A Winter Wishday Carol - Writer's Commentary

Happy New Year to everyone out there! In celebration of 2026, I thought I might do a commentary on my My Little Pony fanfic A Winter Wishday Carol. In contrast to my other Christmas fanfics that I have uploaded to DeviantArt, Tumblr and Archive Of Our Own, this one is several chapters long rather than being a one-shot.

My Little Pony has done a retelling of A Christmas Carol before, but that was where Twilight was talking about a Hearth's Warming story that she loved and the characters from the show were cast into the roles of the characters in the story. Honestly, I feel this was an excuse to have another Starlight Glimmer-centric episode considering the obscene amount of screen-time she was getting already since her redemption. Overall, a decent-enough episode with good songs, and I love how Pinkie Pie is the Ghost of Hearth's Warming Present and Luna is the Ghost of Hearth's Warming Yet to Come, but I'm still confused as to why Applejack was the Ghost of Hearth's Warming Past rather than Fluttershy and I'm still heavily disappointed that they didn't go ahead with the idea of having Discord in the Jacob Marley role. That would have been an entertaining sight.

It however got me thinking. What if the holiday was changed from G4's Hearth's Warming to G5's Winter Wishday? And what if the elderly Discord, as he is depicted in the G5 comics, was in the Scrooge role this time round? I'm sure I'm not the only one who had this thought, but who knows? I initially thought about it being like the Hearth's Warming one with characters placed in the roles of characters in a Winter Wishday story, but I ultimately decided it would be much more interesting if the characters were just themselves. Then I could properly focus on Discord's grief over losing Fluttershy and explore how his adventures with her spirit help him to have an epiphany about how she would truly want him to honour her around winter time.

Like with some of my other Christmas fanfics over the years, this one was pretty much of a spur-of-the-moment idea that I then wanted to get out as soon as possible. As a result, it may be a bit rushed in some areas when discussing Winter Wishday due to this being recent research on my part (more on that later), and I am also concerned as to whether I pulled some plot points out of my arse in the process, such as with the revelation of Discord's immature attitude towards Winter Wishday having different names. This being from someone who did not like RWBY's "seat of the pants" style of writing that really keeps holding it back in quality - boy what a hypocrite I am. Next time, I'll make sure not to make this same mistake and start working on my ideas MUCH earlier. The same advice goes for other budding writers out there. XD

Despite these problems though and the stress I sometimes felt when trying to get it done, I'm actually really happy with how this turned out. Around the time of New Year's Eve, I looked back at it again and I was able to appreciate what I had written and not cringe at it. It also made me feel more comfortable about writing more prose fanfics in the future. The original plan for it was for it to be a fan comic, but my motor dyspraxia means that my drawing skills are not necessarily top-notch and that it would be genuinely strenuous for my hand if I tried to draw the images in time. That said, I do fancy the idea of adapting it into web comic form in the future, as well as drawing some pictures linked with it.

Chapter 1

Beginning this chapter was an absolute nightmare. Initially, I was going to start with Izzy making her way through the blizzard up to the caves and have to brace herself from the snow, but my mind kept going blank when I was trying to find ways to write it down. Once I changed it to start from Discord's perspective however, I was able to actually write something down.

Looking up the Winter Wishday special, I discovered it completely contrasted with my vision of them having a snowy winter with the revelation that they haven't had snow for years (makes sense when you consider that the ponies were responsible for controlling the weather back in G4) and they ultimately want to make sure that there are no blizzards. In this fanfic, the unicorns have decided to make it snow again with the "Frostieshivers" phrase, but are being more careful this time round so that it doesn't cause the same problems that it did last time. That said, there are still some unicorns who go a bit overboard with it, thus the blizzard at the beginning of this story.

It's been some time since I read the whole of the Discord arc, so I don't recall Discord's squirrel companion having a name, unlike Reginald Fursome the possum. To match Reginald, I decided to name them Hazel Nutkin. Hazel is a type of nut and though often associated with female characters, can also be used for male characters if Hazel from Watership Down is any indication. Meanwhile, Nutkin is a reference to Beatrix Potter's Squirrel Nutkin, who starred in possibly one of her most disturbing stories of all time (the ballet version of the most infamous scene here is somehow even more terrifying).

Chapter 2

For this fanfic, I had Fluttershy take on the role of all four ghosts from the original Dickens story. I had thought about there being separate ghosts, with the Ghost of Winter Wishday Present being Discord from the G4 period, only for him to gradually turn into his G5 self (a reference to the original ghost aging up), and the Ghost of Winter Wishday Yet To Come turning out to be Fluttershy setting the whole thing up to help Discord move on from his grief. However, I decided it would be better to simply stick with Fluttershy, especially since it meant that she and Discord could have more moments together. Also, the original idea risked Fluttershy coming across as manipulative, which would be completely out of character for her (even if she has tried to use the Stare and reverse psychology on Discord to no avail before).

Chapter 3

I would just like to say that I am a HARDCORE Fluttercord shipper - it's one of the few ships I actually go rabid over, and I'm still gutted that they didn't show them kissing in the final episode of Friendship is Magic like they originally planned. The G5 comics only serve to cement the idea of Discord and Fluttershy being a romantic couple, especially with that gorgeous panel of Fluttershy as a ghost butterfly resting on Discord's broken goat horn while he has the most peaceful facial expression ever. So of course I'm confident that they got married at some point.

I have a few headcanons about Discord and Fluttershy's marriage that I brought up in the chapter. My first headcanon is that they both proposed to one another at the same time - I think it's cute and pretty funny, especially if they were to get ridiculously excited and accept the proposals at exactly the same time. My second headcanon is that they probably didn't have children and the animals that they looked after were essentially like children to them, thus why I don't mention any potential children of theirs and I have the animals help them decorate the tree.

Discord's last line in the chapter after Fluttershy's death is a reference to the infamous "Who will I be able to have ice cream with?" line from Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. As absurd as that line is out of context, it becomes surprisingly sad in-context and I think that Jesse McCartney delivers the line pretty well as Roxas. You can really sense the agitation in his voice during that moment.

Chapter 4

This is what I would technically call a "breather" chapter due to it being a break between the past and the present, but given what happens in it with all the tears and confessions from Discord, maybe "breather" is a little too much of a stretch.

The reason for Discord growing his hair long is my headcanon for his character, though I'm sure that some other fans might have the same theory. I just like the idea that he wanted to honour Fluttershy in every possible way he could, and one of the ways he did this was by growing his hair long like hers and not cutting it. What really makes me stand by this theory is that after Discord's mental recovery at the end of Issue 10 of the G5 comics, he has his hair and goatee neatly tied up, but he still keeps his hair long. I would have assumed that he would have cut it in any other situation, but if he still wanted to honour Fluttershy, he would decided against this. Besides, I really like his long hair anyway and I'm glad that he's decided to keep it despite gaining back his previous happiness.

Chapter 5

This actually turned out to be the most difficult chapter to write in my opinion. I'm definitely more of a fan of the G5 comics than the animated instalments (the Discord arc is pretty much the peak of Generation 5 in my opinion), so it was only recently I looked up the Winter Wishday special they did so I could have information on how it gets celebrated. Unfortunately, when you're someone who chooses not to use streaming sites like Netflix due to money concerns (don't worry, I'm not poor, but I'm working at a part-time job rather than a full-time one), and your main sources of references are a wiki page that doesn't provide many screenshots and the Derpibooru "Winter Wishday" tag, it's going to be a more ridiculously difficult task than it should be. Another reason to do your Christmas fanfic planning BEFORE the Christmas season actually starts. XP

Discord travelling the world is another headcanon of mine. The last time we have seen him in the G5 era so far (not counting any flashbacks that were shown) was when he was having fun playing Power Pass with the new heroes, and that was back in 2023 at the end of the Discord arc. I like to think that the reason that we haven't seen him for some time is because he decided to travel around Equestria and the rest of the world as a way of relaxing after his grieving period. It could be that either the heroes liked the idea of him joining them or he wanted to join the heroes, but they decided via mutual agreement that Discord's mental welfare came first and that he deserved a break after everything that he went through.

The dance scene was my favourite moment to write in this chapter. I likely had the line "dancing in stilettos in the snow" from Marillion's "Kayleigh" subconsciously on my mind at the time, which is why I wanted to have a scene where Discord and Fluttershy dance in the snow. Additionally, given that Discord wears a Victorian-style nightgown throughout this fanfic, I liked the idea of switching round the usual curtsey and bow formula so that Discord does the curtsey with his nightgown and Fluttershy does the bow.

Chapter 6

A major influence on this fanfic wasn't necessarily A Christmas Carol itself, but the poem Mrs. Scrooge by Carol Ann Duffy. It is one of my favourite retellings of the classic and the illustrations by Posy Simmonds are just wonderful. My favourite moment in it is when the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come shows Mrs. Scrooge her future, and it's pretty much the only time I've seen a good future being shown in one of these retellings rather than a bad one. Instead of scaring her into changing her ways, it's basically gentle encouragement. You can read the poem here.

This is ultimately why I had Fluttershy show Discord a good future where he decides to have fun with his new friends on Winter Wishday and they have a great time together. Essentially, this fanfic would not have existed if it wasn't for that thought. Plus, it would be completely out-of-character and shockingly mean-spirited for Fluttershy to show Discord a bad future instead, especially since his reasons for initially disliking Winter Wishday are due to his grief over losing Fluttershy and Equestria falling into disharmony.

I pretty much reused Scrooge's quote about honouring Christmas for Discord here, albeit changing it to be about Winter Wishday instead. Of course, unlike Scrooge who is panicking over his potential doom and says the line out of desperation, here Discord has accepted Fluttershy's lesson and is saying it out of gratitude towards her.

I made two Sanrio mascot references in this chapter. The first one may be slightly more obvious, being a reference to the bunny My Melody. Like Fluttershy, she's rather shy but ultimately a kind-hearted soul who loves to help others out, and she has a fascinating relationship with the abrasive punk Kuromi (I sometimes like to see Discord as the Kuromi to Fluttershy's My Melody). The "cinnamon roll" one may be more obscure, being a subtle reference to the long-eared puppy Cinnamoroll. Like Fluttershy and My Melody, he's also pretty shy, but extremely sweet-natured and willing to make friends with others.

And yep, I had to go and make a Toy Story reference with the line "I love you to infinity and beyond". Fun fact, I actually use this phrase in a platonic manner when around my family sometimes. Obviously the way it gets used in this fanfic is in a more romantic context. Sure, it's a little bit goofy, but I think that Discord would actually say something a little goofy like this. It's just how he genuinely feels about his love for Fluttershy.

Chapter 7

The songs that Discord makes reference to are parodies of real life songs. All of them are songs and artists that I'm a big fan of and I have the feeling that Discord may like as well. :)

• "Starmare" is a reference to "Starman" by David Bowie.
• "West End Mares" is a reference to "West End Girls" by Pet Shop Boys.
• "Equestrian Grass" is a reference to "Californian Grass" by New Order. [Arguably the most obscure reference despite New Order's mass fame - it was a more recent song of theirs.]
• "Pinkie Pie Pony Club" is a reference to "Pink Pony Club" by Chappell Roan.
• "Pony Gangsta" is a reference to "Paper Gangsta" by Lady Gaga.
• "A Winter's Tail" is a reference to "A Winter's Tale" by David Essex.
• "Every Day's Like Hearth's Warming" is a reference to "Every Day's Like Christmas" by Kylie Minogue. [Fun Fact: Her newest Christmas single "Xmas" reached #1 in the UK Christmas charts last year! :D]

I was originally going to have a part where Discord suggests that when spring arrives, the group joins him on holiday (or vacation if you're American) to Yokaito, a Japanese-inspired island populated by yokai. I ultimately left this bit out as it wasn't adding much to the chapter and it was just dragging it out, but I plan to use it somewhere else.

So that's pretty much everything I have to say about the fanfic. It's pretty much the longest Christmas fanfic I've written, given the fact that the last chapter-based fanfic I wrote, Christmas At Wiz's, was three chapters long.

And now here's where I make a recommendation for another fanfic based on A Christmas Carol. Brawl in the Family (famous for the "Waluigi time!" meme) is one of my favourite web comics of all time and they did a brilliant version of Dickens' classic called A Mushroom Kingdom Carol. Mario is cast in the Scrooge role, but they make it work with a really tragic backstory as to how he became a miserly curmudgeon in his elderly years and ultimately how he redeems himself. Plus, Wario is one of the most hilarious Jacob Marleys of all time.

I could recommend all sorts of other retellings of the same story, but I'll save that for another time. Either way, I hope you all enjoyed the fanfic as much as I did - it may have been exhausting for me to work on, but I feel that the end result was worth it! :D