Hearth's Warming Eve

Hearth's Warming Eve is the eleventh episode of the second season of Legends of the Multiverse: Friendship is Universe and the thirty-seventh episode overall. In this episode, the Group Six, Navi, and Olaf put on a play in Canterlot about the founding of Multitopia.

Episode number
The episode initially showed up as number thirteen on Zap2it and the iTunes library. One of the show's layout artists suggested in an online forum that the episode might have been number thirteen in the season's production order, which would account for it being listed as the thirteenth episode in Zap2it's TV guide.

In other media
The plot of the Hearth's Warming Eve play partly overlaps with the story in the iOS storybook application Legends of the Multiverse: Kairi Sparkle, Teacher for a Day. The storybook application came out three months before the episode. The episode was #9 in the We Heart Animals Fan Favorite Mar-a-thon, in the lead up to Hearts and Paws Day.

Re-use
The scene before the play starts when Spectra reveals her stage fright reappears in Memnagerie.

Visit to Canterlot
The episode starts with a shot of a snowy Multiville and the six friends on a train on their way to Canterlot. Once they arrive, Kairi Sparkle expresses her delight at Canterlot at this time of year, with Sally Acorn agreeing and wishing that it could be Hearth's Warming Eve every day. Alicia Acorn makes a cameo appearance, during a game of "I Spy".

"All across Multitopia, animals are preparing their own pageants for Hearth's Warming Eve in their own towns. It's tradition."

- Nene explaining the Hearth's Warming Eve pageants to Spectra

Next, the animals are seen backstage preparing for the play that Princess Palutena asked them to perform. Spectra Vondergeist suffers from stage fright, which is not helped when Nene Amano tells her that hundreds, maybe thousands of animals will be watching. Sally, in contrast, thinks that the show should be all about her, since she's the star. Meanwhile, a window is open causing a cold wind to blow through backstage. Nene asks Sheriff Mulan to close the window, but Mulan chides Sally about the true meaning of the play. Eventually, Olaf and Navi are comes to inform the animals that curtain is in two minutes, while the argument over who should close the window continues.

The Hearth's Warming Eve Pageant
The episode features a play put up by the ponies in Canterlot for Hearth's Warming Eve. The cast and crew are as follows:


 * Olaf and Nene as the narrator of the play.
 * Rapunzel as Chancellor Puddinghead, leader of the Earth pony tribe.
 * Sheriff Mulan as Smart Cookie, Chancellor Puddinghead's secretary.
 * Nene Amano as Princess Platinum, the daughter of the Unicorn King who acts as his representative and by extension the leader of the unicorn pony tribe.
 * Kairi Sparkle as Clover the Clever, adviser to Princess Platinum. The character shares his name with Clever Clover, which is a G2 male Earth pony.
 * Sally Acorn as Commander Hurricane, leader of the Pegasus pony tribe.
 * Spectra Vondergeist as Private Pansy, subordinate of Commander Hurricane.
 * "Amanda Johnson", "Charlie Magne", Dr. Nick, "Draco Malfoy", "Frankie Pamplemousse", Lucky Prescott, "Sam Simpson", and "Scooter" as unspecified members of the Earth pony tribe.
 * Honey Lemon, Lily Miku, Lyna, Mirabelle Haywood, Serena, unicorn Shannon Carter, "Weeby Duck", S02E11 Unnamed Walrus, S02E11 Unnamed Husky, and S02E11 Unnamed German Shepherd as unspecified members of the unicorn pony tribe.
 * Buddy, Cloud Strife, Connor Cat, Mandy, Lila Sawyer, Ralph Wiggum, Cass Raegen, two gray-coated Dogs royal guards, "Silas Karlisle", Stella Solaria, Steven Universe, Susie, Pegasus Twilight Sky, S02E11 Unnamed Pegasus Mare #1, and "Muffy Crosswire" as unspecified members of the Pegasus pony tribe.
 * Harley Quinn, Cherry Jam, Carol Ferris, Candy Chiu, Gabriella Montez, Sasha, and "Susan Murphy" are present backstage but do not appear onstage.

Act one
"It was a strange and dark time. A time when ponies were torn apart... by hatred!"

- Spike, providing the introduction of the play

The ponies are then called on stage, and the play begins. The play is about the history of ponykind and how Multitopia was founded. Spike narrates, providing an introduction. He explains that the Earth ponies grew food, and in payment for providing weather, the Pegasi demanded some of the food. The Unicorns also demanded payment for magically raising the sun and moon. None of the tribes cared what happened to each other. This fragile relationship continues until a large blizzard comes along causing a food shortage.

Without any food, the leaders of each pony tribe meet up to discuss what to do. The meeting however goes poorly, as each of the leaders continues to argue with each other. After the assembly, three ghostly horses are shown overlooking the Earth below from a passage in the clouds; they are later identified as windigos. Each of the leaders returns to their second-in-command and explains that the meeting went poorly because the other leaders refused to cooperate. Smart Cookie then tells Chancellor Puddinghead that they are out of food, and Chancellor Puddinghead exclaims "I am just about to be brilliant!" She decides that they need to grow food somewhere else, and each leader comes to the conclusion that they must find new land to inhabit.

Act two
"We must find a new land!"

- Rapunzel (as Chancellor Puddinghead), Sally Acorn (as Commander Hurricane) and Nene Amano (as Princess Platinum)

Commander Hurricane and Private Pansy fly through clouds, while Princess Platinum and Clover the Clever travel through a forest, and while Chancellor Puddinghead and Smart Cookie travel across a gem-encrusted mountainside. Each tribe leader finds their ideal land, and claims it for their tribe. Commander Hurricane names her land "Pegasopolis." Princess Platinum naming her land "Unicornia," and Chancellor Puddinghead naming her land "Earth" as a recommendation from Smart Cookie to replace her first choice of "Dirtville."

They soon discover that each tribe has claimed the same land, and of course more arguments ensue about who gets to own the land. Commander Hurricane calls for a fight to the land, but each of the advisers votes for everyone to just calm down. Chancellor Puddinghead throws snowballs at Commander Hurricane and Princess Platinum, causing everyone to realize that the blizzard has once again returned.

Act three
To escape the blizzard, the ponies make their way into a cave. Once in the cave, they continue to argue over who gets what part of the cave. Due to their constant arguing, the windigos once again return, causing an ice blizzard, which freezes each of the leaders solid. Clover the Clever identifies the creatures, saying her mentor Gandalf the Grey taught her about them. The advisers, however, manage to hold good relations to each other, regardless of the different tribes they hail from. They deduce that the leaders' arguing is what caused all of this, and tell stories and sing, the songs of which became the carols that are still sung in Equestria today.

"No matter what our differences, we're all ponies."

- Sheriff Mulan (as Smart Cookie)

With their continued display of friendship, Smart Cookie, Clover the Clever and Private Pansy manage to melt the ice surrounding their leaders and incinerate the windigos through the magic of the Fire of Friendship. In the end, all the tribes learn that the warmth of harmony and love to each other can conquer over the coldness of hatred and grief. After the leaders settle their differences, they all finally live in harmony with each other while founding the new land, Multitopia. The animals raise a banner bearing two Alicorns, which bear a resemblance to Princess Mal and Princess Palutena, depicted flying with the Sun and Moon. At the end of the play, the cast and audience begin to sing a carol.

Epilogue
Once the play is over, backstage, Kairi concludes that the Princess chose them to perform the play because they exemplify what good friends are. They then notice that the window is still open (or open again), and then they all start arguing about who will close the window. However, when they hear a sound that sounds like the distant wail of a windigo, Sally volunteers to close the window, without further argument. The episode ends with a shot of Canterlot with the same magical heart floating above it that broke the blizzard in the cave in the play.

The Fire of Friendship
The Fire of Friendship is a magical heart-shaped pink flame that does away with the windigos and their hate-fueled snowstorm. In the play featured in the episode, the three assistants to the pony tribe leaders manage to fight off the creatures by proclaiming that they don't hate each other after all. Clover the Clever, played by Kairi Sparkle in the play, magically produces a pink floating heart-shaped flame which melts the snow and disperses the windigos. Both Spike, as the narrator of the play, and the carol sung at the end of the performance, refer to a "Fire of Friendship." The term is capitalized in a set of lyrics posted by composer Daniel Ingram to his Facebook page.

Quotes

 * Spectra Vondergeist: I'm so excited, I- I feel like shouting! (softly) Woo hoo!


 * Kairi Sparkle: I have an idea, let's play 'I spy with my little eye' as we walk! I'll go first. I spy... an eight foot candy cane.
 * Sally Acorn: I spy a snowanimal!
 * Rapunzel: I spy somebody eating a gingerbread house!
 * [cash register kaching]
 * Rapunzel: [munching] ...and it's me!


 * Sheeriff Mulan: It's a reenactment of the founding of Multitopia. It's not the Sally Acorn Show.
 * Sally Acorn: Well it should be the Sally Acorn Show! I'm the star!


 * We're not making it snow! It must be the animals! They're doing it with their freaky magic!
 * [gasp] How dare you! Unlike you Pegasi ruffians, we unicorns would never stoop to such a thing! H-m-ph!


 * I beg your pardon? I am a princess! I won't be spoken to that way!


 * Wouldn't it have been easier to use the door, Chancellor?
 * Maybe for you, Smart Cookie. But I am a chancellor. I was elected because I know how to think outside the box. Which means [slightly echoey] I can also think inside the chimney. Can you think inside a chimney?


 * Oh my gosh. Hold on to your paws— I am just about to be brilliant!
 * (mutters) That'd be a first.


 * Oh, this is simply taking forever. My paws are killing me! How long have we been walking for?
 * About five minutes, your highness.


 * I got a newsflash for you, Cookie. The Earth is round. There is no up or down.


 * I can see my future house from here!
 * I proclaim this new land to be...Squirrelopolis!


 * I've never seen such jewels! This ruby is dazzling! This whole land is dazzling! I'm double dazzled! In the name of unicorns, I hereby dub this land Rabbitia!


 * In the name of Earth animals, I think I'm gonna call this place...uh...'Dirtville'!
 * How about 'Earth'?
 * Earth! Congratulations to me for thinking of it.


 * Olaf: [accent] Instead of beautiful, it was blizzardy. Instead of wonderful, it was wintry! Instead of spectacular, it was snow-tacular! Instead of–
 * Shannon Carter: We get it! Move on!


 * Earth animals are numbskulls!
 * Animal are brutes!
 * Animals are snobs!


 * Well, I don't hate you... I actually hate Commander Hurricane a lot more than I hate you guys.
 * and : [giggling]
 * Actually, I don't really hate her, I just really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really dislike her.


 * Windigo: [wail]
 * [pause]
 * Sally Acorn: You know what? I got it.
 * All (minus Sally Acorn): [laughing]