The Rime of the Ancient Pegasus

by RainbowDoubleDash

Rating: everyone
Tags: Slice of Life, Raindrops, Alternate Universe, Original Character, Trixie, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Derpy Hooves
Length: 16825

After three hundred years sulking in Tartaros, a pegasus who made a deal with Windigos for power has been released for good behavior. Her first stop? Her old hometown of Ponyville!

After three hundred years sulking in Tartaros, a pegasus who made a deal with Windigos for power has been released for good behavior. Her first stop? Her old hometown of Ponyville!

A Lunaverse story, and a Hearth's Warming one. Happy Holidays!

Also, disclaimer: except for the punny name ("rime" is an obscure word for frost or ice), this story has essentially nothing to do with "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner".

Published 2015-12-09 16:20:02 UTC
Last updated 2018-12-20 01:27:47 UTC

2. In Dulci Jubilo

The lead-up to Hearth’s Warming was one of the busiest times of the year for the weather patrol. Snow was built up in great piles in the days before the middle of the Twelvetide, representing the snow and cold that plagues the unicorns, earth ponies, and pegasi before the three tribes came together as one. Then at midnight when Hearth’s Warming Eve switched over to Hearth’s Warming itself, all the snow would be melted, representing the banishment of the Windigos and the coming together of the tribes. Well, all the snow in the town proper, anyway – there weren’t enough pegasi in even all of Cloudsdale to melt all the snow in the whole of Ponyville, farmland included, in just a few hours.

The snow was on-schedule, but the ponies working on it were dog-tired. Even Raindrops’ boss, Rainbow Dash, was flying slower than normal as she worked the cloud cover over Ponyville. The polychromatic pegasus hadn’t looked this tired since the beginning of summer, when certain events had led to the town’s cloud silo losing almost all of its water vapor and so the pegasi in town had needed to work overtime to replace it.

This wasn’t as hard, but it came close (though it was at least not nearly as stressful). Raindrops piled the nimbostrati – the preferred cloud for sustained snow storms – high on top of one another; there was a solid four hundred fifty feet of cloud between her and Ponyville below, which left a good fifty feet still to go. They had the supply, but wrangling the clouds into place and molding them together into one great storm took time and energy and the use of a pegasus’ hooves and wings both.

The pegasus frowned, though, when she entered the vast cloud container that held the nimbostrati clouds (the container itself was made of cumulonimbi; the idea of clouds containing other clouds would have been bizarre to a land-bound pony, but was fairly ordinary to the pegasus tribe) and set her hooves against the next nimbostratus she had to place, feeling it out. “Hey, I think we have a problem,” she called after a few minutes of checking to be sure. She poked her head out of the top of the cloud container, then called over to Rainbow Dash, who was about a hundred feet up and five hundred feet away. “There’s too many ice crystals in one of these!”

“Why didn’t you bring this up when we were fighting a Windigo not one month ago?” Cheerilee demanded with perhaps a bit more heat than she’d intended.

“Because Snowy Night isn’t a Windigo!” Trixie countered.

She, Cheerilee, Ditzy, and Lyra were in Trixie’s living room – Carrot Top was out on her farm and it would have taken too long to grab, while Raindrops was busy with weather patrol duties. There was a warm fire burning in Trixie’s fireplace that Cheerilee had made even warmer by putting on an additional log as she’d been informed about Rimewind. Trixie supposed she couldn’t really blame Cheerilee’s reaction to the situation – the Windigo that they’d fought a month or so back had, after all, frozen both her and Vicereine Puissance solid. Trixie imagined that would have an effect on a pony once they were freed from the ice.

“The stories say she is,” Lyra said. She’d grabbed her copy of Flutter Ponies and Other Foal’s Tales on being told about the situation, and had opened it up to the relevant story contained within. “Though my dads always said that afterwards Rimewind was defeated by all the farms coming together in the Hearth’s Warming spirit.”

“My mother used to say that Little Rock was unfrozen, too,” Cheerilee noted, backing down from her angry glare at Trixie. “Guess those would be later additions. Okay, so Rimewind isn’t a Windigo? What is she, then?”

Trixie rubbed one front hoof against the opposite leg. “A pegasus pony,” she said, “named Snowy Night.”

“She seems very alive for somepony who’s three hundred years old,” Ditzy noted.

“More like three-twenty or so,” Trixie said. “And…okay okay okay. Just bear with me, I’m not as good at telling stories as Lyra is.” Lyra beamed a little at the compliment as Trixie considered. “Okay,” she repeated. “Okay. I’m not Luna’s first apprentice, right? She’s taken on others over the years, different reasons for each one. Bright Shimmer, Simple Words, Copper Coin…I think there’s been nine before me. Anyway, Snowy Night was Luna’s apprentice three hundred years ago. She was a pegasus but her family were all earth ponies, living on the edge of the Everfree Forest at the time in one of the homesteads scattered around here before Ponyville was founded.

“Snowy was really good at weather-manipulation, that’s what caught Luna’s eye. But her family were dirt-poor farmers. Luna offered to take them to Canterlot with Snowy, but they refused, her mom and dad were just too prideful to accept help. They wouldn’t even accept it when Luna offered to have Snowy indentured to her.”

“Wait, what?” Ditzy asked. Having Snowy Night become an indentured servant would have meant that Luna would have owned Snowy Night for a set period as determined by the contract worked out between Luna and Snowy’s parents; and at the end of the contract Snowy Night would have been entitled to a rather substantial cash payment known as freedom dues. Despite that, while it wasn’t quite slavery, it wasn’t far from it, either.

“It wasn’t illegal back then,” Cheerilee noted. “And it’s not like Luna made a habit out of indenturing ponies.”

“Snowy was leaving the farm of her own free will, anyway,” Trixie added. “Indenturing her would have just been a way to help her parents out without it seeming like charity. But her parents did refuse it. Anyway, Snowy had brothers and sisters. Her youngest brother was a foal named Little Rock.”

Ditzy’s wings fluttered a few times at the mention of the foal from the tale. “Oh, I don’t think I like where this is going,” she noted.

Trixie help up a hoof. “It’s…I mean, it’s sad, but it’s not Snowy’s fault,” she said. “See, a few years later, while Snowy was Luna’s apprentice, Little Rock got sick. Her parents didn’t tell her, though, until he was really, really sick – they’d barely written to each other since, again, her parents didn’t like that she’d left the farm.

“Luna and Snowy both went to the farm, but medicine wasn’t very advanced back then – even Luna honestly believed that diseases were caused by ‘noxious miasma’ and the best way to fight them was ‘clean air’ and being surrounded by a family’s well-wishing – and Little Rock had been sick too long for Luna’s magic to help him, if it even could have at all. The most that Snowy and Luna could do was make him comfortable. But even then, according to Snowy and Luna, there was a chance that he could get better, even looked like he was getting better…”

“…but he didn’t,” Lyra surmised, glancing down at the foal’s tales book she had open in front of her. “Let me guess: the weather got colder.”

Trixie nodded. “The Everfree Forest produced a really bad winter that year,” she said, “and there wasn’t any weather patrol in this area back then. The cold was just too much for Little Rock, and he died. Snowy…kind of went nuts after that. She didn’t blame Luna and still loved her parents too much in spite of everything to blame them. So she blamed the Everfree Forest. She became obsessed with trying to figure out why the Everfree’s weather can’t be controlled by pegasus magic. Eventually she realized that, according to legend, there was one creature that could – Windigos.

“Snowy left Luna’s apprenticeship and went north, looking for Windigos. She searched for weeks before finally finding them, but all that time alone caused her to forget about most of her reasons. All she cared about was her own hate and pain. So she sort of made a deal with the Windigos.” Trixie held up her hooves before her friends could ask any questions, Cheerilee in particular. “I’m saying sort of because there wasn’t any talking or bargaining. According to Snowy the Windigos just knew what she wanted – power over ice and snow – and gave it to her, then left, with her just knowing what they wanted her to do.

“Anyway. Long story short after that, she returned to the Everfree about a year after Little Rock died and created another harsh winter. She wanted to bury all of Equestria under snow and ice so that everypony would know the same kind of pain that she was going through. But Princess Luna stopped her – the Windigos could make her strong, but not that strong. Snowy was then sealed in Tartartos, since that was the only place that could hold her and she didn’t regret any of what she’d done.”

“Put it aside and grab the next, then,” Rainbow Dash responded to Raindrops’ call, waving a hoof. “We can soften it up later.”

Raindrops had already started to do so, but the next nimbostratus was no better, and nor was the next one – or the one after that. Too many ice crystals was a bad thing – the snow would turn to sleet or hail, either of which could be dangerous not just to ponies, but to buildings, the railroad tracks, and the brand-new telegraph cables that had gone up.

Raindrops again poked her head out of the cloud container. “They’ve all got too many ice crystals,” she called.

Rainbow Dash let out a long-suffering sigh, gliding over to the cloud container and slipping inside through one of the walls, Raindrops following her. She ran a hoof along the nimbostrati. “Hey, you’re right,” she said after a moment of checking. “Oh, come on, Cloudsdale! You’ve got a fancy weather factory, can’t you make all the clouds right?”

“Must have been a bad batch,” Raindrops reasoned, as the two left the construct through its proper open exit. Other pegasi in the patrol were beginning to crowd around as they finished off with their own nimbostrati and made to get new ones.

“Okay, we have a problem,” Rainbow Dash declared to her team. “The next batch is no good, unless we want to bean somepony in the head with hail. Which I’m not saying any of you don’t,” she added quickly, “but maybe it’s not exactly in the Hearth’s Warming spirit.”

“Can’t we just soften them up?” One pegasus asked, glancing inside the cloud container, though he reached the answer himself after looking at the sheer volume of clouds remaining. “No, too many, we’d never get done in time…”

“Could just settle on what we have,” another pegasus put forth. She was one of the volunteers that helped the weather patrol out during big events, but wasn’t a regular member; she only had cursory weather training. “Is there really that much of a difference between four-fifty feet and five hundred?”

“I could go on about cloud density, chain reactions, and pegasus magic,” Raindrops answered for her boss, “but the short answer is that it’ll take three times as long for the snow to melt if we don’t build it up to a certain point first. That certain point is a five hundred foot cloud layer.”

“So what are we gonna do?”

Rainbow Dash let out another long, aggravated sigh. “Get to softening these,” she said, stretching her wings and turning back around. “As fast as possible…”

She trailed off, and the other pegasi turned to look. Sitting on top of the cloud container, looking in, was another pegasus, albeit one that none of them recognized. Her coat was blue, while her tail was white with the faintest of blue highlights – her mane was probably similarly colored, but she currently had her head stuck through the cloud container, looking at the contents. Her cutie mark was a snowflake being blown along by few stray breezes.

“Hey!” Rainbow Dash called. “Who the heck are you?”

The pegasus lifted her head from the container, revealing teal eyes. Something about the eyes seemed…off, but Raindrops couldn’t place it. Her expression, too, was…just off somehow. The pegasus’ eyes narrowed a little as she regarded Rainbow Dash, then Raindrops, then the rest of the weather team – then looked past them, at the cloud cover, and the sky above, glancing them over with a critical eye.

“Uh, hello?” Rainbow Dash asked, wings beating and taking her atop the cloud construct, where she hovered in front of the newcomer. “Hey, I’m talkin’ to you!”

The pegasus blinked a few times, then looked to Rainbow Dash again, eyes narrowed. The other members of the weather patrol flew up to their boss then, an instinctive desire to face the new – and strange, and slightly creepy – arrival as a single flock.

But then the new pegasus’ face split into a happy grin, her wings snapped open – and the coldest breeze that most of them had ever felt suddenly blasted the weather patrol away from the new arrival, who took to the air, trailing snowflakes in her wake. She ascended a hundred feet into the air, not particularly fast, but with the weather patrol needing to spend a few seconds to right themselves nopony could stop her as she then pointed herself down at the cloud construct and dove, snow still trailing in her wake, calling something that sounded like “gardyloo!” as she fell, though Raindrops was certain she misheard.

Raindrops had more important things to worry about, anyway. When the new arrival hit the construct, a ripple spread throughout it, then it burst apart, freeing the nimbostrati within and scattering them across the sky.

“Okay, so she ended up in Tartaros,” Cheerilee said. “It sounds like she deserved it. But that doesn’t explain a few things. Like, how is she still alive? Does time not pass in Tartaros or something?”

Trixie shook her head. “No. Tartaros isn’t exactly our world, but it is nestled inside of it and follows mostly the same rules. Time passes normally there. But whatever the Windigos did to Snowy changed her.”

“Made her immortal?” Lyra asked.

Trixie shook her head, looking more than a little maudlin as she continued. “No. She’s still aging, just…not as fast as you or me. Princess Luna’s best guess is that Snowy’s going to live thousands and thousands of years.” She fixed each of her friends with a hard stare. “But she is still aging. It’s just taking her longer.”

The other three ponies glanced between each other. They caught the subtext of what Trixie was saying. Right now, Snowy was the equivalent of an adult pony in her twenties, and she’d stay that way for a long time. And then she’d hit middle age – and stay there for a long time. And old age, too. She would still grow feeble and venerable with time; it would just take a long time to get there – but once Snowy did, she would stay there for a long time, too. Senescence was going to take centuries, at least.

Trixie waved her hooves. “But that’s a long ways off,” Trixie said. “The point is that Luna never gave up on Snowy. She kept visiting Snowy in Tartaros, trying to reach her, to make her realize that what she’d done was wrong. It took a couple centuries, but…it worked.”

“Hey!” Raindrops called, flying forward with hooves outstretched towards the pegasus. The new arrival noticed and avoided though – little surprise there, given that Raindrops was not a fast flier. But Rainbow Dash was, and Raindrops’ charge had given the latter a chance to zoom up unnoticed and grab the mare about the barrel from behind. Raindrops tensed herself, expecting a fight, but instead the other pegasus only gasped in surprise, eyes widening and body freezing in shock.

Rainbow Dash let the pegasus go at her action; she fell a few feet but managed to get her wings under her enough to land atop a freed nimbostratus. “Okay, who the heck are you,” the weather patrol leader demanded, “and why do you hate Hearth’s Warming Eve?”

“We were going to have a hard enough time without the nimbostrati losing vapor!” Raindrops added, soaring closer. The other pegasus shied away in fright, but Raindrops didn’t feel a need to rein in her anger at the moment. “What are we supposed to do without a place to keep them all away from that?” she pointed a hoof at the sun overhead. Corona was one thing; the greatest natural enemies clouds had, however, was sunlight, as even on a cold day the light would cause at least some evaporation – but a lot of the vapor that would evaporate would re-freeze before it could even leave the cloud, albeit harder than before. The nimbostrati were about to become even tougher to deal with.

The new pegasus glanced between Rainbow Dash and Raindrops, eyes wide and ears flopped back. “I – I offer my sincerest apologies,” she said. Her accent was…strange, not exactly foreign but not exactly Equestrian, either. “However, I had a solution to that which vexed you. Your cloud construct, ‘twas hewn from altostrati. ‘Tis belike the nimbostrati could be joined with their softer brethren and, withal, resolve your issue forthwith.”

There was a long moment of silence. “…what?” Raindrops asked.

The pegasus glanced between the two again. “Pray forgive me, my diction be arcane to your ears…ah…” she spread her wings again and took to the air – slowly this time, yet her wings still trailed small snowflakes as she moved – and flew over to one of the pieces of the former cloud construct – which had been made of altostrati, a related species of cloud to the nimbostrati it had contained – and then pushed it over to a larger nimbostratus so that the two clouds were touching. She looked to Raindrops. “Pray, aid me in this conjunction,” she said, nodding to the far end of the nimbostratus.

“…oh, wait, I think I get it!” Rainbow Dash said even as Raindrops complied with the other pegasus, pushing the nimbostratus forward even as the other pushed forward the altostratus. The magic of the two pegasi willing the clouds forward allowed the vapor in both to mix and join together. By the time they were done, the nimbostratus had consumed the smaller altostratus – but the altostratus’ smaller, more diffuse ice crystals had substantially softened the nimbostratus, achieving in just a few minutes what otherwise would have taken an hour, and leaving Raindrops with a larger cloud besides.

“Hey, that’s a great idea!” Rainbow Dash noted.

“Yeah, sure,” Raindrops said, her glare still on the new arrival. “Maybe you should have told us this rather than just busting apart our clouds without permission!”

The new arrival looked down. Her wings were beating to allow her to hover in place, and still were creating snowflakes with every beat – how, Raindrops had no idea. “I…I once again offer my most vociferous apologies,” she said. “I have become unused to…oh, fie on my excuses, there be none.” She looked to the two pegasi. “I had thought to ingratiate myself with an act of magnanimity, but ‘twas foolish of me to act without first seeking approval. I shall leave you be, then.”

The pegasus glided away, disappearing beneath the cloud cover and still trailing snowflakes as she went. “How is she doing that?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“How do you trail rainbows every time you fly fast?” Raindrops countered.

“Because I’m awesome,” Rainbow Dash declared, turning back around and looking over the altostrati and nimbostrati in the sky. They probably had exactly enough of the former to soften up all of the latter. “Okay, well, back to work, I guess. Hey, we might even get done early now!”

“It worked?” Cheerilee asked. “But you said that was a couple of centuries…” she picked up Snowy Night’s letter again, reading it over. “Oh – but from the looks of things, she stayed in Tartaros because she wanted to punish herself more.”

Trixie nodded. “But she’s decided to leave…and visit.” She glanced to the side, a worried expression on her face.

“Okay,” Ditzy said, “but this is good news, right? Because she’s your friend?”

Trixie looked back to Ditzy. “I’ve met her once, for only a few hours, years ago, and never came back at her own request. She’d said something like, ‘I don’t want a foal to become corrupted by my example.’ Only it was a lot more archaic. Point is I never really considered her a friend…” She took the letter from Cheerilee, glancing it over. “But apparently the same isn’t true in reverse.”

“Well, yeah,” Lyra noted, as though it should have been obvious. Trixie looked to her, and Lyra shrugged. “She’s spent three hundred years in Tartaros. Everypony she knew, except Luna, is dead. The only visits she got was with Luna, you, and maybe some of your predecessors. You would be the closest thing to a friend she has these days.”

“Did the visit go well?” Ditzy asked.

Trixie thought. Kokytos was technically a river, but it was buried beneath a solid half-mile of ice. Snowy had spent the centuries building up a large palace and tunnel network there. There were uncountable books there as well, which Snowy read to pass the time. When Trixie had gone there with Luna she had spent most of her time being bored out of her mind, if truth be told – she could only barely understand Snowy at the time and the latter had been far more comfortable talking to Luna. Trixie wasn’t even sure why she’d been brought along.

“It didn’t go…poorly,” She said at length. “I was a lot younger when I visited her ice palace. I was on my best behavior!”

Lyra stared at her, mouthing the word ‘ice palace’.

“I didn’t melt that one!” Trixie added, throwing her hooves in the air. “In fact I didn’t melt the majority of ice palaces I’ve been in!”

“Most ponies haven’t melted any,” Lyra pointed out. She also didn't mention that the score in that regard was nevertheless 2-1 and quite possible to change.

Trixie whickered a little in annoyance. “Palace is kind of pushing it, anyway. There wasn’t really any pattern to the rooms, I think she added or removed them as she liked or whenever she got bored…honestly it’s a wonder that she didn’t go insane from isolation – ”

There was a thump from somewhere upstairs. The four ponies all started at it, glancing up as they heard what sounded like a pony walking atop the roof. But who…then there was more noise and a cloud of coal dust and snow from the fireplace quickly flooded Trixie’s living room. The four ponies within retreated backwards, coughing, Ditzy using her wings to blow the dust and snow away and back towards the fireplace. They stopped, though, when they realized that there was a fifth voice coughing and a fifth set of hooves stumbling with them.

“Gar and od!” the voice exclaimed as Trixie and her friends scattered from its owner, a blue pegasus pony caked in soot, wings beating furiously to push the coal dust and snow away. Shen then spun in place, hooves stomping on the ground. Ice crept along her from her hooves and wings, crawling across her and pushing forward, gathering the coal soot off of her. After a moment, and with another stomp, the ice expanded outwards, washing across the entire room and repeating what it had just done to her – scouring soot from it, leaving the entire room pristine, if thoroughly chilled. The soiled ice, meanwhile, collected in a solid block in the fireplace, where of course the fire had been completely extinguished.

The pegasus panted a few times. “Fie on my memory!” she exclaimed, glancing to the other four ponies, who stared at her in confusion. “For nigh unto three centuries have I dwelt in a place needing neither flame nor heat. I had quite forgotten the purpose of a fire-place, and saw the benighted chimney only as a means of ingress!”

“…what?” Ditzy asked.

“She thought the chimney was just a way in,” Cheerilee supplied as she stared warily at the pegasus. Every flutter of her wings seemed to scatter a few small snowflakes, and Cheerilee couldn’t help but notice tiny bits of frost at her hooves, either.

“There was smoke coming out of it!”

“Aye, but I had forgotten the significance of that,” the pegasus answered her fellow, glancing her over. Her eyes stopped on Ditzy’s own, which were both quite discombobulated at the moment. “Egad,” she breathed. “Pray, are you well, good mare?”

Ditzy blinked a few times, then took in a deep breath and let it out. “Yes, I’m fine,” she said, one of her eyes coming into focus, while the other wandered a bit still. “And…I’m guessing that you’re Snowy Night, then.”

The pegasus drew herself up; at her full height she wasn’t much taller than Ditzy, and indeed looked like a perfectly ordinary pony in every way – save for the frosty effects of her every moment. “Indeed, good mare. Snowy Night, Student of the Princess Luna, and late of the River Cocytus, at your service.” She bowed low, and came back up with a flourish, looking around. “Pray, this be the location of Luna’s vicereine, be it not?”

Trixie had been about to answer, but paused as her eyes widened. “Vicereine?” she asked. She couldn’t help but, for the briefest moment, wonder if Luna had planned on giving her a particularly hefty Hearth’s Warming present this year.

Snowy turned to look at Trixie. “Oh!” she exclaimed. “Neigh, good mare, not in the modern sense. I apologize, my habits…arcane…” she paused, leaning forward a little as she regarded Trixie, then brightened considerably. “Trixie!” she exclaimed, leaping forward. Trixie let out a cry of surprise as she suddenly found herself wrapped in a tight and surprisingly warm hug. After a moment Snowy started to withdraw – but then the pegasus kissed her.

And not on the cheek, either.

3. Baby It's Cold Outside

The kiss at least wasn’t drawn out as Snowy stepped back. “I had not expected a mare so grown!” she said to a stunned Trixie. “I knew of course that this must be so, but in my mind’s eye you had still been the little filly I had met ere the end of my immurement!”

Trixie resisted the urge to wipe her lips. “Y-yeah, I’ve grown,” she stuttered – she wasn’t exactly opposed to mares, but they weren’t her preference, either – particularly not mares she had only met once before in her life. She spotted Lyra and Cheerilee both with their hooves to their mouths, chuckling to themselves, while Ditzy only looked confused. “Hey, how come you didn’t kiss them? Or Ditzy?”

Snowy blushed as she glanced at the other three mares. “I…had not known,” she answered. “In my time ‘twas a practice only for those ponies who were close friends. I have learnt not that times since have grown more…intimate.” Her blush grew even redder – she had misinterpreted Trixie’s question, the much younger mare realized, and was now wondering what friends were supposed to do if even strangers would kiss –

“Gyaaah no!” Trixie exclaimed before she could reach any of the conclusions that Snowy was leaping towards right now. “No no no no. Sorry. Ponies don’t normally kiss each other unless they’re close. Like…dating.”

“Oh,” Snowy said, looking relieved herself, though not as much as Trixie.

There was several moments of awkward silence, before Cheerilee finally let out a chuckle. “Okay, I take back any worry I had about her,” the earth pony said as she trotted forward. “My name’s Cheerilee. I’m a teacher at Ponyville’s elementary school.” She turned around, pointing to the other ponies in the room. “That’s Ditzy Doo, and Lyra Heartstrings.”

Snowy smiled knowingly. “Your humility astounds,” she said, “for though I recognized not your countenances, your names are certainly known to my ears, Ser Cheerilee, Ser Ditzy, and Ser Lyra.” She glanced behind her, at Trixie. “And Ser Trixie, of course, though I hope you will permit me a more familiar tone.”

Trixie nodded to that, while Lyra considered the archaic, gender-neutral term for knighted ponies. “Dame these days,” she provided as she came forward, along with Ditzy. “But only when we’re on-duty, really. Or when Bon Bon is feeling…”

She let the idea remain floating in the air, no doubt so that it could make Trixie feel even more embarrassed. She refused to give Lyra the satisfaction, however, instead looking back to Snowy. “So,” she said. “Um…sorry for not meeting you at the train, I only just got your letter…”

Snowy made a face, whickering a little. “Train! Neigh, Trixie. I trust not a thing that moves on its own, yet hides where its brain be kept.” She fluttered her wings. “My ancestors did grant me wings, aye? I made use of them. ‘Twas naught but a descent from Canterlot to this town, with many a cloud for rest-stops; an easy enough flight, and an excuse to exercise, and observe the…changes to the land circumjacent to my home of old.”

Ditzy’s head tilted at that. “It must look so different…”

Snowy nodded sagely. “In truth, Ser Ditzy – or Dame Ditzy, if that be your preference?”

“Just Ditzy is fine, actually. Probably applies to all of us?” The other mares in the room nodded.

Snowy bowed her head again. “Your humility does you credit. As I was saying, friend Ditzy, in truth I prefer the land as it be now, one of fields and pastures and townships instead of the deep, ceaseless greenwood.” Her muzzle scrunched up again. “Save the…trains, and their bellowing calls. I care not for the metal beasts.”

“Yeah, it can be a bit much sometimes, especially in the morning,” Lyra agreed. She looked to Ditzy and Cheerilee. “Well, I think we’ll be going, give you and Trixie a chance to catch up. Maybe we can meet again later tonight?”

“’Twould please me greatly, friend Lyra. But indeed, I should like to ‘catch up’ to Trixie, as the saying goes in this æra.” She looked to Trixie. “With your leave, of course, Trixie, being master of this house.”

“Yes, Trixie, with your leave,” Cheerilee said, grinning broadly as she bowed and gave a slight hoof-flourish while backing away towards the cloak rack, where her winter gear was kept. Ditzy and Lyra joined her, chortling to themselves as they did.

Trixie groaned, waving her friends away. “Tonight as the Punch Bowl,” she said. “In fact, get Carrot Top and Raindrops, too. We can make a get-together of it, and Snowy can meet the others.”

The other three mares nodded as they slipped on their winter cloaks, hats, and scarves, and then headed out into the day. The Sun was already starting to dip towards the horizon, and a chill wind blasted into the house when the door was opened, dropping the temperature further. Trixie let out a shiver at that, glancing to the fireplace and the block of soiled ice that was still there. “Uh, Snowy,” she said, looking to the frosty pegasus, “um, if you don’t mind me asking…how are you with heat these days?”

Snowy fluttered her wings a bit, her face looking a little maudlin. “It be…difficult,” she admitted, “but I can manage. I tilted with the flame in Canterlot and was well enough, though I felt as though I were residing in the far southern climes among the tapirs and dromedaries. I fear a hot summer’s day could…but never mind that. Pray, do not suffer on my account.”

Trixie considered a moment, before nodding, walking over to her fireplace and rolling the block of ice from it, then putting in fresh wood and tinder and lighting it up, though she used less of both then she might have otherwise – hopefully it would strike a happy medium between her tolerances and Snowy’s. She looked back to the other mare. “So…” she said. “Um…like I said, I only just got your letter.”

Snowy nodded, grinning a little. “I suspected the cad was false when he promised a delivery on the same day,” she said.

“Actually it had something to do with…” Trixie began, then shook her head as she walked over to one couch and sat down at it. “Never mind, doesn’t matter. Um…so you’ve been in Canterlot? How long?”

The pegasus mare sat down on another, wings fluttering. “A week. As you know, Princess Luna would visit me in my donjon every year afore the Longest Night. This time, I expressed desire to end my immurement at long last.”

Trixie nodded, glancing over Snowy. “You know you could have ended it sooner,” she said. “I mean…Luna brought me to visit you once. She wouldn’t have done that if she thought you were a threat anymore.”

Snowy nodded. “Aye, Trixie, I am aware. But this year has brought about a certain confluence of events and circumstances.”

“You mentioned those,” Trixie said, grabbing Snowy’s letter and glancing it over. “You wrote something about ‘secrets that aren’t yours to risk telling?”

Snowy Night shifted uncomfortably at that. “A…aye, that was what my pen scribed,” she said. “The secret I alluded to being the one-thousandth birthday of Princess Cadenza this coming year…or, more precisely, the great revelation that the Princesses Luna and Cadenza wish to make on that date. Concerning Princess Cadenza’s lineage.”

“Right!” Trixie exclaimed, smiling a little. Princess Luna was the mother of Princess Cadenza, after a fashion, through a convoluted series of circumstances involving the Elements of Harmony and Luna’s fight with Corona a thousand years ago. It was a close secret, however, known only to a few – Cadenza herself had only learned as much less than a year ago, Trixie even more recently. Their relation was going to be made public on Cadenza’s thousandth birthday in the spring of the coming year, however. Doing so would undoubtedly cause a good deal of political trouble for Equestria and Cavallia for a little bit, as Cadenza would simultaneously become the official heir apparent to Equestria should something happen to Luna, but both alicorns – and Trixie, of course – thought of the headache as being worth it.

Trixie looked back to Snowy, still smiling. “I guess if there’s any reason to leave Tartaros, attending a pony’s thousandth birthday is as good as any. It’s not every day that happens.”

Snowy flinched a little at that, but nodded. “Aye,” she said. “There were…other reasons, as well. But they be not important…right now.” She looked to Trixie, who looked back with concern. Trixie could tell that they were important to Snowy, yet she didn’t want to bring them up right now. Why not? “And as well,” Snowy said quickly, apparently guessing Trixie’s concern, “I emerged from my donjon to congratulate you! You be the Element of Magic now?”

Trixie preened. Well, Snowy certainly knew how to turn her attentions away from a subject, at least. “It’s nothing, really,” she said, voice full of modesty and humility. “I was just in the right place at the right time.”

“You were the right pony in the right place at the right time,” Snowy said, fluttering her wings again, creating a bit of frost around her as she eyed the warming fireplace. Trixie made to get up to lower the fire, but Snowy waved a hoof at her to stop her. “And your tone fools me not, Trixie. You be proud of your accomplishment. Rightly so, I shall add.”

The unicorn grinned widely. “Glad somepony thinks so,” she said, settling back down and deciding not to pry into whatever was bothering the pegasus. Snowy would tell her of her concerns when she wanted to. “A statue isn’t too much to ask for, is it?”

Snowy laughed aloud at that. “Neigh, indeed one would think it be the least that could be done in your honor.” She shifted a little again, creating more frost around her, but smiled at Trixie. “If it would please you, I should like to hear all about it, your earning of the Elements. Pray, weave for me the tale of the most grand and potent Trixie!”

If anything, Trixie’s grin grew even larger, as she once again stood up from her chair, horn glowing bright. “Sit back, then, and listen in awe!” she declared. “I shall weave you a tale of deceit, of adventure, of danger, and of friendship!”

Winter on a farm, particularly one that didn’t have any kind of livestock, was a typically long affair, fraught with intermittent bouts of boredom as there was nothing to do, and worry as one watched one’s stores and savings slowly trickle away without any real way to replenish them. Currently Carrot Top was more-or-less ‘enjoying’ the first of these, at least. She had spent the day going over her grandmother’s recipe books, while writing down some of her own recipes in a new book. Her special talent may have been in carrot farming, but Carrot Top was no slouch at cooking, if she said so herself – she had a third place prize at a national cooking competition for proof of that.

Still, simply writing while humming to herself was beginning to get really boring. Come to think of it, it had been a few days since she’d last gone into town, hadn’t it? She’d seen her friends on the Longest Night, of course – the six of them had made sure to stick together and have the Elements on-hoof, just in case – but that was no excuse not to go into town again. Or even just hang out the Punch Bowl. She could have a life, couldn’t she?

Thus emboldened, Carrot Top slipped on her winter gear and set out. The path from the road to her house was well-shoveled, of course, but the road to her farm was notably less clear, already six inches deep and still rising, though the snow was light and powdery, easy enough to step through, if chilling. She’d definitely be having hot cocoa at the Punch Bowl, or maybe some wassail. Or more than ‘some’. Berry Punch wasn’t one to turn a paying customer out into the cold and deep snow, especially not one who hailed from Ponyville’s farms and would have a trek of half a mile or more to get back home; the floor in front of the fireplace of her establishment was plenty comfortable and warm, Carrot Top knew from past experience.

She’d made it most of the way to town when she saw several pegasi come down through the cloud layer they’d made, smoothing out its underside and then banking towards the weather patrol station. One of them – Carrot Top realized it was Raindrops – noticed the earth pony, said something to her co-workers, then turned around and headed for her.

“Hi,” Carrot Top said as soon as Raindrops was in earshot, and couldn’t resist adding “thanks for the snow…” Objectively, Carrot Top knew that snow served an important purpose, both in cleaning the air and in replenishing groundwater. That didn’t make it any less cold to a simple earth pony, though.

“Keeps the blood flowing,” Raindrops noted nonchalantly as she landed next to her friend, heedless of the depth of the snow, or its chill. Carrot Top noticed that Raindrops also took a few moments to subconsciously crunch the snow underhoof, a slight tug at the corner of the young mare’s lips – snow was just a different kind of rain, after all. The earth pony hid her chortle at that well even as Raindrops looked to her. “What’s got you out in this?”

Carrot Top shrugged as she resumed walking, Raindrops keeping pace easily enough. “There isn’t exactly much to do on the farm right now,” she said. “I’m liable to end up going stir-crazy if I just stay cooped up inside and snowed in.”

“You might get snowed in at the Punch Bowl,” Raindrops warned, glancing up. “We’re going for a good two feet. Might even make it…” she scowled a little at that for some reason.

Carrot Top paused a moment, mostly to lean against a stiff, freezing breeze that kicked up suddenly, coming in from the southwest – an Everfree gust, probably. Even Raindrops threw up her wings to cover her eyes from the gust. “Two bits says I won’t be the only farmer who prefers being stuck in town than stuck at home,” she noted, wiping snow from her face. “I doubt Berry Punch will mind the business either.”

Raindrops nodded. “I’m heading there too, asked one of the guys to clock out for me. I…need to get my mind off of somepony. Don’t even know her name, she just showed up and…ugh. I don’t want to talk about it now.”

Carrot Top resisted the urge to bite her lip; she’d forgotten her balm at home and didn’t need to deal with cracked lips at the moment. “You’re not planning on…?” she ventured. For all her physical prowess, Raindrops was something of a lightweight when it came to liquor.

Raindrops shook her head. “Going for the environment, not the drink. Just want to take my mind off of things, gonna stick to ginger ale.” She favored Carrot Top with a small smile, a rare sight from the pegasus. “Could use drinking buddy all the same, though.”

“I’m game,” Carrot Top confirmed. They had just walked by the last fence that denoted somepony’s farmland – Green Grape’s, in this case – before Ponyville town proper was reached. The entire town looked like something one might find on a postcard, or inside of a snow globe, as picturesque an image of an Equestrian town just waiting for Hearths’ Warming as any could ask for. The roads here were better plowed, at least, allowing Carrot Top and Raindrops to take a moment to shake off some of the snow that had collected on them before continuing on at an easier, brisker pace to the Punch Bowl, though Carrot Top stifled another gasp as yet another Everfree gale seemed to cut through all her winter clothes, and even Raindrops seemed to shiver a bit.

“That’s not good, is it?” Carrot Top asked as the two picked up the pace.

“At the moment, I’m clocked out, and don’t care,” Raindrops said determinedly. “Probably the Everfree is cooking up freezing rain or something.” She grit her teeth. “Ugh…bet that had something to do with the nimbostrati packing so much ice…” At a confused glance from Carrot Top, Raindrops pointed up to the cloud cover. “Nimbostrati. Best clouds for snow. Only the shipment we got from Cloudsdale had too many ice crystals in it, would have ended up pelting Ponyville with graupel. Soft hail,” she added at another confused look.

Carrot Top shook her head. There was an entire world up in the sky that quite literally went over her head at times. She got the basic gist of what Raindrops was saying, at least. “Did that other pony you mention have anything to do with it?” She asked.

Raindrops shook her head. “No. Technically she helped fix things, but did it in the worst way possible. Didn’t explain herself at all before starting, disappeared before finishing things off.” They had reached the Punch Bowl, and Raindrops opened the door for the two of them. “I swear, if I see her again there’s a fifty-fifty shot of me bucking her in the – ”

“Carrot Top! Raindrops!” A voice, Trixie’s, called as the two ponies got in out of the snow. The Punch Bowl was normally warm from both the press of bodies and the roaring fireplace that Berry Punch kept going in the winter, but for some reason the temperature felt lower than normal – still above freezing, but not exactly the respite from the cold Carrot Top had been expecting.

Glancing over as she took off her hat and scarf, she saw Trixie sitting over at one of the tables already – the one furthest from the fireplace Sitting next to Trixie was a pale blue pegasus with a white mane and tail…who looked like she was sweating, or at least like she had recently taken a dip in a pool and was still drying off.

“And…that’s her,” Raindrops deadpanned.

Trixie wasted little time in introducing Snowy Night to Carrot Top and Raindrops. The latter, however, didn’t really care too much beyond the name as she stared hard at the mare across from her, only occasionally sipping at her ginger ale.

“Once again, my most vociferous apologies, Ser Raindrops,” Snowy said, once she recognized Raindrops. Her wings fluttered a few times and hooves tapped the floor, sending a ripple up her body that flash-froze all the water on it, covering her in a thin film of rime – and cooling the temperature around the table notably. She settled down a bit at that, looking more comfortable. “As I spoke earnestly ere we were formally introduced, ‘twas not my intention to cause trouble…I have spent many a year alone but for the visits of the Princess Luna, and need to relearn proper interaction ‘twould seem.”

“It would,” Raindrops noted, hooves digging into the floor beneath her. Literally in the case of one, the wood was a little softer there, and Raindrops could feel it bending against the force she was pressing into it.

It wasn’t that Snowy’s apology wasn’t genuine; it certainly seemed that way to Raindrops, in any event. Being the Element of Honesty didn’t turn her into a living lie detector or anything, but Raindrops thought she was pretty good at reading ponies using just her own natural talents. And just like earlier, something was off about Snowy, something that for some reason Raindrops was certain couldn’t be chalked up simply to three hundred years of isolation.

Something that, she also noticed, her friends weren’t picking up on. Maybe she was just being paranoid, or letting a bad first impression get to her.

“S-so,” Carrot Top said, trying to break the tension, “um…what’s up with the…” she used a hoof to indicate the coat of rime that Snowy had covered herself with.

Snowy looked down at it for several moments, before heaving a sigh and nodding her head towards the fireplace. “I do not contend well with heat, ‘twould seem. I know not if it be a consequence of the windigo, or one of the river Cocytus being my donjon for fifteen-score years. We shall learn as time passes, I imagine.” She glanced to the other ponies there. Trixie and Carrot Top were both still wearing their winter capes, though loosely about their withers rather than wrapped up tightly in them; meanwhile, the other ponies in the Punch Bowl had all scooted closer to the fire. “I apologize, Ser Carrot Top, for the discomfort I cause.”

That apology, on the other hoof, seemed totally genuine and without any kind of hidden meaning to Raindrops. She glanced behind her at the other patrons of the Punch Bowl, then decided on a shrug. “It’s a cold day,” she said. “Ponies would probably want to be close to the fire anyway. And you can stop with the ‘ser’ business.”

A stiff breeze passed through the Punch Bowl then as its door opened, bringing Cheerilee, Lyra, and Bon Bon in, as well as a small bundle of wool and faux fur with four legs that, after she started taking off her winter gear, turned out to contain Dinky Doo. The four of them noted their already-present friends and waved, Lyra and Bon Bon making their way over first while Dinky struggled with her scarf. “Already here?” Bon Bon asked, looking to Carrot Top. “Ditzy just went out to your farm to get you…”

Carrot Top looked away guiltily. “Sorry,” she said, “I didn’t know there was going to be a get-together…”

“It’s not that far a flight,” Raindrops noted, scooting aside and making room at the table.

Cheerilee had gone over to talk to her sister at the bar, while Dinky – free of her scarves and hat, though keeping her cloak – dashed on over to the table. “Hi!” she exclaimed once she had hopped up onto a foal’s stool that Trixie had telekinetically grabbed. She was looking at Snowy. “Are you Snowy Night? Are you really Princess Luna’s apprentice too? That’s so cool! My momma and Miss Trixie said that Princess Luna taught Trixie magic and stuff. Did you learn any magic? Can you show me? I’m Trixie’s magician’s assistant so that kind of makes me Princess Luna’s assistant too, right? Which means that I’m kind of your magician’s assistant so you gotta show me magic! It’s my special talent! Ooh! And if you’re Princess Luna’s apprentice but so is Trixie does that mean that I could be an apprentice too? Oh, my name’s Dinky Doo, by the way!”

Snowy blinked rapidly at Dinky’s hurried, excited verbal assault, which might have continued had Trixie not put a steadying hoof on Dinky’s withers, the foal realizing she needed to calm down. “Sorry,” Dinky said after a moment, though she was still quivering a little. “But I only just got my cutie mark at the start of winter, and my mark is friendship, which is the same thing as magic according to Miss Trixie, so I wanna learn all the magic I can!”

The pegasus chuckled a little as Cheerilee joined their table, bringing with her two kettles, one full of steaming wassail and the other of hot cocoa, as well as a plethora of empty mugs. “Couldn’t decide which we’d want, got both,” Cheerilee informed them as she started pouring out the various drinks. A lavender aura had tried to pull a mug of wassail towards a certain foal, but Cheerilee didn’t miss a beat in stopping it.

“Aw…” Dinky objected. “Can I please try some wassail, Miss Cheerilee? I have my cutie mark now!”

Cheerilee chuckled. “If your mother says it’s okay when she gets here,” she said. Dinky let out a slight sigh at that, apparently knowing what Ditzy’s answer would be, and selected a mug of cocoa instead.

“Pray forgive my intrusion,” Snowy said, as she went for the cocoa herself, though in her grip the mug visibly cooled. Raindrops noted Snowy’s somewhat depressed look at that. “But ‘tis my belief that foals should not partake of strong drink regardless. Indeed, nor should any pony. ‘Tis a lesson of Princess Luna’s that I took to my heart. Strong drink brings naught be regret.”

Raindrops observed Trixie, who had taken a hot cocoa but had also produced a flask of something from her cloak, surreptitiously put the flask away before she could add its contents to her drink. “I wouldn’t exactly call wassail ‘strong’,” Trixie objected morosely.

“Strong enough next to cocoa,” Snowy said. She looked back to Dinky. “To answer your earlier queries, young one, I am indeed the apprentice of the Princess Luna, or rather I was fifteen-score years ago.”

“That is so cool!” Dinky exclaimed again. “But I thought Princess Luna only took on unicorns…was Tootsie Flute’s momma and papa wrong again?”

Snowy considered a moment, then chuckled. “I know not who this ‘Tootsie Flute’ be, young Dinky, though I surmise a friend of yours. And I recall that in my time, ‘twas an accusation of many to Princess Luna that her highness seemed only ever to recruit pegasi as apprentices, as I made the third of seven. But my predecessor – and, I have learned, one of my successors, were earth ponies, and another successor another unicorn, bringing the tribes into balance…until Trixie.” She eyed Trixie pointedly, though playfully.

Trixie grinned herself, looking to Dinky. “I don’t think Princess Luna takes tribe into account,” she said. “I’m not actually sure what Princess Luna’s standards are.”

“Doubt she has much,” Lyra put forth as she sipped at some wassail.

“Hey!” Trixie and Snowy both objected.

Raindrops had been sipping on her ginger ale, and almost spat it out at that, swallowing with only great effort and joining in on the laughter of the rest of the table once she had. “I didn’t mean it like that,” Lyra said, waving a hoof at the two to calm them. “I just mean, Luna’s apprentices have historically been a pretty eclectic bunch. I think Princess Luna just occasionally sees a pony with a lot of potential, doesn’t matter what, and decides to nurture it.”

Trixie beamed at the compliment, while Snowy only glanced down, heaving another sigh. “Potential I squandered,” she noted morosely.

“Not yet,” Lyra countered. Snowy looked to her, and Lyra shrugged. “You’re still here, you’re still young, in body at least. You’ll be that way for a while, right?” She grinned. “You’ve got a long time to do good in the world, to live up to whatever Princess Luna saw in you…and whatever you saw in yourself when you decided to become her apprentice.”

Snowy smiled at that, and nodded, but once again Raindrops was struck by something feeling off about the frigid pegasus. The smile was fake, and so was the agreement. She was about to bring it up, but then the door to the Punch Bowl opened once more, and a snow-covered, wall-eyed pegasus cantered in and shook herself off, eyes locking instantly with Carrot Top as she cantered over to the table. “It is very cold out there,” Ditzy noted, settling down next to Dinky. She wasn’t shivering, but she did grab a hot cocoa and hold it close to herself.

“Sorry,” Carrot Top apologized. “I didn’t know! And – I mean, just in my defense – you could have checked here first.”

Ditzy let out a sigh and nodded at that as she brushed some stray snow from her mane – onto Dinky, who laughed. The older mare then looked to Raindrops. “There’s a gale coming out of the Everfree,” she informed her. “A lot of wind. If I didn’t know any better I’d…” she paused, glancing to Snowy. “I mean, I’d think it was…something.”

“A windigo,” Snowy surmised, waving a hoof. “Pray, do not bite your tongue on my account, friend Ditzy. In any event, I doubt highly a windigo could come within a hundred miles of this town.” She nodded to the table, then to the rest of the Punch Bowl. Ponies may have been keeping away from the cool aura that surrounded Snowy, but they were amongst each other, talking cheerfully enough, laughing and having a good time. “Love and joy be in the air, and you well know that be anathema to the frost spirits.”

“Just the Everfree being the Everfree, then,” Ditzy surmised, looking again to Raindrops.

Raindrops shook her head. “Clocked out, don’t care.”

Author's Note

Merry Christmas and happy holidays, everyone!

4. What's This?

“And so there it lay, the secret of the Red Cloud,” said Snowy Night to the seven other gathered ponies as she regaled them of the time when she had first met Luna, during her first visit to Canterlot when she was still a filly, which had happened to coincide with the appearance of the Red Cloud of legend. The pegasus was quite animate, having stepped away from the table so that she could gesture with hoof and wing profusely. “The way in to the solid red mass that Princess Luna had found, and into which I followed, Luna unknowing, my father protesting but unable to stop me. And within we found…gremlins!”

“Gremlins?” Ditzy asked.

“Aye, gremlins,” Snowy said. She stomped one hoof on the ground, then slowly drew it up. Beneath it, ice and snow manifested and collected into a foot-tall miniature statue of a two-legged, two-armed, bat-winged creature with horns. “Foul denizens of Tartaros, generally dim of wit, but clever and aggressive. The Red Cloud was unnatural, ‘tis true, but the Princess and I had expected a creation of magic and a mad magician at its center. Instead we found a great balloon hoisting an infernal machine of clockwork design, tended to by the gremlins. The machine harvested the magic of pegasi and unicorns to perpetuate the Red Cloud. Were it not stopped, it would soon cloak the whole world in a night that would never end!

“Here the Princess at last noticed my presence, and it brings me no joy to say that at first I was naught but a distraction.” Snowy leapt forward, planting her hooves on the table. “The gremlins leapt forward! None were a match for Princess, but there were so many of them, and they had brought up foul magic from Tartaros to battle the alicorn, and turned the power of the infernal machine upon her. Mighty though Princess Luna be, even she could not stand against the stolen power of so many ponies focused into a single attack. The Princess was stunned and captured, that her magic might be fed to the infernal machine!”

“No!” Dinky cried out, though she leaned forward herself onto the table from where she sat, opposite Snowy. She almost slipped, but a quick bit of telekinesis from Lyra and hoof from Bon Bon steadied her. “What happened then?”

Snowy grinned, stepping back and putting a hoof to her chest as she closed her eyes. It was a pose that was almost Trixie-like. “I was naught but a pegasus filly, young Dinky, easily overlooked! The gremlins did not see me, so focused were they on their prize. But I did not know what to do at first. The infernal machine that sat at the center of the Red Cloud seemed impossible to reach, protected by too many gremlins. And with Princess Luna now feeding it, the cloud was growing in size beyond reason!”

Snowy spun in place, wings flapping and even taking to the air for a moment as she leapt over the table to beside Dinky. Through where she had flown a cloud of snowflakes remained, and Snowy Night kept beating her wings at it to keep the snow in the air, Ditzy and Raindrops joining in after a moment to aid her. “I was raised but a simple farmer,” Snowy said. “Rarely had I flown, never had I tried to use my pegasus magic. But Equestria needed me, and Princess Luna needed me! And so I crept back into the Red Cloud. From outside it had been impervious to pegasus magic, but I soon discovered that from inside, it was not nearly so robust!”

“Tough,” Cheerilee supplied at a confused glance from Dinky.

“Indeed not,” Snowy continued. “I worked quickly and in secret. I gathered the crimson-hued clouds together. I felt my magic at work for the first time as I compressed them, moved them, shaped them…and then…”

She leapt up, then slammed her hooves down onto the floor for emphasis. A foot-wide, uneven, thin layer of ice crept across the floor from where each of her hooves landed. “Bang!” Snowy exclaimed. “I called upon the mightiest bolt of lightning I could, and directed it at the infernal machine!”

“And blew it up?” Dinky asked.

Snowy grinned, then giggled and shook her head. “Not hardly. I did naught but cause it to sputter for a moment…but the moment was all that was needed for the Princess to escape the machine’s clutches.” Snowy sat back and waved one hoof. “Princess Luna made short work of the gremlins then. And good riddance! The magic of pegasi and unicorns was returned to the ponies of the land. The infernal machine’s wreckage was confiscated by the Princess, I know not its eventual fate.”

Raindrops shifted a little, pointedly ignoring that, in broad terms anyway, it sounded rather like the cloud-making machinery of the Cloudsdale Weather Factory…which she knew had been invented less than three hundred years ago. She really didn’t need more fuel for the stupid urban legend in some circles that pegasi sacrificed their foals to make the weather.

The chronologically, if perhaps not physically, older student of Luna pressed on. “Princess Luna was impressed with my efforts even as she scolded me righteously for getting involved in the first place, no less so than my father did. But then she offered my apprenticeship…” Snowy trailed off then, and looked down. “And…well, and then things went well for seven years after that. And then rather less well for the following three hundred and one.”

“Two hundred and one,” Trixie corrected. “You could have left Tartaros a century ago.”

All that Trixie got in return from that was a non-committal grunt. Snowy’s eyes widened a little when she noticed the ice layer she had created at her hooves, and she let out a long sigh as she rubbed her hooves over it like she had a rag and was scrubbing the floor. The ice seemed to retreat up and disappear into her body. The snow she had created, meanwhile, had since fallen from the air and melted, while her gremlin statue was being picked up by Carrot Top and looked over.

“You know, this is actually quite beautiful…” she said. “Well, I mean, not the gremlin itself, but the detail, anyway.” She set the gremlin on the table, and smiled warmly at Snowy Night. “Have you thought about what you want to do with yourself? You might be able to make a living as an ice sculptor. Especially in the summer…”

Carrot Top trailed off when she noticed a desperate cutting motion from Trixie, but it was too late. Snowy had started at the mention of the season, and looked morosely to the earth pony. “I fear I may fare no better than that bauble in the summer’s heat,” Snowy said, waving a hoof at the ice statue. She paused when she saw her motions created snowflakes, and watched them fall to the ground. She glanced once again to the Punch Bowl’s fireplace, the roaring fire in it that she was keeping as far away from as possible. She looked back to Carrot Top, and smiled a smile that was devoid of cheer. “It matters not. Ice and snow and…rime…were always beloved by me.” She chuckled mirthlessly. “Rime. I chose the name Rimewind, you know. It seemed…fitting.”

Raindrops blinked a few times, then did her best to suppress a growl. “Okay,” she said, putting both hooves on the table and looking at Snowy Night. The blue pegasus looked to her, eyes wide. “I’m just going to say it: you’re hiding something.”

“Raindrops!” Cheerilee exclaimed, as all the ponies turned to face the weather mare. “I know you’ve had a long day and can get a bit cranky, but – ”

“Nope,” Raindrops said, shaking her head slowly, her eyes never leaving Snowy’s, who had begun to wilt under her gaze. “Nope. Remember back on Tambelon when Trixie invoked her right to be suspicious of Bray? And how it turned out to be a good idea? I’m calling that right now.” She jabbed a hoof at Snowy, who flinched. “The first thing you did when you showed up to town is butt to the weather patrol. I don’t care how long you’ve been in Tartaros, there’s no way you’d forget something as basic as introducing yourself. And the whole night you’ve been evasive about certain things – your age, how you handle heat, the name Rimewind right now.”

“Gee, I wonder why Snowy wouldn’t want to talk about something she spent three hundred years in Tartaros for,” Lyra drolled, eyes narrowing as she looked at Raindrops. “C’mon – ”

“I said no,” Raindrops said in a low voice, stomping a hoof as lightly as she could while still being heavy enough to make her point. Everypony at the table jumped – except Snowy, Raindrops noted – and the table itself did as well, causing cocoa and wassail to spill slightly from several mugs. “It’s not just that she doesn’t want to talk about it. I can get that, okay? I have things I don’t want to talk about either.” She turned her gaze back to Snowy. “But that’s not it. It’s not just that you don’t want to talk about it. It’s that it keeps reminding you of something else.” She leaned across the table. “Not something you’re avoiding, something you’re hiding.”

The other ponies all looked between her and Snowy Night. Dinky scooted closer to her mother, who put a re-assuring wing over her daughter. All of Raindrops’ friends, in fact, were tensed up, on edge – looking like they were ready to act to try and restrain her if she attacked Snowy. Which suited Raindrops just fine, if she was wrong about all this and had just escalated a mare in mourning over her choices, then Raindrops would want to be held back.

But Snowy Night stared at Raindrops unblinkingly during her whole accusation. When Raindrops finished, she took in a deep breath, closing her eyes, and let it out slowly. “Truly,” Snowy said, “it be plain why Honesty claimed you, Ser Raindrops.”

The other ponies at the table, save Raindrops, all blinked at that before looking back to the other pegasus. “Snowy?” Trixie asked.

Snowy hadn’t opened her eyes, and was sitting with her head drooped down. Her wings spread slowly and gave a single, deliberate flap, scattering snowflakes around her. She did it a second time, then a third, each time spreading snow. “Look at me, Ser Trixie,” she said, eyes still closed. “I doubt I can survive beyond winter’s chill. Gelid blood oozes through my veins. The warmth of the hearth has become my mortal enemy. It would move me to tears…if I still had tears to shed.”

The pegasus opened her eyes to look at each of the others. “Think of it, ponies. To never again walk on a summer’s day with a hot wind in your face and another warm pony beside you. Oh yes…I will kill for that. Snowy Night ventured into the frozen northern realms. Snowy Night sought out the frore lords of the Windigo. Snowy Night bargained with them…but it was not Snowy Night who was carried thence on a winter’s gale back to Equestria.”

She leapt suddenly away from the table, towards the door. The other ponies reacted swiftly themselves, pulling away in the other direction, getting the table between themselves and her. The Punch Bowl’s other patrons and staff all turned to look, and the pegasus met their gaze a moment, before rearing back and stomping her hooves on the ground. Ice erupted from beneath her, spreading in a line that circled around the Elements before rising up suddenly, forming a wall that cut everypony else off from her and the Elements.

“I am Rimewind the Frigid – and my Fimbulwinter begins tonight!” she exclaimed, before waving a hoof casually and forming a wall of ice between the Elements and her.

There had been time to act, but no will – Trixie had been too surprised by the suddenness of the change that had overcome Snowy. One moment Snowy had been the cheerful, animate pegasus, and the next…

But there wasn’t time for that. As Snowy – Rimewind, Trixie appended, ignoring the pang of regret as she did – formed the wall of ice between her and everypony else, Trixie at last forced herself into motion. It was too late to stop Rimewind, but Trixie could at least grab the nearest pony, Carrot Top, and pull her closer to herself even as she moved up to Ditzy, who hugged Dinky close to her, while Lyra, Bon Bon, and Cheerilee likewise got up to Raindrops. Pegasus magic would keep them safe from any oncoming ice, to an extent, and they’d be able to help out the other five. At least, that was the theory.

But it turned out to be for nothing. The ice didn’t advance and no chill wind came to steal their strength – though the temperature had plummeted. Raindrops had wrapped her wings around Lyra and Cheerilee, but once nothing happened she slowly withdrew them and looked between the two. “I’m not gonna say it…” she said, “but you know what I’m thinking.”

Cheerilee was looking around at their icy prison with more than a little trepidation. “Fine. You win. We’re never going to trust anypony ever again,” she said, obviously fighting back memories of the Windigo they’d encountered less than a month ago. “Please tell me we’re not trapped…”

She was answered when Carrot Top raised a hind leg and bucked out at the wall. There was little resistance as she was able to kick through it, and from the other side other side the ponies “trapped” in the rest of the dining area were already kicking their way through themselves, as was Berry Punch and Fizzy Orange from the other wall. The ice had been only a little more than an inch thick, easy enough for anypony to break through.

“Must have been a distraction,” Trixie reasoned, before she suddenly found herself face-to-face with Berry Punch. She let out a yelp as she stumbled backwards.

“So, Trixie,” Berry Punch said, voice high and full of pleasantness. “I’m certain there is an excellent reason why a pony claiming to be Rimewind the Frigid, who you brought here, just tried to freeze us all.”

“Technically she’s not just claiming…” Bon Bon said, before putting a hoof to her mouth. Lyra turned to shoot her a seriously? look, to which Bon Bon couldn’t stop herself from laughing slightly. “I…I cannot shut up when I’m nervous,” she apologized.

Berry Punch took this in, then looked back to Trixie, waiting for an explanation. Trixie threw her hooves in the air. “I don’t know!” she exclaimed. “Luna pronounced her sane! That she was okay! She’s not supposed to be Rimewind anymore, she’s Snowy Night!”

“Wait,” a patron of the Punch Bowl said. “Rimewind? The old mare’s tale? The Windigo?”

Trixie blanched. “S-sort of, but it’s not like that, she was never actually a – ”

“There’s a Windigo in town?!” Several ponies exclaimed at once. A moment later, and there was a crush of ponies charging towards the door, or where the door lay behind a wall of ice. That wall proved no sturdier than the others, and in just a few moments the ponies had kicked through the ice and pulled open the door, rushing out into the chilly Ponyville night and to their loved ones.

Trixie only half-paid attention to them; she knew that trying to get through to them would be useless, and nopony seemed to be blaming her. Except Berry Punch, but she had gone over to her sister to make sure she was okay, giving Trixie time to think.

It didn’t make sense! Snowy Night had been completely reasonable…well, as reasonable as a pony coming off a three hundred year stint in Tartaros could be, anyway. She’d laughed, she’d made jokes, she’d told a story to Dinky Doo! She had drank hot cocoa…well, cocoa, anyway…and all in all made merry and seemed like she was having a perfectly good time! Yes, of course Snowy had been hiding a lot of deep pain, that had been obvious. How could she not be?But Trixie had thought that with time and companionship, she’d be able to help Snowy. Zut alors, she had thought that they were becoming, that they were, friends, even after what she’d said to everypony else before Snowy arrived about not really knowing her.

But now…

“Trixie!” The showmare jumped as her reverie was broken; she looked, and found herself looking at Carrot Top. “Elements,” Carrot Top continued, “we need them. Cheerilee sent Ditzy and Raindrops to my farm to get mine, it’ll be faster to fly than try and gallop there and back. I’m supposed to go with you to get theirs, then we all meet up at the Residency. Okay?”

Trixie nodded after a moment, trying to let herself slip into ‘hero mode’…and failing. Something just wasn’t right, but she couldn’t put a hoof on what. But she followed Carrot Top out into the snow and wind anyway as soon as the farmer was bundled up in her winter gear, even as she wondered what Rimewind the Frigid had in store for them.

She got her answer as soon as she stepped outside, and felt her jaw drop. Hers wasn’t the only one, at least, as she, her friends, and more than a dozen Ponyvillians stopped and stared just past the edge of their town proper, on the road leading south towards Bridleton. Through the still-falling snow, and illuminated by patches of moonlight, light from Ponyville, and its own eldritch blue glow, a great shadow was taking shape over roofs of Ponyville. Trixie could just barely make out a spiked wall surrounding a thick central tower, from which jutted over a dozen spires, making the whole thing look like some kind of frozen tree.

An ice palace.

“…so,” Cheerilee said at length, looking to Trixie. “Did you ever figure out how you melted the one in Canterlot?”

Author's Note

I plan on finishing this story before the New Year. Might have another chapter on Christmas; we'll see.

Once upon a time...

The Sad Tale of Little Rock's Yare and Hale
From "Flutter Ponies and Other Tales for Foals", by Swift Plume

A note from Swift Plume: This story, like many old mare's tales, is partly meant to entertain, and partly meant to educate. A local tale from the Everfree region of Equestria, it warns foals about the dangers of the Everfree Forest and not listening to one's parents - rather gruesomely by today's standards! Also like many tales, it seems to be at least partially based on truth: 300 years ago, the Everfree region was struck by a terrible winter that nearly destroyed several farms located at the edge of the forest's boundaries, particularly around the area now occupied by Ponyville. As to whether there is any truth to the existence of Little Rock or the Windigo he supposedly awakened, who can say?

Once upon a time on the edge of Equestria, in the country of the Everfree, there lived a poor farmer with his family, who had only one son called Little Rock. He was brisk and of a ready lively wit, so that nobody or nothing could worst him.

In those days the Forest of Everfree was, as it is today, kept by terrible monsters. The farmer warned Little Rock away from the Everfree. “My son, you are quick,” said he, “and you are clever. But the forest is quicker, and the forest is cleverer. Keep you from its boughs!” But Little Rock knew that between him and the forest, it was he who was the better. Little Rock took up his haversack and ventured into the forest, looking for wealth to bring his family.

On the first day, the colt discovered the ruins of an ancient castle built long ago. But before he could explore it, he was set upon by a pack of timberwolves! Little Rock galloped avaunt, but the timberwolves were the faster! But Little Rock was also clever and had known of the timberwolves. He took from his haversack hot coals, and threw them thereinto. The timberwolves burst into flames and were vanquished.

“See you how I am yare and hale!” cried he. But it was late and Little Rock grew weary, and so he retired to his father’s farm. Little Rock told his father of his adventure. “My son,” said the farmer, “you are quick and you are clever. But the forest is quicker, and the forest is cleverer. Keep you from its boughs!” But Little Rock knew that between him and the forest, it was he who was the better. Had he not burned the timberwolves to ash?

And so, the next day, he returned to the Everfree with his haversack, and found him the castle built long ago. Thither he went, venturing into its bowels looking for treasure. But he was set upon by a manticore! Little Rock again galloped avaunt, but the manticore was the faster! But Little Rock was also clever and had known of the manticore. He took from his haversack a poison needle and struck the manticore upon the snout. The manticore fell over dead.

“See you how I am yare and hale!” cried he. But it was late and Little Rock grew weary, and so he retired to his father’s farm. Little Rock told his father of his further adventure. “My son,” said the farmer, “you are quick and you are clever. But the forest is quicker, and the forest is cleverer. Keep you from its boughs!” But Little Rock knew that between him and the forest, it was he who was the better. Had he not slain the manticore with poison?

And so, the next day, he returned to the Everfree with his haversack, and found him the castle built long ago. Thither he went, to its deepest dungeons and tallest towers, but no treasure did he find. “Alas, but what will be will be,” said he, and made to leave the castle. But at its very gate, he found a Windigo awaiting him! “Much trouble have you caused in my home these past days, Little Rock,” said she. “Slew you my pets and servants looking for my treasure! I shall freeze your flesh and make brittle your bones in recompense, and you shall regret awaking Rimewind the Frigid!”

Little Rock galloped avaunt, but Rimewind’s chill stole the strength from his legs. From his haversack he took his hot coals and hurled them at the Windigo, but her gelid aura took their heat! Next he tried his poison needle, but blood did not flow through her wintry veins and she did not fall!

And so it was that Little Rock was frozen solid within sight of his father’s farm. “Alas for my son’s yare and hale!” cried the farmer. “He was quick and he was clever, but the forest was quicker and the forest was cleverer! If only he had kept from its boughs!”

Author's Note

I would be remiss if I didn't note that the first line of the story above is paraphrased from Joseph Jacob's take on Jack the Giant Killer, in particular the description for Little Rock as being "brisk and of a ready lively wit, so that nobody or nothing could worst him." The next line is also similar; in the original story it goes "In those days the Mount of Cornwall was kept by a huge giant named Cormoran."

Everything after that is my own, however.

1. It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Dread wouldn’t have been the right word for it, but Ditzy Doo certainly approached every day at work during the lead-up to Hearth’s Warming with a fairly large sense of trepidation. Packages came and went through the Ponyville Post Office at immense volume, and every year the Postmaster-General in Canterlot seemed determined to contrive some new way to make things difficult. Her most recent effort in that regard was by mandating that any package that didn’t have a return address on it wasn’t to be sent or, it somehow having been sent anyway, wasn’t to be delivered. Unfortunately the official proclamation from on high didn’t say what to do with the undelivered mail, and so the post ponies, lacking other options, simply stuck any such mail into the backlog room. By this point the joke around the office was that one more letter would cause the whole thing to burst.

There was a rumbling that seemed to shake the whole of the post office, followed by a long string of incoherent cursing. Ditzy and the other mail ponies on duty – it was early morning, so nopony had gone out on their rounds yet – glanced up from what they were doing at the sound, then dashed to the back of the post office. By the time Ditzy got there, she found her boss, Silver Script, extracting himself from a huge pile of letters and packages with some help from other ponies. The letters had spilled out from the post office’s backlog room, which had officially burst its bounds, scattering envelopes and boxes everywhere, most of them Hearth’s Warming-themed.

Silver Script stamped his front hooves and flapped his wings a few times in agitation. “That’s it!” he declared in a voice full of purpose. “I don’t care if they don’t have return addresses. We’re delivering this mess!”

“But the Postmaster-General…” one of the other ponies started, pointing to a board on one wall, against which the mandate of non-delivery had been stuck. Its typeface was very bold and very official-looking, and brooked no room for disagreement or interpretation.

“She’s all the way in Canterlot!” Silver Script countered, as he straightened his uniform and put his hat on snugly, wings spread wide to draw attention to himself. There were fifteen other post ponies on duty, and he began pacing in front of them; the noise was even enough to draw the attention of the small family mice that lived in the walls of the building, who looked on from atop a book case with interest. “But we’re here! We’re the ones on the front line! When was the last time she delivered a package? When was the last time she sorted a stockroom? Years and years ago! She’s forgotten what it’s like to try and make it through a Hearth’s Warming!

“But not us! We’re still here. We still know. This season is hard enough without us having to risk our lives in our own post office too!” he swung his hoof at the nearly-literal mountain of parcels and envelopes that had spilled out of the room, which until recently had been rarely used. His claim was perhaps a bit inflated, but nopony objected, caught as they were in the fire of the moment. “And it’s not just about us. It’s about the ponies of Ponyville! These are their letters, their presents, sent by their families and friends! We can’t just abandon them!

“I’m going to start organizing this. I’m going to sort it all out, and then today, in the name of the Princess, I’m going to deliver it! All of it! No matter what some stuffy bureaucrat in Canterlot thinks!”

“And I’ll help!” Ditzy exclaimed, stepping forward proudly and straightening her own hat as she did, forcing her eyes to look straight ahead as she did so and spreading her wings just as wide as Silver Script's. “I didn’t become a mail mare to not deliver mail!”

“Neither did I!” Exclaimed another post pony. “Especially not during Hearth’s Warming season!”

“That’s right!” A third added. Soon his voice was joined by a chorus of the remaining ponies, then hoof stomps and wing beats and cheering. Somepony grabbed the mandate from the Postmaster-General and tore it from the wall, tossing it in the trash. Another pony started gathering the letters and packages that had spilled out, immediately beginning to sort them. One earth pony pointed to the mice up on the book case, who ran along several book cases until they reached the top of the pile of letters and set up a chain, handing one letter to the next mouse to the one after that, tackling the backlog room from the top down rather than from the outside in. All the other post ponies joined in too, each finding a way to contribute as fit their abilities and strengths and as covered each others' weaknesses.

Silver Script watched the dedication of his ponies (and the mice – he would have to get them a nice big block of cheese for this), their devotion to their duty and their town, with a stallionish tear in his eye for a moment, then set about the job himself, drawing up delivery plans as the Ponyville Post Office came together in an unprecedented way, every pony sorting the mail and shuffling it in with the normal loadouts.

The Ponyville Post Office was half an hour late in opening that day, but by the time it did, the determination and zest possessed by the ponies within impressed the citizens of the town. Only Silver Script, one pony volunteer named Sweet Light, and the mice stayed behind to tend the post office, while the remaining thirteen on-duty members galloped out like ponies possessed to deliver the mail.

“…wait, did we just start some kind of post office civil war?” Sweet Light asked after a few minutes of reflection on what had just happened.

“Can’t hear you, basking in the moment,” Silver Script responded.

My little pony, My little pony
Ahh ahh ahh ahhh...
My little pony –
Friendship never meant that much to me
My little pony –
But you're all here and now I can see
Stormy weather; Lots to share
A musical bond; With love and care
Teaching laughter; It’s an easy feat,
And magic makes it all complete!
You have my little ponies
How’d I ever make so many true friends?

Personally, Trixie had always assumed that calling winter the ‘most wonderful time of the year’ was an attempt at self-delusion. Objectively it was a terrible time of year: food stores were gradually depleted, low temperatures forced ponies to spend time and money on heating (except for pegasi, of course, but their resistance to extremes of heat and cold could actually be grating to the other two tribes – “Ah! Bracing! Really gets the blood flowing!” was not the kind of thing one wanted to hear when it was ten below outside), snow would make travel between towns difficult and importing new food hard, and all in all there was not really all that much to recommend the season.

On the other hoof…

Trixie heard knocking on her door, and glanced up from where she was doing paperwork while snuggled under a winter cloak – her normal cape had a warming enchantment, of course, but nothing quite beat being wrapped up under thick wool. Standing up from her desk and trotting up to her door, she opened it to find herself looking down at a sextet of small faces, all dressed in winter-themed foal scout uniforms and with a wooden donation box held by one’s telekinetic aura.

“Here we come a-wassailing
“Among the leaves so green;
“Here we come a-wand'ring
“So fair to be seen!

“Love and joy come to you,
“And to you your wassail too;
“And please bless you and have you a Happy New Year
“And may you have a Happy New Year!”

That they were carolers wasn’t a surprise; their choice of song was, though. Trixie nevertheless smiled happily and sat down to listen to the carol, playing the part of the attentive audience rather than that of the performer for a change. Like most carols, it repeated its chorus often, and Trixie joined with the final refrain.

“Love and joy come to you,
“And to you your wassail too;
“And please bless you and have you a Happy New Year
“And may you have a Happy New Year!”

The foals all smiled widely and bowed low when they finished; by the time they rose, Trixie had retrieved her money purse and put a full ten silver bits into their donation box, the proceeds of which would go on to help needy ponies around Equestria. “Do any of you even know what a ‘wassail’ is?” She couldn’t help but ask.

Five of the foals shook their head, while the sixth – whom Trixie recognized as Sweetie Belle, whom she had taught a little magic to earlier in the year – giggled a little. “Warmed mulled cider,” she responded, then looked to her friends with a guilty grin. “We’ve sorta’ been singing a drinking song.”

“Sweetie!” One of the other foals, Rumble, exclaimed, as most of the remaining foals blushed in embarrassment. “Why didn’t you tell us?”

“Because it was funny,” Sweetie, and Trixie, answered at the same time. They shared a quick hoof-bump at that. “Besides, it’s also a Hearth’s Warming carol,” Trixie continued. “And it’s not very alcoholic. A little wassail never hurt anypony. You should try some at the Hearth’s Warming Eve Fair tomorrow.”

“But we’re foals,” Rumble objected.

“I didn’t say you should get wasted,” Trixie noted, looking out at Ponyville. The town was buried under six inches of snow, which was getting deeper as a gentle snowfall blanketed the town. But trees were strung up with tinsel and twine, doors had wreathes nailed to them, and many of the lamp posts throughout town had their clear panes being replaced with frosted glass of red or green. The town hall, visible from Trixie’s home, had statues all around it in the common interpretations of what the six founders of Equestria looked like; while Twilight Sparkle had placed giant decorative ‘present’ boxes around the base of Golden Oak’s library, making it look like a giant Hearth’s Warming tree. Most notably of all, despite the chill, ponies could be seen everywhere trotting to and fro – visiting family and friends, performing shopping trips, setting up decorations.

Trixie looked back to the foals. “Anyway, that’s enough encouraging juvenile delinquency from me,” she said, and waved a hoof imperiously. “Go forth, ye foals, and make merry!”

The six foals did so, thanking Trixie as they did. “I’m picking the next carol,” Rumble noted as they moved to the next home. Sweetie stuck her tongue out at him as she giggled. Trixie laughed as well as she went back inside, resolving to finish her paperwork as fast as possible so that she could follow the advice she had just given to the foals herself.

Sure – the food may have been preserved, the roads may have been slick, and chill may have been enough to make a yak shiver. But the feeling of this time of the year was real enough, wasn’t it? It was just one more magician’s trick, really – the rabbit may not have actually magically appeared from the hat, but the audience’s reaction was real enough.

It was the Twelvetide, and there was magic – real magic – in the air. Hearth’s Warming, December 25th, was the second of the three holidays that occurred in winter – the Longest Night, on either the 21st or 22nd of December; and New Year’s Day on the 1st of January being the other two. All fell within twelve days of each other and so comprised a twelve-day long series of events and festivities, the Twelvetide, that helped ponies get through the Equestrian winter.

Unlike last year, this year’s Longest Night had gone off without a hitch two days before. Tomorrow was Hearth’s Warming Eve, and there would be pageants and celebrations galore, a public festival where everypony finished celebrating the years of the past by remembering the very founding of Equestria. Then would be Hearth’s Warming itself, the celebration of the moment, the now, the friends and family still here and all the joy and laughter that they brought to the table. The very next day would then be a lead-up to the New Year, where ponies would welcome in the next year to come and celebrate in the hope that their optimism would spread throughout the land and help make sure that the next year was a good one.

Ultimately, the Twelvetide was an excuse to have parties – parties with friends and family, parties with a purpose and an eye towards remembrance, but parties nonetheless. But who didn’t want that?

It didn’t take long for Trixie to finish the paperwork she had – December in general and the Twelvetide especially tended to be a fairly slow month for a Representative of the Night Court, particularly as her normal job included sending farming reports on to Canterlot but there just weren’t that many to send in the middle of winter. Thus she was soon shutting the Residency’s door behind her and heading out into the waning light of day to see what the town had in store this Twelvetide, her second in Ponyville and her first that hadn’t happened in the wake of a mad alicorn attack. She wasn’t long out the door before she saw a pony marching determinedly towards her, blue cap and winter cloak instantly identifying her even if her strabismus wouldn’t have done the job.

“Ditzy!” Trixie exclaimed happily, meeting her fellow Element bearer at the front gate to her Residency. “Mail call?”

Ditzy nodded with fervor as she dug through her mail bags – overloaded, as was typical for the season, Trixie supposed. “Sorry I’m catching you as you’re leaving,” Ditzy said, taking out a dozen letters, a small parcel, and a receipt that noted that there were more packages waiting for Trixie at the post office. “But I’ve got mail to deliver!”

Trixie looked at some of the letters; she noted that one of them didn’t have a return address. “Wasn’t there some kind of memo about – ”

“Mail has to be delivered,” Ditzy interrupted, putting a hoof to her chest, “come rain or sleet or dark of night or glare of day! Or bureaucratic ineptitude!” She lowered her hoof and giggled. “Also there was a mail-avalanche at the post office. Silver Script kind of got us all fired up after he was caught in it.”

Trixie grinned brightly at the thought of the silver pegasus trotting back and forth before his mail ponies like a general motivating his troops for a battle, though that was probably a bit too silly to have been how it actually went down. She bid Ditzy a goodbye, then focused on the one letter she’d received without a return address, opening up to see if it was important, given there was no way to know how long it had been sitting in the post office’s backlog…

Dear Trixie,

It is with an apolaustic hoof that I write you now. Though I had thought to render what I am about to inform you a Surprise, our shared Benefactor has suggested – with her usual eye towards paideutics – that it would be in poor taste to Impose myself upon your House at this time of year (a truth which I had quite forgotten, as one day has become much like another to me during my immurement within Cocytus). While I still feel a profound sense of Tribulation for my actions those many years ago, recent Events of which you are aware, though which I shall not commit to parchment as they involve Secrets that are not mine to risk telling, have led to a closer examination of my imposed exile, and the Punishment I heaped upon myself I now know has served none but my own Pride, that most dangerous of sins. Justice can no longer be found in self-flagellation (if you will permit me a florid metaphor), if indeed it could ever be found there at all.

Thus I shall now write plainly: It is my intention, with the many Blessings of the Princess, to leave my donjon forthwith, ending my Immurement. I do not doubt that there shall be many who will Fear my return, and that I find Fair & Just, for my frore intentions of many years gone would surely have been the greatest disaster of my Æra. My name surely occupies such bleak company as that of Corona, Discord, Tirek, &c, &c, &c. Nevertheless, it is time I sought to make amends with Equestria, and with myself.

There is much more that I wish to write, but I am now told by our Teacher that I would perhaps merely be engaging in persiflage beyond this point, and that should I commit more to the pen then I shall be left with Naught to say when I visit. I shall bring this letter to an end, then.

With great Humility & Happiness, your friend,

Snowy Night

P.S. – In my apolaustia I have forgotten to inform you of the date of my arrival! It shall be but a week hence (I have been assured of a same-day reception – such an amazing modern feat!). I do not intend to linger more than a day and a night; I have little doubt you can divine the reason why. Nevertheless I look forward to our meeting. – S.N.

P.P.S. – Our Teacher has informed me that you might have trouble understanding the letter above, and my words once we meet, as Time & Tide have changed the common vernacular and my own has not advanced at pace with them. But you were always a bright one, and – at the risk of besmirching our Teacher – I remember well how Luna Herself would on occasion slip back into outmoded means of Speaking & Writing. I shall, then, take her grammaticastical assertions with a pinch of salt. – S.N.

Trixie blinked a few times. The writing – well, she could just about make her way around it. However, her mind focused in particular on the name of the writer, and what she was saying she intended.

Snowy Night. Snowy Night was coming to Ponyville, a week from when she’d sent this letter. But when had she sent it?

Trixie telekinetically threw all her remaining parcels and letters into the Residency, then galloped back out. “Ditzy…!” she exclaimed. The mail mare had just finished dropping off the mail to the store that lay next to Trixie’s Residency. “Ditzy. When did the post office get this letter?”

Ditzy considered. “There’s no date on it?” she asked, taking the letter when Trixie offered it to her. “I don’t know…we’ve gotten so much recently. Normally I’m better, but…” She frowned, squinting to read the extremely cursive and small script. “I…Snowy Night? Who’s Snowy Night?” She blinked a few times as she looked at some of the other names. “And…and why it she writing about Tirek and Corona? And where’s this Cockatoo place?”

Trixie fidgeted as she took the letter back from Ditzy. “Kokytos,” Trixie explained. “Snowy Night’s spelling is a little…out of date. Kokytos is a river that runs through Tartaros.”

Ditzy had been about to start trotting on towards her next stop, but froze at that. “Trixie, why are you getting letters from Tartaros?”

Trixie fidgeted more at the question. “I doubt it’s from Tartaros,” she said. “From the sound of things Snowy’s been let out, so it was probably sent from Canterlot.”

“That doesn’t really answer the question.”

The unicorn of the pair didn’t have an answer for that as she shifted balance from one hoof to the next, a nervous habit that she’d never really been able to shake. She still glanced around, not knowing when Snowy intended to arrive. Maybe she’d already arrived. Maybe she’d come and gone and missed Trixie. Or maybe she was coming tomorrow…

“Okay,” Ditzy said. “I’m going to finish my rounds, get the girls, and then sit you down. Should we be grabbing the Elements?”

Trixie started at that. “No!” she exclaimed quickly, making cutting motions with her hooves. “No, no, no. Snowy doesn’t need that.”

“She’s from Tartaros, Trixie,” Ditzy looked at her friend sidelong. “Or if she isn’t, you should really be telling me what’s going on.”

Trixie bit her lip. There really wasn’t a good way to phrase what she had to say. “Okay,” she said. “You ever hear a story about how once upon a time, there was a little earth pony foal who wouldn’t listen to his parents and kept going into the Everfree? And he woke up a Windigo named Rimewind? And the foal was frozen and the Windigo attacked the farms on the edge of the Everfree until the spirit of Hearth’s Warming slew it?”

Ditzy blinked. “Sort of,” she said. “It’s kind of a local tale to keep foals out of the Everfree. But I’m from Fillydelphia, remember. But I’ve heard it around town – ” realization then struck Ditzy as to why Trixie had brought up the story “ – oh Moon and Stars, Snowy Night and Rimewind are the same thing, aren’t they?”

“Little bit,” Trixie answered with a wince.

“There’s a Windigo coming to town?!”

Author's Note

My favorite part about writing this is my chance to write like I've escaped from the Napoleonic Europe Æra.