"I want to live again! I want to live again!" The stallion nickered, clasping his hooves together tightly as he leaned them on the guardrail of the snow-encrusted bridge. His clasped hooves trembled as he begged the mercy of the gods who had answered his foolish cry just hours before to undo his terrible mistake. With the last of his will seemingly spent, the horse's head sagged into his hooves."I want to live again...please gods, let me live again..." The horse began to quietly sob to himself.

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*crunch* The sudden jarring sound drew the drowsy wolf from his partial slumber. Vernon craned his head up with a start, giving it a brisk shake as he turned his attention to the TV. "It's a Wonderful Life" was still playing along on the screen, George Nieghly's pleading to return to his former life now coming to a close as the snow began to fall softly on his crumpled form. It was clear the film Vernon had fallen asleep half-listening to hadn't been the source of the sudden, jarring sound.

*crunch* Came another loud, obnoxious chomp to Vernon's right. Now fully awake, the sound had proven easy to track, and soon Vernon found his bleary eyes now fixated on Val. The vixen was seated across from the slumbering couple, sprawled out on large sofa and making herself quite comfortable as she loudly chewed away at the cookies Vernon had left out for Santa Claws.

"VAL!" Vernon barked, his brow furrowing as he glared at the oblivious vixen. The fox let out a yawn, tilting her head back in a half-hearted attempt to make eye-contact with the annoyed wolf with the least amount of effort. The vixen smirked slightly as she eyed the wolf from an upside-down angle.

"What?" Val asked, seemingly genuinely curious as to the reason for Vernon's irritated tone.

"W-What!?" Vernon snorted, the wolf was having a hard time finding his words as he struggled to process why Val was sitting in his apartment on Yule’s Eve of all nights. "What are you doing here!?"

Val scooped another cookie into her paw from the nearby plate, chomping down loudly on the snack in an obnoxious manner as she turned her attention back to the television.

"I 'unno..." Val mumbled through her crumb filled maw. " 'Uss felt like it..."

Vernon ran a paw through the fur on his scalp, his piercing and irritated glare remaining fixed on the lazy vixen still sprawled on his couch.

"I mean..." Vernon said, the wolf lowering his voice in an effort to keep his cool. Val’s usual shtick was already wearing thin, and it was taking all the strength he had to keep from shouting. But despite his efforts, his response was terse, his words emphasized sharply with ire despite the lower octave.

"How did you get in?" The wolf demanded an answer.



Val smirked. "You gave Gus a key remember?” The vixen replied matter-of-factly.

"I gave GUS a key!" Vernon reiterated Val’s careless explanation. "Not you!"

"What's happening?" Came a quiet, sleepy sounding mumble from somewhere closer to the wolf. Vernon glanced back toward his lap to find Dawn had begun to stir, the tiny ewe rubbing her eyes in an effort to chase away the lingering sleep. "Vernon?"

"Sorry Honey Lamb, I didn't mean to wake ya'll up." Vernon replied, giving the ewe's head poof a soft tussle before turning his attention back to Val. "We just got an uninvited guest is all."

"I copied Gus' key when he had me take his key-ring down to the hardware store to make back-up copies for the store." Val shrugged. "I figured it'd be handy to make myself a copy."

Vernon pinched the bridge of his muzzle, letting out an annoyed sigh.

"Is that Val?" The question came from Dawn, followed by a long and tired sounding yawn. The ewe had now pushed herself off the wolf slightly, propping herself up on her elbow as she turned her attention toward the vixen.

"Right, so ya'll stole a copy of Gus's key so you could...what...steal our food?" Vernon asked.

The vixen rolled her eyes. "Well if you're just going to leave out free food, why can't I have any?"

"Those were fer Santa Claws!" Vernon snapped back. The wolf’s lips curled around his bared teeth as he stared daggers at the clearly unimpressed vixen. Val chuckled, a wide and mischievous grin crawling across her muzzle as she cocked her head in Vernon's direction.

"You still believe in Santa Claws?" Val asked, quirking an eyebrow. "Really?"

Vernon went mute, his features dropping almost immediately from ire into something more akin to embarrassment and fear. Vernon’s eyes had opened wide, and his iris’ darted from side to side as he attempted to look anywhere but in Val's direction.

"N-No!" Vernon snapped back, his voice shaking with uncertainty despite his attempt to remain firm. The wolf knew Santa Claws was fake, at least the adult in him reaffirmed so. However, there was always that lingering Pup in him that seemingly refused to accept such a notion. The Pup that was certain magic existed and there for everything was possible even if you couldn’t explain or prove it. And somehow, Val’s remark had managed to drag that Puppy up to the surface long enough to make Vernon feel even more a fool than her essentially ‘breaking and entering’ to scroundge for food had.

"Oh Puppy, don't listen to her." The ewe tutted, gently patting his chest reassuringly before resuming her previous snuggly position balled up against his chest. The ewe let out a pleasant sigh. "Santa Cloves is real, she's just mad because she probably only ever got coal."

Vernon knew there was no Santa Claws, he kept repeating it to himself in his mind again and again. But despite that, the ewe’s words were...oddly reassuring.

--------------------------------------Closing out the year with a Christmas farewell before I go into hibernation till like Mid-January. Yep, closin' the blog and pretty much everything else outside of the Patreon/Streams and writing for the year in order to enjoy the holiday. I hope you all have a great Holiday, see you in 2018!Story blurb was written in haste...one shot...so it ain't up to my full quality credentials. But eh, it's non-canon as it is...probably...maybe.