The Heart Carol

The Heart Carol, or A Circle of Friends,[4][5] is a song featured in the season two episode Hearth's Warming Eve and in Enterplay's collectible card game. In the episode, it is sung at the end of the play by a choir consisting of the seven main characters and an audience of ponies including the Cutie Mark Crusaders. In the CCG, it is sung by Lyra Heartstrings, Golden Harvest, Dr. Hooves, Octavia Melody, and Sweetie Drops on their respective Defenders of Equestria cards #7 C, #20 C, #34 C, #44 C, and #48 C.[6] The show version is the first song where Spike sings, though his singing voice is not heard clearly until The Failure Song in the first part of the season three premiere. Both versions' singers include Dr. Hooves. Shortly after the episode aired, Daniel Ingram posted the lyrics on his Facebook wall under the title "A Circle of Friends." There were numerous differences to the song that actually aired, and Ingram posted a second, amended version soon thereafter. The only differences to the version transcribed below are: "Fire of Friendship" is capitalized, and the final line is rendered as "A circle of friends we'll be 'til the very end." An extended version of the song serves as the tenth track on the holiday album It's a Pony Kind of Christmas, making it the only track from the show to appear on the 2015 edition of the album. According to a Rolling Stone article, "Ingram considered [The Heart Carol] to be a 'real brony anthem' when he wrote it."[7]