Twilight watched the sky with growing anxiety and curiosity.
It was already five days into winter, and there was no snow whatsoever. Not even as single flake was granted to the ponies far below, their eager hopes put on ice that would never come.
The lavender unicorn turned away from her window, and looked at her five friends: Spike, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Applejack. Rainbow Dash was helping the other Pegasi organize the snow storm, and couldn't make it to the Winter Snow Welcome that they had made up themselves.
Which had begun five days ago.
Pinkie Pie stopped pacing and directed her glare to Twilight.
"What's taking so long!? I wanna play in the snow!"
Twilight sighed, and walked down the steps, stopping in front of her five disappointed friends.
"I'm afraid," she began with a sigh, "that the snow won't be here this year."
Everypony gasp, and Pinkie Pie pointed a hoof towards the open window.
A cyan Pegasus, her image reduced to a blur as she flew, crashed right through the window, and into the bookshelf at the far end of the library, books and scrolls piling up on the ground near the point of impact.
Twilight cantered over, and magically levitated the pony. She opened her mouth to speak, but soon noticed that Rainbow Dash's coat was singed, and, more importantly, the weather Pegasus was unconscious.
Gulping, she placed her friend on the vacant bed upstairs, examining her various bruises and scrapes. Everypony rushed up the stairs, and Spike jumped on the bed, poking Rainbow Dash in worry.
Pinkie Pie followed suit, effectively splintering the bed's supports as she bounced on it.
"Ohmgoshitygosh! Dashie! She's all cut up! What happened!?"
Twilight shook her head. "I don't know. We'll have to wait until she wakes up..."
Pinkie Pie jumped off, and Rarity applied an embroidered quilt to her friend's unconscious body. "We can't have a friend unconscious without a bit of style...and comfort..." The elegant white unicorn patted her on the shoulder, a feeling of dread heavy on her heart.
Applejack rolled her eyes. "She's fine. She was probably just slackin' off, and just failed a Sonic Rainboom..."
Fluttershy jumped about a centimeter in the air. "Hush, girls! She's waking up!"
Everypony hushed up, Spike crossing his arms at the unfair generalization, but hushing nonetheless. He forgot his qualms as Rainbow Dash released a small grunt, her red eyes slowly opening. Twilight immediately barraged her with questions.
"Rainbow Dash, are you okay!? What happened, where's all the snow!? And why can't you actually land in my bucking library for once!?"
Fluttershy held a hoof up to the unicorn's mouth, and Rainbow Dash managed to squeeze out a staggered sentence.
"It's...horrible...out of...snowflake...designs..."
She immediately sagged back, eyes closed as she went unconscious
Everypony exchanged glances, unsure what to make of the strange news.
Twilight turned to ask Fluttershy an obvious question. "Fluttershy, do you know..."
Her question trailed off, as she was met with silence, and a profound lack of Fluttershy.
Twilight rolled her eyes as she tugged Fluttershy out of the cupboards. The yellow Pegasus remained in a fetus position, quaking as everypony looked at her.
"Uh...sugarcube? Y'all okay?"
The yellow Pegasus jumped up, grabbing and shaking the orange earth pony with her front hooves.
"Okay? Okay!? We ran out of snowflake designs! We're doomed!"
She turned, smacking Applejack with her tail as she bolted back into the cupboards, gently closing the mahogany panel behind her.
Dazed, Twilight opened the cabinet, and magically extricated the Pegasus from her Tupperware. She draped a blanket around her and lay her in front of the fireplace, which was burning gently with a magical fire. Placing a hoof on Fluttershy's foreleg, she asked the question in a rather gentle way.
"Fluttershy, what do you mean we're...'doomed'?"
The Pegasus shook her head in hysteria. "I mean we're doomed. The snow keeps back an ancient evil that rises in the winter, and only us Pegasi know of it. Thing is, every snowflake design can be used only once, as every snowflake needs to be different. While Pegasi make them by hoof occasionally, the most efficient way is to go to the Snow Temple, once every hundred years. We bring a small selection of unicorns to help make snowflake designs. And while, most of the time, hoof-made designs are enough to get us through the winter, we can still run out if we don't go to the Snow Temple each hundred years. Well, we obviously forgot to, so, the horrible..." She shuddered, unable to truly describe the evil, "mean evil under Equestria will be let loose!"
Twilight shuddered as well. "What....What kind of evil?"
Fluttershy forced the words out as a whisper, unwilling to release the secret. "Well, not only Pegasi know of the evil...there's one earth pony, in an ancient Prophecy. A...pink Pony..."
Twilight looked up at Pinkie Pie in surprise. The pink pony was currently leafing through a book, laughing as she continued on.
"Wow! I can't believe this! In 'A Chronicle of Choices', I can store infinite things in my mane!"
She shut the book, and returned it to its spot on the shelf.
"Twilight, is Fluttershy okay?"
Twilight twisted to face the orange work pony. "Apparently, Pinkie Pie knows about this 'ancient evil'."
Applejack pulled her head back in surprise. "What?"
Twilight nodded. "There's some 'pink pony' in an ancient prophecy."
Fluttershy nodded. "It's written on the ancient evil..."
Applejack looked between the two of them, and brought everypony (excluding Pinkie Pie) into a huddle.
"Everypony, Pinkie Pie's apparently some pony in a prophecy, and-"
Pinkie Pie bounced over. "Hey, this story is just a bit too quickly paced, dontch'ya think? I mean, at least have some characterization before jumping right into plot!"
Fluttershy shuddered. "Oh no! It's already begun!"
Twilight raised an eyebrow. "What's begun?"
Fluttershy sighed, and announced what the 'ancient evil' in the bowels of Equestria was. "It's an ancient wall. A wall that separates realities. It was frozen, to keep its infrastructure strong. However, as the winter has no snowflakes to keep it frozen and solid...when it thaws out...it will crumble. And, according to the Prophecy written on the wall itself, Pinkie Pie is the 'key' to it, and she can access its power."
Pinkie Pie burst out laughing. "First off, this is still horrendously paced! Second off, don't you mean the fourth wall, Fluttershy?"
Fluttershy reeled back in fear. "Keep her away from me! She's going to tear the world apart!" She shouted, her small voice rather reducing its urgency.
Twilight stood, and cleared her throat.
"Everypony, I think that we need to go see this...'fourth wall'."
Just then, they heard a groan, and they looked up at Rainbow Dash, who was queasily leaning on the railings of the second landing. Pinkie Pie exploded in an exclamation.
"Sorry, Twilight, but that will have to wait!"
Twilight shrank back, scared. "Pinkie Pie, are you okay!?"
The pink pony smiled. "Yes. Was I injured in the story? Wait, hold on...nope. I wasn't. I'm fine."
She shook her head, and grabbed the lavender unicorn. "Anyway, it's flashback time, Twilight! We have no time to go see the Fourth Wall!"
Twilight pushed Pinkie Pie off of herself, and trotted up the stairs. As she reached the cyan Pegasus, she lent her a hoof for support.
As she helped the Pegasus over to her bed, Rainbow Dash began to recount the events of the past five days.
"See what I mean!?" Pinkie Pie shouted. "Flashback time!!"
Note from the Author
Not my best work, but, meh.
So, what do you think?
If I get ten tracks, I'll continue it.
Chronicle of Choices is too pressing for me. It's already eighty chapters long, and I'm aiming for over a hundred and fifty, so...yeah...