All Wrapped Up
All Wrapped Up
By: TomaTanuki
"...And as always, with good friendship and teamwork, ponies can accomplish anything."
Twilight Sparkle smiled proudly as she dictated her latest letter to Princess Celestia, explaining the lessons she learned during Winter Wrap Up. Granted things didn't go too well at the start but, in the end, everything worked out and Spring had arrived in Ponyville.
"How's that Spike?" she asked, hoping for some input from her assistant. However, she didn't recieve any response from the baby dragon. "Spike?"
Looking behind her, Twilight saw the little dragon fast asleep in his rocking chair, the clipboard and quill hanging limply in his claws.
"Haha, oh, Spike," Twilight couldn't help but giggle at the sight of her little asisstant, wearing his little robe and fuzzy slippers. He may have been a little cranky during the event but looking at him now she couldn't blame him for wanting to go back to bed that morning. The poor thing had even caught a cold after falling asleep on a chunk of ice in one of Ponyville's lakes.
With a motherly smile, Twilight enveloped Spike in her magic and gently lifted him from the chair. Taking extra care not to wake him, she made her way up the stairs and set him down in her bed, lifting the blankets over him to keep him warm. Her task done, she leaned down and gave him a little kiss on his forehead.
As she made her way back down the stairs, Twilight took up the clipboard with her magic to look over her letter, making occasional changes with her quill. Once Spike was up to it she'd have him send it to the Princess.
A knock on the door made Twilight look up from her proofreading. Focusing her magic on the door she pulled it open, revealing Applejack standing on the other side.
"Heya Twilight!" The orange earth pony greeted, tipping her hat to her. "I didn't see ya at Pinkie's "Winter Wrapped Up" party and thought I'd drop by. Mind if I come in?"
"Of course," Twilight replied, waving her friend over, "You and the other girls are always welcome here, you know. Can I offer you a drink?"
Applejack chuckled as she trotted into Twilight's library, gently kicking the door closed behind her, "Actually I was just about to offer you somethin'," She said, nudging her saddlebag. "How's some fresh spiced apple cider sound?"
"Oooooh, I've never tried that before!" Twilight exclaimed as the farm pony pulled a small glass bottle from her bag and set it on the reading table. Turning towards the kitchen, Twilight activated her horn to open one of the cabinets and levitate a pair of glasses to them.
As Applejack watched the unicorn work her magic she fidgited a little, a bit of pink appearing on her cheeks.
"Umm, listen Twi, there's another reason I came here."
"Oh?" Twilight asked, tilting her head a little. "Is something wrong?"
Applejack sighed, nodding her head. "Yeah, I guess you could say that. Twilight I...I'm really sorry fer snappin' at you the way I did. You were just tryin' to help and...I-I just hope I didn't hurt yer feelin's too bad."
Twilight cringed a little as she recalled what Applejack was referring to. She had tried using her magic to move a snow plow, something unicorns weren't allowed to do during Winter Wrap Up, and ended up causing a big mess. Applejack had scolded her for it afterwards and she ran off crying.
Blushing at the memory, Twilight shook her head at her friend. "It's okay. You don't have to apologize, Applejack. I shouldn't have tried using magic in the first place."
"Well, from what I hear you tried yer darnest not to," Applejack replied, her ears drooping. "The gals told me all about how you were runnin' around, tryin' everythin' you could think of to help out. I'm guessin' by the time you got to the farm you were a mite frustrated."
Twilight opened her mouth to protest but nothing came out. She simply nodded her head and squeaked out something that sounded like 'a little.'
With another sigh, Applejack moved beside Twilight and gave her a gentle nuzzle. "An' if that's the case I can't very well blame you for doin' what you did. You wanted to help out so bad didn't ya, sugarcube?"
The unicorn gave another soft nod.
"Come on now Twi, it's okay. If anypony's to blame here it's whoever forgot to put ya on a team in the first place. I feel terrible that we left ya out of the plannin'. Maybe if we hadn't things woulda gone better fer everypony."
Wiping a stray tear away, Twilight looked up again. "What do you mean?"
"Think about it," Applejack said, giving her a warm smile. "If you were on a team then you wouldn'a been worried about fittin' in as much as ya did. An' at the same time everypony would prob'ly still have wound up arguing and you'd have seen what a mess things were. Then you woulda come in and used your noodle to get everything runnin right an' proper just the same!" She chuckled, gently rubbing her hoof against Twilight's head and grinning when she was rewarded with a giggle from the unicorn.
"Hahaha! M-Maybe!" Twilight squealed as she slipped out of the earth pony's grip. Smoothing her mane down a bit she sighed and sat down beside Applejack. "Well either way I'm glad everything turned out okay. And I'm also glad that I'm not in any trouble."
"Trouble?" Applejack asked, her eyebrow raised in confusion. "What're you talkin' about? Why would ya be in trouble?"
Twilight seemed just as confused. "Umm, I used magic, remember? That's against the rules right? There's some kind of penalty for breaking it right? Like, maybe community service or something. I can't be the first unicorn who broke the rule, can I?"
"Twi..." Applejack began softly. "Ya do know why we don't use magic fer Winter Wrap Up right?"
"Of course I do," Twilight replied. "It's because Ponyville was founded by Earth Ponies who had to make do without it. It's been that way for hundreds of years right?"
"Hundreds 'a year-...Pffff-hahaha!" The farm pony cracked up. Completely caught off guard, she fell backwards onto the floor, cracking up with laughter. "Hahaha! Oh mah that's a good'un!"
Twilight was taken back by this, not to mention confused as she watched Applejack roll around with laughter. "What's so funny?"
Panting for air, Applejack slowly picked herself back up and sighed. "Hooo! I-heheh I'm sorry 'bout that Twi." She took a deep breath and composed herself. "Alright, I-I'm alright. Ahem! Listen sugarcube. First off, Ponyville ain't been 'round fer hundreds a' years."
"It hasn't?"
"Nope. In fact, Granny Smith was just around mah age when her family settled down here."
"WHAT!?" Twilight cried, her eyes going wide as she jumped to her hooves. "So...your family founded Ponyville!?"
Applejack blushed a little and smiled at her, "Well, pretty much. Princess Celestia gave a plot 'a land to mah Great Grandpappy. Once they got an orchard up and runnin' more an' more ponies came to settle. Before they knew it, a town had sprouted up around 'em."
"That's incredible," Twilight said, awestruck by what she had just heard. However, a fresh feeling of guilt suddenly overcame her. "No wonder you were so upset with me for-"
"Now hold it right there!" Applejack exclaimed, stamping her hoof for emphasis. When she saw Twilight flinch she quickly calmed herself and moved to her friend's side, giving her a warm smile. "Lemme finish what I'm sayin' before ya start that again, alright?"
Twilight blushed a bit but nodded.
"Now, as I was sayin', back then it was just Earth Ponies settlin' around here. So, just like you said, when winter came 'round they had to take care of things themselves. It was real hard work but with everypony pitchin' in and workin' together it didn't seem like that much of a chore. So as time went on it went from somethin' everypony was dreadin' to the big 'ol event we have today. Ya understand what I'm sayin'? Winter Wrap Up ain't just about gettin' ready for spring. It's about the whole town comin' together."
"I see." Twilight nodded, tapping her chin with her hoof. "I guess that does make a lot of sense. Back in Canterlot the weather teams and unicorns take less than a day to clean up winter. To ponies there it's just another day."
Applejack nodded along with her, chuckling as she finished. "Well that brings me to the next part of the story. Now, they still needed pegasi to help with the clouds and weather of course so Cloudsdale sent a few teams to help out. I guess some of 'em liked the charm of the place because a few of them moved their families here. Not long after that, the first unicorn families came in from Canterlot."
"And by that point Winter Wrap Up was a popular annual event, right?"
"Exactly!" Applejack nodded, winking at her friend.
Twilight gave her a bright smile and continued. "So, the unicorns weren't allowed to use magic so Winter Wrap Up could go on."
Applejack's smile fell a bit at this. "Ehh, yes and no. See, I don't know that much about magic but I'm bettin' it takes more than a few unicorns to handle everything. Am I right?"
"That's right," Twilight said, "In fact the Royal Guard are the ones who handle most of it. And even they need to start going through drills a few weeks beforehand so they'll be able to cast the proper spells."
"Well, there ya go!" Applejack exclaimed, "Most of the unicorns who moved out here back then could only do the simple stuff with magic, like liftin' things. An', in fact, more than a couple of 'em found it was easier goin' with their hooves anyway."
"So when did they decide not to allow magic?"
"A-Ah'm gettin' to that." Applejack shifted her hat nervously before continuing. "See, as the years went by more an' more ponies came to settle down and a'course more unicorns were among 'em. And Whenever Winter Wrap Up came 'round some of the new arrivals would start usin' magic to help speed things along but the ones who've been livin' here fer a while convinced 'em that usin' their magic, well...took all the fun out of the work, if that makes any sense."
"So, wait, that means that..."
Applejack nodded as Twilight trailed off. "Yup. That's how it started. Funny how it works ain't it? Nopony ever meant it to be a rule or anythin'. But that's just how it went. Not usin' magic went from just a suggestion so everypony could work together and have a part to play, to a tradition some ponies treat like it's written in stone." The farm pony let out a sigh as she finished, lowering her head a little. "Which, I think gives me all the more reason to be here apologizin' to ya."
Twilight simply smiled at her friend and put her hoof around her. "Thank you very much for telling me all of this. And thank you for the apology. But, honestly I still feel a little bad about all this."
"How come?" Applejack asked, raising an eyebrow.
"When I heard about Winter Wrap Up I didn't even bother to read up on the history, or even ask anypony why it was done this way. I just got an abridged version from the Mayor. In fact, I haven't even looked up the history of Ponyville since I moved here." The unicorn blushed a little bit. "I bet if I did, I would have understood things better at the start and I would have had an easier time today."
Applejack chuckled and pulled the bottle over to her. Using her teeth to pull out the cork, she tipped the it over to fill their glasses. "Tell ya what Twi, let's just call it even on this one." She picked up her glass and held it out. "Deal?"
Twilight giggled, lifting her glass with her magic. "It's a deal!"
The two ponies gently tapped their glasses together and drank, the warm cider tickling their throats on the way down.
"Ahh! that hit the spot!" Applejack said, dropping her glass back on the table.
Twilight chuckled, licking her lips. "You can say that again."
"Y'know," Applejack began, wiping her mouth with her hoof. "I think I'm gonna have a talk with the Mayor tomorrow, see if we can't ease off on the whole 'no magic' thing a tad. Can't help but think we wouldn'a been late fer Spring all these years if we weren't so dang focused on doin' things the traditional way."
"Oh, Applejack you don't have to do that," Twilight argued, "Everything worked out without any magic in the end and, now that I completely understand the reasoning, I think it's a good thing to uphold. Like you said, Winter Wrap Up isn't just about cleaning up winter, it's about all the citizens of Ponyville coming together."
"Still wouldn't hurt," Applejack countered, "Most of the unicorns that live here were born an' raised here an' know the whole story. But that doesn't mean everypony couldn't do with a little reminder. If we're gonna stick with a tradition, we should at least do it fer the right reasons. 'Specially now that we got an idea how it might come across to other ponies. And, at the very least, we need to make sure that no pony get's left out."
Twilight nodded in agreement. "Well, either way, I'm just glad everything is settled now. Thank you for coming by Applejack, I really appreciate it."
Twilight leaned over to nuzzle the farm pony, wrapping a hoof around her neck. Applejack blushed a little but smiled and hugged her back.
"Yer welcome Twi. It's the least I could do after what ya did yer Ponyville to-"
"AAAH-CHOO!!"
The two ponies cried out in surprise as a loud sneeze rang out from upstairs.
"Spike?" Twilight called up nervously, "Are you okay?"
"Uuuugh, yeah..." Spike replied weakly, only to whimper the next second. "N-No. Do we have any tissues? It's kinda nasty up here."
Twilight let out a soft giggle as she picked up a box of tissues with her magic. "Coming right up Spike."
"Mind if I use your kitchen?" Applejack asked as Twilight started trotting up the stairs. "I know one of Granny's old recipies that'll knock that cold right on it's flank."
"That sounds wonderful! Thank you, Applejack. Spike will certainly- Ooh!" Twilight's face brightened up as she scanned the nearby shelves and picked out a book. Levitating it in front of her she scanned the pages as she continued upwards. "This is a perfect opportunity to try out that decongestion spell I found the other day."
Applejack chuckled to herself and headed into the kitchen. "Hang in there Spike! Between the two of us we'll have you better in no time!"
The End
