Today’s story will bring a touch of warmth to any metaphorical winter.

Three Nights
[Drama] • 18,539 words

Hearth’s Warming Eve is supposed to be a happy event — Cadance knows this, but all she ever feels is lonely. Now, with Shining Armor gone and a freak snowstorm battering her kingdom, it’s up to Cadance to salvage the holiday and teach her crystal ponies to care for one another.

A story about finding your family, on the coldest night of the year.

FROM THE CURATORS: When Chris first reviewed this story several years ago, he wrote, “I was planning to suggest to the other Royal Canterlot Library guys that we feature it … but when I went to write up the proposal, I realized the story was written by Bradel, who’s part of the RCL, and ineligible for featuring.”

But now, after three years “in harness” as it were, Bradel is stepping down from his post as a curator around here. We’re sad to see him go, of course, but it does mean we can feature what Soge called “a Hearths’ Warming story, but it’s also so much more.”

“It not only paints a terrific picture of Cadance on three distinctly important days in her life,” AugieDog said, “but it also gives us a nicely realized glimpse of Twilight as a filly and a wonderful picture of the Crystal Empire still emerging from the nightmare of Sombra.” “Emotional without piling on dramatic excesses” was how Chris put it, with Soge calling it “timeless” and adding “I loved every second of it.” Present Perfect noted how the story is “about Cadence suddenly being thrust into things and having to grapple with not quite fitting in: a family, a horn, a kingdom” and ended by saying it was “the kind of emotional Cadence story I enjoy reading.”

Read on for our author interview, in which Bradel discusses recorded carols, DISEMBARKING PONIES, and IRL Mary Sues.
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