Dost Thou Wish to Build a Snowmare?
Luna pushed open the heavy wooden door to her big sister's room. "Tia? Dost thou wish to build a snowmare?"
From behind her stack of paperwork, Princess Celestia shook her head. "No, Luna. You know we don't have time for that. The three tribes have only just now been united. And now that Stygian and the Pillars have vanished, it falls to us to lead! And the national leaders making an effigy out of the very mess with which the Windigos nearly killed us would just plain be in poor taste!"
The blue filly frowned. "Oh."
Princess Celestia's stern expression softened. "I'm sorry, Luna. But when you're a bit older, you'll understand. Politics, it's... it's all about public appearances."
"Another time, perhaps?" Luna asked.
"Of course. We are alicorns. Time is a luxury you and I have in abundance. It's just that now is not a good time."
~
"Tia? Dost thou wish to build a snowmare?" Princess Luna asked.
"With what snow, Luna?" Princess Celestia asked.
Luna gathered up some large mounds of cotton candy from the side of the road, shaping it into the vaguely amorphous shape of a pony. "Ta da!"
"Really, Luna!?" Celestia admonished her. "You know we don't have time for that. We need to make haste to defeat Discord!"
"And we shall, with these!" Luna said, brandishing the Elements of Harmony. "Verily, we can spare a moment along the way. Thou really must partake in the humor of such outrageous fortune!"
Princess Celestia glared at her. "Shame on you! Our little ponies are suffering! We haven't even a second to indulge such foalish behavior!"
The smile ran away from Luna's face and she nodded. "Yes... Of course. You're right, Tia. As always. Now is not a good time."
~
When King Sombra was defeated, he was turned to shadow, and banished to the ice of the Frozen North. But not before he was able to put a curse upon the Crystal Empire. A curse that caused it to vanish into thin air.
Princess Celestia and Luna stood in the middle of the vast, barren tundra, where the Empire had just been only moments ago. Sombra had been defeated, yes. But with the loss of the Empire, it was a pyrrhic victory at best.
Princess Luna shuffled her hooves in place, unsure of what to do next. She absentmindedly gathered a bit of snow together in a small pile with her hooves. She looked at Celestia who was in no mood. She just looked back at her with an expression that said, Don't even think to ask it right now. It was a bad time. It was a long flight home.
~
All these memories haunted Princess Celestia every time she looked up at the Mare in the Moon for a thousand years. Time was all she had now. It was a prison for them both. Her sister's voice echoed in her ears.
Dost thou wish to build a snowmare?
Twilight Sparkle and her friends bowed at the conclusion of the Hearth's Warming re-enactment play in Canterlot. Princess Celestia and Luna had watched from the royal balcony seats. Luna hurried down to speak with the troupe of actors afterwards.
"A splendid show!" Luna said. "Not quite as we remembered, but enjoyable nonetheless."
"Well, I'm sure the story has changed a bit as it had been passed down," Twilight said. "I'd be very curious to hear the original."
"A tale for another time," Luna said. "We would very much desire to hear of what new traditions have come arise."
"Oh, well, I'm not sure what has changed since then, or what's the same," Twilight said. "But we have the Hearth's Warming tree, gift exchange, the mantel dolls..."
"Don't forget the parties!" Pinkie Pie added.
"And cider!" Applejack and Rainbow Dash said at the same time.
"And don we now our gay apparel!" Rarity said in her festive holiday outfit.
"And of course, cozying up by the fireplace with a warm mug of cocoa," Fluttershy said.
"Everypony does things a little differently," Twilight said. "But as far as what's changed, I would think that you would need to ask Princess Celestia. She would know best."
"Tia... ah, yes," Luna agreed looking back over her shoulder at Princess Celestia waiting for her in the balcony seat. "What has she done each year?"
The other ponies looked at each other in confusion. "I... I don't know," Twilight said. "I always went home on school break for the holidays. I assumed she always did some important princess stuff."
"That does sound like her," Luna agreed.
Exiting the theater, Luna walked closely beside her elder sister. "Verily, much hath changed during our absence, Tia."
"It has."
"Tis only natural for things to change, no?"
"It is."
They opted to walk, rather than fly or teleport back to the palace. Luna looked around the city, brightly lit beneath the blanket of fresh snow. "It's pleasing to see," Luna said. "Our little ponies, so prosperous. Nopony wanting for food or shelter. Free from strife in the cold months. To be festive even!"
On the other side of the street, a few foals darted out from and alleyway and chased each other about, hastily flinging snowballs back and forth, heedless of the royalty across the way from them. As quickly as they had appeared, they ran off between a couple houses, leaving only the echoes of their giggles and laughter.
Luna gathered up a bit of snow in her hooves to form into a ball.
Behind her, Celestia pushed a bit of snow with her hoof. It was barely deep enough to even cover her golden horseshoes. But the temperature and moisture was perfect. It clumped together well.
Luna held her perfectly spherical snowball in her proud hooves. She turned and looked at Celestia.
Celestia stiffened, and she felt her throat close up, anticipating the question.
Luna's smile faltered for a moment and she let the snowball drop unceremoniously onto the sidewalk with a muffled thud before she continued walking.
"Tia, what hath been thine tradition these years bygone?" Luna asked. "Surely thou hast scheduled us with many a royal duties and appearances for the day of Hearth's Warming on the morrow."
"Actually, no," Celestia said.
"No?"
"No. I've kept the day clear for you. For us. To do whatever you want, Luna."
"No summits, ribbon cuttings, or galas?"
"Not unless you want there to be."
Luna thought on it for a moment. "We wish to see how other ponies everywhere celebrate!"
Celestia smiled. "A splendid idea, Luna."
~
Princess Celestia awoke in the dark, as she always did just before the dawn she was to bring. Her eyes slowly opened and focused in the dim moonlight coming in through her chamber's balcony window.
Beside her bed, a cloaked figure stood, looming over her and staring down with the dark, empty eye sockets of a skull. "SURRENDER THINE WINE!" it demanded.
Princess Celestia shrieked in terror and tumbled out of the other side of her bed.
Luna cackled from beneath the robe, holding the faux pony skull on a pole.
"Luna! What in Equestria-!?" Celestia yelled.
"Tis an old Nightmare Night decoration!" Luna said. "We have repurposed it for the Zebrican Hearth's Warming tradition! Is it not delightfully macabre!?"
"Zeh...Zebrican?" Celestia asked in groggy confusion.
"Indeed!" Luna said. "We visited many dreams last eve, to see what traditions yet be! Madam Zecora dreamt of Mari-Lwyd!"
"Are you sure it wasn't a nightmare?"
"Quite!" Luna said. "Mari-Lwyd is a spirit that visits homes and entreats entrance through rhyme, and the residents must deny entrance in kind! If they succeed, she is turned away. But if she wins, she may enter to raid the pantry and ice box for drink!"
"... Okay." Celestia rubbed the sleep out of her eyes now that the adrenaline rush had worn off. She shuffled across her bedroom floor to put on her regalia. She squinted to look at her ill-fitting hoofwear. "Uh, Luna...?"
Luna squealed. "Do you like them? I carved them from wood myself! It's a Hearth's Warming tradition from Nethersland!"
"I don't think they're meant to be worn..."
"Come now! Up with the sun!" Luna said. "We've alcohol to pilfer!"
~
Zecora opened the urgent knock at her door. She looked up at the skull of the cloaked figure.
"Well, if it isn't Mari-Lwyd.
I told you my place you should avoid."
"Well, now, don't tell us what we should think!
We've come to battle thee for a drink!
Thou know the rules so when we win,
Thou must let us come on in!"
"Flasks and vials may line my shelf,
But I'll be keeping them for myself.
I haven't the spirits that you seek,
These potions are not meant for the meek."
"We have forever to play this game.
Time's on our side. Can you say the same?
Thou shall not be our denier,
'Cause we spit rhymes like we spit fire!"
"Such foalishness seen, not in all my years,
my warnings falling on such deaf ears.
If it's fire-water you wish to spit,
Then to you I yield. Here, take it."
Zecora gave her a bottle. Luna's hoof reached out from under the cloak and she drank it. A moment later she dropped the skull stick and cast of the cloak as she belched, sending a fireball off in a shallow arc before splashing down into the mud with a steamy hiss.
"Luna!" Celestia ran over to hold Luna as she coughed out a puff of smoke. Celestia grabbed the bottle and looking at the label on it. "Dragon's Breath!?"
Zecora smirked.
"Perhaps next time you should take heed,
when I say I've no cider, wine, or mead.
Now go, before you burn down my trees.
And happy Hearth's Warming, Your Majesties."
The zebra closed the door.
Undeterred, Luna stopped at the first home they found just outside of the Everfree Forest.
Fluttershy opened the door, saw the hooded skull, and screamed. In a flash, she vanished, replaced by Discord appearing in her place along with a giant crossbow.
Luna immediately dove out of the way, and Celestia moved forward with a magical shield. "WHY do you have a ballista!?" Celestia yelled.
"A trebuchet wouldn't fit in here." Discord said.
"But why do you have a siege weapon!?"
"Home defense."
"From WHAT!?"
He glanced at the forest behind them. "Trust me. You really don't want to know how many answers there are to that question." He looked at Luna picking up the skull on a stick. "Oh, I get it. It's Mari-Lwyd. Well, unfortunately, Fluttershy keeps a dry house. So unless you want tea..?"
Luna took back the skull with a dejected huff and she departed along with her elder sister. Celestia saw the look of defeat in her eyes. "Luna, let's try one more place."
~
Apple Bloom answered the knock at the farmhouse door, looking up at the cloaked horse skull.
"Give us booze, give us cider, give us that which we desire!" it said.
Apple Bloom promptly fainted.
"Little filly!" Luna said, casting off her costume, and kneeling down to check on her.
"What in tarnation happened!?" Applejack came running over to help Apple Bloom up. "Princess? Princesses?"
Celestia stepped forward. "I'm afraid my sister gave yours a bit of a fright."
Apple Bloom blinked awake, no worse for wear.
Luna explained the Zebrica tradition of Mari-Lwyd to Applejack.
"Cider? A bit early don'cha think?" Applejack asked as she grabbed a bottle from the fridge. "But I suppose with you working a night shift... Anyway, you could have just asked." She gave the bottle to Luna. "Happy Hearth's Warming."
The princesses returned the sentiment and turned to leave.
"Mission accomplished?" Celestia asked.
Luna looked at the bottle in her hoof and shrugged. It didn't feel like a genuine victory.
"The traditions of other cultures take time to catch on," Celestia assured her. "If you do it every year, the ponies will come to expect it and know how to respond."
"What traditions hath thou tried to start for our ponies?" Luna asked.
"Oh, I've never gone out of my way for such things," Celestia said. "Shall we return home? I'm of the understanding that there is no place like it for the holidays."
"Might we roast some fermented cocoa beans?" Luna asked.
Celestia smiled. "There's a whole industry dedicated to that now. In fact, there is a drink I'd like to introduce to you involving it."
Arriving back in Canterlot, all the ponies in the castle seemed surprised to see them. Luna had become somewhat accustomed to the reaction. It was not often that she was out and about during the day. Oddly, their eyes were not on her. The looks of shock and hushed gasps seemed to all be directed at Celestia.
But as promised, Celestia brought Luna to the castle kitchen for a cup of hot cocoa drink, topped with a frothed sweetened dairy that Luna found to be delightful, adding an excessive quantity to each successive mug. But like everywhere else in the castle, the staff of the kitchen had been surprised to see them arrive.
They spent the rest of the day in Celestia's royal chambers. Lounging undisturbed together by the fireplace was a fine way to spend the holiday.
~
Outside of Zebrica, the tradition of Mari-Lwyd never really caught on, as Luna didn't pursue it. The novelty of free alcohol wore off fast to the princess with a castle cellar full of wine almost as old as she was. She found far more delight in freely distributing gifts to the good little colts and fillies, and helping families in need. Celestia was proud, and happy to help Luna spend the holidays in this way.
~
But Luna never did get a straight answer from Celestia about how she had spent Hearth's Warming in years gone by. And though she disdained it, she took to asking others.
"Like I said, I really don't know," Princess Twilight Sparkle told her.
"I don't know either," Raven Inkwell told her.
"Nopony knows," Kibitz said. "It's a big mystery. I've been on her staff for over forty years. Every year, at Hearth's Warming she would disappear from her chambers. Never telling anypony where she was going, what she was doing, or when she would return. It would have us all so terribly worried for the day. But the sun and moon would always rise on time. So we knew she was okay, wherever she was. And then the next day she would be back, never speaking of it, and nopony was to ask her."
"Seeing her around the castle last year was a surprise," Raven said. "Not to mention a relief! I suppose we have you to thank for that, Princess Luna."
And so it was, at Hearth's Warming, Celestia no longer disappeared. Opting instead to spend the day together with Luna, free of obligations aside from whatever activity Luna desired. Until the day they retired, free of obligations for the rest of their days.
Celestia brought two mugs of hot cocoa down to the chairs on the Silver Shoals dock, where Luna was waiting. Though it was still quite tropical in the southern peninsula of Equestria, in the small hours before the winter dawn, there was a brisk nip in the air.
The moon set below the horizon and the first sliver of sunlight crested above the sea's horizon.
"Right on time," Luna remarked.
"Twilight always was very punctual," Celestia said. "Did I ever tell you about the time she had a meltdown about being tardy with one of her friendship reports?"
Luna laughed. "You have! But I always enjoy the tale."
Celestia smiled and sipped her cocoa. "Happy Hearth's Warming, Luna."
"Happy Hearth's Warming, Tia."
"What shall we do this year?" Celestia asked.
"You always ask me that," Luna said. "And we always end up doing what I suggest. But what of you? What do you want?"
Celestia smiled contently, sitting beside her sister, sipping cocoa. "What more could I want? And you?"
"I want to know what you did," Luna said. "Everypony I spoke to said you would vanish without a word. What did you do while I was away?"
The smile ran away from Celestia's face. Her eyes glistened in the dawn's early light. "Did you not know?"
Luna shook her head. "How could I have?" Celestia looked away. "Will you not tell me now?"
Celestia put her mug down and shook her head. "No." She stood up and beckoned for Luna to follow her. "Come with me. Let me show you."
"Where are we going?" Luna asked.
"North."
~
Half a world away they flew, over Baltimare, over Ponyville, over Canterlot. At altitude, the cold air grew colder still the further north they went. Into the unnatural cold of the Frozen North. It had seemed that Celestia had set a course for the Crystal Empire. But Luna worried as the luminous spires of the empire, impossible to miss, passed under them. Celestia flew on northward, undeterred into the barren, hostile tundra.
The landscape became alien. There were mountains of solid ice crystals that looked like pyramids of glass. Frozen rivers stretching for miles in parallel channels. There was a field of ice so smooth and white and unmarred by so much as a pebble that it was hard to maintain any kind of depth perception above it. In the center was a great volcanic lake, kept liquid by the geothermal vent, and turquoise blue from the dissolved, acidic minerals. In the center was the volcano itself, jet black with obsidian.
Once they were past the far side of the lake, Celestia stopped and came to a hover in the air before they landed together in the soft snow. They were now as far north of the Crystal Empire as Canterlot was south of it.
"Is this... is this place where you would go?" Luna asked. Celestia nodded. "Why? What were you doing here?" Luna asked.
"Luna, I... I wanted to build a snowmare. A snowmare for you to see."
Luna looked around them for anything resembling a snowmare.
Celestia frowned in frustrated disappointment. "You can't see it from here."
"Well, where is it?" Luna asked.
Celestia extended her hoof. "Take my hoof, Luna." Luna did so, putting her hoof into Celestia's. "May I bind us for the flight? I don't want to lose you again."
"I suppose," Luna said. Celestia's horn glowed, binding their hooves with a magic stronger than steel. Celestia unfurled her alabaster wings, preparing to take off. "But what do you mean by lose m-"
With a mighty beat of her wings they were instantly airborne, rocketing upwards at an incredible speed. Luna's vision narrowed to a tunnel as the blood rushed away from her brain in the intense acceleration. Nearly blinded, all she could hear was the roar of the wind rushing past them.
Luna's blindness passed, going from a big dark blur to a big white blur. She was still being pulled along by her wrist that miraculously hadn't been dislocated, let alone not been completely severed. Attached to her wrist was Celestia, flying hard and fast straight upwards. Celestia's normally-wispy, ethereal mane was blown back into an aerodynamic cone of least resistance. Ahead of her, her horn glowed brightly, maintaining a small, conic shield to keep the brunt of the wind resistance off them.
The air around them grew white as the compression waves in the air piled up, violently squeezing out the moisture into a strange cone of vapor. Luna's eyes watered from the wind and her throat hurt. She realized she was screaming, and that she had been for a while.
"Tia!" Luna screamed at the top of her lungs. But her voice was drowned out by the deafening roar of the wind. "Tia! Stop!" Her pleas fell on deaf ears.
As they pierced the cone, the boom was barely loud enough to register to Luna. Strangely, as they flew even faster, the noise of the wind waned. Luna tried to scream again, but they outran the sound of her own voice as the smashed through the sound barrier.
Behind her, Luna could see the shock waves from their sonic boom disrupting the wispy stratus clouds around them. And then the boom as they passed Mach two, and three, easily beating Rainbow Dash's records in both speed and altitude. But Celestia didn't slow down. If anything, she only flew faster.
The shield in front of them began to glow orange, then yellow, then white hot as they streaked through the upper atmosphere like a meteor. What should have been the roar of a dragon was eerily silent. Such intense, radiative heat just inches from Luna's face should have blinded her, if not cook her alive. Yet she remained unharmed.
Even if they weren't flying at hypersonic speeds, Luna's cries wouldn't be audible in the air too thin to carry it. And yet she didn't asphyxiate. The fiery inferno passed. The blue sky in front of them faded into the inky black of the night sky as they left the atmosphere.
The moon came into Luna's field of view and the flew towards it. In the vacuum of space, there was a magic in Celestia's wings beyond mere aeronautics that propelled them. Luna was mesmerized at the moon in front of them, growing larger with each passing moment. But rather than flying straight at it, Celestia aimed them to just off to the side. For a moment, Luna panicked. The thought of being stranded on the moon again was scary enough, but missing it completely to be flung into the infinite void was more terrifying still.
Luna felt the tension on her hoof go slack as Celestia let go of her hoof. No longer accelerating, they hovered together, weightless as they moved through space. The stars around them shifted as they fell into the moon's gravity, pulling them into a tight orbit. The lunar landscape flew past them, just a few hundred feet below them, as they skimmed just above its surface. Orbit was easy, after all. It was just a matter of throwing oneself at the ground, and missing.
Luna looked behind them, but the world had vanished as they orbited to the far side of the moon. In that moment, there was nothing. It was just her and Celestia in the shadow of the dark side of the moon.
Luna tried to speak. But no words came. Celestia held Luna's face in her hooves, to look into her eyes. In Celestia's eyes, she could see the reflection of the moonscape behind them. Beyond Luna were all the stars within and without her mane. The infinite heavens.
Celestia touched her horn to Luna's. And she could hear Celestia's thoughts in her mind as she pointed at the lunar surface.
I searched for you. I came and tried to rescue you, but I couldn't ever find you.
I... Nightmare Moon was trapped in the moon, not on it. I've no memory of it. Of the time passing.
I know that now. But I wanted to show you that you're loved so much more than you know.
Tia...
So I built you a snowmare.
And then Celestia's face lit up as they moved back into the sunlight. In her sister's eyes, Luna could see the reflection of the world rising above the horizon of the moon behind her.
Come, and see.
Celestia's magic turned Luna around.
And she saw.
A pale blue marble.
A tiny, fragile, ball of life, hanging in the void, shielded and nourished by a paper-thin atmosphere. The towns, cities and even empires were too small to see.
But there, in the Frozen North, the massive, turquoise volcanic lake stood out prominently in the white snowfield with the obsidian black island in the middle. It looked just like an eye. A pony's eye. Luna's focus widened along with her eyes. The parallel rivers and mountains of ice glittered in the sunlight. The swaths of blue colors in the arctic landscape and the adjacent sea, dotted with snowcapped islands, twinkling like stars.
An entire region of the continent had been carved into a portrait of Luna. In a way that could only be seen from the moon. Such an endeavor would have taken...
Nearly a millennium.
Floating weightless, the droplets of Luna's tears floated off of her cheeks, freezing into tiny ice crystals as they left the magical shield surrounding her body. They glittered and twinkled in the blackness of space, joining the rest of the stars.
She looked at Celestia and nodded. There were no words that needed be spoken. She took her hoof once more and fastened her in her magic. With a silent beat of her wings, they lofted up away from their lunar orbit and back towards the world.
The ground rose up to them as they fell downward. They plunged into the atmosphere at a shallow angle. As before, Celestia's magical shield glowed brightly on reentry as they streaked through the sky like a meteor. It was an eerie, silent affair until they were moving slow enough for them to hear the roar of their reentry. Canterlot came into view and the ground was rushing up at them at an alarming rate. Celestia threw open her wings. Luna felt her stomach lurch in the sudden deceleration. Contrails spiraled off the tips of Celestia's wings in turbulent vortexes. She made a series of tight turns to try to burn off more of their speed before going into a low glide skimming along the Ponyville Valley before pulling back into steep climb up the side of the mountain, lofting them into a manageable arc for Luna to glide back down onto the mountain peak.
Celestia landed beside her a moment later, accompanied by a deafening boom echoing across the land, as the sound of their reentry finally caught up to them.
"I still remember every time you asked me to build a snowmare," Celestia said. "And all the times I had to say no, and broke your heart. But every time, I told myself, it would be okay. We would have time. And then that time was stolen from us. And it was my fault. How could I ever make it up to you?"
Luna rushed forward and embraced her. Celestia hugged back harder.
"Tia?"
"Yes, Luna?"
"Dost thou wish to build a snowmare?"
"Yes Luna!" Celestia gathered up hoofuls of snow from the ground and threw it into the air. "Yes! A thousand times yes!"
"Come then," Luna said. "We have work to do!"
Princess Twilight Sparkle was roused urgently from her sleep to the sound of the city alarms rising. "What is it? What's wrong?" she asked her captain.
He looked through the telescope out over the city wall. "I'm afraid the city is... under seige."
Twilight looked through the telescope. "What in Equestria!?"
"SURRENDER, PRINCESS SPARKLE!" Luna's voice boomed from the distance. "WE HAVE THE CITY SURROUNDED! BEND THE KNEE OR ELSE OUR MUNITIONS SHALL BLOT OUT THE SUN!" Beside her stood Celestia, and behind them, an vast army of snowmares.
Twilight scanned the snowmare army with the telescope. "Are those... trebuchets!? Where did they get trebuchets from?"
"I have no idea," Discord said before munching on a bowl of popcorn.
"DO YOU NOT YIELD!?" Luna bellowed. "VERY WELL, HAVE AT THEE!"
The trebuchets, catapults and ballistae fired in a coordinated salvo. Thousands of snowballs rained down, pelting Canterlot Castle.
After the volley, Princess Twilight Sparkle swiftly stepped out onto the castle battlements to yell at the posted royal guards. "What are you all standing around for!?" She gathered up a snowball in her hooves as she bore a fierce grin. "RETURN FIRE!"
And so was born the traditional Hearth's Warming snowball fight.
