Snowpot and her Homies the Windibros Wreck Horsetown's Winter Wrap Up

...But You Did Nothing...

Princess Celestia sipped from her tea cup and smiled. The scent of chamomile in the mornings was always a sweet thing for her. She leaned back on her cushion and hummed to herself as the birds sang on the trees of her private garden and the running water of the fountain cascaded down the stone and into the green grass beneath. The sun moved lazily across the skies.

Celestia waited the morning out in her garden, until her duties brought her back in the form of a letter. The green fire sprouted from thin air and materialized a rolled up scroll before her. She sighed deeply and let the scroll rest on the grass for a while longer, while the wind flew by and rustled the paper and the leaves of the trees.

Taking a hold of it with her magic, Celestia broke the wax of the scroll's seal and let the paper unroll by itself. She read the contents while drinking her tea. It was a letter from her student, Twilight Sparkle and her report on her newest studies regarding friendship. She smiled and read on. It seemed Twilight had learned another valuable lesson about being the best she could be with the aid of her friends, which was a fortunate event. Anything Twilight wrote for her was a pleasure to read, the princess thought.

Rolling up the letter once more, she stood up and readied herself to leave. It would be a busy day at court, she knew. However, it was necessary that she attend nevertheless. Equestria needed her. She was the princess, one of the diarchs, and the pillar upon which the vast majority of the country rested upon. She simply couldn't give herself the luxury of disregarding important matters of state.

Celestia entered her courtroom with her head held high. She approached her throne as trumpets blared and courtiers greeted her most graciously. Her crown felt recomforting on her head. The familiar weight of it reassured her, to an extent that it would be just like any normal day.

The first of the petitioners arrived. The herald called out the formalities, and then the stallion kneeling before the throne spoke.

"Your majesty, the Windigos are destroying my crops again. They've been seen all across Ponyville's borders with the Everfree, and deadly blizzards have been coming out of the forest." The farmer talked of his afflictions for much longer, but the meaning of his words was simple.

Trouble.

Celestia nodded and promised that anything that could be done to help would be carried out. The next petitioner came forth. Then a third, and a fourth. They continued to arrive for the next four hours, excluding the small break between sessions. Celestia listened to them all, but the issue with the Windigos still troubled her the most.

Rumors had been cruising throughout her realm; rumors of strange bipedal creatures that worshiped a strange and foreign god. He and his cultists had been spreading, or so would the northern peasants say. The cultists would take up residence outside of an Equestrian settlement and build one of their own. Within a couple of weeks the entire equine populace of the latter would be converted to the strange new religion, and the Equestrian customs would be abandoned in favor of their rites and festivals.

The Princess of the Sun retired to her chambers and lied down on her bed. She closed her eyes, and hoped to the sun that nothing would come of these tales.