Raindrop's Hearth's Warming Eve Miracle

Faraway from the lost pony and the mysterious iron pen, stands the capitol of Equestria, Canterlot. Inside the sky-high city of Canterlot rest Princess Celestia’s palace, where at this moment, the princess is doing some late night work. “And to this, I call upon treaty with Saddle Arabia,” Celestia speaks, hunched on her regal throne, over a letter she’s writing, “With deepest regards, Princess Celestia.” Upon lifting her nearly dried quill off of the levitating scroll, the princess sighs with relief and slouches back in her chair. “What time is-” She lets out a loud yawn before continuing, “What time is it anyways?”

“Three in the morning, Hearth’s Warming Eve” a male voice speaks from behind her throne, catching the princess off guard.

“Oh! Cloud Prancer Thunder, I didn’t notice you.” A pegasus of yellow fur and an orange and red striped mane, dressed with royal armour, walks around the chair to the front of her throne timidly.

“I’m always positioned here, you assigned to me.”

“Oh, I guess I’m just a bit tired.” The pegasus scratches the back of his left hoof with his right nervously, trying to get the next sentence out of his mouth. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, that’s a very nice letter you’ve written.”

“Why thank you, do you think the duke will accept it?”

“Heh,” the stallion puffs up his chest, trying to impress his majesty, “if I were the duke and got that letter, I would not only accept your offer, but also join Saddle Arabia with Equestria as one.” Celestia giggles at Cloud’s statement before delivering another yawn.

“Cloud, you say the sweetest things.”

“I try, for who would deserve better than the princess that I humbly serve?”

“Hm, you have a point. But don’t you get tired of it?”

“I never get tired when you’re around, your majesty.”

“Aw, if only the other guards were as nice as you.” Immediately, the guard blushes with a small grin on his face. “Before I go to bed, what’s my schedule for tomorrow-I mean today?”

“Well,” Cloud takes a moment to recollect what Celestia had said to herself before beginning to write the letter.

“Well, first is sending the peace treaty to Saddle Arabia. Then, you’re to attend a Wonderbolts performance in Filly Delphia. After that, you’re scheduled to make an appearance at the annual Hearth’s Warming Eve Pageant. Finally, you’ll need to do something about an AWE meeting, forgot what that was for anyways…”

“That, was, the, Advance Weather Equestrian’s meeting to discuss what do with the early winter.”

“What’s so bad about it? Isn’t it just some mistake by some pegasi or something?”

“You didn’t hear about it?”

“Hear what? I was visiting my third cousin, Barney Goni in Manehattan when the early winter came.”

“Well, it’s a long story,”

“I have the time.”

“Well, some young unicorn filly in Canterlot nearly caused an ice age-”

“What? How?”

“I’m not sure either, but the filly had uncontrollable magic power within her and me and a friend of mine, Boris Sparkle, you’ve heard of him right?”

“Yeah, royal magic studier, I’ve seen him around town.”

“Right, he and I had to stop her by imprisoning her in ice. Boris then left to take the unicorn to the Crystal Mountains and right now, I believe he’s on his way back.”

“So that’s why there’s an early winter, because of this abnormal pony? I see, must have been pretty tiring.”

“Yeah,” Celestia yawns once more as she and Cloud look out a window into the black of the night with snow gently falling.

“It still is a beautiful sight to see right? All the individual snowflakes and the plainness of the sky,”

“Yeah, I know somepony else who would’ve also enjoyed this…”

“Your sister?” A stall tear begins to swell beneath Celestia’s ear. Cloud sees this and hovers to her face to wipe it off with his hoof. The silky white fur of the princess’ luscious fur coat causes the pegasus to tense up, yet feel relaxed, upon touching it. Celestia sniffles up her pain, not wanting to make her friend feel uncomfortable.

“Thank you, Cloud.” A small pause occurs as the princess tries to regain her words, “Luna, it’s nearly been a thousand years since I’ve last seen her.”

“It’s okay Celestia, you had to do what you must to protect the ponies of Equestria.”

“But why, why did it have to end with losing my one and only sister?”

“The greatest things come from the greatest of sacrifices.” The pale yellow stallion sidles next to the princess, trying to comfort her. “Do you think she’ll ever come back?”

“She might, but what then happens if she did come back?”

“I,” the timid guard tries to think of something positive to say, but yet can’t even imagine what would happen at all. “I don’t know.”

“You know something?”

“Yes your majesty?”

“You’re one of the few only friends I have ever had. I feel comforted when I talk to you and knowing you’ll always have my back. Ponies are usually too scared of me or try to make themselves something they’re not. You however, are not like that at all,”

“Thanks, I guess…” Celestia gives a soft giggle once more before yet another yawn, this being louder and longer than the others.

“We should get some sleep; I’m probably too tired, working on that letter, to think straight,”

“Wait, ma’am, before you go… I’ve been needing to ask you, something…”

“What is it Mr. Thunder?”

“As you know, I’ve never been somepony that wanted a special somepony…”

“Right?” Sweat begins if build on the shy pegasus’ face as he hesitates to continue his confession,

“But recently, my brother, Cornelius Thunder, got married and he and his wife just recently had a beautiful bouncing colt. He was so happy when he showed me his son. That got me thinking, I’ve never had somepony to dedicate my life to other than you.”

“Okay,”

“So, here is the question…” Cloud and Celestia turn heads towards each other, with the pegasus looking deep into Celestia’s big purple eyes and Celestia looking deeply into Cloud’s wide green eyes. Ever since he joined the royal guard, Cloud Thunder was attracted to the princess’ beauty for love for all. He wasn’t strong, wise, brave, or even that much of a social friend, but that didn’t stop him from trying to get his ruler’s attention. Now, now is the time Cloud thinks, now is the moment where he can be with the one he loves.

“I-I-I-I-I, l-l-love-”

“Princess Celestia!” Another guard burst into the throne room, panting as if he just did a race, “Some filly has passed the gate and is wandering towards its grave.” Sweat and snow were melting off of the stallion’s bright red fur and wings.

“Hey Rex,”

“Hey Cloud,”

“What?” Princess Celestia exclaims, breaking eye contact with Cloud. “That place is heavily fortified, how’d she get in?”

“The guards there were asleep and I only managed to wake up in time to see her slip through the iced-over gate bars.”

“Why didn’t you stop her?”

“Are you kidding me? It’s a death zone inside the walls, and I couldn’t shout because I could’ve awoken it.”

“Fine, get back there and alert the others, I’ll deal with it as soon as I get there.” The red pegasus nodded before charging out of the doors, leaving the two alone as they were.

“You were saying Cloud?”

“Nothing,” the yellow guard stampers, “it can wait. What is this it you and Rex were talking about?”

“It’s another long story, follow me and I’ll explain on the way.”

“Okay.” The two charge out the throne room and down the stairs to the foyer. Leaping out of the open front doors left open by the red pegasus Rex, Celestia and Cloud open their large wings and take flight into the snowy night. With the pale moon and glistening stars hiding behind the dark clouds above, their only navigation over and out of Canterlot is the glossy tail of the second guard flopping in the distance. As the two begin to slow down their flapping and enter gliding mode, Cloud looks down to see a white blanket covering the plains below before the Everfree Forest.

“His name is the Pyrefrost Beowolf, an enemy I once fought with hundreds of years ago.”

“Never heard of him,”

“Are you familiar with the pre-Equestrian myth of Pyrotan?”

“Kinda, he was the god of fire right?”

“Kind of, you see, for thousands of years before Equestria was founded, there were these massive magical creatures, called Centmasters that roamed the land. The ponies that were alive at the time were believed to see them as gods. One of these Centmasters, a large wolf with the power of fire, by the name of Pyrotan, was picked to be a malevolent spirit by the leaders of a group of Centmasters. He was to spread fire and destruction across the land,”

“Wait, he was chosen to be evil, were these Centmasters all evil?”

“No, the Centmasters believed in dualism, or harmony, between good and evil. They thought that the cycle of destruction and recreation would advance themselves, the ponies, and other creatures into becoming perfect.”

“Sounds fairly unstable, what if the good guys wanted to be evil if the bad guys were winning?”

“Funny you should mention that, because the reverse actually happened. In order to balance Pyrotan’s destruction, the Centmaster of ice, Cleofrost, was chosen to be a peacekeeping spirit. Ancient artifacts depict Cleofrost as a beautiful pony, with two horns, four wings, and a legion of ice ponies, windigos, as her followers. Legend states that when the two first meet to battle, Pyrotan fell instantly in love with her beauty-”

“Wait what? A wolf falling in love with a pony? That’s messed up!”

“Well, in today’s time it seems very weird and inappropriate, but remember, this was hundreds of years before I was even born. Standards were different during those times.”

“Way to kick off this Hearth’s Warming Eve, now I’ll never get that image out of my head…”

“May I continue?”

“Sorry, go on.”

“Pyrotan refused to harm Cleofrost, so everytime they met, Cleofrost would beat him, disrupting the balance and causing long winters to devastate pre-Equestria. The Centmasters were not pleased and threatened Pyrotan to uphold his duties or have his powers stripped from him and left to die. So, in retaliation, Pyrotan devised a plan to reform the Centmasters’ system to benefit himself. When he and Cleofrost encountered each other, he broke one of the biggest laws the Centmasters created and absorbed her soul and power, merging it with his. Pyrotan turned from a merely a large fire wolf to a dragon-sized monster with hand-made weapons and the power of both fire and ice,”

Heh, sounds like that one obscure graphic novel I found in the library, ‘The Legend of the Ghost Pony’, weird stuff happening out-of-the-blue…

“With this new power, he attacked the other Centmasters, but was swiftly defeated by the leaders. His body was destroyed and replaced with a wooden skeleton to house his soul and was buried in the Everfree Forest,”

Now that sounds a lot like the graphic novel…

“Now this part takes place after the initial myth, and is the most important, so listen. Two hundred years later, his body was uncovered by a wandering stallion, the skeleton burst to life and ate the pony, shortly before addressing himself as the Pyrefrost Beowolf to anypony he laid eyes upon.”

“Wait, run that by me again, he ate a pony as a flaming skeleton spirit?”

“In one bite as some suggest,”

“And we’re going to confront the thing that ate a pony in one bite? As a flaming skeleton spirit?”

“Yes.”

“Uh, are you sure that’s the wisest course of action to take?”

“Yes.” A queasy feeling rumbles in the guard’s stomach as a wave of uncertainty and fear wash over him.

“So, how’d you deal with him?”

“After he caused numerous attacks on ponies anywhere near the Everfree Forest, I confronted him and engaged him in battle. He was brutal, using his claws, teeth, and scythes at any given a chance, I received a pretty bad beating from it actually. Eventually however, we came to a peace agreement so that in exchange for him to be confined to his original resting place, anypony that wandered near him would be eaten. Luckily however, after we agreed on the deal, I thought one step ahead and built a large metal pen around his resting place so no pony would ever get in.”

“Until recently when a filly has snuck into the pen,”

“You start to lose track and abandon certain projects after hundreds of years, you know,”

I do not know…

“So now we’re going to rescue the filly before the Pyrefrost Beowolf gets her first.”

“Isn’t that breaking the deal?”

“Not if he finds out that it’s me.”

“So what powers and weapons does this wolf-monster have should I be aware of?”

“He breathes fire and ice and his body is indestructible, engulfed in blue-hot flames. He also has the ability to create tornadoes, crystal spikes, and magic balls of fire, ice, or both. His weapons are two massive ice scythes and ice claws he attached to his hands, all of which being able to project his magic through and covered in flames as well.”

“This guy has a thing for ice and fire doesn’t he?”

“That’s not the point, the point is to avoid him at all costs and only attack as a last resort.”

“And protect you right?”

“Cloud, you are an amazing pony, you’ve been loyal to me ever since you joined the guard, and I’m ever so grateful for it. But the Pyrefrost Beowolf is going to want me the most and will not hesitate to kill you if you stand between him and me. If things go bad, take the filly and run out, don’t worry about me,”

“But what if you… you know… don’t make it?”

“My duty is to the ponies of my kingdom, and I am willing to sacrifice myself to keep them safe from any harm. I have already set up a backup plan if I prematurely die. Just inform the government officials and they will handle the rest.”

“Hey Princess Celestia, before any one of us die, I have to tell you something,”

“What is it?”

“I’ve always felt this way about you ever since I joined the royal guard… Princess Celestia of Equestria, I… love…”

“Celestia! Cloud!” Rex screams in the pitch black distance ahead.

“Rex, are you okay there?” Upon the whitish pegasus completing his question, a red blur whizzes right below him in a flapping panic.

“It’s too scary! I can’t take it!”

“It must be urgent.”

“Quickly Cloud,” Celestia hollers as she prepares herself to change flight pattern, “The Pyrefrost Beowolf must be close somewhere. You can finish your statement once we assess the urgency of the situation.” The alicorn then folds her wings as she dives at an angle down into the white fog below.

A merry Hearth’s Warming Eve to me… Cloud Prancer thinks to himself in a sarcastic tone before following Celestia in the Everfree Forest below.