Everypony loved winter. Nopony could not deny that it was the best time of a year when you had a bunch of activities to do; making snowpony with your siblings, fighting snowball with your best friends, holding your special somepony's hooves and ice skating without falling on your bottom, or even baking homemade cookies for your family. Moreover, presents were the most exciting part of Heart’s Warming day for all colts and fillies. They sat beside a decorated fir, listening to a traditional story about the Windigos, enjoying a cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows on the top, before hanging their socks on a fireplace for lovely presents which Santa Hooves would come and give them while they were sleeping. When the Celestia’s sun of the next day rose, kids were eagerly up from their beds, running to presents that Santa Hooves had left for them and opening them. Sounds of joy, smells of love, views of happiness spread all over Equestria. Everypony were happy, everypony, but her.
Rainbow Dash walked on a tiny path in the middle of a cemetery on the outskirts of Ponyville. Even thought, her little red wool scarf with yellow and orange stripes flapped fiercely like it was going to blew away from her neck, her legs screamed from walking quite a long distance in this wild wind, and the cold caused her body to shake barely uncontrollably, she did not stop walking until her destination came into her sight.
Two medium size tombstones were set close to a fence. There was a bouquet of withered roses laying in front of the tombstone which had a name ‘Sky Storm’ on it. Dash stood still before she dropped two fresh flower bouquets beside her hooves, staring at gravestones without saying a single word. Letting minutes pass by, she let out a long sigh and slightly opened her mouth.
“Hey,” mumbled Dash, “long time no see, huh?”
Aside from wind sound howling among the area, there was not any sound reply her back. She stepped forward a bit, putting a bouquet of lilacs, which was wrapped in a small piece of light brown paper, on an empty space before the gravestone with a word ‘Windy Breeze’.
Her eyes dragged from the flowers to the gravestones, biting her lip, and said. “How are you guys doing? It’s already winter here. It’s not too cold up there, is it?” She looked at the lilacs again, trying as hard as she could to put a smile on her face. “I could give you lilacs this year, your favorite flower. One of my best friend, Twilight, the one with a horn and wings if you can remember her, used her magic to prevent them from getting grip by ice. They’re still fresh and beautiful…just like you in my memories.”
The picture of a full-grown light violet mare standing next to a white outdoor table popped up into her head. That was Windy Breeze’s favorite place. Cutting a bunch of lilacs from backyard, putting it into a glass vase which always stood on the table, and gave little Dash the prettiest smile in the Equestria.
Dash’s lips curled up a little. “Do you like them?”
When her words drained off, everything became silence again.
She licked her dry lips, keeping her eyes on a bouquet of red roses looking exactly like the one that already withered. Dash put it in front of another gravestone.
“Fluttershy wants me to bring this to you. She said she’s sorry that they are roses again, but, you know, it’s kinda hard to find other flowers in this season if you don’t have magic, of course. Oh! And she’s sorry for not being here by herself as well. She has to prepare those animals for their…hibernations.”
The smile suddenly vanished when the last word came out of her pouty mouth.
“Tank is going to hibernate, either” muttered she, “just like the last year…and the year before that.”
She had thought the burning feeling in her eyes was caused by the strong wind running against her face, but at this point, as she let the words out of her chest, she knew that it was not about the wind, but the cold and her own loneliness.
“I…I,” stammered she, struggling to hold back her tears. “I miss you. I…I really m-miss you guys.”
Rainbow Dash always won. There was nothing can defeat her; not even monsters, changelings, or any wicked creatures, but this time, these stupid emotions beat her hard, kicking in her gut, and took over her mind. It gained a gigantic victory. Her four legs collapsed on the frozen ground. She could not bring them back anymore, letting tears fall along her cheeks. Like she would care somepony could find out that the one and only Rainbow Dash was crying, there were not anypony around here anyway.
“I’m sorry,” said she, as her eyes filled with tears. Dash could not remember how many time she said these words. She had promised she would not cry like an immature filly in front of their graves again, but when the time came, she could not help it. They all automatically came from somewhere deep in her heart, as well as the memories between her and them since she could remember until the very last minute of their lives.
“A grown mare doesn’t cry…right?” whimpered Dash, glancing up at the tombs with miserable expression on her face, wiping her tears on her right hoof hastily. Unfortunately for young mare, the more she wiped them out, the more new sets of tears fell down. She slightly moved on, resting her heavy head against Windy Breeze’s gravestone, an agonized look still passed across her face.
Seconds to minutes, minutes to hours, the freezing wind blew through her rainbow-colored mane, but she still sat there, not even single move. Dash did not know how much time had passed. Every time she came here, the time did not matter to her, everything around her did not matter to her as well. She just wanted to sit there quietly, and let the air hug her tightly, calming her from this dreadful nightmare. She was exhausted, too exhausted to stand up and find someplace where can protect her from the colder and colder weather. Dash did not know where to find that kind of place and did not want to. She decided to close her eyes gently, and let the wind take her to dream.
A small snowball was thrown by a tiny blue hoof behind a fort, smashing into another fort on the other side of the backyard. A blue coated filly with short prismatic mane hid behind her snow barrier, looking at her temporal enemy’s barrier through a small gap, and giggled. She put a sly smile on her face and turned to her yellow coated friend, who was wearing a thick green scarf and a matched-color wool hat.
“Okay, Fluttershy, here the easiest plan I’ve ever had. We’re gonna grab snow, mold it into a ball, and throw it to the other side,” explained she, “get it?”
Fluttershy looked a little bit nervous, but still nodded her head and replied, “I get it, Rainbow, but—”
“Great!” Little Rainbow Dash did not wait for Fluttershy to finish her sentence. She had already gotten her head in the game. “Now, don’t forget, our big target is Lightning Zap—”
Before Little Dash could end her words, a large ball of snow flied over the fort and crashed into her face. Lightning Zap’s satisfied laughter pierced through her ears, which were covers with snow. Little Dash shook snow off her face, shivering with cold.
“Oh, it’s on!” She narrowed her eyes at an indigo pegasus confidently, shoveling snow into her hooves. She did not hate Lightning Zap, after all he was one of her greatest cousins, but sometimes he was just annoying and deserved little snow on his face.
A small snowball war had begun at the Little Dash’s yard. Two group of fillies and colts threw snowballs at each other, laughing, smiling, along with their parents watching them from an outdoor table nearby. Before the war went wider, a beige mare with a red-cherry mane flied into the yard area, holding a tray which was filled with six cups of hot chocolate with her two hooves. She laid the tray onto the dining table, pushing her viridian glasses up a bit, and exclaimed. “All right kids! Who’s ready for cookies and hot cocoa?”
While other kids’ attentions were on a tasty smell of hot cocoa, Little Dash took this big opportunity to give her dearest cousin some chill. She aimed the last snowball in her hoof to the colt, and hurled. The ball landed right into Lightning Zap’s chin. He flinched promptly, looking at the source of the ball. As much as he wanted to get back at this little naughty filly, he could not deny a call of luscious hot cocoa. Besides, the Heart’s Warming was still young—he could get even with her any time later.
Little Dash saw Lightning Zap hovering to the table with his tiny wings like the other kids. Then she decided to do the same, but before she went any further, she noticed four long lilac legs were standing next to her. She looked up at the legs’ owner, beaming at her sight.
“I did tell you to wear a scarf, didn’t I?” Windy Breeze asked with an unsatisfied expression showing on her face.
The filly did not listen to the question, or at least, she tried to act like she did not hear it, bragging. “Did you see I hit Zap with a snowball?”
The older pegasus shook her head slightly, sighing. “No, but what I’ve seen is my little angel’s nose is as red as an apple.” She leaned over her daughter, nuzzling her faintly red cheek as if it could get rid of the coldness. “How many time did I tell you to wear some scarf or hat, Dashie?”
Windy Breeze took off her own bright pink scarf and gently wrapped it around the younger pegasus’ neck, kissing the cyan filly on her freezing nose. Little Dash could feel her cheek redden when she heard a chuckle from Fluttershy who was looking at her from the table.
“Mom!” she cried, rolling her eyes. Snuggling was good, especially in this kind of weather, but she was the Rainbow Dash, nuzzling and kissing in front of her friends was so inappropriate.
“You know that I don’t want you to get a cold, right?” asked the mother, giggling at her only daughter’s gesture and caressing her rainbow mane.
“Yeah, like I’ve ever caught a cold,” snorted she.
“So tell me who had a fever on last Heart’s Warming day and missed a story time, eh?” teased Mom.
As the matter of fact, the younger barely remembered about her last Heart’s Warming day. She could recognize one or two pictures of her and Fluttershy were building a snowpony, tying its neck with her own scarf, and hovering among the snow falling from the sky, after that everything seemed blurry. She still was not sure that she had opened her present by herself, or Dad was the one who had opened it for her and laid a brand-new stuffed doll of the Wonderbolts’ new member, Spitfire, on her bed.
“I…I don’t know what are you talking about,” she stammered sheepishly, pretending to walk to where their family and friends were. Windy Breeze snickered and started to walk beside her, spreading her warm, soft wing on the filly.
“Come on, honey, let’s get something to eat. I’m certainly sure that you don’t want to miss my special recipe cookies, do you?”
Of course, she did not. Windy Breeze’s special cookies were the second thing that Little Dash always waited for. Their surface looked rough and cracked like a tawny rock topped with white smooth cream, but they were not too crunchy or too soft, just crispy enough even when they were facing the wind. The smell of cinnamon mixing with vanilla hit her sense first, followed by the sweetness from sugar. How would she miss that? How would she miss the best cookies in Cloudsdale, or even in Equestria, which Mom would bake them only once a year? Last year, she already missed them because of the stupid sickness. This year? Not a chance!
After swallowing the first bite, she sent the whole rest of a cookie into her little mouth and enjoyed the taste.
Mmm…delicious as usual.
She grabbed another one while listening to Auntie Cloudy bragged about how marvelous her new job in Canterlot was. Then Uncle Sky High told them about his annoying boss and his boring life that he totally loved to talk about them over and over again, but Little Dash did not mind that much—she was only concentrating on her fourth cookie and hot cocoa which was made by Mrs. Shy. The conversation was continuing like it would never end. When Uncle Sky High had finished his story, Mr. Shy immediately continued with his new cloud collection story, and then Ms. Sunshine let everypony know about her new born nephew, after that Mr. Starry Night discussed about whether the weather would be as cold as the last year, while Aunt Raindrops was gossiping about her stingy neighbor with Mom and Mrs. Shy, even Lightning Zap tried to brag his grade which was the highest score in his class intermittently. Until her Dad, Sky Storm, spoke up.
“What is that?” He pointed his light blue hoof to a cumulonimbus of clouds above them.
Every pair of eyes followed his hoof to the enormous group of black clouds. It looked like normal clouds when the rain started to fall, but they were much bigger, darker, scarier, and had more thunderbolts. Something told the pegasi that this was not right; either its particular appearance or how it suddenly appeared in this period of time. Even a young and innocent pegasus like Little Dash could tell the same. She stepped back a bit while curiosity and concern crossing the adults’ faces.
“I’m pretty sure that there’s no rain or storm on the today weather schedule,” confirmed Aunt Raindrops.
“It might be some kinda mistakes or…or the schedule has changed?” Auntie Cloudy’s voice slightly shook as the cloud looked larger, and a heavy wind blew against her uncertain face.
“I don’t think so,” disagreed Mr. Starry Night, shaking his head, “I just went to the factory this morning, and everything was fine. The only thing that should happen today is snow, not a terrified cumulonimbus. I’ll go check at the factory to see what’s going on.”
“No. We don’t have that much time,” shouted Dad against the howling wind, “we have to do something, and do it fast! They’re coming towards us!”
All the kids hid behind their parents and tried to grip their hooves as the wind freshened. Those clouds were exactly coming their way. It looked like they could blow all cloud-houses around here into pieces of clouds. The time of joy did not pleasure anymore.
“Oh Celestia!” gasped Mrs. Shy, terrified, putting her forehoof on her chest, “what should we do now?”
“Look! There are weather ponies over there. Maybe we should go up there and help them,” suggested Ms. Sunshine, pointing at the pegasi who were flying to the clouds. The others nodded in agreement. Each of them tied their scarves tightly and hugged their kids before spreading their wings and taking off to the clouds.
“Honey, bring all the kids inside.” Mr. Shy said firmly and pecked on his wife’s forehead tenderly before fluttering after Uncle Sky High.
Mrs. Shy did as what her husband had said. She put her wings on the nearest kids’ backs and hurriedly shoved them to walk into the backdoor of the house. Her little timid daughter, Fluttershy, was already inside the house with the other terrified kids, every kids already got inside safe and sound, every kids, but the one with blue coat and rainbow mane.
Mrs. Shy glanced at the filly who was still looking at her parents with anxiety. She sighed and walked toward her, and said. “Come on, Rainbow Dash, let’s get inside. Out here is not safe for you, honey.”
“Listen to what she said, Rainbow. Nopony knows what’s happening, just be safe while you can, okay?” It was more like an order than a question from her distressed Dad who was flapping his wings above her.
Little Dash was always taught to be brave, not chicken out just because of the heavy wind or even the storm, yet this time was different. Those clouds did not look like any clouds she had learnt at flight school or when she gazed the clouds with Fluttershy, not even close. She did not know why either, but they looked too insecure, perilous, and gruesome. As much as it would destroy her dignity, she swore that the clouds scared her. She did not want those clouds to appear. She did not want her parents to go up there. She did not want this Heart’s Warming day to end like this.
“B-but it looks dangerous,” she said while her eyes still on the clouds.
“And that’s why you should get inside,” conformed Dad.
“Could you stay?” pleased she.
Sky Storm looked at her wife. She knew that he did not want to deny and abandon their daughter especially when the weather were crazy like this, but like she had another choice. As soon as they went up there and figured the problem out, they could come back here and continued their best Heart’s Warming day.
Windy Breeze sighed and held her little filly’s hoof firmly, said. “We’ll back soon.”
“You promise?”
She smiled. “Yes, I do.”
Little Dash felt wet in the corner of her eyes as she released Windy Breeze’s hoof. Her four legs followed Mrs. Shy to the house, but her eyes still glanced at her parents, who flied further and further. She did not even gave them a small hug or a wave, she just looked at them flied off.
Author's Note
I am nothing, but struggling to finish this story before Christmas (you know, because of the setting of this story). At the very first idea, I planned to make this story as a one shot and it should finish just in one chapter. But because of my laziness, language skills, and uncertain in what I am writing, push me to publish this before it finish. However, my only last plan, for now, is to end it as soon as I can (finger crossed). If you do not mind, please let me know if there is any mistakes or what you think about it. Thank you! 
