Winterhaven

by CobaltWinds

Rating: everyone
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe, Original Character
Length: 3308

When an unknown accident causes the small village of Winterhaven to evacuate, one unlucky colt gets pulled into a series of events that nobody expected.

Winter Blast, one of the youngest colts in the village of Winterhaven, prepares for a normal day in his quiet life. Everyone contributes in some way to the survival of the village, but soon, all of that is going to be turned on its head as Winter is thrust into a plot that could change the foundations of equestrian society.

Published 2018-12-29 21:40:01 UTC
Last updated 2020-11-15 06:29:08 UTC

1

WinterHaven, a small town mostly forgotten about on the northern border of Equestria. Here, the cold and harsh winter prevails eight months out of the year. It is for this reason that it is mostly populated by earth ponies, as their natural hardiness allows them to withstand the winter more than unicorns or pegasi.

Despite this, there is still a healthy population of both, with unicorns making up a fifth, and pegasi a quarter of the population. Most of the time, the pegasi can be found trying to calm the ferocious storms that occur weekly, while the unicorns use their magics to help the buildings remain standing during the worst of times, where the others can rest and have a warm home to return to.

Due to the nature of their location, they rarely get aid from the outside world, meaning that they must fight the elements to produce everything they need on their own. This has driven them to have a fairly small diet of plants that can grow in the harshness of the winter. If it wasn't for the effort and teamwork of every pony that lives in this little village, it would quickly be wiped away and abandoned to the elements.

The faint glow of magenta magic disappeared and. with a small disturbance, the quill dropped down to the old desk. The young grey unicorn foal read his paper over, checking for errors. He was only tasked with a short paper that was to describe a little part of the village and how they survived. He was fairly certain what he wrote would pass as he climbed out of the chair and headed to the closet, digging out his scarf, some boots, and an old jacket.

He sighed as he looked into the stand up mirror, his short and fiery mane standing out from his ash grey coat and light blue eyes.

His head snapped to the door as it opened, his father earth pony father walking in. “Winter Blast, are you ready? It's almost time for you to get goin’ to school.”

Winter took a moment to take in his father's beige coat and his short, curly light blue hair. Deep down, Winter was quite glad that his hair took more after his mother's, being straight and easier to brush out.

With a nod, Winter responded. “Yeah. I'm ready. I think I'll have my paper on the village done on time.” He said as they walked out of the lone bedroom in the house, and into the kitchen.

He wondered about adding in the reasoning for why they all lived in small houses, but decided it was best if he didn’t. The paper was supposed to be short and adding the explanation would have made it too long. He thought back to the night he learned the reason as he grabbed his saddlebags.

“Dad? Why is our home so small?” A younger Winter asked, curled up in the main living space of the house.

“That's an easy question to answer. But also a very important one. It's easier to make a smaller home warm, than some of the bigger homes that hold more ponies.” His father replied quietly, watching yet another blizzard pass through.

“Then why don't we move into one of the bigger homes with one of the other families?” To Winter, this seemed like an easy answer to the problem. The more ponies and magic concentrated in one area, the bigger the home that could be warmed.

“We could, but those homes not only take a very long time to build, but they also require more upkeep than our simple little home that we have here.” He replied, glancing around the room.

“Not to mention that your mother and her father have spent years laying heating glyphs into each stone to help keep our home warm even when no one is here.”

Exiting the home, Winter quietly thought to himself on when he would be expected and able to add his own magic to the glyphs to help them last longer. The only answer he ever got was “When you're older” and then the topic quickly would change.

He barely registered the strong flurry of snow that threatened to bowl him over as his father blocked most of it with his larger size. Not that it would have bothered him anyways. Growing up in this area had strengthened his sense of balance and allowed him to somewhat detect when the gusts would come.

A few minutes passed with only the soft crunching of snow and the howling wind. He knew that in just a few more he would be in the school house, preparing for yet another day of classes.

To any other foal anywhere else, it would have been just another day of lessons of math, science, history, and geography. But here in WinterHaven, schooling was different. Here, the focus of school was to help grow the skills of foals with theory and practice to help them better understand what they would be contributing to the community when they were old enough.

Winter wasn't sure what his group would be studying today, as they had just finished yet another week of core basics and now it was time for two weeks of practicals. He was sure though they would be studying homes and the foundations of safe living this time for sure, but he always thought that.

Nodding a goodbye to his father, he ran up the steps into the large common room of the schoolhouse. Easily the biggest building in town, it was built only three generations ago to provide a safe place for all the foals to learn and practice their magic. The high ceiling allowed plenty of space for young pegasi to practice their flight skills while the earth ponies and unicorns used the ground below to practice theirs.

Winter shrugged off his clothing, briefly wondering when the older students were going to use the common room again for one of their joint exercises, where all three would have to complete a series of tasks that the teachers would put together for them. Usually, this meant allowing the outside elements indoors, and would always mean it was a study day, where the younger foals would be left to their own devices, so long as they didn't interrupt or get in the way.

Suddenly, everypony in the common room stopped. To Winter, it felt as if a wave of pressure just suddenly passed by him, forcing him to remain still. With a glance, he looked at some of the others, and they all shared the same frightened expression that he wore at the unusual sensation. The next thing anyone knew, the storms had come inside.

Author's Note

Thank you so much for taking a look! I can't promise how consistent updates will be quite yet, but please leave my any comments or criticisms! It's my first story that I'm writing and I hope that I'll be able to keep it interesting and enjoyable for everyone.

2

The sudden shift from the warmth that the enchanted buildings provided to the harsh cold that was always outside was the first thing that Winter noticed. The second thing he noticed was the strong winds pushing him into further into the building from behind him. The final thing he noticed was the immense pressure on his horn that seemed to come from nowhere.

In only a matter of moments, Winter found himself lying in a small pile of snow in the center of the room, slowly being covered in even more snow. There was a strange silence other than the sound of the howling wind before he felt himself get dragged onto his hooves by an older student.

He quickly found himself following the directions of some of the teachers who were ushering all the students to the back portion of the school. He himself could barely make out the voices of the teachers, not able to hear it over all the panicked voices of the other students. This led to him mostly just following some of the older students to where they would hopefully be safe until the sudden storm was quelled to reasonable levels.

Gradually, the short hallway got quieter as students passed one of the few windows and took a glimpse outside. Winter was barely able to see outside without getting up on the windowsill, but what he saw was enough to make him understand the sudden quiet.

Outside, the snowstorm that generally blanketed the town had suddenly increased in intensity by several magnitudes, almost as if someone had released several blizzards upon them at the same time. Visibility was low, barely three feet from the window. Snow was being whipped around in a frenzy of winds that would make even their most experienced fliers have to seek shelter.

Winter didn’t have much time to stop though, as his position in the middle of the group forced him to keep going, but he had seen enough. It was obvious to all the students that this was no normal storm.

The silence was nearly stifling. It was clear no one liked it, but everypony was too afraid to make a noise, less the storm make another way in. This didn’t bother Winter though, as the silence was a time to get lost in his thoughts.

He thought about his father, who must have still been outside when the sudden storm hit. He knew his father was hardy, as were all earth ponies were in this village, but something like this he thought would be too much for even him. He still held on hope that he got inside and safe soon enough though.

Winter’s thoughts then drifted to his seldom seen mother. He never really knew where she was, only that she would come around once every few weeks to check on them and spend a night or two before disappearing once again. It had been a few weeks since he had last seen her, and he hoped that he would get to see her once again when this was all over.

Suddenly, he found himself going at a steep downward slope. He wasn’t sure when they had transitioned from the smooth stone used to line the floors to a hard metal that softly rang with each step, echoing far away and back. The metallic path was raised a few feet above the ground and led them through the caves. There were various paths off to the sides, but he couldn’t quite make out what was down each one as their pace was more hurried.

Soon, he found the line diverted off to one of the side paths. He could begin to hear faint voices in the distance, slowly growing louder and more audible. He was unsure of where he was anymore, but the mixed faces of all the adults around him left him worried as some were excited, yet others look heavily worried.

Winter soon found themselves lined up in sizable cavern that several unicorns were hastily running around, seeming to use their magic to carve the floor carefully. They worked quietly and efficiently as all the students watched, each one unsure of what was going on.

Eventually, one of the older students spoke up, his deep voice carrying through the cavern. “Just what is going on?”

This led to a torrent of questions being called out rapidly. “Where are we?”

“Why are we here?”

“Who are all of these ponies?”

With the silence that had fallen over the students finally broken, they started whispering to each other in their best attempts to figure out what was going on. It was easy to see the unease on all of their faces after being led down to the cavern. Every question asked had been on all of their minds, and they now discussed all the possibilities between themselves.

Winter was unsure of a lot of things, although now that he was broken from his thoughts, he realized that the pressure on his horn had seemed to grow the lower they got. He wondered what could be causing that, and just as he was about to ask, one of the ponies from the side quickly started trying to hush the students so she could talk.

Stepping to the center of the crowd, she rose her voice, flicking her dark green mane out of her tired purple eyes. “Most of those questions I really can’t answer for you. But I can tell you that we are sending you somewhere safer than where you are now.”

Her response only caused the murmurs between the students to rise a bit louder, even more questions starting to be asked. She rose her voice once more, using a demanding tone that all of the other scientists knew quite well.

“Quiet!” There was a brief moment of stillness where there was no noise, before she started speaking again. “As we speak, the ponies behind me are working on constructing a mass teleportation glyph to get all of you foals out of here. Once you’re on the other side, you will each be taken care of and be put into contact with your closest family members. We’ll be sending others in behind you, and you’ll be reunited with your families before too long.”

She let the silence sit for a moment, all the foals focusing their attention on her. She gave a small nod before continuing. “The teleport will be a bit disorienting, so don’t freak out. We’ve teleported plenty of ponies and this will be no different. Just follow our instructions, and everything will be alright.”

3

Winter watched as the adults moved quickly, with movements that not only contained the urgency of the situation, but the smoothness of one well practiced in making glyphs. With the mare’s attention off of the group, they had all devolved back into a low din of hushed whispers. Whispers that were filled with worry and fear, only kept from escalating from the tenseness in the air.

A soft rumble made every occupant of the room stop for a moment, the same wave of pressure from earlier pulsing through the cave system once more, causing some younger foals to panic, while the adults began to pick up their pace. He soon found himself next to an older student with an off white coat, tapping one of her hooves out of nervousness, biting on her lip. Her wings twitched a bit as he got closer, noticing she seemed to be mumbling a bit to herself. He softly poked her leg to try to get her attention. She jumped a bit as her head whipped towards him in surprise, her deep purple eyes locking with his as she took a deep breath to calm down from being startled. “D-Did you need something?” She asked, shaking her head to shift her soft pink ponytail back into place.

Winter shifted a bit. “You looked like something was bothering you… I wanted to check to see if you were okay.” He looked up at her as she gave him a soft smile.

“Well… we’re awfully close to a leyline, and high powered spells like this can easily cause disruptions to the local magic flow even if they’re casted perfectly. But at the same time, they catalyze those same spells as there’s more abundant residual magic in the area to draw from. Of course, all of this depends on the method of casting they decide to use in the end.” She stopped explaining after a moment, realizing that Winter probably hadn’t reached some of the advanced lessons quite yet. “Sorry, I’m Mauve Skies.”

Shaking his head out of the slight sudden information overload, Winter refocused on her. “I’m Winter Blast, though it sounds like you know a lot about magic.”

Mauve let out a small chuckle as she smiled more. “Regardless of tribe, there are some fundamentals of magic that should be known if you want to really want to understand how to more efficiently use your magic. Even though a leyline is in the ground it affects everything around it.” she continued, seemingly forgetting that he was behind her in studies, and continued on, despite having been tuned out by the young unicorn.

He gave himself a bit of space from her as she seemed to get more animated on what sounded to him like an impassioned recital from a textbook, figuring she would eventually snap out of it on her own. He slowly inched his way towards the ponies that seemed to be finishing up on their portions of the glyph and moving around to make double check neighbors work to make sure everything flowed smoothly together.

He did the only thing he could think of doing, the bane of any foal on the best of days, the dreaded sit and wait. He watched materials get passed, tried to listen in to the hushed whispers as they made calculations. It was all a lot to take in as time seemed to pass slowly. He wasn’t sure how long he sat there until the mare from earlier came back and demanded their attention with another shout, her patience obviously short.

“Well now that nearly everything is ready, let me explain how this will work. You will all separate into smaller groups. I don’t really care how you do it. No more than five of you. Someone will come get your group and take you to the center of the glyph. You’ll feel a tug when it activates. Do not fight it. You may feel a few lurches, you may not, it's hard for us to say. Just be calm.” And with that, she turned back around to ensure final preparations continued smoothly as the foals began to split up into small groups.

Mauve poked him, breaking his focus. He turned and looked towards her, noticing two others behind her. “Why don’t you join us Winter? Doesn’t look like you have a group yet anyways.” She smiled down at him as he decided.

After a few moments of hesitation, Winter nodded his head. “Okay… Think everyone else will be fine?” He was worried about those that were outside the large schoolhouse, and it showed on his features.

Mauve nodded and smiled. “I’m sure everyone is just fine and that they’ll be back with us soon. Besides, it looks like they’re about to start sending groups out.”

Winter turned to look back at the giant array, wondering how long it would take for them to all be moved through the array as the first few groups were beginning to form a line. Their group eventually fell into the line as they looked around, wondering where they would wind up as every few minutes, the sharp crack of teleportation would ring out in quick succession as the groups were moved to a location unknown to them.

“Don’t be nervous. It’ll all work out fine.” The mare that directed the foals walked up to them. “Don’t act surprised, this kind of thing makes most ponies nervous. I figured a small reminder that everyone else has gone through safely and will be waiting.” She did her best to give her a reassuring smile before walking down the line as yet another crack of magic sounded.

Winter took a deep breath as they closed in and moved to the center of the circle, taking a deep breath as the magic slowly began to pull at him, and then with a flash, the small group was gone in another loud crack of magic.

Author's Note

It's uh... Been a while. Kinda forgot where I wanted this to go so I gotta figure that out again. Stay safe, and feel free to comment on anything you notice.