickle's mane in red and green.)

Orange Glow peruses the beverage table, slightly in awe at the sheer variety of drinks available. He telekinetically grabs a small cup of wassail, which joins the half-dozen or so drinks already floating around his head. Unfortunately, he nearly drops them all when an empty bowl lands in a snowdrift next to him. He looks around in confusion, but nopony takes credit for the airborne dish.

Shrugging, he puts the bowl on the table, filling it with ice and bottles of cider. "I'm sure somepony would like a cold drink. Despite all the snow and ice around..."

Seeing that the orange pony were a mean meany that took so many drinks and didn't shared it at all snug Umbra after him until he was distracted by the thrown bowl, her tongue sticking out of her mouth as she with her dark magical aura began to levitate the liquids out of a few cups and over to her. Mister Voice had allowed her to get one cup of cocoa this evening, but since she wasn't drinking out of a cup did this clearly not count, her ending up with a mix of sodas, alcohol free haynog and cocoa in one slowly mixing levitating ball in front of her, the little filly sipping from her drink with a straw from her hiding place between two big presents.

Proud of himself for helping to set up, Orange steps away from the drink table to go look at desserts. He takes a sip of wassail, which drains the small cup. He pauses at that, certain he had filled the cup fuller than just one sip. "I... must have spilled some..." He looks around, but doesn't see any spilled liquid on the ground. "Or maybe not..."

Slightly unnerved, he continues to the dessert table, letting the delicious smells take his mind off of missing beverages. He eagerly fills a small plate with a variety of cookies, but doesn't take anything with chocolate in it. He spots the lollipops, which he finds unusual, but can't help but notice how they're displayed. "Oh, a little ice tree! That's cute, I wonder who thought of that? ...might start to melt, though. I'll just put something underneath that."

With everything else he has in his grip, he finds it a little difficult to balance everything, so he sets his plate of cookies down on top of a large present. Surely nothing could happen to it there, right? His various cups of drinks go on another present nearby, and he completely misses the little filly hiding between the boxes.

He finds a spare silver platter, setting it on the table and putting the icy lollipop holder on top of it. He allows himself a small smile, proud of his work. "It's pretty, but probably not very practical to put candy on ice."

"That Ice tree be my doing." Sickle claimed while approaching the orange stallion, With a lollipop in her mouth.
"Name's Dream Sickle. I'm an ice artist and I have a blizzard in my lungs and I'm not joking. Nice to meet you." Sickle introduce herself offering a hoof to shake.

Seeing as she had found the bestest best hiding place peeks Umbra up from the two presents, her borrowing one of the cookies from the plate placed on her hiding place and pulled herself back into hiding. With her mouth open were she ready to do her best trick yet, even if Mister Voice kept saying that she shouldn't do it to her, Umbra flipping the cookie high up in the air, sending it through the floating ball of Hearts Warming Eve drinks and after it had reached the top of its curve, right down towards her open and waiting mouth. Or so she had hoped, the wet cookie hitting her spot on the horn, it splitting intro sticky crumbs there littered all over her face, the bubble of borrowed drinks splashing to the ground as she no longer could keep her focus up. "Ahhhh! Sticky sticky! Go away!" Whines the little filly, her forehoofs flailing around as she tried to flee from the stickiness, her tipping her hiding place over and ended up running in small circles on her hind legs.

Orange jumps a little when Dream approaches him, but regains his composure. "Well, it's a lovely tree, Miss Sickle. I'm Orange Glow, and I just keep things neat and tidy. Nice to meet you, as well."

"Ahhhh! Sticky sticky! Go away!" The loud shout and disturbance of presents gets the attention of everypony nearby. But Orange lives in Ponyville, so he's used to things like this happening (though not this specifically, of course). Luckily, he rarely goes anywhere without being prepared.

His horn glows as he turns his head toward his saddlebags, currently stashed away near the entry, and he grabs a towel from inside them. He steps forward, putting himself in the frantic filly's path. "Here, let me help you with that!" He presents the towel, inwardly wondering how such a small child could make so much noise.

Getting touched by a stranger with danger or to keep being sticky, that was a question of a lifetome for the filly, her stooping in her running around and sat herself down to think properly over it, while still muttering "Icky sticky," to herself and just making it much worse by smearing the mix of drinks all over her face with her hoofs.

Getting to the conclusion that he used a towel and therefore wasn't technically touching her did ahe accept his offer of help, her hoofs stuck helplessly towards him to get those dried first.

Now as she actually were still and out in the open could the others get a proper look at her, the unicorn filly being drapped in different rags in various stages of dirtyness, blue stripes running over her hide, from horn tip to hoof. That she were so ill dressed for weather were properly the reason for her skin being cold as he dried her with the towel, although for some odd reason seemed she almost colder than all of the snow there were surounding them.

"Cold day Mother," a near-adult filly commented as she walked through the grounds around the tree with a distinctly taller and more slender mare following along beside and slightly behind her.
Her mother, her coat more a peridot than her daughter's emerald but with the same snow-white mane, smiles a little with a chuckle and snort. "You haven't seen cold until you've wintered in Trottingham," she says in an accent directly from that pony city. "Bitter, bitter cold encompassed about with ice and snow that's been stained with the soot of presses and forges. The industry, of course, is a thing of breathtaking beauty."
"Yeah!" Her daughter enthuses with a big grin. "Hydraulic presses driven by steam. Mighty coal furnaces heating steam boilers and turning massive gear boxes that compress and shape. Lathes and cutting machines, sawmills and smelters, conveyor belts moving from place to place. The realm of the engineer, of the machinist, the technician, the inventor, the businesspony, and everyone else who knows that they are making the things for the common pony, and he must have it good and cheap. Full integration, mother... what a beautiful thing it'll be when it becomes possible to fully manage the logistical requirements of full integration, interlocking gears of just-in-time production assembled  by the humblest of workers who nonetheless cause the entire thing to work."
Her mother laughs and pats her on the head. "Your studies are going well, I take it?"
"Yes." The emerald-green unicorn smiles happily. "Still working on gathering the data before I begin assembling a thesis, but it's coming along."
"And what will the thesis be?" her mother asks as she stops near the drink table and looks with interest at the small and rather adorable little zebricorn filly currently being towled off by a stallion.
"'Magitech Applications in Near-Future Industrial Integration'," her daughter replies. "Most specifically, I think that your own research, Mother, can be incorporated into a computational numerical controller to allow for mass manufacture of very precisely-machined parts, allowing for a cheaper and more rapid production of the machines that make machines. The issue will be locating a stable magical power source, but I think I have a line on that."
Her daughter peers around her. "Well would ya look at that..." She frowns slightly. "Poor little thing... she must be from one of the workhouses in the garment district."

"And you can't go around in a sticky clothing, Hold on." Sickle began to search her saddle bag.
"Let's see. Jar of evergreen sap for nightingale nope, combat knife for sandy nope. An book on breaking the forth wall, that not it. a cartoon logic of how i could fit so much stuff in a saddle bag. No one cares.(By now half of Sickle's body was in her saddle bag.) " A Ha." Sickle reemerge with two warped boxes (and has a candy cane hanging on her horn.) "My gift for the organizer type. Sickle holding a gift to orange glow. ( The tag had "to pony that like to organize stuff" on it.) "and a gift for the sticky filly." Sickle holding the second gift to the filly. (tag had " spare sweater: filly edition" on it).

Gifts:

Seeing that one of the many many presents were for her clapped the little filly in her hoofs, her making a shrill giggle as she were cleaned. With giddy steps pranced she over Sickle, a brilliant smile smiling on her lips as she laid her hoofs on the present, carefully and almost hesitantly pulling in its bow as to make sure that the present indeed were to her and that she wouldn't be punished or tricked. That was until her ears tensed, and the rest of her body as well, her seemingly talking with someone there wasn't there as she seemed to have her concentration turned elsewhere, her lips moving now and then as to respond to whoever she were speaking with.

With low hanging ears and saddened eyes did she let go of the ribbon and tried to make the bow as pretty as before before giving it back to Sickle. "Mister Voice says that I can't have it because I don't have a gift to give you, and being in debt to strangers is not a good thing he says." The filly trying her best at a little smile before she went over to the nearby table and sat herself down, her pulling a plate over with scraps from someone that had forgotten to clean up after themselves. "And I am not a poor thing or living in a workhouse, I am from the pretty place with the many books."

"Trust me It the season of giving and being nice to others. I had this lying around after an order mix up. I also had clients ask me if i had a filly at home which I don't, I just have white mane. Also if I'm one of those jerks that hold a grad. I'll have so much more bits. Half the time I just charge them an invite to the party. Best way to get to the GGG." Sickle giving the gift back.

Orange takes the box, a little confused and embarrassed to be in the spotlight like this. "Oh, thank you. I didn't expect to get any gifts." He unwraps his present, a box full of notebooks and writing utensils, among other things. "Oh, neat! I can have a lot of fun with these, and I just know my ferret will love the box."

Seeing as the filly is all cleaned and fluffed by the towel, Orange takes his present and his towel. "I'm just gonna put this where I won't lose it." He takes them back to his cart, parked outside. He spots a store, and gets an idea.

Minutes later, he returns bearing two hastily wrapped boxes. "Happy Hearth's Warming, everypony! Thanks for making an out-of-towner feel welcome, Ms. Sickle." He passes her a gift. "And thanks for making this a memorable occasion, kid." He passes the filly the other box.

Spoiler:

"A gift isn't a debt, little one," Viridian tells her as she steps forward from where she and her daughter were standing near, the little filly clearly able to hear her about the workhouse comment. "By its nature, a gift is a kindness freely given and you incur no debt by accepting."
"So who's Mister Voice?" Verde asks. "And why does he sound like he must be a fae or something, a thing that keeps accounts and runs the numbers and keeps very close track of obligations and debts lest he be called upon to repay."
"Regardless, little one, Mister Voice is wrong in this." Viridian smiles and nods towards the gift that Orange has given Umbra. "It comes free of debt, so you need no fear it or fear not having a gift of your own to give."

Seeing another present being brought fourth for her did her eyes once more shine, but her ears were hanging when she slowly and seemingly reluctantly gave that one back as well. "I really don't have anything to give back... and Mister Voice insist... sadly." The last word being said under her breath and with her head turned towards the ground, the filly nomming on yet another piece of food that had been forgotten.

She did seem to get in a bit better mood when Verde and Viridian talked so funny as they did about Mister Voice, her the filly giggling swallowing her last bite before she shock her head in a bit too exaggerated shake. "Mister Voice says that you are wrong, but you are funny. You talk all funny silly, just like Mister Voice do. And Mister Voice is..." here did she put a hoof to her lip as if she were in deep thought, as if she were trying to read and understand a difficult word as she made the movements of the syllables with her mouth. "Mister Voice just is. He is very very clever, but says and does a lot of odd and silly and funny things. Ohh and he is very nice and is my bestest best good friend that takes care of me, I am very happy for him, even if he says hush and gets all odd and red in the cheeks as adults gets at times."

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Since this thread is deader than disco will I close it down. If it will be deleted or moved to another part of the forum is up to the admins.