Rarity loved and hated snow. On the one hoof, it gave her a wonderful excuse to don her favorite winter wear: parkas, sweaters, scarves, hats, and all manner of adorable little snow-boots. On the other hoof, it was cold and wet, and when it fell in great amounts it made getting out one’s door a monumental task. Rarity simply wasn’t prepared to trudge for hours through deep freezing drifts just to get from one end of Ponyville to the other.
Fortunately, conditions were rarely that bad. Snow didn’t usually fall in Ponyville this early in the year at all, but when it did it always came in the night. Pegasi would gather together thick gray clouds in a mass and let it float balloon-like over the town, dropping its frosty payload across the landscape. When the day dawned, everypony would awaken to find the world buried under a blanket of white.
Rarity awoke to just such a morning. Removing her sleep blinders, she saw white light pouring in through her window and sensed a chill in the air of her room. Carousel Boutique was well-insulated, but nothing could stop the cold from creeping in entirely. Her cat lay curled up in her bed across the floor, shivering in spite of her thick winter coat. Opalescence was not fond of the wintertime.
Rising from her bed, Rarity shivered as well – the air was colder than she’d guessed from her first impression. Perhaps the weather ponies had overdone the snowfall by just a smidgen. She treaded across the carpet to her dresser and withdrew a great thick sweater, deep purple in color with black shapes of stars and wintery pine trees. The unicorn pulled it over her head by magic, taking a moment to savor its warmth and softness before heading out her bedroom door. With their parents out of town once again, she had agreed to take in Sweetie Belle for a few days; the filly slept in the guest bedroom across the hall, and Rarity made a habit of checking on her every morning as soon as she woke up.
A sudden shock ran through Rarity’s body the moment she set hoof outside her room. The hardwood floor of the hallway was painfully icy to the touch. Cold floors in winter were nothing new to her, but this seemed a little excessive. Somewhere, she hoped that some pegasus was receiving a severe scolding for letting the temperature drop so low. Lightly and quickly she trotted across the hall to the guest bedroom, wincing with every step. Her hooves were practically numb by the time she reached the door.
Once there, she opened the door carefully and quietly, just wide enough to put her head into the darkened room. There her sister lay, her little head on a soft white pillow, the bedcovers rising and falling in time with her gentle breathing. It was amazing how peaceful and innocent she could appear while she slept.
Rarity considered waking Sweetie then and there, but then it occurred to her that the filly might want to help cook breakfast, and immediately she perished that thought. She’d had enough burnt orange juice for one lifetime, thank you very much.
Leaving the guest room behind she made her way downstairs to the kitchen. The tile floor was even colder than the hallway, but she quickly grew used to it. She opened the cupboard, drawing out a teapot and teabags – a cup of hot tea would be lovely on so cold a morning, she figured. Perhaps she could even coax Sweetie Belle into trying some, when she awoke.
As she took the teapot to the sink she glanced casually out the window; or rather, at the window. It was frosted over so completely that it had become nearly opaque. Rarity raised a hoof and tried to wipe it clear, but immediately recoiled as though bitten – the glass was so cold that it made the floor beneath her hooves seem downright sizzling. Instead of using her hoof, she found a dishrag on the counter beside her and picked it up in her magical grasp. It yielded better results.
With her view unobstructed, the first thing Rarity noticed was that it was still snowing. Large white flakes swirled and danced over the fields, blown about by a wintery wind and falling to the ground in large amounts. Already the snow had fallen very thick – perhaps too thick, at least a good three feet by Rarity’s estimate. What’s more, the sky was still rather dark; though dawn had obviously broken, the daylight was pale and gray, filtered through the overhanging clouds.
Rarity backed away from the window. Surely there had been some sort of mistake. The weather team had promised a healthy snowfall but not a blizzard, and the snow was supposed to have stopped falling long before morning. Perhaps somepony had allowed the storm to grow out of hoof, or perhaps there had been a sudden change of plans in the night; but whatever the case, Rarity was sure of one thing: she and her sister were snowed in, possibly for the whole day.
A resolute expression formed on her face as she set aside the teapot. Clearly tea was not enough; a morning like this called for hot chocolate.
Within minutes the kitchen was filled with the warm scent of chocolate. Two mugs were filled, one for Rarity and another for her sister. The unicorn levitated them onto the kitchen table, placing one at each end and dropping several marshmallows into the second. She had taken the time to fix some breakfast as well: simple toast and jam, which she set on a small plate beside each mug.
Sweetie Belle would love this, she was sure. It would make a nice recompense for being trapped inside all day, too – the poor little filly and her friends had been so excited about the coming snowfall yesterday. Hopefully the warm beverage would ease her suffering.
Soon Sweetie Belle appeared at the top of the stairs, stirred from sleep by the noise of the kitchen and lured from her room by the enticing smell of chocolate. A thick blanket was wrapped around her shivering form, and she shuffled carefully down the steps.
“Good morning, Sweetie Belle!” said Rarity, her face bright and her voice cheerful. She sat at the far end of the table, sipping at her mug. “Would you care for some hot chocolate?”
“Morning, sis,” replied the filly. Her own face was downcast, and her voice sullen. She must’ve already seen the snow through her own window, Rarity realized. Without another word, Sweetie pushed a tall wooden stool to the tableside and climbed upon it. Taking the mug between her hooves, she raised it to her mouth and took a few slow sips.
A small smile appeared on her lips. “It’s good,” she said.
“I’m so glad you think so, dear,” said Rarity, pleased to have at least gotten a smile out of her sister. “I haven’t made any in such a long time, I was afraid I’d lost my touch.”
“It’s great,” Sweetie assured her. “It’s really, um…chocolatey.”
“Oh dear. I didn’t put in too much chocolate, did I?”
“Nope,” said Sweetie, laughing a little. “It’s just right.”
Rarity smiled at her in return. The two sisters sat in companionable silence, sipping from their mugs and nibbling at their toast, until the elder unicorn spoke up again:
“Now Sweetie Belle, I know you and your friends were looking forward to playing in the snow today.” She looked aside, indicating the window. “Though I suppose that’s not likely to happen now, is it?”
Sweetie’s face drooped again.
“But,” Rarity continued, “I promise not to let that stop us from having a good time. There are plenty of delightful things for us to do indoors on a snowy day, aren’t there?”
“I guess so,” agreed the filly, but with more than a hint of reluctance in her voice. “Can you think of anything?”
Before Rarity could respond, Opalescence came wandering into the room. It being winter, her snow-white coat was even thicker than normal, and her poofy tail swooshed behind her as she walked. She padded lightly across the kitchen floor to Rarity, where she nuzzled up against her owner’s leg and purred.
Sweetie Belle looked down at the feline. “That’s how a cat says she likes you, right?”
“Well, when any other cat does this, yes, it means that she’s fond of you,” Rarity explained. “But when Opal does it it means she wants food. Isn’t that right, Opal?”
Opal frowned back up at Rarity.
“Hey, I know!” said Sweetie, her face brightening as an idea struck her. “We could give Opalescence a makeover!”
“REEOWR!!” cried the cat, baring her claws in fierce defense, then turning tail and skittering from the room.
“Oh come now, Opal,” Rarity cried after her. “I’m sure it wouldn’t be that awful!”
All they heard in response was another angry “REEOWR!!” Rarity and Sweetie Belle laughed.
“I suppose she simply isn’t up for one,” Rarity joked. “But I’m sure there are all sorts of other things we could do. Perhaps you’d enjoy a board game?”
“I…guess that sounds like fun,” replied Sweetie, clearly doing her best to warm up to the idea. “Wait – do you even have any board games?”
“Oh, of course I do! I like to keep such things on hoof for whenever I have the girls over. Hold on just a moment, dear, I’ll find us one.”
With that, Rarity left the kitchen and entered her small living room. There she kept a tall wooden bookcase, with the lowermost shelf reserved for board games and other such distractions stacked one atop the other. One by one she pulled the boxes from the stack and levitated them to eye level, scanning each one in search of a game that Sweetie hadn’t likely played a hundred times before.
At length she came across a large and unfamiliar box at the bottom of the stack. She picked it up and took a closer look. It was sky-blue and dotted with clouds of all shapes and sizes: wispy cirrus, puffy altocumulus, broad stratus and dark, towering cumulonimbus. The front of the box read ‘BATTLECLOUDS’ in bold letters of riveted metal.
Rarity sighed. This was Rainbow Dash’s game. Rainbow must’ve forgotten to take it home the last time she and girls had stayed the night at Carousel Boutique, and so it had gotten mixed in with Rarity’s. The unicorn made a mental note to have a word with that pegasus about looking after her belongings. Still, the game looked at least mildly interesting – more interesting than checkers or Scrabble, at any rate. Perhaps Sweetie Belle might enjoy it.
“Oh, Sweetie Belle!” she called out, carrying the box back into the kitchen with her. She held it up so her sister could see. “What about this one?”
“Sure,” replied Sweetie. Then she shivered, for the kitchen table sat just next to the ice-coated window. “But can we maybe play it somewhere else? It’s really cold over here, and I’m all out of hot chocolate.”
In short order the pair had relocated to the living room. Though the floor was of hardwood, the only window was small and the room felt closer and cozier than any other part of the house. Rarity took a few minutes to pile some wood in the brick fireplace and light a fire with her horn. Soon the hearth glowed warm orange, radiating heat throughout the room. To further combat the cold, the elder unicorn found large cushions for herself and her sister and laid them on the floor; it was more comfortable than lying on hardwood, anyway.
Between them sat the board game. Each player had her own platform with a raised backboard, preventing either unicorn from seeing her opponent’s field of play. Though the instruction manual was missing, Sweetie claimed to have played this game once before and did her best to recount the rules to her sister. Soon they had set out their pieces and play began:
“Cloud Five.”
“Cloud Five? Oh my, I can’t seem to find that one anywhere….”
“It’s just right above Cloud Four. See?” Sweetie Belle shifted her board around and pointed to it with a hoof.
“Oh, I see.” Rarity scanned her own board for a moment before finally locating the elusive cloud. “Aha! Cloud Five!” She paused. “Oh, dear. One of my pieces is there. What happens to it now?”
“Um…I think it goes to jail.”
“Jail? Are you quite certain that’s how this game works?”
“Pretty sure.”
“Very well,” Rarity conceded, reluctantly taking her game piece – a red plastic pelican – and setting it aside. “But now it’s my turn. Hmmm… Sky Three.”
“Uh… go fish.”
The game continued in this manner for some time. Only the timely intrusion of a hungry Opalescence prevented Sweetie Belle from winning checkmate in twenty moves. Thankful for the interruption, Rarity stood and walked to the kitchen to find something for Opal to eat.
When she returned, a tiny porcelain dish of cat food hovering beside her, Opal was asleep, curled up comfortably on her cushion, having claimed it while the unicorn was out of the room. Rarity set the dish beside her, smiling amusedly and shaking her head. Sweetie Belle sat on her own cushion, still wrapped up in her blanket; she was staring intently at the cat.
“Hey, Rarity?” she said quietly. “I know Opal probably doesn’t want a makeover…but d’you think she’d let us play with her hair a bit? I mean, she’s got that one hairbow, and it’s pretty. Can we try putting some more on her?”
Rarity glanced back and forth between her sister and the slumbering cat, weighing her options. Sweetie Belle was right: Opal would look marvelous with another two bows, perhaps in different shades of violet or pink. But Opal never allowed anypony to so much as groom her, save for Fluttershy and Rarity as the mood suited her – she wouldn’t take kindly to having her hair fiddled with while she slept.
“Please, Rarity?” Sweetie Belle prodded. She looked up at her sister, pleading with adorable, wide green eyes.
The elder unicorn’s face darkened in thought. It was tempting, but…no, the risk was just too great. She didn’t want to have to explain to her parents that Sweetie had been injured trying to put a hairbow on a cat.
“I’m sorry, darling,” she said to Sweetie, truly apologetic. “I just don’t think Opal is in the right mood to have ponies playing with her hair.”
Sweetie frowned and sighed sadly, then turned to look out the living room window. It was still snowing heavily; the storm hadn’t quieted down in the slightest, and by now the harsh sound of wind was audible even through the walls of Carousel Boutique.
“Oh, Sweetie Belle,” Rarity began, crawling onto Sweetie’s cushion and resting beside her sister. “I know you’re disappointed about being stuck inside with boring old me all day….”
“No, it’s not that,” said Sweetie. “It’s just…I was really looking forward to today. Me and Apple Bloom and Scootaloo worked out everything we were going to do: sledding and making snowponies and having snowball fights and building snow forts…all kinds of stuff.”
“Oh! Well, that sounds like fun,” said Rarity. She wasn’t one for playing in the snow herself, but she understood how much Sweetie Belle enjoyed it.
“Yeah,” continued Sweetie. “Scootaloo thought it’d be so cool if we got snowboarding Cutie Marks. I guess it would be pretty cool. And even if we didn’t it would still be a lot of fun just to try. But I guess that’s not gonna happen now….”
“Oh, Sweetie,” said Rarity. “I’m so sorry. I wish I could think of something for us to do that’s as much fun as snowboarding.”
Sweetie said nothing, but merely closed her eyes and leaned against her sister. For a while the two simply rested in comfortable silence, basking in the glow of the fireplace. Opalescence purred in her sleep, and outside the wind continued to whistle and howl with increasing volume.
Though she kept silent, Rarity was deep in thought. Surely there had to be something she could do to lift Sweetie’s spirits. It pained her to see her dear sister so let down, even over so comparatively small an ordeal. She understood how hard it was to have her expectations dashed by cruel circumstance.
A gentle sensation disturbed her train of thought. Looking down, she noticed that Sweetie had snuggled her face against Rarity’s dark purple sweater. She supposed she couldn’t blame the poor filly; the sweater was cozy and wonderfully soft, and Sweetie had nothing but that blanket to keep her warm –
Wait – that was it. Rarity sat up, struck by a sudden idea. “Sweetie Belle,” she said, catching the filly’s attention. “Is that blanket warm enough? Or would you rather have something else?”
“Something else?” Sweetie looked up with curious eyes. “Like what?”
“Like a sweater, perhaps? Knitting isn’t necessarily my forté, but I’d be happy to try my hoof at it.”
“Really? You’d up and make a sweater from scratch, just for me?”
“Or course I would, darling! And it would give you something to do, too – I’ll need some help picking out the colors and coming up with a design. I know it probably isn’t quite as exciting as snowboarding, but it’s better than loafing around doing nothing, right?”
“Actually, yeah,” said Sweetie, smiling just a little. “That does sound kind of fun.” It wasn’t quite the enthusiastic response Rarity had hoped for, but it was a start.
The pair made their way to Rarity’s “idea” room. As usual, it was in a state of “organized chaos”: balls of yarn and rolls of fabric lay all across the floor, and here and there a stray bolt of cloth hung over a ponniquin or burst out of a half-open drawer. After a quick scan of the room, the fashionista seized upon an eye-catching ball of soft purple yarn.
“How about this color?” she asked, levitating the yarn before her sister’s eyes.
“Mmm…nah,” said Sweetie. “I’d rather have something in hot pink.”
“Hot pink?” Rarity echoed, aghast. “Are you quite sure? Wouldn’t you rather have a color that doesn’t clash with your mane? And coat? And eyes?”
“Um…well, I guess that’d be okay,” Sweetie answered, her tone of voice drooping ever so slightly.
Rarity frowned as Sweetie’s saddened voice tugged at her heartstrings. Her refined fashion sense screamed in protest, but she just couldn’t say no to her little sister. “Oh, what the hay. Bright pink it is, then! Anything else?”
“Yeah!” said Sweetie, excited again. “It needs to have stripes, too!”
“Lovely! Vertical stripes, or horizontal?”
“Um…the kind that go up and down.”
“Vertical, good! What color?”
“I said hot pink!”
“No, I mean what color for the stripes?”
“Oh. Um…orange!”
Rarity cringed. “Right…orange stripes on hot pink,” she said, forcing a smile. “Delightful.”
Several minutes were spent scouring the room for yarn of the proper colors; many yarn balls had rolled under the bed or were buried deep in chests or desk drawers, and took a bit of searching to uncover. Fortunately – miraculously – the Boutique seemed to be out of hot pink, so Sweetie was forced to settle for a softer, watermelon-ish hue that she liked better anyway. At one point Rarity stumbled across a sphere of bold orange, but with some effort she managed to accidentally lose it behind her desk before Sweetie noticed. Instead she chose black yarn, like the patterns on Rarity’s own sweater.
At last they were all set. Rarity sat at the center of the floor, a pair of knitting needles hovering before her, and began to work. Knitting went faster with magic, but making something as big and complex as a sweater was still a rather long and tedious process. Fortunately, Sweetie proved quite patient; she simply sat and watched as Rarity worked, observing the process with rapt interest. At length she started to grow just a little bored, and started singing to herself – a quiet little tune about striped sweaters, which Rarity could only assume Sweetie was making up on the spot. She thought for a while about what a lovely singing voice her sister had, and how it might do her some good to cultivate it.
Hours passed. Rarity became fully absorbed in her work, her mind numbed by the monotony of the task. Still she enjoyed it, for knitting was a relaxing pastime, and besides: it was for Sweetie Belle. That alone was enough to keep her happily engaged in her task. Eventually, though, the waiting grew to be too much for the little filly.
“Um…I really, really appreciate this and all,” said Sweetie, “but how long is it gonna take to finish this thing?”
“Oh, hard to say, dear,” Rarity answered. “At this rate it might take anywhere from – ”
There was an enormous boom.
Both ponies froze as the building shook. Windows rattled and stray yarn balls danced and rolled across the floor. It was over in the space of a few seconds, but it disturbed them mightily. Afterwards, everything fell dead silent: no wind, no snow pattering against the window, nothing.
“What…what was that?” asked Sweetie, her voice trembling.
Rather than answer immediately, Rarity got up and walked carefully to the nearest window, quickly seizing a stray piece of nearby fabric and wiping away the window-frost. Outside, the storm seemed to have vanished altogether and in an instant. The sun now shone unobstructed over the town, its warm rays spilling over the white landscape and making it shine like gold. At the very edge of her vision, Rarity thought she glimpsed of a wave of multicolored light racing over the horizon, but it was gone in an instant.
“I…don’t really know,” she finally said. “But I think the storm is over.”
Sweetie Belle rose to her hooves and joined Rarity at the window. “Wow. You’re right.”
For almost a full minute they stood there, simply taking in the scene. Rarity’s mind boggled; what could’ve changed the weather so quickly, and so drastically? If nothing else, she had a hunch – that wave of light was a clue, if she had indeed seen it.
Once again, a sound caught them off their guard; but this time it was a simple knock at the front door. The knock repeated – a series of harsh, sharp raps. Rarity turned, setting aside the unfinished sweater, and made for the front room of the Boutique. Sweetie Belle followed her.
“Hey! Rarity!” a brash voice called from the other side of the door. “Are you in there? The door’s jammed or something.”
“Rainbow Dash?” Rarity called out in response. Taking hold of the doorknob with her magic, she forced it open; she half-expected a biting wind and a miniature avalanche to rush inside once the door opened, but all that came through was a certain cyan pegasus. Once inside, she eyed Rarity and her sister, first with concern and then with gladness.
“Hey guys. You doing okay?”
“Um…yes, Rainbow Dash, we’re doing just fine, thank you.” Rarity looked out past her pegasus friend: the sun was indeed shining, and only a few stray clouds dotted the sky.
“Yeah, we’ve been working all morning to get things back under control,” explained Rainbow, sensing the questions on the unicorn’s mind. “Now I’m just going around making sure everypony’s okay. We almost had a natural disaster back there.”
“What happened, Rainbow Dash?” asked Sweetie.
“Yes, I too was wondering about that,” added Rarity. “I was under the impression that there was going to be a ‘healthy snowfall’ during the night. How did it turn into…well, into that?”
“Yeeeahh, about that,” said Rainbow. “See, whenever the pegasi plan a snowstorm, there’s a whole lot of calculations that have to go into it: wind speed, humidity, cloud mass, temperature, all sorts of stuff. I don’t usually handle that part. But whoever did it must’ve put the decimal point in the wrong place or something on every single calculation, ‘cause we ended up with everything ten times bigger than it was supposed to be.”
“Oh, my,” said Rarity. “That could’ve been disastrous!”
“Yeah, it almost was,” said Rainbow. “I had to do a Sonic Rainboom to clear out all the storm clouds.”
“Ohhh,” said Sweetie. “So that’s what that big boom was.”
The pegasus grinned smugly. “Hehe, yeah, it was pretty big, wasn’t it? One of the best I’ve ever done, if I do say so myself.” She cleared her throat, reigning in on her ego. “Anyway, Twilight and Spike have been going around town helping to melt the snow. Dragonfire works a lot better than salt and snow shovels.”
“I’d imagine so,” said Rarity.
“Yeah, they’re doing all right.” Rainbow then looked down at Sweetie Belle. “Hey, kid. I was just at Sweet Apple Acres a while ago. Applejack’s sister said she was gonna go sledding as soon as the sky was cleared. You want me to fly you over there so you can join her?”
The filly’s face lit up. “Really? Can you?” Rainbow nodded. Sweetie turned to her sister. “Can she, Rarity?”
“I…I don’t see why not,” said the elder unicorn, just happy that Sweetie now had a chance to play with her friends. “But do be careful with her, Dash. No trick flying, no barrel rolls, and certainly no more Sonic Rainbooms. I believe we’ve all had enough of those for one day.”
“Yay! Thank you Rarity!” cried Sweetie, lunging forth and hugging her sister’s legs. Rarity smiled and pulled the filly into a tender hug.
“You’re welcome,” she said with a soft smile. Then she released her from the embrace. “Now go on, have fun! This is what you were looking forward to, after all.”
“Don’t worry, Rarity,” said Rainbow as Sweetie Belle clambered onto her back. “I know how to fly with passengers. I saved you once, remember?”
“How could I forget,” Rarity replied with a roll of her eyes. “Now go on, go! And tell Applejack to send Sweetie home before seven!”
“Can do!” With that, Rainbow took off, soaring low and safely over the white-blanketed streets of Ponyville with Sweetie atop her back.
After watching them leave, Rarity went back inside. She had a sweater to finish – hopefully before seven.
The fireplace glowed bright orange. The window was frosted over, but the biting cold of earlier in the day had long since subsided. The sun had now set, and Luna’s moon shone brightly against a deep blue backdrop of cold white stars; but inside was warm and safe.
Rarity and Sweetie Belle lay upon their cushions in front of the hearth, holding hot mugs of chocolate between their hooves. The younger unicorn was clad in a freshly-knit sweater, watermelon-pink with vertical black stripes. It was soft and thick like Rarity’s, and it was just a tiny bit too big, but Sweetie Belle said that just made it all the more comfortable.
“And then we had a snowball fight,” Sweetie was saying, “and I accidentally knocked Apple Bloom’s hairbow off with a snowball. It was really weird, because it was kind of tied to her mane, so I must have hit it so hard that totally untied the knot and sent it flying. It took us fifteen minutes to find it because there were so many apples lying around in the snow, and we kept mistaking them for it.”
Her sister laughed gently. Sweetie had obviously had a lot of fun in the snow. Rarity had enjoyed their time together that morning, but she was happy that the filly’s expectations for the day had ended up getting met.
“So yeah, I had lots of fun,” Sweetie finished recounting her tale. “But do you know what the best part of the day was?”
“Oh, there was something else?” asked Rarity. “Something better than the treehouse snow fort?”
“Uh huh.”
“Even better than that horrible three-headed snowpony you made?”
“Way better than that.”
“All right, I confess,” Rarity laughed. “You’ve got me stumped. What was the best part of your day?”
Sweetie Belle took a sip from her mug. “Having hot chocolate with my breakfast.” She smiled up at her sister. “Thanks, Rarity.”
Rarity returned the smile, her heart melting like chocolate. “You’re so welcome, Sweetie Belle.”
They sat there together all evening, chatting and smiling until the hearth-fire died down into glowing embers.
