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               The Odds Aren't Small Though!               
               -by Rhythmic Gravity Chance-                
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         Chapter 1: Look before you leap? Eenope.          
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Chapter 1: Look before you leap? Eenope.
The Odds Aren't Small Though!
By Rhythmic Pata-brony
All “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic” characters and cannon settings do NOT belong to me, this is a fan made story.
Only Nelly and any family belongs to me. (Duh!)
Warning: I did not have an editor but the edit tool of Google Drive is quite helpful when fixing things. Also it has only been pre-read once by a friend so expect what you want and learn from my many possible mistakes. So with that in mind, carry on and have a good day folks.
Chapter 1: Look before you leap? Eenope.
Welcome to the winter that blanketed the land of Equestria in pure white and watch the slowly falling snowflakes crafted by nature itself fall to the already blanketed earth of Everfree forest. Why here you may wonder? To find a certain soul. Who would come to such a dangerous place? Only a single earth pony mare who wandered the wild forest with little feeling of contentment and more importantly happiness. We shall call this mare, Nelly. She is an equine born in them magical land of Equestria with a unusual blessing that mirrors as a curse in her life. She is a mare endowed with a body that would rival an Ursa Minor in size but overpower it's mother in sheer earth pony strength. Despite the physical prowess she holds, her view in life is to be nothing less than a good pony to all she meets.
Yet despite her intentions, she has become an object of fear among those who are unable to hear out her attempted offers of friendship. This has unfortunately driven her from towns, to cities, to the royal nobility of Canterlot itself.
To make things much worse, she had been unable to get near the capitals famed castle to ask the regal princesses for help. This was usually because the local royal guards saw her as a monster and they would often chase her away when she attempted to get their attention. Nelly has suffered the pain of rejection and loneliness from her unheard plea but she won’t give up until she truly falls into despair or is simply banished from the land forever. Until then though, she had to keep going on and hope for a better future with a determined fire in her unwavering yet truly lonesome soul. She just hoped that fate would be kind to her endeavor and give her the chance she needs so she may find her happiness.
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Discord the dice if you please... no not those, I meant the glowing blue cubes not polyhedral dice with the body parts. Those are for tonights game with Amaterasu and Loki. I swear, freakin' Sleipnir better not eat Tomegatherion's arms again, that was only funny the first few times...
Right then, let's begin this mess shall we?
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Today was the first day of winter as gentle snowflakes fell over Ponyville for the first time this year with a silent ambient that would inspire the wistful imagination of the old and young alike. The ponies usually had a love for the summer heat and the clear blue sky, yet they still enjoyed their lives in the cold season with all the feelings of wonder and bliss. It was three o'clock in the afternoon as the mostly female residence of the town had taken to the streets to socialize with one another, or to simply shop for various ingredients to make tonights warm dinner. The stallions who had other ideas simply took to drinking with buddies or enjoying a good snooze in front of their fire place, sometimes as a guest at anothers home.
The foals had taken to playing in the snow wrapped in scarves and hats, pelting each other in snow, laughing with enjoyment. Few ponies had taken to doing other things that were a tad more dangerous and potentially harmful to everypony. If you don't know who would do such a thing then take this as a warning that might save your flank one day. Beware the three fillies who call themselves the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
They are a group of three blank flank fillies trying to get their cutie marks by doing anything they possibly can. From simple things like feeding a cat to trying extremely dangerous things involving fire, high altitudes, or dangerous animals with the maximum chance of extreme failure. Many residents had been victims in their often dangerous crusades and chances are you will too eventually.
If you want to avoid the antics of these fillies, here are their names and descriptions. A living dictionary or unicorn by the name of Sweetie Belle with a white coat and two toned grayish mulberry mane. The small winged pegasus tom colt named Scootaloo with an orange coat and purple mane. Next is the bow wearing earth pony farm filly known as Applebloom who sports a red mane and a yellowish coat. They are your cause of worry so do remember their descriptions. You have been warned so take care or else the future might be filled with injury or quite possibly, tree sap. Now that the important things have been explained, let's see what the energetic trio are up to this time...
Together the crusaders were currently working on project that was sure to get them their snow shoveling cutie marks out in the south western part of Sweet Apple Acres. The snow had piled up pretty nicely this year and had buried most of the apple trees, up their branches if you would believe it. This was all due to a mistake made by the local weather teams boss getting knocked out and replaced by a muscle bound pegasus named Snowflake, it went horribly right.
The three fillies had gotten an idea to get rid of the extra snow by sending it to the Everfree using the fastest method possible. Sending it flying by the loads using an altered siege weapon meant to take down castles and armies from afar. If you thought it was ballista you're barely even close to the mark, that counts as artillery. It was something that you used to make it rain boulders upon one's foes. Have you guess what it is yet? Whether you do or not, let it be explained anyways.
Applebloom had just finished putting together a very powerful wooden catapult and had begun to put away her tools into a red wooden box. She gave the high tension steel spring a final check by winding the the arm back and locking the release mechanism with a deep clunk noise. One minute later and the farm filly felt that it was showtime so she knew that it was time to rally her fellow crusaders.
"Alright Sweetie an Scoots, ah think she's ready ta go!" the farm pony announced with a hoof in the air.
Her fellow crusaders who had been making a hill out of gathered snow dropped their shovels and approached their friend. They both had excited smiles on their adorably heart stopping faces. It's not everyday you had this kind of chance to launch a possibly fatal amount of snow into the sky, with permission of all things.
"Finally, can we get this over with! How much can this thing hold anyway?" Scootaloo said, inspecting the monstrous snow launching device.
"It looks like it could launch a few hundred pounds of snow, pretty far too! Maybe we can hit those two from here..." Sweetie commented with a look of awe on her face.
"That sounds like something I would come up with, let's do it!" Scootaloo chuckled with a buzz of her wings and a devious grin.
Applebloom rolled her eyes as she giggled at the tempting idea but gasped when she heard an odd crunching sound. She found that the heavy catapult was now sinking into the deep snow. The crusaders had one thing to say about this unexpected scenario.
"Uh oh..." They said in wide eyed unison.
After a while the sinking stopped and the snow caved in on to it. This was not apart of their original plan at all, if their shocked faces were any sign of their feelings.
"Darn it... better get Big Mac or this might take awhile," Applebloom groaned, leaving the other two near the sunken device.
Scootaloo just fell to the snow in grumbling annoyance and started sinking in very slowly.  Sweetie just watched with a hint of amusement as she tried to avoid sinking herself. This went on for a few minutes until they heard the sound of crunching snow approach them. Looking to their side they found Applebloom with her well known brother, Big Macintosh. He was a huge red earth pony with an orange mane and stoic leaf green eyes. He currently was wearing a brown scarf with big snow shoes attached to his hooves that stopped him sinking into the snow.
"Alright Big Mac, this is where it sank and got buried. Could ya help us by diggin' it out, ah promise to make your favorite hot chocolate with the unicorn shaped marshmallows, please?" Applebloom nicely pleaded with her best cute face, big watery amber eyes and a small quivering lipped frown. It was truly a practiced art that could melt any heart, not to mention the butter on your waffles.
Big Mac looked at his little sister with his usual stoic gaze for a moment in silence.
"Eeyup," was all that he replied with a small smile. He honestly was immune to his sisters puppy face but he would always help her if the situation called for it.
So he passed by the half sunken Scootaloo and a giggling Sweetie Belle as he hopped into the large indent in the snow without thinking. A loud clicking noise echoed into the sky and then everypony’s blood froze instantly. The current season made the feeling literal in a sense.
"You didn't arm the catapult did you?" Scootaloo asked the tiny pupiled farm filly.
A loud clunk rang out into the ears of everypony and Applebloom gave a nervous and horrified chuckle as she looked at her brother with worried eyes. "B-big M-m-mac?" she uttered in complete horror as he sighed with acceptance.
"Ah want mah hot chocolate when ah get back..." was all the large red stallion could mumble before he was launched into the air, ragdolling towards Everfree with a load of snow. His whinny echoed throughout the town and caused a blonde maned pony wearing a stetson look out here the window of her room with wide green eyes as a red blur pulled off a sonic boom. A red and orange ring stretched outwards into the sky as the loud explosion caught everypony's attention. The mare realized that it was possibly her brother that was currently flying and quickly left to confirm what happened. Upon her arrival she would find was her crying sister and a set of large snowshoes at the place of her brothers departure. May the wings of fate help that poor stallion...
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Out in the depths of forsaken gloomy forest the sound of a tree trunk snapping echoed in all directions as a titanic equine with an molten iron mane tore into her favorite winter treat. It was something that never failed to please her taste buds, a maple tree. To her the smell was intoxicating as she lapped at the unrefined clear goo as it slowly made its way down her freckled brown coated muzzle. She would lick the stray sap up with her long pink tongue every so often. It wouldn't be a good day if she let the possible pancake topper drip onto the long fetlocks that hid more than half of her brown coated legs with a generous amount of mane matching fur color. Last time she let it happen she was almost forced to pull out a patch in desperation due to her pony tail getting glued to her forelegs. Thank goodness for the hot springs she found or that would have been truly painful experience.
Though it was her favorite lunch time treat, maple was only one of the many types of trees and plants she had to consume daily to survive outside of pony civilization, thankfully there was usually enough to remain quite healthy. She really wanted to buy different kinds of food but she couldn't go into a nearby town and get anything with the bits she didn't have, she wasn't a thief. Only the wilderness could provide her meals as it was her only choice but at least what she ate usually tasted good. She did have another kind of food source available to her unique nature, possibly due to what makes her such a big pony. Unlike normal equines she was an omnivore of the sorts, though only with a taste for a certain kind of prey that no one would miss.
Hydra's beware as you taste great to this carnivorous mare. For some reason they are a delicacy to eat with a bit of cooking and some sea salt. Sure the normal pony is usually an herbivore by nature and that she was born with a set of large canines but she was still a pony by most rights. If she could make friends with the regular equines she would swear off of meat completely for their sake.
As she finished off the final bite of her sweet lunch, an explosive boom made her look skyward as a red and orange ring expanded through the sky. The sound of a terrified whinny caught her rowboat sized brown ears and she noticed a red blur headed her direction. Her emerald green eyes widened in shock as it descended upon her location. Before she could react the blur plowed right into her white stomach and knocked the wind out of her as she was tossed to her back, skidding backwards for a few yards. She only stopped when her back hit some taller than average pine trees. It took her a minute to regain her breath after the vicious blow from the unknown attacker but when she did she found a shaking red stallion with green pinprick eyes repeating the word "nope" continuously. Only thoughts of confusion filled her mind. What in the name of Celestia is this pony doing all the way out here, better yet is he okay? She felt that asking him of his condition would help find out so she decided to do just that.
The giant lifted one of her legs that were covered with her molten iron colored fetlocks and nudged the much smaller pony as gently as possible. This got the red stallions attention and caused him to back pedal in shock. He was stopped from treading on to her personal region on accident by a huge wall of fluffy molten tail blocking his path.
"Um... are you okay mister? Usually earth ponies don't take to the sky on their own, or break sound barriers for that matter..." the giant said in concern and some confusion.
Upon hearing the slightly scratchy yet still feminine voice, Big Mac regained some of his composure and looked left and right before looking forward. He realized that he was being looked at by a pair of huge pony eyes and not the kind that predators have. They looked a tad worried to him but the sheer size made him feel like he was having a strange nightmare. Was this real or did he eat something funny before his flight?
"Ah lost mah snowshoes and mah marbles..." Big Mac groaned, rubbing his eyes trying to make sure what he was seeing was in fact real. He bit his leg hard and he felt a lot of pain. Eeyup, this monolithic pony was as real as it was gonna get and now his leg hurt.
"The good news is that you're sane and that I'm not a monster that will commit the act of eating a fellow pony, the bad news is that you probably did lose your snowshoes before you crashed into me, not to mention you're probably a couple miles away from your town in a dangerous forest. By the way, my names Nelly, whats yours mister?" she said, picking Big Mac up with her fore hooves and setting him on the ground before her. She sat up with a huff and wrapped her tail around her legs with care. She then proceeded to pick up a massive blue cloth that Macintosh guessed was a bandana with a pocket of the sorts and tied it around her neck. It reminded him of his cousin Fiddlesticks.
The stallion looked up at the massive pony before him and quickly took in what he was just told. He was stuck in the Everfree forest after taking an unexpected flight and he only had the help of a very huge mare that shouldn't normally exist. He was relieved that she had no hard feeling about him crashing into her but was still a bit worried for his safety nonetheless. Might as take what ya got and make the best of it. It would be a good idea to make a new friend if she can protect you from the pony eating monsters.
"Er... howdy miss, the names Macintosh or Bi- er... Mac if ya prefer..." he greeted carefully, keeping an eye on the titan of a pony. It's been time since he felt so small as he looked up at her, it was quite humbling.
"It's nice to meet you Macintosh," she greeted with a small smile, looking around her surroundings. She needed to see where he flew in from, maybe she could be of help to the stray stallion.
Nelly stood up on her back legs with her long fluffy tail wrapped around her like a skirt and looked over the forest in the direction Big Mac flew in from. At a distance multiple plumes on grey smoke lifted into the sky. They must be from chimneys being used since it is winter, right? She then landed on all fours again with a earth shaking thud and lowered her head at the red pony's level. After getting knocked over the shock wave and getting up once again, Big Macintosh backed up a bit unsteadily as he noticed the smile on her face.
"Need a ride home Big Mac? I think I can see your town from here and its only five or so minutes away," Nelly asked as nicely a tone as possible. No need to scare him off after knocking him over by accident.
"That would be much appreciated miss Nelly if it's not too much trouble that is," he replied with a nervous smile and nod. He was beginning to feel that he could trust this pony since since she was being friendly and offered a free ride yet he had to be careful of her size or risk injury. Luckily for him that she was also worried about her size and had a simple solution.
With a nod from Nelly he was lifted up and dropped on her mane with a small grunt. It felt like sitting on a nice and warm hill as the titanic equine turned towards the grey smoke pillars beyond the hundreds of trees that barely reached the bandana on her neck. Macintosh wondered where she got such a thing for her size. When she began to move he almost fell backwards but somehow kept on his hooves and retained his balance in the end. The sound of rhythmic thumping could be heard with each step as Nelly progressed at casual gait towards the town. She was careful to avoid knocking the trees over as they were a valuable food source to her main diet.
She could pick out the details as she got closer and closer to the town. Colorful blobs had soon become ponies. The snow covered buildings became more defined in shape and detail. Many a snow ponies of various sizes and clothing also came into view. It was odd that the towns ponies did not notice her approach at all with all the noise she made with each step as she got closer. As she kept going she noticed that the closest things she could see were the rows of hibernating trees and a red and white farmhouse with a few barns of similar coloration, they must be apple trees. All of a sudden she felt a tap on her head and she came to a halt.
"Yes, Macintosh?" Nelly asked, swiveling her brown left ear towards him, giving him a slight gust of chilled air. It made him shiver a bit but the warmth the giant mane gave off quickly countered that.
"Ya'll see that red farm house over there, miss Nelly? That's mah home and ah bet that the family is a mite worried 'bout now. Ah hope that Applejack didn't chew that poor filly out too bad while ah was gone..." Macintosh explained with a sigh and a shake of his head.
"Well alright then, lets hope that they are as composed as you were so far," she said as she continued on at a slower pace. She did not want to step on a pony by accident or it would literally kill her chances at making friends with anypony, forever.
A couple of minutes pass before they finally arrive before the Apple family home and stop. Putting her large head to the ground Big Mac jumps off of his friendly taxi and lands on the snow covered ground with a small thump. He turned back to her and found that she was turning towards the forest. He wondered why she was leaving so soon. "Reckon ya can stick around for a spell and meet the rest of us Apples?"
His invite truly surprised Nelly as she was about to leave back to the forest. She had forgotten the last time she was asked to stay as around. She turned to him with a wide eyed stare of disbelief. "Y-you don't mind m-me staying around?" she asked in stuttering confusion.
"What gave you the idea that ah wouldn't? You seem like a friendly pony since ya kindly helped me get home, even though you got crashed into. If you're all worried 'bout bein' seen as a big ol' monster then just don't act like one. So, when ya'll are done bein' all nervous, quit being a silly pony and come meet the family." He really meant what he explained, that and he also wanted some hot cocoa right now.
"When you put it that way... alright!" Nelly responded with a sense of personal accomplishment and a small smile.
Giving a stoic smile to the behemoth of a mare, he walked up the front porch of his home and knocked on the door.
The pony that answers the is none other than a very shocked Applejack with watery red eyes. It seemed that she was currently having an emotional breakdown. Upon seeing her brother she immediately tackled the red stallion leaving her hat to fall on the grounds.
"Consarn it Macintosh we thought we lost ya! How did ya survive that? Ah mean ya'll flew as fast Dash into the sky! How in tarnation did ya survive the landing? We were gettin' a search party ready to try and find ya right now!" Applejack cried like a foal as she hugged him tightly in a crushing grip that made him go wide eyed.
He began turning purple and desperately tapped his sister until she tearfully let him go with a sheepish smile. He took in a deep breath and returned to his usual red color.
"AJ... get Applebloom ah want y'all to meet a pony and don't go freaking out on me, she saved mah hide," Macintosh explained with a stoic smile, patting the orange mares back.
"Why can't she just come in so we can offer her some Apple family hospitality?" she asked in confusion.
"Won't fit sis," Big Mac explained with a weak chuckle, pointing to Nelly with his left hoof. She was sitting down and messing with her very tail as she stared at the now gaping Applejack. It was a special kind of shocking to for the honest mare that was clearly shown by her gaping apple muncher.
Big Mac gently closed his sisters mouth and lifted her off of him before putting her on the snow covered ground facing the family home and nudging her forward. She galloped into the house at breakneck speed and slammed the door behind her. The red stallion just chuckled shaking his head slowly.
"That was pretty good considering her reaction..." Nelly commented with a tilted head.
"Eeyup," he drawled with a slow nod.
All of a sudden the door slammed open and a tiny bow wearing filly known to all as Applebloom leapt at her brother in tears with Applejack following behind at a slower pace. The giant pony thought the filly was just plain adorable though her wracking sobs really tore at her heart like ten thousand parasprites on a single cup cake.
"Ah'm soooo sorry! Please don't hate meh, ah didn't mean to send ya flying like that and ah was so scared that ah killed mah brother!" the filly cried hugging as tightly as she could possibly muster.
"It's fine Applebloom, it was mah fault fer not lookin' before ah jumped on to that crazy contraption," Macintosh replied giving his little sister a careful hug that lasted for a few tearful minutes as kept assuring her that it wasn't her fault.
Applebloom had finally calmed down and let go of her brother, wiping her eyes with her forelegs. Once the tears were mostly gone she looked at her brother expectantly with a curious yet stiflingly confused gaze.
"S-sis said that you w-wanted us to meet somepony, where is she?" the filly asked, snuggling into her brothers chest.
Big Mac nodded with a simple smile and pointed at the titanic mare that overshadowed everypony present at the scene with her size. The filly could not believe what she was looking. She could not comprehend how a pony got so big, she was truly daunting in size. She didn't know what to do right now besides stare at the huge spectacle. Her presence made her feel like a flea right now.
"Er, hello... Are you two going to be okay?" Nelly said with a worried expression. The older sister looked at her nervously as the younger was just plain dumbfounded still.
Big Mac shook his head with a sigh as he decided that he'd had enough of their silly staring. He cleared his throat as he tapped their backs at the same time. Once he had their full attention he began the slightly overdue introductions. Anymore of this and he would have a full on panic on his hooves so he began to nip this in the bud.
"Ya'll need to show a bit more respect for towards another pony an quit starin' at her like that 'cuase it's gettin' plain silly. This here is Nelly and she saved mah flank, not to mention that she was kind enough to give me a ride through the Everfree so ah didn't have to risk mah neck gettin' eaten' by a manticore, or worse. Now would ya'll please introduce yourselves already?" Macintosh chided with a calm tone and expression.
The words of their big brother sunk in quickly and faces showed it. First they became embarrassed of their reactions but then they realized that they had a guest on their hooves that needed some good ol' Apple family hospitality as it were. Time to make a pony feel welcomed.
"Well shoot, sorry about being rude ah was just in a real tizzy over how big y'all are! Mah names Applejack an' theis here is mah sister Applebloom! Welcome to Sweet Apple Acres pardner, ya'll really did good savin' Big Macintosh for us! You're welcome to come by whenever you feel like it, we believe that ya deserve the friendship of the family!" Applejack chirped with a grateful yet friendly grin as she held out her right leg for a hoof shake.
"What she said, miss Nelly! Welcome to our home!" Applebloom greeted with a cheerful smile that would rival a certain unicorn foal that represents what it means to be cute.
With a teary smile the massive mare took hold of the offered hoof and gave a very careful shake so she didn't break their legs. She finally made some friends for once and had made a small step in her life. It made her feel truly happy for the second time in her life so far. The first time was the gift her mother had given her after earning her special talent in life, she wore it with pride ever since. Gifts of the past, achievements of the present, and hope for the future make her be happy to be alive.
"T-thank you f-for the w-welcome..." she happily whimpered, wiping her eyes with her fetlocks.
The sisters couldn't comprehend what could have brought tears to the giant pony but felt that asking would bring up a very unpleasant story. To the red stallion who watched his family members pass the days on with friends, he had a hunch as to why. Well, no time to think about the past so lets move to something more positive, like the present. Big Mac looked skyward and found that it was well past lunch time.
"Ah reckon that we missed lunch already," Macintosh announced casually, this caused the stomachs of his sisters to growl in agreement. Hey, what's that high pitched sound he was hearing?
"I'll get out your manes th-" was all Nelly could say before a rainbow blur hit the side of her head with a loud crack, knocking her to the snow covered ground with a yelp. Big Mac couldn't help but facehoof with disgruntled sigh. He quietly left the area to find something useful and he knew just what was needed for the situation.
"Ouch... stupid hard headed yeti, what gives!" the chromatic blur yelled as it flew skyward.
Applejack grumbled very dark things to herself before whispering something to her equally peeved sister. Applebloom took off into the family home to quickly retrieve something and came back out with her sisters favorite rope in her mouth. She gave her older sister the rope and backed off a bit. The multicolor blur was coming down for another strike as the dizzy giant covered her head protectively. The stetson wearing mare had her target in her sights and was about to rope it in when a giant snowball knocked it out of the sky and towards the ground. The downed blur skidded through the snow and into an apple tree with a thump that knocked the built up snow on to the flying assailant. The farm mare did not see that coming but at least she got to deal with a certain feather brain with a lot of explaining to do. Twitching cyan wings were the only things sticking out of the slightly messy aftermath. Applejack's emerald eye's looked around for the source of the snow missile and found her stoic red brother pulling a catapult towards her, whistling a catchy tune. Applebloom giggled as her sister went over the downed attacker and pulled it from the pile by the rainbow tail that stuck out by a tuft. It was a familiar pegasus mare that groaned in a daze. The farm mare felt like testing her rodeo skills so she tied up the pony up tightly just in case she was still looking for a fight.
"Wuh? What the hay hit me?" the pegasus groaned as she tried to move but failed due to being bound in rope. "Hey, what's the big idea, I was trying to get rid of that yeti!" she shouted at a glaring Applejack.
Applebloom came and sat next to her sister to join in the glare pointed at the brash pony.
"You too? Why are you looking at me like that?" she complained, struggling with the ropes.
"Rainbow Dash ya featherbrain... ya'll gone and attacked a pony, not a yeti ya darn fool!" Applejack growled angrily, pointing at the groaning giant with a hoof on her head.
When Dash actually took a good look with her rose colored eyes she had found that her friend wasn't lying about the yeti actually being a pony, a really gargantuan one at that but still a pony. She looked back at the farm mare with a look of fear.
"Aw pony feathers... I messed up, didn't I?" Dash asked sheepishly as she struggled in the rope.
"Eeyup..." replied the unison of the three glaring Apple siblings.
Applebloom galloped up to Nelly who was recovering her scattered senses as she sat down and held her head with a hoof. It honestly wasn't the worst hit she had ever taken but it still packed some power as a sucker punch from the sky. The worst it did was rattle her brain somewhat but the welt on her temple still stung nonetheless. She noticed the filly looking at her with concern.
"What just hit me?" Nelly asked the cutie mark crusader as she rubbed her own head.
"Ask the pony who thought it was a great idea to attack the yeti," Applebloom explained, pointing a hoof at a nervous Rainbow Dash.
The titan mare got up before moving closer to the pony who attacked her for no reason and laid her head in front of the very uncomfortable pegasus that was beginning to sweat. She looked at her attacker in curiosity. A chromatic rainbow mane and a cyan coat with lovely rose colored eyes. She could question one thing after this observation.
"Why would a very pretty pony like you go out of your way to attack a stranger? It doesn't seem to make sense to me, so why miss?" Nelly asked in a kind yet sad tone, ears flat against her head as her eyes became teary.
Everypony present gasped as Dash's eye's turn pinpricked with twitching right eyebrow as her face turned dark red. All of a sudden the ropes snapped like a rubber band before the mentally conflicted pegasi left the area flying full speed in a frantic craze. She pulled off a sonic rainboom as she tried to flee the area. The whole town looked up to the sky for the second time today as a ring of rainbow spread outwards with an loud explosion. It was a lovely sight to the giant who was knocked down by the force of the colorful explosion. Luckily for the Apple family home and residents, the windows somehow managed to survive the ordeal this time due to the giant taking the brunt of the blast.
"That was pretty yet very strange did I say something I shouldn't have?" Nelly asked in slightly miffed confusion as she watched the chromatic ring fade into the sky.
All of a sudden the sisters burst into uncontrollable laughter which made the huge mare more confused than ever. Big Mac just shrugged with a chuckle and went into the family home as he was hungry still and had wasted too much time standing around. He had left the catapult near the porch so his youngest sister could find it when she needed it again. A minute later he came outside with a stack of six fresh baked apple pies and walked over to Nelly as his sisters laughed on. The huge pony had noticed him approach when the enticing smell of baked apples and buttery crust hit her nose. He silently offered her five of the pies as he ate one himself and she curiously accepted them. She hasn't eaten apple pie since she was a young filly. She really missed moms cooking to this day. She tossed a couple pies into her mouth and slowly chewed them. She couldn't stop the tears from pouring out of her eyes as her taste buds exploded with a joy that made her heart thump with a sound that was quite audible Macintosh as he simply watched her very strange behavior quietly. What was she eating? There was no way that she was simply eating an apple pie. It was like eating soft soul bound bliss in a perfectly flaky crust of loving purity and happiness as her heart was caressed by an unexplainable warmth that could possibly challenge the comfort of the great planes. It was all so dizzying for her and she absolutely embraced what she felt with a passion that would border madness.
"By everything that makes up the spectrum of emotion and the physical... there are no words or logic to express how horrifyingly tasty these things are..." Nelly wistfully expressed as she wiped away her tears.
The ears of the two farm sisters pricked up as they calmed down and observed the giants reaction with amusement and pride. When she swallowed, she threw last three pies into her maw and continued to chew with a zoned out yet boundlessly fulfilling feeling. After a minute of chewing she swallowed again and let out a very cheerful yet somewhat regretful sigh with closed eyes. A giggle escaped Applebloom and the giant noticed that she was being watched. Her cheeks turned deep crimson in embarrassment as she gave an awkward smile.
"Mah pies really that good, sugar cube?" Applejack questioned curiously with an amused smile.
Nelly could only nod slowly as she continued to feel the warmth within her beating chest as it sadly began to fade away slowly. It's a shame that good things never last as long as she wished they could.
The farm mare chuckled as her belly let out growl of hunger that demanded sacrifice.
"Ah better grab some grub before my stomach eats itself so sit tight for a bit, c'mon Applebloom lets get ya somethin' too," the orange mare said before heading into the farmhouse.
"Ah'll make Big Mac's hot cocoa while we're at it!" Applebloom chirped as she raced into the farm home.
The red stallion watched as his younger sisters leave into the farm home they all shared until they closed the front door. He felt that now was a good time to ask a few questions to confirm his thoughts on the biggest equine he knew of so far. Time to see how deep the rabbit hole goes he felt. A silent sigh left him as he looked back at his guest.
"How long has it been since everypony began thinkin' that their lives were in danger when ya showed up?" Macintosh bluntly began, catching the mare completely off guard. He knew it was a loaded question but chances had to be taken.
"W-what, why a-are you asking m-me th-this?" Nelly stuttered with shock as mixed emotions took hold of her heart, fear was at the forefront of it all.
The Apple stallion just stared at her impassively as he waited for her to answer. She looked down with flat ears as she began to think back on her life up to this point and realized that this pony was a lot more observant than he seemed. At this point, she might as well be honest with him.
"It started when I turned six, at the start things were pretty normal for me as I was considered a normal big filly since it wasn't that uncommon for everypony in dads side of the family to grow up large. The odd thing though, colts were the only thing born in our families, but then I broke that long chain when I was born. At first it was just considered a fluke that I exist since it seemed impossible yet there I was. Around half a year, after I turned six, things began to change for me in the worst possible way. I kept doubling in size with each year until I turned ten years old before my growth slowed to a crawl. At this point I was a third of my current size and ponies outside the family had stayed away from me as I had too much power for any one filly to handle. There were those who tried to befriend me but they either had personal motives or simply got taken away by their fearful parents eventually. It was truly the worst thing to experience in my life at that point..." Nelly paused as took slow deep breaths to ease the heavy feeling in her heart.
"Things don't stop there do they..." Macintosh stated with a frown. He had an idea as to where this was all going but there had to be more to it.
"I wish they did but sadly nature waits for no pony and it got worse for me when I began to mature into a mare and my growth started to speed up a little this time. Dad and mom were forced to keep me under medically induced sleep when my cycles began. It was a time where we thought I would put everypony in danger for a full two sometimes three weeks until it was over. This went on until a strange event happened when I was sixteen. My cycle came early and yet nothing extreme happened. They usual side effects that usually afflicted other mares was very weak and I couldn't help but be thankful about it until the cycle came to strange end. It was at this time when I found something that was far too farfetched to make sense at all..." Her expression turned into a sad smile.
Pieces began to fall into place as Macintosh tried to figure out what was very big and was sentient. He thought of all the known creatures that could get very massive but couldn't think of anything that would fit due to physical complications. Wait, he was looking at this all wrong. He needed to take a chance and ask the right question...
"Ah guess that it probably had somethin' to do with your size, can ah assume that ya laid an egg?" He hoped that this was the right choice.
"W-what, how did you know? You aren't a creepy stalker are you!?" Nelly gasped scooting away from the slightly offended stallion.
"No, ah just used common sense with what ya told me so don't go callin' me such a crazy thing ya silly pony..." He explained with a groan. "Do ya know how ya did such a thing in the first place?"
The titanic mare had calmed down at the assurance and sheepishly decided to return to her original position before deciding to continue. "To be honest I didn't at first but dad began to have a nervous breakdown when he found out. Turned out that he knew something that was passed down over the generations but didn't tell us what until mom put him in the hospital in a fit of rage. His dumb reason was that only the first born stallions were supposed to know about it but mom convinced him otherwise. Turns out that there's a possibly evil dragon in our family tree, her name was Vurashna. It was hard to understand how that worked but then dad decided to take me and mom to see the family graveyard. It was there that they showed me the cavern that the our family graveyard was built around. What I was shown was a dragon skeleton hugging a coffin to its ribcage and strange thing was, it felt like it watching me the whole time. As we left I heard a female voice say something to me in a language that me and dad understood..." Nelly began to chuckle nervously at the last part with a gulp.
"Out with it, ah don't want nightmares tonight..." Big Mac nervously demanded in a low voice.
"Infinite darkness shall be thy key to a kindred understanding of thy so called chance when it embraces thy pulsing rhythm, so claims my Bellero. Pray tell as to what ye truly desire, broken child?" Nelly uttered with a shiver made the ground vibrate.
"Ah don't really understand that old speak stuff but ah do know that it isn't ominous from how it sounds, you should try to askin' Princess Luna about this if ya can find a way tuh speak to her." He knew that she was going to need help but he was just a simple farm pony and could only do so much.
"I'll keep that in mind then," Nelly replied, smiling with a nod. The question now was how she was going to do that.
"Well then, ah'm goin' inside to go get warmed up, it was nice meetin' ya Nelly. Feel free tuh come over tomorrow if ya want to talk or say hi, alright?"
Nelly gave a sad yet happy smile. "Alright, take care Macintosh and thanks for showing your concern..."
He simple nodded to her with a passive expression and went inside with a thirst for some cocoa.
With nopony outside, the huge mare laid on her side and took a deep breath and exhaling a gust of air with a bit of snow from the ground. Now that she had time to think she needed to figure out what she wants to do with her new found friends. What could she do with them that wouldn't hurt them in the process? Talking is a start but could get boring if that's all they did. How about playing games? That depends on the friends preferences but it should be easy to figure out with time. Helping out is also an option but only with what she could, she didn't want to make them angry at her by trying something that would naturally destructive. The last thing could be reading together if all else fails, but then she would need a magnifying glass or reading glasses...
Maybe she should start with what they want to do first and try to not become super clingy. There's also a reason why you make more friends when you can. It makes it so there are more things that can be done when others are busy or just want some space. Wait, what would be a good discussion topic? Looking into a friends interest would make things a lot more easier she figured. Wait, was this why gossip exist? Oh come on, that's just messed up...
As the huge mare thought, she failed to notice Applejack and Applebloom return. They noticed the vanilla colored chest and belly of the giants brown coat. The older sister whispered something to younger and they both gained a devious smile. They snuck up to their victim as quietly as possible until they they were close. The titanic mare didn't know what was happening when she burst into a squealing laughter and rolled onto her back with all four legs kicking in the air.
"HEEHEEHEE! UNCLE! HUAHAHAHA! PLEASE! SPARE ME!" Nelly pleaded loudly through her laughter.
All of a sudden she was given some relief as she felt two things hop off her belly and land in the snow with a slight crunch. Sitting up with a smiling giggle she noticed that her very merciless friends had returned. They both were both trying their best to retain a straight face but they couldn't do it when their guest gave a deadpan and barked like dog. It resulted with a certain collie looking through one of the farm homes many windows in confusion. She went back sleeping in front of the fireplace when she found only her masters outside.
"What brought that on that was just too much for me to handle!" the giant chuckled with a hoof on her belly.
Before AJ could answer the sound of a high pitched voice shouted out from the distance.
"Applejack, I brought Rarity like you asked!" a unicorn filly yelled as she slowly trotted towards the Apple sisters.
"Sweetie Belle? Aww... how could ah forget 'bout sendin' her and Scootaloo for some help!" Applejack groaned with a sigh as she also realized why Dash had shown up.
Sweetie had stopped in place, looking behind herself. Eventually a mare came up next to her and it seemed that she had a extremely light gray coat that bordered on white with a styled indigo mane and tail. Her azure eye had long lashes that screamed for some attention. Topping off her look she wore lovely white earmuffs and a white scarf embroidered with three diamonds that probably matched her cutie mark. A real classy bombshell of mare if the massive pony had ever seen one before, though something seemed unnatural about the pony for some reason. Oh, it seemed that she noticed Nelly's concentrated gaze trying to pick her apart her ensemble. Or was it that a giant mare was looking at her with a curious gaze? Her little sister seemed to notice too.
"Sweetie dear do you see what I am looking at?" Rarity asked with wide gleaming eyes.
"If you mean mean the pony about the size of an ursa minor, yeah!" Sweetie squeaked with higher than normal pitch in her voice, she was quite shocked.
"No the hugely statured mare is fine Sweetie Belle, I actually meant the sheer volume of those flowing fetlocks she has! I wonder if it's completely natural? Oh, I positively must find out!" Rarity gushed in excitement as she cantered towards the Apple family home with a dignified grace, lovely.
"Fetlocks? I just thought those were furry socks! Wait, where would you get socks at that size anyways?" Sweetie commented as she went after her sister, she didn't want to be confused and left behind.
As the two newcomers approached Applejack had wondered how she was going to deal with the fashionista and her sister without things getting out of hoof but had seen the look in the marsh mellow like pony’s eyes. It was a quirk that the farmer had grown aware of over the years and honestly found it to be quite irritating in large doses. The farm pony knew that this would be a long day for her guest.
"Here we go again..." Applejack grumbled quietly to herself.
Nelly was still trying to figure out what was unnatural about this classy pony’s looks as she stopped in front of her, then an idea hit her. The mascara was making the look complete so what if she took it away? One mental dissection of this pony's looks later and... "False eyelashes?" she realized aloud with a bit of confusion.
Everypony present swore they heard glass as the fashionista's face turned to shock and horror.
"B-but I put so much work into h-hiding it... how?" Rarity squeaked with teary eyes and flat ears.
Applejack looked at the huge mare who didn't have a clue what just happend with cocked brow.
"How'd ya figure that out and what in tarnation made ya have to announce that out loud, Nelly?" Applejack questioned with an edge of annoyance. She honestly didn't want to see the fashion mare dramatically cry, nopony ever does and for a good reason.
Nelly felt that she stepped on a huge landmine and had to think fast. She didn't want to lie as that would make her a bad pony so she might as well try to explain why she stupidly announced her thoughts like that. Gotta salvage her situation or this could really end badly.
"I need to explain something if you would hear me out but I need you all need to please promise me not to tell anypony what I tell you..." Nelly sheepishly asked with a nervous side to side glance.
This got a bit of curiosity from the present ponies, especially Rarity.
"Alright fine ah give ya mah oath not to tell anypony, what about you miss prissy britches?" Applejack said giving a deadpan to the now glaring unicorn.
"If I can fix this unpleasant exposure so be it, I shan't tell a soul if that's what you want," Rarity huffed, looking away in indignity with crossed forelegs.
"Can we hear it too?" Sweetie chirped with a wide grin.
"Please, we promise to keep quiet!" Applebloom begged with a cute smile.
The massive pony took a minute to think but agreed with a slow nod and so she began.
"My mother had raised me as a filly to be and extremely careful around ponies that are considered to be, bombshells. She told me that if I was anything like papa I would be wary of interacting with one as they are usually evil or manipulative to certain degrees. To be honest I think that mum was just possessive of papa, but she taught me to pick apart a bombshell for what he or she really is. Either a good pony that just looks very nice looking or a bad pony that uses their allure to manipulate a poor soul. Oh, if it makes you feel better I think you're a good pony miss Rarity. I just made the mistake of voicing my rude discovery, sorry..." Nelly explained in an embarrassed tone, looking away with flat ears.
Everypony took a minute to let they were told sink in, one thing had flown over the fillies heads.
"What's uh bombshell? Ah don't get it..." Applebloom asked in confusion.
"Are we talking about fireworks?" Sweetie added in confusion.
"No not fireworks, it's a very handsome or pretty pony that you can't keep your eyes off because you really like how he or she looks..." Nelly explained quietly.
"Ohhh," the two fillies said in unison.
"Well... ah guess that makes sense. Hey Sweetie, lets go find Scoots ah got an idea for our next crusade!" Applebloom chirped with a bounce. So many ponies are going to feel very self conscious, can you guess why?
Sweetie shrugged before the two fillies sprinted away with a full on gallop as Applebloom explained her plan. Applejack and Rarity were still thinking about what they were told. Questions needed to be answered before they could make sense about their confusing emotions. Should the unicorn be insulted or complemented by what was said, it was hard to tell really. Why did that explanation seem innocent yet somehow feel laced with a hidden meaning to the stetson wearing earth pony and her polar opposite. Maybe they were over thinking it?
"Well ah'm not sure how to react to what ya'll just told us Nelly, ya'll were taught some odd things as a filly," Applejack commented, rubbing her neck awkwardly.
"I do actually... you were quite rude to start off but you did compliment me for my looks, I think. Well, as long as you didn't mean to insult me then I suppose I can forgive you but do try to get know pony first or it could really hurt their feelings," Rarity chided the giant equine in a light tone.
"Thank you Rarity, I'm really am sorry about that..." Nelly apologized quietly as she chided herself with dark thoughts.
"It's fine darling, don't feel guilty about it!" Rarity said with a hint of mirth in her tone but that was until she realized she forgot something very important. "Applejack, I'm sorry to ask you this finally but you sent Sweetie for my help?" she asked in concern.
"Well ya see the problem sorta fixed itself somehow before y'all showed up but ah can explain what happened. Ya see it all started when mah sisters contration over near the house sent Mac flying into the Everfree with no parachute. To be honest ah thought mah brother was doomed with how far he went and if he did survive the landin' the critters would probably have gobbled his red hide. Lucky for us that Nelly here somehow caught him and even brought him home to us, we could never repay her for savin' him," Applejack explained happily with a cheerful smile.
"So I really wasn't crazy when I saw that ring in the sky, to think an earth pony would pull off a sonic rainboom or a Appleboom as it were!" Rarity commented with a giggle.
"Seems that Dash has some new competition," Applejack joked with rolling eyes.
All of a sudden a green apple clocked the farm mare up the side of her head, making her yelp in pain. The sound of a window being shut was heard from the second story of the family home. "Okay, ah may have deserved that one..." she groaned, rubbing the new bruise that began to form.
Rarity was trying her best not to laugh at her friend as a chilled gale made them both shiver.
Nelly look up at the sky and noticed that the clouds had begun to quickly darken as the winds picked up a bit. The farmer and fashionista had noticed this as well when a cold gale made them shake again. The air had a very bitter chill that seemed to have a very dark aura to it.
"Oh horse apples, got some nasty weather coming in soon! Why didn't Dash give us ah warnin' 'bout this?" Applejack voiced with concern.
"Maybe it's a freak snow storm from Everfree, though for some reason it's giving me a really bad feeling..." Nelly said as she kept looking skyward.
The stetson wearing mare felt that she wouldn't be able to find her sister in time so she decided to ask the pony who could help her out.
"Think ya could keep Applebloom over for a few days, Rarity?" Applejack asked with a slightly nervous tone.
"Of course darling, it would be a good idea until this dreadful storm passes," Rarity agreed with a smile. "Nice meeting you darling, ta ta!" she cooed as she took off, she caught a glance of the cutie mark on the massive pony's brown coated flank. It was a molten iron heart with a golden halo above it. On the heart the number "10" and the word "TON" was shown on it in purple. "What kind of talent does that represent?" the fashionista mused in her mind as she headed to town at a quick gallop, she had to find two crusaders before the storm really hit the town.
Applejack felt the air become much colder as a heavy gust of wind sent a shiver up her spine again. It was time for her to head inside to set up a warm fire and get some more hot cocoa made. She wondered why the massive equine seemed unaffected by the cold but she had other things to worry about for now.
"Well sugar cube take care out here, it's gonna be colder than a snow pony that got rejected by a ice sculpture on a Monday!" Applejack yelled through the now howling winds.
"Kay, keep toasty!" Nelly replied as AJ went into the farm home to warm up. She felt a pile of snow build up on her head and back so she shook it off. What could she do now? This weather is literally going to snow everypony indoors so she couldn't try to hang out with her new friends. Then a simple idea came to mind. She could build a snow pony to pass the day! But the next question was where to build it? Looking around, beyond the rows of hibernating apple trees she saw a open field. With the destination in sight the giant trudged her way down the path marked by logs that led to the exit of the apple orchard. Soon she found the sign that marked the name of the orchard, Sweet Apple Acres. The sign reached up to a third of her leg so she hopped over it with ease and casually followed the barely visible path as the snow storm got stronger.
After a minute she came upon a fork in the road, it had a sign the pointed to multiple directions. North-west would get her back to the orchard. South pointed to Everfree forest. East led to the fields.  South-east would take her towards to the nearby town of Ponyville.
All she had to do now was head east to get to the fields. As she was about to continue on her way the giant heard a shaky whimper, she looked around for the source. It took a bit of looking but among the piling up snow a yellow wing was found sticking out of a snow mound. That bad feeling came rushing back again and Nelly shuffled over to the shaking appendage.
Using her long poofy tail she swept the snow away, revealing an unconscious yellow coated pegasi mare with a pink mane, she wore a pink scarf but had no earmuffs. Her face was pale as she shivered. This pony looked like she really needed help so Nelly picked the pegasus up and held her close to her barrel with her left foreleg. She had to get her to some shelter and the town was closer than the apple orchard. Despite her worries of pitchforks and torches, this pony was more important at the moment. With a nervous swallow she took off in three legged hobble that would propel her forward much faster than any normal pegasis could fly.
Minutes of quick paced cantering pass by and the massive pony eventually found herself in the empty town streets where the windows had been sealed with wood planks to help prevent the frigid cold or windigo's from getting in. Speaking of which, Nelly noticed the evil wisp like spirits circling over a certain part of the sky wildly, it was an ominous sign that promised very bad weather. Most likely they were over the fields she was going to head to before. She was told as a filly that were attracted to feelings of hatred and fighting, but that didn't matter at the moment. She still had to get this mare to a safe place as her body heat could only keep her warm. She might already be sick and she had to medicine to give her. Looking around she spotted the most delicious building she had ever seen. It looked and smelled like it was made of many kinds of sweets but was obviously not edible to a anypony. This looked like it was a good place as any to find help right now since time was of the essence.
Laying her head down to the front door she let loose a quick flurry of taps with her free hoof, it sounded more like frantic pounding. With that she waited with baited breath. After a few seconds the door swung open revealing a sad looking dark pink mare a even darker pink mane. When her blue eyes caught sight of the mare in the giants leg she literally turned a much brighter shade of pink as she over dramatically gasped in shock.
"Please you have to help me miss! I found her buried the snow looking like this and I think she's sick! My home is too far away and I don't have medicine either, please help her!" Nelly pleaded with a desperate gaze.
The pink pony put on a determined look and then pulled a light pink nurse hat with a embroided medical cross out of nowhere before putting it on, it made no sense to the titan like pony. It was still cute to look at least, regardless of the dire situation.
"Nurse Pinkie Pie is on the job and I will care for your injured or sick when parties fail to make you smile or if they make you angry to the point of hurting yourself or others with acts of random violence using silly things like the cake, wait can you hurt a pony with a  ca-" was all the pink mare could say before several hay bales worth of fetlock silenced her through the door.
"Please don't rant miss, this pony needs help..." Nelly pleaded with flat ears.
Pinkie gave a nod and the fetlock was removed immediately from her maw. A leg came through the door again but this time with the still unconscious pegasi on it. The pink nurse carefully lifted her patient on her back and quickly took her upstairs to her room to be put into her bed. She then brought out a fluffy pink pillow, then she gave it a generous fluffing before put it under her patients head and covering the sick pony with a warm pink blanket made of soft wool. After that she went to retrieve a medical kit and took several bottles of medicine out. When she picked what she hopefully thought was the right one, she then poured a spoonful and carefully gave it to her patient. She then retrieved a glass of water from her bathroom sink and helped the unconscious patient drink it. Once that was done the pink equine rushed downstairs where her beaming smile was shown to her currently waiting guest.
"Patient Fluttershy has been admitted to my super comfy bed with a dose of medicine and should be fine after some sweet dreams about her animal friends!" Nurse Pinkie chirped with a salute and giggle.
Nelly let out a sigh of relief as she did not want to see the pony perish when it was possible to help her in the first place. Now she had a question that was on her mind since finding the poor mare. The town wasn't that big to the giant so she figured that miss Pie might know.
"Er... did you know that pony by chance Nurse Pinkie?" Nelly asked curiously.
"Be back in a jiffy!" Pinkie chirped before turning around. The pink pony ran off leaving her guest confused and came back wearing a pink jacket and a baby blue wool scarf with matching ear muffs. She came outside into the frigid howling winds with a cheerful toothy smile on her face and closed the door behind her. Then she finally decided to reply.
"Yep, her names Fluttershy and she really lives up to her name! She's a very nice mare despite being such a silly scaredy pony, though don't make her mad, she's really scary meany pants when it happens," Nurse Pinkie explained, bouncing back and forth. "What's your name miss fuzzy socks?" she asked cheerfully, bouncing in reverse.
"Nelly, by the way they are not socks just really long fetlocks. I can't even wear socks and yet everypony who doesn't run away in fear just says the same thing," the giant explained with a hint of amusement.
"Have you tried to visit a barber for a mane cut?" Pinkie asked curiously.
Nelly thought for a minute if she even tried such a thing and sighed as she remembered something.
"Two times, but they both freaked out and tried to slash me with those shaving razor things they always carry on them, in the exact same manner too..." the massive pony explained with a sigh.
Pinkie put a leg on her guest own in sympathy, giving a sad smile as she rubbed the massive appendage.
"Yup, that happens every time my messy wessy maney painey grows too wild for my noggin to keep up with!" Pinkie explained, waving a hoof for the fun of it.
Nelly looked up into the air to sigh and noticed the windigo's were still going nuts for some reason. What's up with those things? She felt a sudden tug on her leg and found the pink pony was looking a bit worried behind her smile.
"We should go see what's wrong before somepony becomes a frozen treat for those windigo thingies! I wanted to go earlier but I would've ended up like poor Fluttershy without something to keep me warm!" Pinkie explained with a tilted head.
"Okay, I was gonna build a giant snow pony with my free time anyways and some company would make it more fun!" Nelly picked the pink pony up and put the grinning mare on top her head.
"Yippee! I made a new friend and I get a pony ride!" Pinkie cheered with an explosion of confetti and streamer, it made her newly declared buddy yelp in shock.
"D-did you just explode in my mane?" Nelly groaned with her ringing ears flat against her head. That was painfully unexpected and uncalled for.
"Hehehe... Oopsy, I got too excited and couldn't hold it in, sorry!" Pinkie said sheepishly with flat ears.
That got a stinging slap to Pinkies flank from the giants furry left ear, this made the faux nurse yelp in stingy surprise. So with a snort the gigantic equine took off at at a gallop, barely dismounting her passenger with the sudden movement. It was a good thing that Pinkie's teeth had a strong bond with her gums. On a side note, she tasted cherry and sherbert as she held onto a rope of her taxi's mane.
"So what do you think is causing those things to freak out, Pinkie?" Nelly questioned as they passed down the town streets.
The pink mare couldn't talk as she as she was currently dangling through the winds like a flag but she still gave a hum that showed she didn't really know. The giant just giggled at the enthusiasm of her odd reply.
Soon the passed by the last of the snow covered buildings and ended up entering a open fields vast expanse. Looking to the sky once again they looked for the evil spirits and found that they were literally forcing the snow storm to intensify. Nelly took off in that direction in a thundering dash after another bad feeling told her to get her huge flank moving. What came into view was an unusual if not frightful sight that the two never expected to see.
It was a bout between a small squad of royal day guards and one cold looking dragon that was covered in icy scales with wicked looking spikes of ice jutting out of its large jawed head, somewhat like a porcupine. It two barely visible eyes gave off a purple and green glow that was similar to the windigos that swirled overhead in a mad frenzy. Unlike most dragons this one had two oddly small arm yet it had a pair of legs that sported very thick amounts of muscle mass that most likely held a lot of physical power. The small ribcage of the monster was attached to a bulging spine and a flailed tail that shared vicious amounts of wicked icy spikes. Though it seemed to be lacking wings it had large taloned feet to make up for it. Overall it looked like a spiky battering ram that was currently trying to trying to stomp the four earth pony guards it was chasing, they barely managed to avoid its attempts as they ran about. Every so often they are saved via four armored pegasi swooping in before they are almost crushed. They would drop the earth ponies at safer locations before regrouping against the beast. The two mares wondered what happened to their weapons, did the beast eat them? Nelly who was watching the action felt a tap on the top of her head that drew her out of her shocked trance.
"This party could use a bouncer! That super grumpy pants is going to hurt somepony!" Pinkie complained, pointing at the roaring beast as it swung its head at the pegasi guards.
"W-what why me? I can't fight, I don't know how!" Nelly shouted in fear, causing the much smaller mare to roll forward and off her mount, into the deep snow.
The giggling pink pony stuck her head out of the snow and shook off a scruffy snow beard. "Just do what what her a friend of mine would do to a apple tree and give it the ol' one two buck-a-roo and send it flying to the moon!" Pinkie explained with a buck that sent some snow flying.
Nelly looked at the raging snow dragon and back to Pinkie who had a sad smile. It was impossible to say no to that face so she relented with a sigh.
"F-fine... just don't get too close, okay?" the huge mare explained before turning to the frozen horror with a gulp.
"Sure, just don't run into it screaming like a silly filly, it doesn't end well!" Pinkie chirped with a jump into the air, forelegs waving about. She then pulled out a bag of popcorn out of nowhere and stuffed her face as she watched the unfolding scenario.
That actually sounded like some good advice to the giant as she reluctantly took off towards the large headed lizard in a frantic gallop. Her hooves made loud thuds as she pounded towards her target. As she got close she began to see that the frozen beast was about twice her size. It was time to try and save some ponies, so here goes nothing. With fear in her nerves she leapt straight at living glacier with a fearful scream that got its attention, just before she threw a crazed right hook with a foreleg.
*CRACK-BOOM!*
Before the frozen beast could possibly react it felt an explosion shatter it's razor sharp teeth with parts of it jaw before it blacked out during its flight across the snow field. The eight royal guards all gaped at the unexpected help from above while Pinkie cringed as the knocked out snow dragon hit the ground with a earth rumbling tumble until it stopped with a snow plowing skid. It now sported a smoking hoof print in its swollen cheek. That really had to hurt...
Nelly was panting as she let looked at her hoof work before her legs gave out and she fell to her rump with nervous and fearful chuckle. Her eyes were pin pricked due to fear and adrenaline pumping through her body. She felt absolutely unreal at the moment as the rush ravaged her nervous system. It was honestly a very unpleasant feeling to experience she felt.
Pinkie galloped towards her colossal friend as she cheered with multiple explosions of confetti, streamers, and balloons of various colors. The windigos dispersed in all directions with angry whinneys as the fight ended. The dumb struck guards had taken notice that the storm had quickly weakened before eventually stopping completely as the clouds began to disperse. The afternoon sun shone through with all its glory as the fresh snow glittered like stars.
"What a super crazy right hook, that was a stupendous flank spank!" Pinkie cheered in excitement, hoof pumping into the air.
"I never want to do that again, I almost wet myself..." Nelly whispered, taking in a shaky breath. If it had actually happened, she wouldn't be able to live with the embarrassment of it all.
"Never say never or he'll hear you, miss fuzzy socks!" Pinkie sang innocently, all the pink pony got was a sigh for a reply.
Nelly picked up the sound of multiple hoof steps crunching through the snow but thought it was just Pinkie moving about. That was her guess until the sound of clanking armor caught the giants attention. Looking around she found the herself getting a salute from some exhausted looking guards. After a few seconds go by, one of them came up to her. It was an earth pony.
"Thank you ma'am, we tried to stop that monster from reaching Ponyville but that snow storm made that beast much more harder to deal with than we could possibly deal with and it almost overpowered us. You have our sincere appreciation, thank you..." the guard said, giving another salute. He turned and then regrouped with the others and they headed towards town, they had to call in a clean up crew for the injured beast before it woke up.
As they left the area, Nelly was happily giggling with a sense of relief. She knew that she finally didn't have to worry about getting chased out of town by the local guards this time. Pinkie had joined in the giggling just because it was always fun to do with others. This went on for a few minutes before a loud growl came from the massive pony's stomach.
"Oh no, you forgot to double tap!" Pinkie screamed over dramatically before running around in crazed panic.
Nelly watched her run around for several agonizing minutes of the pointless yet amusing terror. This went on for long enough so she silenced her by using her huge hoof, squishing the hyper equine into the snow and muffling her ability to scream any further.
"Pinkie, please calm down it was just my stomach!" Nelly huffed with blushing, flat eared embarrassment. The screaming was quite painful to her now ringing ears.
Removing her leg she found the pink pony looking up with a giggling smile as she sat in the large hole in the snow. With a giggling shake of her head Nelly picked her pink friend up and put her on her head. They both noticed that it was already evening, the sun was nearly ready to start its descent into night time.
"I think I should drop you at home so I can go find some dinner," Nelly suggested, turning to town and moving at a quick canter through the field.
"Aww... okay. Hey, what do you eat anyways since you're so big and fuzzy?" Pinkie asked curiously yet still cheerful all the same.
"Mostly trees or fruit in the Everfree though sometimes it's whatever is kindly offered by friends, those pies Applejack made were crafted bliss," Nelly answered, drooling a bit at the thought of eating the heavenly apple pies. She quickly wiped it away with her fetlocks.
"Oh you know her too? She's one of my bestest friends! AJ is a really dependable and honest pony that sure knows about her apples!" Pinkie chirped excitedly. "Wait, you eat trees?" she added a minute later.
Nelly hummed in agreement and as a answer as she neared the towns snow topped roofs. She wondered if she could earn some pie later on tomorrow. She also wondered if her pink friend knew that pretty rainbow maned pegasus. Maybe asking would be a good idea.
"Hey Pinkie, do you by chance know a pony named Rainbow Dash? She kinda mistook me for something and attacked me. Applejack had decided to tie her up so she would stop but she broke free and flew away in a panic, all because I asked why she did it in the first place. I really don't understand why she did but it's been bugging me a lot," Nelly calmly questioned as she passed into the city streets.
"Dashie got freaked out by something you asked?" Pinkie pondered aloud, tapping her chin with her hoof. "That's not the kind of thing she would do from a silly question," she explained.
They finally reached the tasty looking home of the sugary pink mare. Using a large hoof, Nelly removed Pinkie from her massive head before putting the silly pony on the ground near the front door.
"Well alright then, if you see her could you please tell her that I'm sorry for offending her in any possible way?" Nelly asked hopefully with a pleading smile.
"Okie dokie lokie, you can count on me!" Pinkie chirped with a grinning salute.
"Thanks you, take care of miss Fluttershy and I'll see ya later you silly pony!" Nelly chirped as she began heading down a street towards Sweet Apple Acres direction.
"See ya later alligator!" Pinkie chirped before zooming inside her home to check on her sick patient.
Nelly nodded and she happily hummed as she left the area at a steady pace. Half way through town, she obviously passed by Scootaloo who was currently eating a warm cinnamon bun on a wooden bench. It was the second most shocking thing the foal had seen today after what happened with Applebloom’s brother. After a minute of staring, she just shrugged and took another bite of her treat.
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Meanwhile in the cup cake room that sat upon the very top of tasty looking building of sweets, a runny nosed Fluttershy was staring wide eyed at the very big pony as she left the area. She unsure how to react to what she was seeing but kept herself low as to not be seen by the intimidating pony of great big size. All of a sudden she felt a presence looming over her shoulder, then it spoke.
"Hiya Fluttershy, whatcha starin' at?" Pinkie asked in her usual, spontaneous manner.
The pink maned pegasus barely restrained her urge to give a weak squeal of terror before she realized it was just her hyperactive friend and gave a silent sigh of relief. She then realized that was ask a simple question and felt it rude not to answer, especially since she had a few questions of her own.
"Uh, hi Pinkie. Um, why am I in your room and why do I feel so tired?" Fluttershy gently interrogated with an edge of worry in her tone.
Pinkie jumped away from the nervous pony then began bouncing around her room giggling before deciding to answer her timid patient.
"Thats easy silly, Nelly found you unconscious somewhere out in that really weird snowstorm that turned out to be caused by those windigo thingies because they were going all loco over the royal guards getting their tushies munched on by a dragon that was gonna destroy Ponyville, though me and Nelly came in later on and she knocked that evil meany mcmeanerson into next week with a super explosive POW!" Pinkie explained with a swing of her right foreleg, unnaturally without a pause for air before ending with a wide grin.
It took a minute for the tired pegasus to process what she was just told, everything fit together and the idea of a dragon attacking town made her pale a bit. Another thing occurred to her as she went wide eyed.
"W-wait so th-that gigantic p-pony who was walking away w-was Nelly?" Fluttershy nervously inquired with wide eyes.
"Yepparooni, she's a really silly pony but she's not evil or dangerous, I mean she saved you from kicking the chilly bucket and she even risked her big furry socks to save everypony!" Pinkie said with a tone that was a little serious. She bounced up to her rooms window and beckoned her shy friend to take a look outside.
Fluttershy took a look and she let out a squeak of utter terror at what she saw. A group of four large royal zeppelins were hauling the titanic ice dragon's limp body towards the north using a network of chains and hooks that each airship held with even distribution. Fluttershy looked to her friend with a lot of fear yet a massive feeling of gratefulness that she and the girls didn't have to deal with that monster. Her pink friend gave her a gentle pat on the head as she smiled. This calmed the pegasus down as she realized that there are much more scarier things to fear than a giant pony. "I-is she really that n-nice a pony?" she asked as she watched the giant become smaller as she got further away.
"Well of course she is you silly filly, she just wants to let everypony know that she just wanted to make some friends and to not be treated like a meany pants monster, you know? Besides, she was ready to make a giant pony puddle herself if I hadn't cheered her on!" Pinkie explained with a giggling smile.
Fluttershy gave slow nod as a small smile crept onto her tired face. She yawned softly and Pinkie led her back into her bed. She still was recovering and they both knew that she needed more rest. The spontaneous thought that Nelly still thought was a nurse made the bubbly pink pony giggle, much to the confusion of her sleepy patient.
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Crickets began to chirp as a starry night blanketed the sky above the town of Ponyville and beyond. Well past the the road sign that Fluttershy was found near, the gigantic pony was calmly thumping down the snow covered path with a warm feeling of joy that she felt after becoming friends with the Apple family, not to mention Pinkie. Despite the nerve racking scenario with the scary snow lizard, the day had turned out pretty nicely. It was also good to know that the local guards would hopefully leave her be when she came to visit Pinkie's home. despite the possible panic that would likely ensue upon her arrival. Nelly was really looking forward to tomorrow as she began passing the tall pale white fence of the apple orchards boundaries.
The thoughts of eating those perfect apple treats reminded the the huge equine that she had to get a move on so she could get some dinner in her. Her stomach made that very clear with a monstrous growl that could easily be mistaken for a manticore. So with the thoughts of food on her mind she picked up speed as she took off in a earth rumbling gallop. Soon she came upon the border of the Everfree and jumped in with care as she didn't want to pointlessly knock trees over with her size. She felt that it would be reckless and destructive. It made made her nimble when needed to get around tight places due to all the practice she got.
Miles into the forest Nelly had come to an open grove that she had made into an area to sleep. She has been calling the grove home for the last month or so since her last failure of trying to make some friends in Cloudsdale. In hindsight, that was not a good idea since the residents thought that she was trying to eat them all for some reason. The memory of getting chased off by a swarm of pegasi armed with storm clouds still gave her nightmares every time it rained. On a lighter note she found that she could shrug off lightning strikes though the mass of panic and dangerous weather ended badly for her attackers, it made the front line of every newspaper as an unexpected mishap. No mention of her was ever made for some reason and she never learned why.
The matter of dinner was at hoof. She had a stack of sweet maple trees and a pile of rich tasting redwood branch's. She figured that she wanted something sweet yet she realized that she would spoil her appetite at this rate. With that she began tearing into her dinner, easily ripping away the bark and then biting away at the inner layers like a crunchy bread stick. The sounds of snapping and tearing echoed through the forest as Nelly happily filled her belly with the stuff that most would build homes or furniture out of.
When she finally had her fill, she fell to the ground and let out a content sigh as she rubbed her belly with a smile. She realized that she was thirsty and rolled to her hooves. She then made her way over to a river that ran through the eastern corner of the grove and took a few gulps of the clean water. With her thirst fully quenched she went to a nearby spot and laid down with a loud thud. As she closed her eyes she had one thing that she really was curious about. Why did that pretty pegasus freak out like that? She hoped to find out tomorrow so it would stop bothering her so much. With that final thought she closed her eyes and fell into a deep slumber that would put her dinner to shame.
As she slept peacefully with not a care in the world, a shadowy red horned form stood upon the very top on a pine tree at a distance. It was currently analyzing the strangely large equine with a look of curiosity in its scarlet and green eyes that gave off a purple mist. Muttering left its mouth with an echo of dark growling in its tone. Willing some kind of green and black magic, a large green tome with pulsing red runes was summoned before it. Opening the book, it began to read through the pages at a speed that would almost be on par with a certain lavender bookworm.
Pages into the book the shadowy form stops turning pages and as a vicious white grin took over its face. Snapping the tome closed, it poofs into a cloud of shadow to places unknown. With a deep chuckling hum that would make anypony shiver, it pointed its horn at the sleeping giant and fired a blast of magical fury upon her.
To its poisonously expectant delight, the blast of evil magic had literally bounced off her before flying off into a random tree, causing it to explode violently. This had caused the massive pony roll over in her sleep before hugging a large boulder like a teddy bear.
"Forbidden entity, ye hath my attention so thou shalt prove the horrors of thy bloodline..." the smoky being stated in with a chilling chuckle. The dark being then turned away and leapt into sky before turning to black smoke and fading into the air. One last thing echoed through the forest before it completely disappeared. "Amusing how even dragons have foes that haunt their past..."
Nelly did not notice this as she was unconsciously twitching her right foreleg with a drooling open mouth. She could only mumble one thing as she dreamed under the starry night sky. "No mummy... tasty pie... it won't fit... too big for tummy..." she grumbled in her sleep, as drool poured from her mouth and into the snow where it began to pool.
A nearby blueberry bush began to shake as a pair of long white ears popped out with a twitch. After they turn were sucked back into the plant, a white scowling bunny hopped out of the shrubbery with a blue stained face before sprinting off into the depths of the forest with an urgent purpose in mind.
To be continued...

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 Chapter 2: Onwards they go with that pesky rolling snow!  
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Chapter 2: Onwards they go with that pesky rolling snow!
The Odds Aren't Small Though!
By Rhythmic Pata-brony (I only regret what I do not understand.)
All “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic” characters and cannon settings do NOT belong to me, this is a fan made story.
Only Nelly and any family belongs to me. (Duh!)
Warning: Merciless beating of an innocent, you have been warned...
Chapter 2: Onwards they go with that pesky rolling snow!
Night had come and gone with yesterdays shifting excitement being left behind for the past to keep hold of as a memento for eternity. Sunrise once again claims the start of the day as sunlight reaches across the land with it's warm light.
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For a certain white bunny, it was an annoying early morning as his caretaker had still not returned from yesterdays shopping trip. While he was worried for her safety, he truly hated waiting for anything for any reason. To keep himself from trashing the cottage to spite the late mare, he had passed the time by tossing logs into the cottages only stone fireplace as he sat on a red wool rug. It was a simple pleasure for him to watch as natures hard work burned for his amused comfort.
After awhile, things began to get dull for frowning bunny so he decided that it was time to seek the missing animal lover out and give her a piece of his mind. Hopping to a couch and diving into it, he retrieved a small yellow feather that he stuck into his tail. Taking one of the many tunnels in the walls of the cottage, he made his way out of the building. From there, the bunny made his way down the snow covered path that lead out to the main road and followed it. It would only take him a few minutes to arrive at the front gate of the famed orchard, Sweet Apple Acres.
He began to mentally prepare himself for something else he also hated doing more than anything. Taking a deep breath, he put his white paws to his mouth and let out a high pitched whistle that echoed across the area. A minute later a howl was heard that caused him to nervously gulp as a violent shiver ran up his small spine. Before he could brace for it, he was knocked onto his back and pinned by a dainty white dog paw. Looking up he was greeted by brown and white collie that was lovingly named Winona.
She was giving him a special kind of puppy smile as she looked at him with lidded dark brown eyes as she slowly rubbed his belly. The blushing bunny gave a sheepish smile and he watched the white tip of her brown tail wag in excitement. This bunny had never felt more uncomfortable in life than near this doggy, and for a good reason too. Why oh why did he have to save this mutt from those timber wolves?
With a silent sigh, he pushed the paw off and stood up as he was watched by the curious farm dog. He began to make odd noises as he waved gestures that very few ponies could even understand. Winona just barked several times in reply before tilting her head expectantly.
With a nod, the bunny took the feather from his ear and held up to her. She carefully sniffed it before she put her nose into the air and smelt for a scent. A few seconds later her ears perked up and she barked. The bunny was quickly whisked on to the collie and they were off on a trip towards Ponyville. On they way the female pooch had taken to rubbing the bunny's back with her tail in the most gentle way possible. He felt that this teasing was going to kill him but he tried to ignore it.
Down the dirt path that passed into the bustling streets of the snow covered town later...
A little more than twelve minutes had passed since they arrived before Sugarcube Corner. It would've taken much longer if the nimble canine had decided to chase a smug cat who like her owner, loved to gossip about things he didn't care for. Luckily for the bunny, Sweetie Belle was currently trying to capture feline for a bath. The look of horror that furball was sporting was absolutely priceless to Winona and him as she was dragged away. The pooch herself liked a bath every once in a while herself but couldn't figure out what the cats problem was. Still though, victory smells like a wet prissy feline.
Once the bunny hopped off his mount, they both made their way into the bakery. Once inside, they both made their way upstairs and even passed by a tired Mrs. Cake as she sipped on a hot cup of coffee. She normally would of stopped them but she felt that it was better to leave it alone. This mother was too tired to deal with this madness right now.
With nothing stopping them, they went down the hallway once they got upstairs and they stopped before a corn blue door that was decorated by party favors. Winona decided to scratch on the door with a paw and it opened up to reveal a happily sleepy looking pink mare wearing baby blue pajamas with a matching sleeping cap. Different colored balloons decorated the sleep wear.
"Angel? Hey, whatcha doing here with Winona?" Pinkie yawned as she stretched her back.
The bunny ignored the party pony and immediately hopped over to the bed containing none other than the mare he was looking for. He jumped on to the bed and moved up to the sleeping face of Fluttershy. She seemed to be sleeping peacefully and it would be a shame to it wake her buuut... he missed dinner and was not going to be pleased if he missed breakfast too. Hopping behind her flank, he lifted a leg back and kicked her off the bed with all his tiny might.
"Eep!" *Ker-thump!*
The shy pony was now wide awake as she slowly picked herself off the floor with a shaky, soft groan. Why must she leave the warm comfy bed? When she looked on the bed she was rudely forced off, she found her scowling pet bunny with a crossed look. Her eyes went wide as she came to a realization.
"Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry that I didn't come home yesterday!" Fluttershy frantically explained with flat ears and teary eyes.
The bunny rubbed his temple as he sighed in annoyance. He began to try and explain something with his gestures and various noises that only a bunny could make. The yellow pegasus calmly listened and watched intently before her expression quickly turned to horror. The last thing Angel gestured was the demand to be fed, or else.
"A-are you sure th-that you heard th-this?" Fluttershy squeaked with pinpricked eyes and a gulp. Angel simply nodded and pointed out that he was still hungry.
"You okay Shy? You look like you've seen a grumpy hydra, on a Monday too!" Pinkie sleepily giggled before yawning dreamily. The yellow winged pony looked at her friend with a quiet whimper and shook her head slowly.
"Angel h-heard something evil and h-he thinks that somepony is planning s-something! Do you think it has something to do with that s-scary dr-dr-dragon?" This shy pony had a very bad feeling and it was quite noticeable too, the poor mare.
Pinkie simply nodded before fell to the floor with a thump and began to snore. When she needs her sleep its best that you let her as she can get really strange.
The bunny was tired of waiting decided to toss a pillow at the side of the shy mares head to get her attention. When she looked at her glaring pet, she gave a sheepish smile.
"Sorry Angel... we should get you some breakfast, you must be starving you poor thing..." Putting her pink friend into bed, she then made her way down stairs and was generously given some breakfast from Mrs. Cake. Much to his delight, Angel was given the deluxe carrot cake and Fluttershy had some oatmeal with hot cocoa. Winona seemed content to lay near a certain bunny as the two ate at a random table in the bakery. The nervous mare still needed to talk to the others soon but felt that it could wait a bit longer, no rush hopefully...
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Meanwhile...
Molten lava flowed through the haven for dragon kind like the uncountable blood vessels through a limb. Hundreds if not thousands of various dragons were casually gathering with one another with tales of their lives, the intent for finding a mate, or to simply lounge on the warmth of the volcanic systems that pulsed with destructive heat. Despite their draconic nature they prefered some peace over the rigors of fighting one another, though few tended to have a scuffle every so often. This was usually due to the more greedier of the dragons who would try to steal the treasures of others. It was a simply yet truly vicious cycle for them.
It was here that a black cloud of smoke quietly swept over the area. It moved towards the largest of dragons as it infused itself into their gems and up the nostrils of the sleeping behemoths with eerie silence. Several of them had sneezed out fountains of blazing infernos into the air that each had their own unique color. Each dragon began to shake as they tossed and turned with rumbling groans.
After a while the black tide had reached a particularly older dragon that looked quite grey. His body looked rather frail compared to other of his kind, but it was misleading. The massive amount of treasure he slept upon was a beacon that showed his prowess and respect among the others. None would dare take their chances with this old coot. It was him that the toxic looking fumes had seeped into as its way into the resting dragons one toothed maw. This soon caused him to quickly shoot up with horrified roar that drew the attention of all others, even those who were sleeping.
The biggest of the fire breathers had taken to the air before they circled around the fossil with unease in their expressions. When no more gathered around the disturbed elder, began to mutter crazed and ancient words as tears escaped his faded blue eyes. All the others had patiently waited for what he had to say. When the wise elder of an almost unchallenged race is in tears you want to know what's wrong.
After a few minutes had passed by with no change in the old lizards mood, a familiar red dragon sporting some golden serpent eyes decided to break his silence.
"What causes you such madness old one?" The tone of the question only showed respect.
"We failed to wipe her kind out young ones!" crackled the ancient dragon.
The red dragon looked to the others for an answer but found only more confusion. "We do not understand what you mean..." He gulped as his eyes darted about.
"Of course you don't, it was before your time! None would remember the horrors of that forsaken brood..." The elder began to shake as he slowly buried his head into his pile of valuables.
"Does this have something to do with my nightmare, elder?" The red dragon noticed the old grey one tense up.
"What was in this nightmare young one?" came a slightly muffled reply, body rigid.
The red dragon took a slow breath. "A shadowy serpent chased me down from within the earth before pulling me into it with no way to escape, tearing off my wings and crushing my neck as I struggled..."
The other dragons began to whisper to one another with worry before a roar silenced them in an instant. "That is disturbingly familiar, it matches with my dream and that truly worries me, it seems that my siblings did not manage to completely destroy the last of those monsters. The terror looms once more..." The fear and hate that the elder displayed seemed to glow from his blind eyes. Sucking in a deep breath he blew a slow bellow of smoke out of his nostrils. "Do you all remember that so called horror story that you were told and hatchlings?"
The audience took a minute to think back and talk it over with each other. The red dragon was beckoned to the group and they whispered the what they remembered to him. With a nod to the group of massive adults, he turned to the elder again. "We went over what we remembered but could only with two stories. The chaos sapiens and the core sleepers..." the red dragon explained as he rubbed his scaly red neck with a foreclaw.
"The second one would be the one, the story about the bipedal apes was just a silly story about the effects of tampering with the natural order..." The old dragon shivered at the thought of such destructive creatures being let loose upon this world.
"You're telling me that those demons actually existed?! They who would feed upon the very suffering that enforces Tatarus and they who are the bane of all magical essence..." His pink spines stood on end from the very thought of facing such a terrifying foe. He imagined trying to fight a creature that takes in pain for fun and found that it would most likely be a hard to tell if you're winning or being toyed with. He still wondered something though. "Old one, why haven't we seen any sign of the demons if they did manage to survive?"
"That is hard to discern young one... I suggest that we seek out oddities that would point out the survival of these monsters. Should it be true, we must eradicate them before they cause untold horror to our kind once more! If you feel that you're up  to this task then you all should prepare yourself as tomorrow you will all begin your search!" The elder let loose a primal roar and soon every single dragon present joined in with their very own.
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Far away from the dragons at the very border of volcanic lands, the shadowy form with a glowing red fang for a horn was casually reading out of a tome with casually toothy grin. A long stretch of black smoke was returning to his body at a steady pace as he flipped to another page. A minute later and he let out a chuckling sigh as he snapped the tome shut.
"Why do ye proud and ferocious draga seem so easy to stir? Tis a shame that ye will be naught but pawns for my desires..." He turned willed his magic and a crystal goblet of purple and blue liquid appeared before him in a puff of blackness. Using his dark magic to hold the reflective he took a sip of the mixture and let out a dark reverberating sigh. "Crystal berry juice, ye never displease me with your refreshing taste. Pray tell satisfying liquid, dost that sakura maned beauty taste as sweet as ye?" He began gulping down the rest of the drink before poofing away the goblet with the tome into the unknown.
With a devilish grin, he willed his magic and he teleported from the area in a plume of shadows that crackled with green and purple magics. Where this despicable entity left to now was anyone's guess...
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Elsewhere...
Miles away from the town of Ponyville and into the Everfree forest, a pony capable of destroying a mountain by herself had just finished eating breakfast. It was a simple meal of maple logs and some wild honey tulips she found growing in the grove. Currently she was headed to a massive hot spring she found some time ago. It was located a couple miles away, south-west from the grove she usually slept at. Nelly was happy that it was a short walk to get to her makeshift bath.
When she arrived to her destination she was met by a familiar resident of the forest that also visited the hot bath every so often, an ursa major by the name of Yuma. Nelly had met her the first time she came to the boiling cauldron of the earth. Coincidentally, she had managed to be carrying some extra hydra meat she cooked for breakfast. Since then, she was a tolerated guest around the star bear.
The giant equine was noticed and the celestial bear scooted over to make room. After setting her bandana to the side, she stepped into the scalding water and she let out a content sigh as her mane and coat was cleaned of debris she picked up from traveling about. Wood branches, rocks, dirt, and the occasional clump of spiderweb had been purged from her body. One time she had the misfortune of having a swarm of parasprites nesting in her fetlocks, none survived the ordeal. The tiny shrieks still haunt her dreams among a few other things that met the same fate.
"Morning Yuma, is the cub doing well?" Nelly greeted as began to rub into her coat.
All she got a a series of grunts and funny growling from her bath companion as she gestured with a paw.
"Yeah that was going to happen eventually, you just don't eat Scorpios, they give ya the runs for days. Trust me I know what it's like..." You have to learn what you can or cannot eat somehow, right?
Yuma gave a warm chuckle that made the water heavily ripple from the vibrations. Faust help you all if a certain unicorn gets a hold of this beast for her club.
"This is why a parents love is so endless, the young are silly!" That or the old have a bad sense of humor that involves the suffering of the current generation she felt.
The ursa major nodded as she got out of the hot spring and shook off the water in a dog like motion that soaked the surrounding trees like it was raining. She gave a final growl before leaving to tend to her sick cub with a minor case of food poisoning.
"Take care of yourself!" Nelly chirped before dunking her head into the bubbling water.
Minutes of cleaning later, she finally exited the water and shook herself dry until her mane and fetlocks fluffed out. Quickly she picked up her bandana and dug around the huge pocket for her favorite brush. It was a one ton gift from her dear mother that was meant to last her a lifetime as it was crafted from magical high quality steel that was polished to a shining mirror finish. The object was literally classed as a morning star due to its nature and shape. Only Pinkies mane would be a challenge for this weapon of mane care.
When she put away the knot killing tool away, she put her bandana back on and headed back to the grove. She began to think of what she was going to do today and remembered that she should pay the Apples family a visit. Maybe checking up on miss Fluttershy's condition would be a good idea too. It was possible that the other residents would panic but it would be at the very least would be worth it for once.
Soon she returned to her grove and went over to the river for a drink. After a refreshing gulp of chilled water, she looked skyward and found that it was only a little cloudy. If the chilly breeze affected her, she didn't really show it at all. With one more yawn and another drawn out stretch she took off through the forest at a careful canter.
Through the forest the almost unstoppable pony went as her legs shuffle around the trees in a almost random pattern. Many small animals had quickly moved out the giants path as she rumbled through the obstacles with practiced ease. Creatures that had been affected by the annoying effects of poison joke had taken the chance to intercept her path for the freedom of living normally again. They had long since taken notice of the flowers having no effect on this strange giant and it got them to risk their neck to see why. What they learned was the pesky effects were swept away upon touching her. It was worth a the risk of getting stepped on they felt.
Eventually she arrived at the border of the forest and to the sight of the vast orchard of the Apple family. She took noticed of the increased level of fallen snow as she sent huge shovels of the white powder flying with intentional kicks. It was a rather amusing thing to do but she decided to stop her horse play and continue on her way. She was content with just taking in the cold refreshing air now.
Soon the white fence came into view along the borders of the orchard. Nelly began to wonder if she was capable of growing a decent things herself. Sure it was a known fact that earth ponies could grow just about anything but she couldn't help but wonder if that also counted for something that wasn't straight up pony. Oh well, she can find out later on when spring comes around again.
Minutes pass by for her and soon she came to a stop at the front gate of her destination. With a calming breath, she leapt over the sign and slow followed the logs that marked the path to the Apple family home. As she approached the barn like structure, she found that Big Macintosh was currently on the roof of the building. He seemed to be hammering a new shingles into the building using his mouth. She figured that this farm pony has very strong neck that simply cannot be broken by normal means since he didn't seem to be having trouble driving the nails in. Time to say hello.
"Morning Mac," Nelly greeted as she stopped beside the red stallion.
Putting down a claw type hammer carefully he turned to his new friend with a calm smile and replied "Howdy Nelly, that storm did a number to the roof so ah'm tryin' tuh fix it right now. AJ's out in the eastern orchard with Applebloom to try and clear out all the extra snow that really built up." He pointed out to the two far away sisters as they load snow into a large wooden wagon. Maybe she could give them a hoof?
"Do you need any help with anything? I have a lot of free time today," Nelly asked curiously.
The farm pony took a minute to think before he shaking his head. "Why don't ya see if those two could make use of ya? Ah doubt that ya can help me right now and they could use a helpin' hoof," he suggested stoically before picking the hammer back up. He figured that she was too big to help repair the roof safely.
"Well alright then, I'll see you later then," she chirped with a smile. She turned to the sister and calmly walked towards them as the stallion continued his work in peace. She hoped that they would accept her help.
It was a very short walk to reach the sisters as the younger of the two noticed her arrival. The filly dropped the snow shovel that she held in her mouth. "Howdy miss Nelly!" Applebloom greeted warmly with a cheerful tone. This alerted the older and slightly surprised sister who just dumped a shovel full of snow into their ever trusty wagon.
"Well ah'll be, what brings ya out here today, sugar cube?" Applejack happily asked after setting down her own shovel.
"To see how you're both doing and offer a helping hoof if you'd be willing to accept it," Nelly explained with a tilted head and a hopeful smile.
Applejack didn't even think twice about it as she nodded with a small grin. "That'd be pretty nice if ya did, we gotta get the east and north fields cleared of the extra snow or its gunna be a real mess when winter wrap up starts!" If she didn't get this done, the extra snow would cause havoc with the time schedule. A certain lavender princess with a extreme tendencies of being organized and efficient would not be happy.
Nelly smiled cheerfully with a short hum of personal achievement. "What would you like me to do first?" she asked as she looked around curiously. There was a lot of work to be done and this made her wonder how the siblings would have finished in time for this winter wrap up thing, it was a daunting task with so few ponies.
Applejack took a minute to think as she came up with a plan to deal with ridiculous amount of snow. Then an idea struck her that was sure to work out quite well but she needed to test it out a little bit. "Do ya know how to make a snow pony, sugar cube?" she asked, making everypony else a bit confused.
"Yeah... why do you ask?" Nelly wasn't sure where this was going but it sounded like it was going to be fun.
"We're going to make snow ponies?" Applebloom questioned with a cocked brow.
"Why don't ya start a base an' push it down this row between the trees? Ah only want you to stop when it grows too big to fit between the rows," Applejack instructed with a knowing smirk.
The giant curiously nodded and scooped up enough snow to make a very large base for your normal sized snow pony. Putting it on the ground, she began to slowly roll the white sphere forward and took notice of its quickly growing size. Careful to kept it rolling down the row and not into the valued apple trees, she soon came to a stop. She found that she left a much smaller level of snow in her wake and that she now had a white two ton boulder that she could easily lift. So this was the farm mares plan, clever.
Applebloom finally understood what her sister meant by snow ponies and couldn't help but giggle at the result. "So this is what ya mean!" she chirped excitedly.
"Eeyup, should make things go a lot faster! What do ya think of mah plan, pardner?" Applejack felt that she was truly on a roll right now, no pun intended either.
Nelly simply hummed in agreement as her tail swayed in excitement. "Just set me up some starting points and this will be a done before we know it." She began to wonder as to how many snow ponies could be made and where they were going to be set up in the first place.
"Alright then, me and Applebloom will start making piles for the start points! Ready?" Applejack happily explained with a hoof in the air and a spirited smile.
"Oh, wait! Can I help make snow ponies too!" came the familiar and bubbly cry of a certain pink pony from afar. A pink blur zoomed in from the distance at an incredible speed before it stopped right in Applejacks personal space with two excited cyan blue orbs.
"Er... howdy, Pinkie?" The hyper pony was slowly pushed away by the farm pony. "If ya want to help then follow Applebloom and set up the starting points while ah go and set the others up the next row over, on the other side," she explained with a slightly forced smile. She really valued their friendship but this mare had a special way of making a pony uncomfortable.
"Okie dokie, you can count on me!" Pinkie acknowledged with a smiling salute.
"C'mon Pinkie, lets get started," Applebloom chuckled before she grabbed a shovel in her mouth and found a new row of trees to set up for.
"Hmm... I wonder what I'll name them..." Pinkie mused as jumped into a random tree and pulled out a pink handled snow shovel. She join joined the young filly and they began to quickly pile up the snow.
"See ya on the other side!" Applejack yelled as she took hold of her own shovel with her tail and galloped to her determined position.
"Here we go..." Nelly whispered to herself as went up to the duo's first pile or powder and scooped it up. Like the first one from earlier, she shaped out the start of the snow pony base and set it on the ground. She began to quickly roll it down the set path until another white boulder that equaled the first in size was created. With that she moved to the next row over and found her next pile. Looking further to the row after the next one, she found that the stetson wearing mare was already working on the next pile. With a smiling giggle she continued her task with a strange sense of growing warmness in her heart as she began to hum...
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After she had given Mrs. Cake her truly sincere thanks and retrieving her scarf, Fluttershy and her animal company had taken to the town streets. She had decided to seek out the aid of the closest friends in the current area. Right now she had a very bad feeling in the back of her mind that she needed to hurry. Much to her relief, the town library was only a few minutes away and was within sight so it only would be a short trip.
So she made her way through the currently snowy road as nimbly galloped around many ponies as she gave hurried apologies to any she barely touched. It would only take her a couple frantic minutes as she arrived before a building that literally a tree house with a balcony to boot. She wasted no time knocking as she pushed the door open and went inside. Scanning the area, she found a familiar little dragon of green and purple as he dusted the wooden shelves filled with books. He was not who she was looking for but maybe he could be of help.
"Spike!" Fluttershy squeaked, getting his attention.
"Oh, hey Shy, is something wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost." He wasn't really expecting the shy pony to show up so early and felt that something was amiss.
"S-spike, where's Twilight?!" she asked in a frantic tone and very pleading expression.
"I think she's still in the basement right now and working on some crazy spell for brain growth or something. She's been down there since she woke up..." The dragon really didn't know what was so important about it but that mare really likes to over do things sometimes.
"C-could you please t-tell her that it's ur-urgent?" Fluttershy nervously asked.
Spike gave a concerned nod and went to fetch the requested pony. As he did so, the nervous pegasus began to ponder about the things to come as she looked at the floor. Who was this evil entity and what did it want with that giant mare she saw yesterday? She knew that this spelt only trouble for everypony but what could she do besides warn the others? The sound of a closing door had returned her to reality.
"Fluttershy are you okay?" came the expected voice of her studious friend.
Looking up once again, she was met by the concerned face of a familiar lavender alicorn with a semi-long and extremely dark blue mane that sported a pink stripe. "Y-yes, it's th-that I just came to tell y-you something really im-important..." she replied as she tried to calm her nerves with a drawn out and shaky breath. She needed something to relax her quite badly.
"Spike, could you make some tea?" Twilight asked her number one assistant.
He simply nodded as he waddled towards the kitchen as a certain bunny followed after with hunger on his mind. He was not going to miss his chance at more breakfast, even if Winona was now following his every move still.
"So what's going on exactly and why do you look so terrible?" Twilight inquired as she shut the front door with a cast of magic through her horn. The magic enchantment in the room quickly began to warm the place up again and it was soon a comfy temperature again.
"Angel told me that s-something bad is going to h-happen soon!" Fluttershy explained as she began to mess with the end of her flowing mane.
"What gave him that idea?" The alicorns tone seemed skeptical at the mention of the mischievous bunny. She hadn't forgiven him for messing with her equipment after she was task of watching over him. That ferocious abomination he created still resides in that steel box to this day.
"H-he told me that he heard what sounded like a stallion th-that spoke in an e-evil and outdated way while out in the Everfree foraging..." This peaked the alicorns interest instantly.
"You mean like how Luna did when we first freed her Nightmare Moon, right?" She knew of one past foe that might fit but that seemed unlikely as he said very few words.The thought seemed silly as he was utterly defeated... right?
The shy pegasus could only nod in reply as Spike returned with three white cups and a silver kettle on a white platter. Twilight hummed in thought as her magic picked up a couple cups with the kettle and then proceeded to pour some tea for her present friends. The pegasus took a careful sip of the hot beverage and found that it was a soothing peppermint blend.
Spike retrieved a bowl of water for the collie and a smaller cup of juice for bunny who gave him a thankful nod. As he went to listen to his friends conversation, Winona began to slowly lap at her liquid while giving the now blushing bunny a lidded look as he tried to ignore the suggestive manner she did it.
"Did he by chance see what this entity looked like at all?" One more piece of information would help the princess figure out who they might be dealing with.
"He told me that he couldn't see through all the black smoke..." Fluttershy explained before taking another sip of her tea. After swallowing the brew, she let out a calm breath.
The lavender pony felt something click in her head as she realized what they were dealing with right now. "Sombra..." she muttered as she dropped her tea cup with wide eyes. The sound of her shattering cup brought her attention to her shocked friends.
"S-s-sombra? I-I-I thought that w-we beat him for good!" Spike sputtered as he ate his entire cup out of shock. It's bland taste would do nothing for his fearful state.
"Oh my goodness, oh my goodness..." Fluttershy squeaked in terror and as she fell to the floor with her forelegs over her face, shaking in fear. Her tea cup was set to the side on the ground so she didn't break it.
"Spike, prepare to take a letter! We have to warn Princess Celestia about this!" Twilight commanded with a tone of urgency.
The small dragon was quick to retrieve a quill and parchment. "Alright!" Spike announced at the ready with his impeccable writing skill.
"W-wait, there's something else I n-need to tell you about..." Fluttershy quietly said as she drew circles in the floor with a hoof.
"Yeah, Fluttershy?" Twilight curiously inquired.
Before she say anything, Spike spontaneously let out a belch of flame and a all too familiar scroll had materialized out of it before falling to the floor. It was quickly picked up and opened by the known bookworms magic. She began reading  and her eyes widened in disbelief as she finished reading it with a twitching brow.
"What did it say, Twi?" Spike pressed with curious anticipation.
"Princess Celestia had just explained to me of a dragon that had attempted to attack Ponyville yesterday AND that a GIANT pony of all things came out of nowhere to stop it! Did I miss something here, why wasn't I informed of something like this?!" Twilight fumed with forelegs up in the air and rump on the floor. "Oh, I'm also supposed to confirm it's existence..." she added with a defeated groan.
"That's what I was trying to tell you about, her name is Nelly..." Fluttershy explained as she decided to give her friend a calming hug.
"Whoa, you've met her already?" Spike questioned with a look of awe as Twilight groaned with annoyance.
"No, not directly anyways... Pinkie told me a little about her, I was in her room when I saw Nelly walking away..." she admitted as she slowly let her frowning friend go.
Twilight went silent for a moment before she finally spoke up again. "Spike, could you please send the princess a warning about Sombra?" she requested as she summoned forth some rose red ear muffs with a matching wool scarf upon herself.
"You can count on me!" Spike declared as he quickly started scratching words on to the parchment. When he finished, he tied in in a red ribbon and sent the letter off in a gout of magical green flame. "Done."
Winona had finish her water and was now slowly stalking towards Angel as he chose to nervously back away with and audible gulp...
A minute later and a reply was burped out into the awaiting aura of magic. Quickly the princess in the library began reading the new message and she was once again confused by it's contents. "She's going to post some extra guards around town and she also noticed a lot of odd white dots among the Apple family's orchard? Magical properties of her telescope seem to blur when when trying to focus on an unknown creature? I guess we know where to look for this giant mare first..." Oh good, some progress can be made now but what's with that last part about the telescope's magic blurring? Time to find out and hope for the best she hoped.
"Can I come this time, Twi? I don't think it's a good idea for me to be left here alone..." Spike pleaded wearily. He honestly didn't want to be left behind if Sombra was out for revenge as it would most likely end badly.
Sensing her assistants worry, Twilight nodded and the young dragon ran up a nearby set of wooden stairs to retrieve a specially made set of clothing to keep him warm outside. It would only take under three minutes before he returned.  He wore a green pair of insulated pants with a matching coat, some yellow boots, green gloves, and brown fuzzy hat that would remind a certain race of bipedal apes about their vodka drinking brethren on their own planet. If this specially made ensemble didn't keep him nice and toasty, Rarity would quit fashion and burn her home down in a fit of dramatic self loathing. Nope, that's not going to ever happen since magic would ensure that it would do its job quite well. He gave his sister figure a nod and he was levitated on to her back.
"Let's go, we have to warn the others about Sombra and find this strange pony!" Twilight announced with a smiling fervor before leaving out the front door with a nervous pegasus and animal company following in her wake. Their first destination would be their lustrous friend Rarity and then to find a chromatic maned pegasus. Truly a pony on a mission if the determination on her furry face pointed out anything. Speaking of faces, Angel’s was currently a steaming inferno of heat due to the Apple family’s loyal dog swaying her tail and not the one that wags.
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The bookworm, her assistant, and their shy friend arrived to the front of door of the building that truly lived up to its well known name, the Carousel Boutique. Twilight was the one to knock on the door with her painfully even amount of hoof taps before taking a comfortable step back. She was rewarded by a very cheerful reply that made Spike smile and swoon smittenly.
"I'll be there in a moment, just trying to finish with a slight medical emergency!" Rarity sang from behind the slightly muffling door.
"Ouch! Be careful sis, that stings!" Sweetie Belle yelped quite loudly.
"Oh hush Sweetie, I warned you about trying to bathe Opal alone." The older sisters had a hint of amusement in her tone.
Everypony save the baby dragon and the distracted pets, gave each other confused looks as a glow opened the front door. They calmly entered the building and find the young unicorn getting wrapped in bandages. Twilight gave an amused smile at the sight while Spike had his loving focus on the older sibling who was sporting a pair of red framed glasses. Meanwhile, Fluttershy resisted the urge to make sure that the filly was completely checked over. Her nature made sure that she was always ready to spring to the medical aid of a hurt friend, animal or otherwise.
"Hello girls, what brings you here so early on this oh so lovely day?" Rarity asked with a very uplifted tone.
"We've just found out some very bad news..." Fluttershy whimpered as she looked at the carpet with interest. She noticed that an extra fluffy white feline wearing expensive looking accessories had approached the bunny and collie in with a devious grin. It must of been a usual greeting so she turned her attention back to her friends.
"I haven't confirmed it but it's possible that Sombra has returned," Twilight explained with a serious demeanor.
Rarity's mood took a dive. "Oh my, that is quite dreadful isn't it... Do you think it has something to do with the dreadful blizzard yesterday? It was very short yet it really had me worried with how strong it was before its rather sudden end."
Twilight cocked a brow and nudged her currently smitten assistant. "Spike, why didn't you tell me that there was a blizzard? I wasn't told that we were due for one..." The alicorn was a bit annoyed again.
"Wha- oh, I was taking a nap for most of the day so I didn't really notice anything," Spike sheepishly explained as he rubbed the back of his head.
The grape eyed pony let out a frustrated sigh as she looked towards the fashionista. "I'll keep note of the blizzard... Oh, before I forget. Have you had a run in with a gigantic mare named Nelly by chance? I've been asked to find this pony to confirm her existence."
"Miss Nelly? We met her over at Applejacks!" Sweetie chirped with a giggle. She hopped to her hooves and moved before her sister before sitting down again. Her sister took her in a one legged hug as she gave a warm smile.
Angel went wide eyed as he leapt over the lidded eye collie and excited faced cat as they tried to corner corner him. Once he landed behind them, he scurried off into another room with the two hot on his fluffy little tail.
"It was quite the strange meeting but she really has a somewhat open personality and quite the observant eye," Rarity explained with amusement in her tone.
"Yup, she pointed out her fa-" was all Sweetie could get out before her sisters hoof put a stop to it.
"Let's not go into that, Sweetie dear..." Rarity whispered with and aggressively cheerful tone.
The filly only nodded with a gulp as the hoof was removed slowly.
"Rrright then… Why don’t we need to go find Rainbow Dash?" Twilight awkwardly questioned before walking over to the exit before stopping.
"Do you know where she might be Rarity?" Fluttershy quietly asked with a tilted head.
"I haven’t the foggiest idea, Shy darling, I haven't seen her flying around today. Maybe she decided to stay home for some reason?" The lovely unicorn wondered if something was wrong with the chromatic pegasus. She willed her magic and her scarf and ear muffs appeared on her form with a flash of white light. She then did the same for her little sister. "Let's go Sweetie dear, I don't feel that it's safe to leave you alone with that villain running about." The younger sister nodded with a hum and joined everypony as they left the building together.
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Angel watched with horror as the others left him to his fate as he ran away from Winona and her cheshire partner in crime. As the door shut with a click, he let out a shrill bunny scream as the polar opposites of nature descended upon him…
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Once on the snow covered roads, they all made their way towards the west as everypony except Spike and Sweetie Belle kept looking skyward for any stray clouds. Minutes pass by for the group yet there was no sign of the fast pegasus.
Rarity decided to ask around for any sight of her friend but she was unable to find any clues from the equally unknowing towns ponies. "It seems that that she's not in town, to her home it is..." she sighed with a slow shake of her head. So with that they decided to head to the open fields where they could find the sky bound home of their absent friend.
Sometime later the girls and dragon had found themselves under the shadow of a very large cloud home. The group noticed a muffled battle sound of an angry cry before a loud thump followed after. Several more quickly followed after before one final roar was heard before a wall of the cloud home was smashed open as a large object flew off into the distance. A low thump was heard when it hit the ground with a splashing scatter of snow.
When everypony thought it was over, an line of blur of chromatic rainbow burst out from destroyed wall and into the sky with gaining altitude until it was a barely visible dot to the group. A few seconds later and that dot shot towards the ground in a burst of missile like speed with the intent of smashing into the large object in the distance.
"Uh oh..." Twilight muttered with wide eyes as she hastily lit up her horn and erected a rose colored shield that covered the group.
*THUMP-BOOOOOM*
An explosive ring of colors erupted before impact with a pressure wave that blasted snow, dirt, and pieces of the unknown object in all directions as a colorful cloud of debris blasted skyward. The surprised alicorns shield held steady against the blast for about seven seconds as it rode out the sudden ordeal. Spike and Sweetie Belle couldn't help but feel at awe at the rare spectacle that they just witnessed. Fluttershy had a very worried expression that was focused on the impact site.
When the dust began to clear as a quiet breeze blew through field, Twilight dispelled her shield and it faded away from view. What the group found was a red quivering faced Rainbow Dash sitting inside a rainbow stained crater as she heavily panted with eyes looking down in an blank-eyed  trance. She looked like she didn't sleep at all last night, if the bags under her eyes and her really messy mane were any indication.
Fluttershy was the first to react when she took off towards her foal hood friend in a gallop. The others quickly followed after her with questions buzzing in their minds. What has their usually confident friend in such a strange rut?
"Rainbow Dash, are you okay?" Fluttershy called out as she stopped outside the crater in a small skid.
Dash shook her head when she heard her shy friend and looked at her with confusion written on her face. "Oh uh, hey... what's up Shy?" she asked sheepishly as she sat on top of the utterly annihilated remains of her heavy weight punching bag. To her surprise, the others arrived to the scene with mixed looks of worry and awe.
"Rainbow darling, what's happened to you? You look absolutely terrible!" Rarity gasped, with a hoof to her mouth.
"I had a really bad night of sleep..." Dash grumbled with a dizzy sway. She was in a crabby mood due to how tired she was right now, among the other things that plagued her mind.
"Do you want to talk about it Rainbow?" Twilight inquired, her expression was innocently curious.
"Naw, I'll get over it... What brings you all around anyways?" she replied as she let out a yawn with a tinge of pink on her cheeks.
"It seems that Sombra has returned and he's out for revenge no less," Rarity explained seriously with a frown.
Dash went wide eyed at that. "Whoa, you're pulling my wing right? There's no way anypony could survive a full on blast like that!" she complained loudly with a stomp of her hoof.
"That's what I thought too but I was recently found out that a dragon tried to attack Ponyville and that a freak storm passed through town. Also, Angel had truthfully warned us an evil cloud of smoke that announced some dark scheme. My guess points towards that evil tyrant." Twilight wondered if she should've rounded up her friends to save time but she just wasn't on the ball today.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! I saw that freak blizzard but a dragon, how'd I miss that?!" Dash complained, taking to the air and hovering in front of her studious friend as she shook her by her shoulders. It didn't take long for the alicorn to become dizzy and hastily push her friend away.
"I was told in a letter from Princess Celestia..." Twilight groaned in a daze before shaking her head clear. "Fluttershy told me that a giant pony named Nelly had defeated it, have you had a run in with her?"
Dash's wings went limp as her face paled with her wide eyes glazing over. She stared off into space as she realized that she tried to tango with the wrong pony. She began to laugh hollowly as she fell on her rear, shaking.
"R-rainbow Dash?" Fluttershy was now worried for her friends sanity, as were the others.
Rarity wasted no time as she decided to blast the cyan pegasus with a sleep spell that knock her into blissful unconsciousness. She fell to the snow face first and began to snore. "I assume that Rainbow Dash had probably attacked Nelly..." the fashionista sighed and she picked up her friend in her magical grasp and willed a pair of dark blue ear muffs with a matching scarf onto her. She then set her down into the grasp of Fluttershy.
"Wasn't... that a bit much to do though, Rarity?" Twilight asked with a cocked brow.
"Oh pish posh Twilight, the poor mare desperately needed some beauty sleep, not to mention some time to come to terms with her probably brash actions," the fashionista pointed out as she shut her eyes. Her closed eyelids quivered with a tolerating frown upon her face as she thought of all the worst case scenarios to come. They only upside right now was that she could at least dress her ideas up to look very stunning and yet still horrible within her imagination.
The purple alicorn could only nod in sighing agreement as she decided on their next course of action. "I guess that we should go and warn Applejack now... Maybe Pinkie decided to drop there since she wasn't at anypony elses place?" she suggested in an unsure tone. Why did the spectacular pink party animal have to be so very unpredictable?
"What are we going to do about Rainbow Dash?" Fluttershy curiously asked.
"I'll take her back home, Rarity is right about her needing some rest." Twilight took the snoring tomcolt in magic and she carefully flew off towards the cloud mansion to drop off its owner. While she was there, the hole in wall was patched up with her magic. Once everything was done, she returned to the awaiting group in a quick teleport. "Let's get going, we shouldn't waste anymore time."
With all in agreement, they left off towards their next destination, the apple family home.
--------------------------
Back at the northernmost part of the Apple family orchard, the final snow boulder had been crafted for the section. The group that consisted of the two farm sisters, the party bringer with a spring in her step, and the gigantic mare felt absolutely ecstatic about finishing up such a staggering chore. It felt almost mind boggling at the short amount of time it took to finish, a mere three and a half hours. It was amazing what team work could accomplish.
"Whew-wee, that's the last one everypony! Let's drop this one off with the others and get us some chow!" Applejack announced cheerfully with a grin, a foreleg waving her stetson in the air.
"Some lunch sounds really good right now!" Applebloom tiredly chirped as she approached her older sister. She had drained a lot of energy trying to keep up with her very energetic shoveling partner.
"Hey, has anypony seen Pinkie?" Nelly asked in confusion, looking around the area. She lost sight of the ever grinning pony when she came to a stop with the final snow boulder.
"I'm right under your nose silly!" Pinkie explained with amusement.
When the giant looked down at the massive sphere of snow, she found grinning head of her missing friend sticking out.
"What in the name of apple nuggets are ya doin' Pinkie?" This honest pony was unable to comprehend the odd action.
Pinkie gave them a funny look. "We don't have enough to make a whole-nother snow pony so I decided to use my head!" she proclaimed with an determined grin.
Nelly burst into a laughter when the image and terrible pun sunk in. A pink dot on two massive white globes. It reminded her of cone of vanilla scooped ice-cream with a single pink sprinkle among the many other colors that would decorate the treat. It reminded her of all the delicious experiments she tested for her mother's parlor, with all the belly aches a filly could ask for. How many years has it been since she had last seen her...
"Helloooo, Equestria to Nelly!" Pinkie's piecing voice called, snapping the giant out of a heavy trance.
"Huh..." Nelly replied as she blinked and shook her head furiously as she wondered why she remembered the past. Maybe making progress had finally allowed a feeling of homesickness to enter her mind since her life had shifted in her favor for once. Perhaps she should try to send her folks a letter later on...
"You alright there, sugar cube? Ya kinda spaced out there when ya stopped laughin' all of a sudden..." Applejack's eyes seemed somewhat worried.
"Er... just thinking about ice cream..." She honestly wanted to tell them everything but now might be a bad time.
"Oh-oh! What flavor is it?!" Pinkie gushed as she pulled herself from grip of the giant snowball.
"Solar Storm Deluxe..." It was her favorite out of all the experiments she ever tasted. Imagine a creamy orange and peach sherbet that was dotted with chunks of blueberries, black cherries, and thunder berries imported from Cloudsdale. It was a smoothly flavorful treat that really gave her a pleasant buzz in her belly with one very frizzy mane to boot.
"Solar Storm Deluxe, where have I heard of that before?" Pinkie pondered as she tapped her chin with a hoof.
"As dandy as ice cream is, ah prefer some nice and warm pie instead... Let's go before Mac get impatient and starts eatin' without us!" Applejack pointed out with a chuckle.
Everypony present happily agreed and the odd group made their way down the long row of apple trees that they currently trotted through. Their first stop was to drop off this final boulder with the others and make the final snow pony from the northern orchard.
A few minutes pass as they exit the front gate of the property. What awaited them was the fifty seven massive snow ponies that were lined up in an army like formation of ten soldiers a row. Pinkie had happily given each of the snow ponies a different kind of detail that ranged from colors to physical quirks, not to mention names. The group wasn't sure if she was kidding but she was planning them a funeral, come winter wrap up.
Following the final row at the front of the formation, they come across a single giant snow ball. Nelly decided to put the one she was carrying on top of the other and proceed to make the head that she suggested. The bouncing pink mare was ecstatic as the giant began to roll the white ball and followed along as it grew bigger and bigger.
When it finally reached the desired size, it was quickly picked up and hauled off to the awaiting body. Once it was placed on top of the others, Pinkie decided to do her thing and began the task of decorating it with an viscous cheshire grin of party hats, a bushy unibrow of party streamers, and eyes made of many, many colorful balloons. The last things she put on him was some burly sideburns that was also made of party streamers and some pony ears made of snow. Only one thing left to do.
"I'll name him Jeffery!" Pinkie announced with excitement in her everlasting bounce.
"Uh Pinkie, why would you name this here fella that? He look more like a Johneigh tuh me..." Applejack nervously commented as she stared at the demented snow monster.
"I don't think it really matters what his name is, as long as he's done..." Nelly sighed with a smiling shake of her head.
"Ah'm with miss Nelly," Applebloom giggled in amusement.
Everypony just silently nodded and they continued on their way.
Minutes later they arrive before the family home and find that Macintosh had been patiently waiting with a dozen pies bundled wrapped in a white cloth that sat next to him on a small wooden sled to his left. He himself was currently drinking a warm mug of cocoa with unicorn shaped marshmallows. Applebloom decided to run up to him and give a hug, one that he returned in kind.
"What are ya waiting out here for, big brother?" The farm filly's tone was more cheerful than curious.
"Ah asked Mac to bring out the finished pies ah set to slow bake 'fore we got started with the shovelin'," Applejack explained with a wave of her hoof.
"Eeyup," Mac confirmed before taking another sip of his warm drink. Everypony else nodded or hummed with understanding.
"Ah can't believe we already got the northern field done! It woulda taken all day to finish even half of what we did if we didn't get any help from Pinkie and miss Nelly!" Applebloom cheered, hoping around her brother with a triumphant smile.
The credited duo happily nodded to each other on their job well done.
"I wonder, how many snow ponies we've made so far?" Nelly mused to herself as she rubbed her chin in thought. She lost track as repetition and friendly chat with the others kept her distracted.
"I counted fifty seven really big snow ponies for the northern clan, Frosty Naught!" Pinkie answered with a giggle-snort, pulling out a small white flag with a blue snow pony embroidered into it. She stood proudly with the symbol of the snow giants as she held her right pink hoof in a determined salute.
Applejack shook her head in chuckling amusement. "Just like bein' a filly again but stuff's much bigger than usual. Oh yeah, ah reckon that ah might need tuh warn Shy before she freaks out from some of the spooky lookin' creations of yours, Pinkie..." They put her at unease already so she could only imagine how the shy mare would react. She turned to her home and looked to her massive helper out of the side of her eye. "We'll be back sugar cube, we're gonna rustle up some grub so we'll be back in a lil' bit. C'mon girls, ah'm uh starvin'!"
With a nod from both of them they followed the hat wearing pony inside, leaving the larger two ponies to wait. Things were quiet for a very short time before Macintosh decided to speak up after taking another sip of his steaming cocoa.
"AJ said that these pies were for you," Mac pointed out, putting a free hoof on the cloth wrapped treats. "That sister of mine figured that ya really liked her last batch so yesterday she prepared a few extra for today."
Nelly gave a delighted hum and carefully picked the bundle up with her right foreleg. Opening up the cloth, she took four pies with a free hoof and tossed them into her mouth in a manner that was similar to eating popcorn. Big Mac watched her in amusement as she happily melted into bliss when she began savoring the fresh out of the oven treats. She honestly didn't care how silly she looked right now as the decadent pies were a pleasure to her taste buds. A couple more mouthfuls of delicious heaven later and she can't help but let out a content and dreamy sigh. "Hwuaaaah... tasty..."
"Glad ya think so, sugar cube!" Applejack happily chuckled as she returned with her sister and her oh so bubbly friend. She was seemed to be rolling a steaming wooden barrel but it was unclear as to it contained. When she came to a stop before her, she stood the barrel up and popped a large wooden cork from it with a plume of steam. "This here is for you, Nelly."
"Thanks!" Nelly chirped as she took hold of the barrel. She lifted it up to her mouth and took a careful sip. From the cinnamon and sweet apples she could taste, she figured that it was in fact hot apple cider. Deciding to quickly finish, she chugged the warm beverage down with a strange heat that quickly made its way to her core. It wasn't nearly as good as the pies in terms of taste but it was still quite pleasant to drink. "Oh, this is some very good cider!"
"Eeyup," Mac drawled with a small grin.
"Mac does a dang good job when makin' his special batch of hard cider!" Applejack complimented with a swing of a foreleg.
The giants ears perked up and she went wide eyed as she began to feel the extremely dizzy, her thoughts getting cloudy. "Hardsh schider? Oh... thish ish... not goodsh... heh heh heh..." she slurred as a drunken blush consumed her face. She began to slowly teeter as tried and failed to keep focus, to no avail.
"Uh... Mac, how strong did ya make this batch?" The farm mare watched as the possibly dangerously drunk pony had begun to stand shakily.
"Ah... uh... well, ya see..." Mac nervously stammered as he backed away from his shocked sister.
"Hmmm... this little barrel says... one-hundred proof! Oooooh, she's gonna have one doozy of a hangover!" Pinkie pointed out as she read the black printed information.
"Fweeeeh? Buh umsh uh realsh lightsh weightch!" In a moment of drunken panic, she looked around in a dizzy haze as she tried to find a safer area to be. It was obvious to her that she was a danger to anything that she could step on. Her addled mind slowly remembered about the open fields and she unsteadily turned to the orchards front gate before slowly walking to it.
Applebloom went up to her older sister with worry on her face. "Is she going to okay?" she questioned as she watched the poor pony stumble her way towards the orchards exit.
Applejack blinked and shook her head. "Better make sure she's gonna be alright or somepony might get stepped on, c'mon Pinkie!" she announced with a frown.
"Yes ma'am!" Pinkie declared with a salute. With a smiling giggle they went after their massive friend in a hurry.
"Next time ah'm gonna make sure to keep the hard stuff from gettin' to certain ponies, if AJ don't kill me first..." Mac muttered as he watched them go with a sinking feeling in his stomach.
The sound of an aged yet spirited laugh caught the remaining siblings attention. Turning towards the source, they find none other than Granny Smith with a amused smile on her wrinkled face. From her sitting position, she seemed to have been quietly watching things play out from the front door. Her red eyes had a cheeky glint that made Macintosh a bit nervous.
"Heeheeee... she's gone an' gave a lightweight some real heavy stuff there soneigh! Ah remember when Braeburn did the same with one of them batpony mares, poor colt still has nightmares after leavin' the hospital!" Her teasing tone was making the red stallion feel really uncomfortable so she decided to not keep up her teasing."Don't you be hard on yourself, Mac. This one ain't your fault, your sister just didn't pay attention this time!"
"What did the batpony do to cousin Braeburn?" Applebloom curiously asked with an innocent tilt of her head.
Big Macintosh looked to his sister with a straight face. "Ah don't think ya want to know, ah know that ah sure don't..." He turned to the farm homes front door and decided to go inside, he wanted more cocoa right now.
Granny Smith chuckled and she followed after him at a slow pace.
"Ah don't get it... Why is everypony actin' so weird?" Applebloom sighed as she followed after them with only confusion. The door slammed shut behind her as she went inside and causing some snow to fall off the roof.
--------------------------
Twilight and her company were currently located on the road outside town. They were only a couple minutes away from their destination when a certain assistant had spotted some huge moving to their right, the young alicorn had taken notice of him freezing up and stopped with the group.
"Is something wrong, Spike?" Twilight curiously inquired after slightly turning her head to look at him.
The baby dragon blinked. "Uh Twi, is that what I think that is?" he muttered, pointing a shaky claw towards the moving object.
"I do believe that we've found our pony, though she does look a bit off..." Rarity commented as she watch the massive equine sway in her step.
"A-are y-y-you okay, Twilight?" Fluttershy whimpered as her friends expression turned into a frantic hysteria. She decided to hide behind the comfort of Rarity should things get out of hoof.
"H-how? It doesn't a-add up... That can't b-be a pony... can it?" Twilight felt like several magical laws had been broken that would prevent such a thing from existing. She had to meet this mare and get some answers so she can set up a hypotheses. She took off galloping towards her target as her assistant held on for dear life.
"Woah, what's going on!" Spike yelped as he clung to his determined mount. Before he could regain his senses, her horn built up magic and they disappeared in a flash of magic and then reappeared behind the moving giant.
"Hehehe... shfeel fuzzy... show hotsh..." Nelly giggled as she kept on her unsteady course.
"Oh horse apples, ah think she's startin' tuh go loo- Twilight!?" Applejack called as she spotted her friend tailing the moving mass of mare.
"Ooh, Twilight came to play too?!" Pinkie chirped as she followed the farm pony's pace.
"Uh oh, Twi has that look again..." AJ muttered with wide eyes. "Pinkie, ah need ya to stop Twi while ah make sure that Nelly stays on course!" she commanded before speeding up to her drunk companions side.
"Okie dokie!" Pinkie giggled as she speed up to blur status, then launching into the air like a cannonball. When she reach the peak of her jump, she came down upon her unsuspecting prey with a maniacal cackle. "PONY PILE!"
"Oh no!" Spike yelled before leaping off the librarian princess in a hurry. He hit the snow rolling and ended up in a snow ball. He watched as the pink menace hit the book worm like a sack of potatoes, causing them both to also roll into large snowball.
"Good goin' Pinkie!" Applejack cheered as she kept up with her drunken friend.
All of a sudden Nelly decided to finally come to a stop, forcing the apple pony to skid to a halt. This was because she finally arrived to the open snow fields where nopony could get hurt and there was nothing to step on and not a single building get destroyed by accident. She decided to fall to her rump and lay down on her side so she could wait off the alcohol, she was not looking forward to the hangover that past experience taught her. What kind of father willingly gives his filly some Trottingham Onslaught?
"You doin' alright, sugar cube? Ah'm really sorry about givin' ya the hard stuff, ah shoulda read the darn label..." AJ sadly spoke up as she walk around to be face to face with the very unsober mare.
"Ish okays, nots the firsht times shtoo haffens, jush needsh tuhsh shtay ins splaysh..." Nelly slurred with a odd giggling smile. Everything was wobbling when she looked at the concerned cowpony out of the corner of her lidded big eyes.
"Abort mission, abort mission! Twilights cheating with her magic!" Pinkie cried out as she was suspended in the air in a magenta colored glow. It seemed that the miffed princess was carrying her with her magic.
"Applejack, why did Pinkie attack me!?" Twi yelled with splayed wings as they approached. She was not happy at all, that's for sure.
"Shpinkie Shpie?" Nelly dizzily raised her head and tried to look at the incoming ponies. "Greetingsh mish unicorsh, nysh tuh meets'chu..." she greeted before letting her head fall back to the ground with a loud thump.
The alicorn stopped in place with a gasp when the greeting hit her. "Unicorn?"
"Yesh... whatsh elsh coulds yoush beesh, mish?" The giant gave another odd giggle.
"What do you mean a unicorn, I thought she was an alicorn silly!" Pinkie pointed out as she floated against her will. She had a strange idea and tried to lick the magical glow. This caused the owner of said magic to shiver in shock and drop the pink pony like a stone with a blush. "Taste like grape wine!" Pinkie announced with a thoughtful hum.
Trying to keep her composure she walked over to the magic tasting offender and bopped her on the head with a scowl. Turning back to the giant, she cleared her throat and smiled. "Hello, my name is Princess Twilight Sparkle, its nice to meet you... Nelly?"
"Nysh shtoo meets yoush Shtwilightch..." She let out a happy sigh.
"HEEHEEYEAHAHA! You sure are one wasted pony!" The bubbly mare couldn't herself anymore so she rolled over laughing as she began kicking her legs into the air. "Shtwilightch! HEEHAHAHA!"
"Your... inebriated?" Twilight asked with a cocked brow but then she shook her head. "No, what I want to know is why you called me a unicorn. I know that I used to be but I became an alicorn a long while ago." To demonstrate, she took to the air and hovered over the massive equine.
"Ooooh howsh oddsh, yoush cans floasht wish no wingsh!" It sure got this happy drunk real wide eyed.
"Ya don't see her wings do you?" Applejack asked with a curious expression.
"Eenopes..." She shook her head with a world shifting result and let out a blinking snort that blasted away some snow.
Twilight landed on the ground again with disappointment as she began to think but was quickly interrupted by the call of her other friends arriving to the scene. Among them was a panting assistant who wanted some answers, and maybe some air.
"What happened, Twilight? You just ran after the big pony when I pointed her out!" Spike gasped before taking in a deep breath.
Applejack decided to answer and began to explain. "Twi got a bit too excited and got a bit too carried away, again. Why don't ya calmly explain to us what's got your tail in a bunch, sugar cube."
"I-if thats okay..." Fluttershy meekly piped up from behind Rarity who was currently analyzing the drunken mare. A deranged alicorn is quite the horror to the butter yellow animal lover, especially one she knows quite well.
"Eheheheh.... well, not to be insulting to Nelly but I can't understand how an earth pony could possibly grow to such a ridiculously gargantuan size! Of all the books that I've ever gone through, not a single one mentions anything about this happening! How in the wide, wide land of Equestria does somepony like you exist?! An earth pony for crying out loud!" Twilight was barely teetering with her sanity so she turned to the breathing exercise that her sister in law taught her. Breath in with some air and exhale her worries with a foreleg to push it all out, just rinse and repeat.
"Not that I want to rudely pry dear but I am also quite curious about how you got so... empowered?" Rarity really hoped that she wasn't coming off rude.
There was only silence for a long minute as Nelly pulled together her muddled thoughts but couldn't pull her it together. She decided to go with the short version she was told the first time she learned about her family history. She sat up on her rump and took a good look at her present company. She found that she had a couple new faces among the group. One gaping little dragon that she guessed was still a baby and Fluttershy who looked right as rain, if a little shy at the moment. "Shragon ins mysh, shamily treesh..."
Everypony slowly took in the slurred sentence save for the confused young dragon who couldn't even understand what was being said in the first place. When the words finally sunk in, every mare save the ever grinning Pinkie had gone completely slack jawed from shock.
"Uh guys, why is everyone acting so strange?" Spike asked with a cocked brow.
The winged librarian was the first to recover. "Spike, do you think that you could please do me a tiny favor and retrieve some fresh quills and parchment from the library?" Twilight pleaded in a hurry.
"Well... alright, do you need it right away?" He was getting suspicious but decided not to ask anything for the moment.
"No, just take your time for now and I'll see you soon! Oh, could you also find Sweetie Belle, she kinda took off for some emergency before we got here..." She nudged her assistant towards town and he was now on his way.
"Right... why is everypony acting weird?" Spike mumbled as he waddled through the snow at a slow pace. With a shrug, he began to whistle a casual winter song as he went on with his sudden task.
Once she was sure that he was out of hearing range, Twilight turned to Nelly with a determined expression as she summoned forth a quill and parchment with her magic. "So let me get this straight, you said that you have a dragon in your family tree? At what point does this dragon come into your family?" she questioned as she scribbled something down with a few scratch noises.
"She ish mysh clansh broods shmother," she explained with difficulty.
"Clans brood mother... the origin of your family?" Twilight stopped scratching.
"Shyup..." A yawn escaped Nelly, this was starting to become a boring interview or maybe it was the alcohol.
"How old is your clan and why hasn't it been noticed by anypony before?"
"Threesh thousandsh yearsh olds. Itsh ish hards shtoo findsh ush 'cause I hash noes cousinsh..." She let out a depressed sigh at this. Everypony in her family took the notion of keeping track of their family quite seriously due to this.
"Sweet Celestia, that's before even Discords reign!" Twilight squeaked with wide eyes as she wrote that down.
"Woah, hang on there for a second! What did ya mean by no cousins?" Applejack spoke with a hint of concern.
Nelly didn't answer this time and just looked away with flat ears.
"I think that she meant that every generation is always a single child, that would explain quite a lot..." Twilight pointed out with realization.
"Wowee... talk about a teeny tiny family reunion," Pinkie sadly commented with a forced smile.
The sound of sniffling had gotten everyone's attention. When they turned to the source, they found Fluttershy shedding tears as she gave a sympathetic look.
Rarity decided to comfort her friend with a warm hug. "What's wrong, Fluttershy dear?" she cooed softly.
"Sh-she just w-wanted some fr-friends... so sh-she wouldn't b-be lonely..." She gently push away the white unicorn and she flew up to Nelly who was listening with a sad expression on her face. She then gave the poor mare a hug on her cheek and gently stroked it. "You poor thing, I'll be your friend..."
Applejack took her shy friends words to heart and walked up to her before hugging a foreleg. "Ah finally get why you were shedin' tears yesterday, sugar cube..."
Nelly felt gallons of tears pour from her shimmering eyes as a realization hit her like a megaton of bricks. They understand her pain and what she truly desires in her life, the joy of friendship. It felt almost unreal to her yet here it was in all its warm glory. Even though she didn't know how long it would last, she would treasure it as long as possible.
"Oooh? Tis such a sweet sight, showing thy sympathy for such a forsaken monster?" came a dark and shadowy echo.
Everypony gasped in shock and then looked around for the source of the very familiar, very unwelcome voice.
"Show yourself Sombra!" Twilight demanded with authority.
"Ye honor me young alicorn, ye actually remember thy old foe! Very well then you pesky whelp..." Sombra vilely muttered from a unknown location.
All of a sudden he appeared in a massive explosion of shadowy smoke erupted before them but it seemed that he wasn't alone.
"Rainbow Dash! Spike!" Rarity shrieked in wide eyed shock.
"Oh my goodness!" Fluttershy whimpered, taking refuge behind the wall that was a massive fuzzy brown ear of Nelly.
They were both bound in restraining shackles of the blackest crystal imaginable with muzzles bound shut by black cloth. Their eyes were full of shock as they struggled to get free. A heavy feeling of seriousness filled everypony but gigantic equine who was just confused and somewhat depressed from the direct insult.
"Let them go Sombra!" Twilight demanded with a stomp of her hoof and a scowl on her face.
The dark king only laughed as he walked up to Spike and picked him up in his aura of magical levitation. The baby dragon gulped as he came faced to face with the evil stallion. "Tell me you foals, do thou know what disturbs a dragoness to her very core? What she would fear more than anything?" he asked as his gaze turned skyward for a moment. He looked back at group of mares with a psychotic expression as he took cloth from the baby dragons mouth.
"H-help!" Spike yelled out with a desperate expression.
*Smack*
"Ack!" The assistant cried out in pain.
“Oh, did that hurt?” Sombra casually teased with a smug look.
*Thump-thump thump-thump thump-thump*
Nelly felt something straining to break free from her her mind as she felt the hackles on her neck raise up...
"Cry for thy precious ponies weakling..." Sombra whispered viciously, with a tone of hate that he aimed at the helpless dragon.
*Twack*
"Spike!" the girls all screamed in shock before they all charged at the dark tyrant in a fit of desperate rage. She leapt at him with her horn and eyes aglow with magic and shot a beam of energy. Much to their complete frustration, he had disappeared in a plume of smoke with his captives and reappeared with a taunting chuckle. He quickly turned to his desperately struggling victim with a sick grin and swung at him with a steel shod hoof.
*Crack*
"P-please, stop hurting me!" Tears began to pour from his eyes as he felt his scaly right cheek pulse with pain, his mind filled with fear.
"Let him go you horrible brute!" Rarity cried with tears in her eyes. She fired a blast of magic at her foe.
He laughed at her futile attempts and decided to tossed Rainbow Dash at her. The two mares let out a grunt as they impacted one another and they rolled across the snow before stopping with a limp slide.
The giant subconsciously stood up shakily as her mind raced to figure out a way to help the poor little dragon. She didn't understand why this stallion was being so cruel to a baby of all things.
"Oh wonderful, I finally have that monsters attention." Sombra slammed the baby dragon into the ground and stomped onto his tail with a sickening crunch.
"GRAAAAAAAHHHH!" Spike sobbed loudly as he tried to wriggle from the violent creature with all he had.
"Silence you brat!" Sombra cackled madly as he raised both his forelegs into the air, preparing to crush his head.
*THUMP-BOOM!*
The area shook as Nelly jumped high into the air with a mighty heave of her leg strength, causing a pressure wave to follow in her wake and then came down upon the evil tyrant with a molten glow and tearful green serpent eyes that demanded retribution upon him. Sombra went wide eyed and quickly teleported in a veil of smoke that instantaneously vanished the moment a massive molten foreleg smashed the very ground in an explosion that shook the very land with everypony who walked on it. When the dark stallion reappeared at a much safer distance, he looked skyward for a moment and grinned ferociously.
Spike noticed this odd act and tearfully followed where he was looking until he found something that made no sense to him.
"Dra-dragon..." he whimpered in pain.
"You've served your purpose, runt..." Sombra muttered as he looked back at his victim with a piercing glare.
Before the baby dragon knew what was happening, he was tossed away like a rag doll with a force of black and green magic. As he braced for the inevitable impact with the ground, he felt something warm and soft catch him before a loud thump made him bounce onto his face. Luckily for him it was still a pleasant landing, though he was still in a lot of pain.
He tried to fall into unconsciousness to escape his suffering but a something odd sensation began to caress his tail gently. Opening his eye he found the entranced expression a tearful eyed giant licking his tail with a glowing tongue that radiated a strange warmth. Despite how odd and disturbing the act was to him, he found that his pain was slowly dissipating as she went on. He felt that it was easier to go with it and wait till it was all over. Besides, it felt oddly natural if he ignored the fact that a giant pony was doing this to him. Not that it would be that easy to do.
As Nelly licked his wounds on unknown instinct, the others were currently freeing Rainbow Dash from her shackles. They were met by only failure until Rarity decided to magically project a wave of sound resonation that shattered the crystal in an instant freeing the sporty pegasus. To their shock they found her in tears and found that she kept blaming herself about Spike getting hurt like that when she could've done something. Fluttershy tried her best to comfort her friend and quickly found that she desperately needed a hug, and a good cry.
Twilight and Pinkie were currently running towards the radiating warmth that seemed to radiate from the bright orange and red light, Rarity shakily walked after them. The bookworm was trying to piece together every bit of dragon lore she ever learned as she prayed to her mentor for her assistants safety and well being. It was hard to restrain her urge to slap her somehow peppy and grinning friend as they galloped to the giant, this was not a good time to smile!
It didn't take them long to reach Nelly. The librarian slowed her pace at the very strange scene before her. What in Equestria was she doing to her assistant, was the first thing she thought. The next thing that went through her head was why he was letting her do it, until she saw what was being licked by a glowing tongue. She wasted no time  pulling out a quill and parchment to scribble down a quick note to look into later.
Pinkie decided to put on a pair of black sun glasses before she hopped up in front of the busy giant pony with a teasing smirk. She noticed that Spike had a frowning yet rather relaxed expression that stared off into the sky and came to the realization that something seemed to be on his mind. "Are you okay Spikey? The mega-jerky the jerkison really laid out the owies on you..." she spoke up with concern.
"Wha- oh hey Pinkie..." He then realized about his current situation. "Oh uh- th-this isn't w-what it looks like!" he stuttered as he tried to get up. When he stood up, he found that his tail wasn't in pain anymore but before he could say anything he found himself  getting the same treatment on his swollen cheeks. His face lit up in an embarrassed glow of red as Pinkie flopped over laughing like a- well herself.
"Calm down Casanova, I think you're getting your wounds licked and I do mean in the literal sense. I think she's doing this by instinct..." Twilight spoke up as she sat next to her hysterical friend.
"I thought she was giving Spike a bath like what Opal does to herself!" Pinkie pointed out with a giggle.
"Do ponies... usually do this... out of instinct?" Spike asked in between the licks he endured.
"Only to newborns but I don't thi-" Twilight stopped talking when she noticed that the glowing had begun to fade. Looking up, she found that the giant mare seemed a bit confused and a bit out of it.
"Ohhhhhhh.... what, just happend? My heads pounding..." Nelly groaned with a quick shake of her head. She looked down when she felt something tug on a fetlock and found a baby dragon looking up at her. She then felt another tug and found that Pinkie was looking up at her with a cheerful grin on her face. "I didn't eat something strange again, did I?"
"Nopey dopey! You kinda freaked out and tried to destroy an evil pony who hates us just so you could save Spike who you also gave a toun-" Pinkie was cut off by Twilight's hoof before she caused some damage to her assistants reputation and scare the giant herself away.
"You saved my assistant Spike so thank you very, very much!" Twilight sheepishly blurted out with a half forced grin. She honestly was relieved that he was okay and out of harms way but she mow had a bubbling rage in her heart that wanted Sombra's blood.
Nelly felt another tug and her attention turned back to the baby dragon.
"Uh... thanks for helping me from that guy, I thought I was gonna kick the bucket there..." Spike was still embarrassed from earlier and couldn't look her in the her over sized eyes.
"Well... no problem I guess, I just hope that everypony else is okay..." She decided to set Spike down on the ground near Twilight who then took her assistant in a tearful hug.
"Oh Spike, why did he do that to you?" Twilight sobbed as she held onto him protectively.
"Wait Twi, I remember something important from earlier..." Spike announced with an awkward tone.
"Oh no, did I forget to have my afternoon cupcake?!" Pinkie gasped with hooves on her cheeks and pin pricked eyes.
"Uh... nevermind that Pinkie, I think that he's up to something!" Spike explained, scratching his scaly chin in thought.
"What do you mean, Spike?" He now had Twilights full attention.
"He kept looking up at the sky at something and it turned out to be a dragon!" He pointed skyward and a small dot could be seen flying off into the distance.
"What would a dragon be doing out here, didn't they all leave during the great dragon migration? Hmmm... I think you're on to something Spike but we don't know why Sombra would risk a direct attack so close to Canterlot..." Twilight wracked her brain for ideas.
"Spike, girls!" Fluttershy cried out as she and the others arrived to the scene in a frantic skid through the snow that turned the party mare into a giggling snow pony.
A white and dark lavender blur flew at the unsuspecting young dragon and knocked him over to the ground. When he opened his dizzy eyes, he found Rarity hugging him tightly as she bawled her eyes out with so many apologies that his head began to spin. He tried to calm her down with a hug but it only made it worse as she just got louder.
Rainbow Dash stepped in and had to slap some sense into the fashionista before she realized that he was fine now. The chromatic pegasus herself was extremely relieved that he was okay now, though she didn't want to show it for the sake of her awesome image. Sadly she couldn't take back her earlier emotional outburst.
Fluttershy gave Spike sever check overs but found that he seemed to be in one solid piece and so she let out a relieved sigh.
Applejack decided that she needed some answers so she walked up to her massive friend and sat next to Twilight. "Somepony wanna explain how Spike went from beaten like a apple tree to fine an' dandy?" she demanded with a cocked brow.
"I'll tell you later, for now I have to figure out what Sombra's trying to pull," Twilight explained as she closed her eyes to think.
The farm mare looked to the giant. "Ya doin' alright, sugar cube? I'm surprised at how sober ya got after what just happened, must be a perk with bein' part dragon an' all," she whispered so a certain baby dragon didn't hear.
"Wait, that's it! I think I know what he's planning and I believe that it involves Nelly!" Twilight loudly announced with a determined smile.
"Me, why me? I didn't step on his puppy did I?!" Nelly squeaked in horror, eyes really wide.
"Nopey dope, just his ice-dragon thingy!" Pinkie chirped with a giggle.
"Right, that thing..." Nelly muttered with a face hoof.
"Okay so he wants to use you to do us in, how's he gonna do that?" Applejack questioned, scratching the side of her noggin with a hoof.
"I think it has something to do with that dragon Spike saw earlier... I suggest that we get to Canterlot to find out if the princesses know any dragon lore." A thought popped into the book smart princess. "Nelly, do you by chance know what kind of dragon your ancestor was? It may make things easier to figure out," she whispered with hopes that her assistant wouldn't hear.
Nelly shook her head. "All that I know is her name, it's Vurashna..." she explained with a scratch to her cheek and a furrowed brow. She tried to remember what the skeleton looked like but it was too dark to tell at the time.
"Guess that's all we got tuh go on for now..." Applejack sighed as she adjusted her hat.
Twilight hummed and summoned a quill with some parchment to scribble down a quick letter before tying it with a red stamp. "Spike, if you please?"
He nodded and took the note in a claw. Taking a quick breath, he exhaled a gout of magical green flame and the letter was off to its destination in Canterlot. "Alright, should we start pac- URRP!" A letter of reply was burped out and was immediately taken by the alicorn librarian.
"Yes, we should start packing, Spike." Twilight sheepishly looked to the massive oddity and asked "Not to be rude, buuuut...  do you have anything that you want to take along to Canterlot?"
Pinkie nudged Dash and whispered something with a cheeky smirk. Dash turned a new shade of red before groaning and walking somewhere else.
Nelly looked at the princess with only confusion that made her feel very awkward.
"I do believe that you have been invited to go with us, seeing as you're involved in this fiasco. Do you have a home in the forest, Twilight might be over thinking about her manners and is trying to not offend you," Rarity explained with Fluttershy quietly nodding in agreement.
Nelly smiled with a giggle. "I live in a grove and sleep under the stars, they shine their brightest during winter by the way. Oh, I only own what I carry on me since trying to keep normal sized things would be a massive hassle, frankly speaking."
"Hehehe... right then..." Twilight tittered in embarrassment. Her expression turned serious once more as she said "Let's meet at the train station in twenty minutes and stay in groups of two alright. We don't know what Sombra might pull next..."
Dash grabbed Fluttershy and took off towards the cottage in a squealing blur of various colors while Twilight, Spike, and Rarity took off towards town at a gallop. For some reason Pinkie decided to stay and look at Nelly with a pleading smile.
"Uh Pinkie, aren't you gonna go get packin'?" Applejack asked with a confused expression.
"Pony ride?" Nelly asked in eye rolling amusement.
"Woohoo!" Pinkie took off in an explosion of confetti and towards town in a hurry.
"Uhhh..." Applejack was plain out unsure how to take those words and it showed.
"She wants to ride on my noggin, again..." Nelly explained with a deadpan.
"Alright, makes as much sense as anything ah guess," AJ agreed with a shrug. "Let's get goin' then, time's a wastin'!" The farm mare let out a well known cry of the cow pony and took off towards her home with a determined smirk.
--------------------------
The twenty minutes came and passed. Twilight was becoming very nervous that her other friends were a few minutes late. Rarity who arrived on time was patting her friends back while Spike was holding her hoof. They also did this so the nervous wreck wouldn't dig a trench with her pacing. The ticket master made it clear that she would be paying for vandalism, princess or not.
The first to show up was none other than the two pegasi of their group, Dash and Fluttershy. They both had a suitcase in their mouths of simple blue and orange. Fluttershy seemed to a rather determined expression on her face, it was unusual by normal standards.
Next up was the giant and cow pony. Their arrival caused ponies to gape up in shock or run into their homes to watch from their windows. Nelly tried to smile nicely but it only made them hide when they saw her canines. Fluttershy didn't like where this was going so she decided to do something unexpected. She flew up to the surprised giant and hugged her right cheek.
The towns ponies were taken aback by the kind action and many began to look at the situation at hoof. Yes, they had a possibly dangerous... mare standing in plain sight but she wasn't doing anything wrong. It also helped that the Elements of Harmony seemed to unfazed. Well, except the crazed looking alicorn who was more an everyday danger.
With a decision made, many smiled or gave a hoof wave before continuing with their days.
"Hey, anypony seen Pinkie? I figure that she'd be here already," Rainbow Dash pointed out after spitting out her suit case.
"I saw her in the mirror this morning and she looked like she needed coffee!" Pinkie chirped as she arrived with three familiar fillies, all with a suitcase.
"Oh horse apple, we forgot about the crusaders!" Applejack yelped with a painful sounding facehoof.
"Were so sorry girls, with all thats been happening lately we completely forgot about you! With that monster running loose, I couldn't imagine what tragedy we would suffer..." Rarity expressed with a shaky tone.
"Thanks Pinkie, we really owe you one sugar cube..." AJ sighed before walking over to hug her pink ally.
"What's goin' on sis?" Applebloom curiously asked with tilt of her head.
"Yeah, what's going on?" Scootaloo piped up with a cocked brow.
"I'm just confused as them..." Sweetie pointed out with shrug.
"Sombra came back for revenge and beat me up. We're going to Canterlot to find out how he's going to use a dragon and Nelly to possibly kill us all," Spike explained with a cross armed scowl as he looked skyward.
The crusaders looked at him for a minute with squints before turning to confusion.
"You don't look hurt, is that a dragon thing?" Scootaloo was just stumped.
"You don't want to know..." Twilight pointed out as she rubbed her temple.
The sound of the trains whistle went off with a bellow to announce that it was ready to depart to the capital city.
"Princess Celestia had paid for our tickets already so let's get going everypony," Twilight cheerfully announced with a grin.
With the preparations set, everypony save Nelly and Pinkie boarded the train and it pulled away from the station at a building speed.  The giant quickly picked up the giggling mare with three balloon on her flank and set her on her head.
"To Canterlot my trusty steed, there are donuts to be slain and many parties to be had!" Pinkie boldly declared with a hoof pointing forward.
"Don't make me drop you, general!" Nelly chuckled with a roll of her eyes and legs being stretched.
"Aww... can we just go with it, please?" Pinkie begged with puppy dog whines.
"Onwards!" The massive mare took off at a gallop that quickly caught up to caught up to the train. She slowed her speed to a canter when she was right next to the train.
The giggling mare waved to her watching friends that had their heads poking out of the windows in curiosity.
"Pony ride... definitely Pinkie being Pinkie," AJ chuckled before popping her head inside and closing her eyes with her stetson on her face. A little shuteye never hurt anypony and it helped with the stress of dealing with these crazy ponies. Simple is always a great option when adventure is ahoof.
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Meanwhile...
Inside the supply closet of Golden Oaks, Angel bunny had just squeezed his way out of a pile of cat and dog who each had a strange smile on their sleeping faces. He could only shiver as the memories of what they put him through. His only solace was that it was all over with and that he was still alive. Giving a sigh, he pushed opened the closets door and limped away with what little dignity he had left in him. As he closed the door, Winona peeked open an eye and smirked at her victory…