The Greatest Gift by .
Dreamwidth Shockwave Flash embed #699.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHB3AKw35DY

At long last, here is the fourth and last TYT special in all its 25 minute animatic glory. A comment on YouTube claims that there is still a more finished version in production. Could be true, but a bird in the hand...

The story: It's Christmas Winter Wishday themed. Snow on the Brighthouse, decorations, evidence of consumer economy compliance, and bubblegum Christmas style music. The Unity Six are in the requisite festive mood as they assemble indoors, then a sudden flashback to Alura and her brother celebrating the same holiday when they were kittens. Back to the Unity Six, plus gremlin, frolicking in the snow outdoors. Suddenly they see a very large, very nice tree, so they kill it and drag it to the Brighthouse where they cover its dying corpse with balls and ribbons. In the flashback, the magical kittens go bobsledding because regular sledding isn't metal enough, then they too kill a tree, decorate it, and go to sleep in their ice cave. Christmas music switches to piano lament as sad adult Alura wakes up from her flashback dream. An ornament drops off her Charlie Brown tree and smashes. The hare is snoring. Raspy voice kitty mopes defiantly.

I guess everypony is going to pay a courtesy visit to their living relatives again, like last Winter Wishday, and leave Sunny alone in her Brighthouse, because after they finish decking the dead tree with a star, they go pack. Except Hitch, of course. They kick him and his gremlin out right away. Ewww! Mares only, colt! Shoo! Then the idiots realize that they are all going to spend a whole day apart! Oh drama! (Where is Izzy going to go?) But it's just for one day, no biggy. Unfortunately, as they are falling asleep, the Alicorn Defender of Pony Nutrition makes an unspecified wish. On Winter Wishday Eve. In a magical Brighthouse. With Unity Crystal A.I. watching and listening, always. Dunnn-d-dun-dun!

OK, the wish summons the royal couple to the Brighthouse and they arrive very bright and early the next day. Then ponysonna non grata shows up with his grandma (and the gremlin). Seems everypony got an invitation from Sunny, courtesy of the sneaky Unity Crystals, an invitation to gather at the Boardtrot. And by everypony, make that all of Maretime Bay, and probably the Hippie Woods and Hightech Heights too. Good thing Gen 5 is mysteriously unpopulated with ponies. Sunny thanks the Crystals for granting her wish and it slaps her rump as she dashes out the door.

Snarly puss has filched three shards of the Nova Charm but fails to fit them together. She smashes them to tiny fragments and decides to go back to the Boardtrot to find the rest of the shards. On her way out, dozens of ponies galloping past on their way to the Boardtrot causes a cave-in in the cave she's in. At the Boardtrot, a "joy to Equestria" girlband pop jingle is playing and giddy ponies are giving Snowkitty PTSD flashbacks of her and her brother having a good time.

Nerd Canadian Aurorapony spots Alura and offers her a hot cocoa and Alura goes ballistic because no, she does not feel OK. She throws freeze-rays at everything and tries to get Izzy to tell her where the Nova Charm shards are hidden. But Izzy doesn't know because magic just happens to ponies now in post-apocalyptic Equestria. So Alura ices her.

Sunny grows a pair... of wings. And a horn. Well, virtual ones, but they do the job. She scolds the naughty kitty and lo'! The shards fly forth and assemble! The reconstituted Nova Charm clears away the ice. Snarly tries to grab it but it zips away and nestles up to Sunny. An aerial battle ensues. OP OC Snowkitty wins. Then the rest of the Unity Six shout out their Captain Pasture signature words of power. The rainbow blast combo revives Sunny, but right as she's about to lay down a major spank, she gets a flashback vision of Alura being separated from her brother and now understands that Alura needs the Nova Charm to get back to him. Sunny chants her Captain Pasture mantra and gives the Nova Charm to weepy kitty. Group hug. A remix of Big Brother Best Friend Forever plays while the Wishing Star sails through the sky overhead (it's Twilight Sparkle inside). Everypony makes a wish. ALL the cutie marks glow and their combined might sends up a rainbow beam that bounces off the star and creates a concert venue.

Pipp throws a concert, sings a romantic Christmas song, Posey and Dahlia get shipped, as do Alphabittle/Queen Haven, maybe Hitch with Sunny, and Alura still hasn't left. Izzy goes all Bride of Frankenstein with the mane, floats in the air while reciting her Cpt'n P. Mantra and distributes perfectly aimed wrapped packages. It's magic, I don't have to explain sheet. Alura's package contains a ball of power that fuses with the Nova Charm and opens a portal. Out steps brother snowkitty. They hug, a bolt of magic goes up... Whoops, the wishing star is still in the sky, it gets hit, stops, and falls. Panic! There's a loud explosion and an earthquake as the wishing star crashes into the faraway hills. Closeup on the wreck of the Wishing Star as an alicorn steps out. Fade to black.

The end.

Notes: It was fine. A pony How the Grinch tale plus the probable Return of Twilight Sparkle, with all the usual magical shortcuts, vapid food fixations and rare collaborative efforts.

In this series there really was going to be a slow reveal of how post-apocalyptic Equestria came to be and Twilight was going to pop up out of a starcraft at some point. But Hasbro was bleeding money and saw fit to pivot to a candy and makeup theme aimed at a pre-kindergarten crowd. And here we are. Maybe Hasbro will pay someone to write the complete story in book form one day... and release all 9 seasons of MLP:FiM on Bluray while they're at it. Ha! Notgonnahappen.