"A storm unlike any other may come through the kingdom any day, please be advised to take extra cautions this year. I fear receiving a cold this year may make ponies more irritable than usual."

Flurry suckled on a warm bottle of milk while she sat in her high chair in the kitchen as her mother Cadence read aloud a letter she received from Celestia, her husband Shining Armor standing next to his wife listening to her while leaning against the counter as he softly bit into a cookie.

"Please be sure to ensure everypony stays inside and warm this Heartswarming, even more than usual than everypony already does in the Crystal Empire. We are currently attempting to research this new strain of the common cold. Thankfully, its so far contained to one corner of Equestria and will soon be quarantined properly. Signed yours, Princess Celestia."

Shining Armor took a moment to chew his little cookie bits before opening his mouth to speak.

"New strain of the common cold, eh? I doubt its going to be any different than the two that hit us over the course of five years sometime ago, dear. But I guess it couldn't hurt to be extra cautious this year, especially for Flurry."

Flurry simply babbled her adorable little mouth off upon hearing her name, being the adorable little alicorn filly that she was.

Cadence gave a sigh and placed the letter on the counter, looking a little worried about the letter as she looked like she was running over some thoughts in her head for a few moments before responding.

"I don't know, Shining... Celestia never sent us a letter before for any of the other strains we went through before. Maybe this one is different? We have Flurry Heart to worry about and the forecast calls it to be dipping into the lower temperatures over the next week for us. We would need to address the kingdom so they know to be extra cautious this Heartswarming so nopony comes down with anything serious."

Shining, being the confident dad he attempts to be, simply rubbed Flurry's head which caused a new affectionate string of babbles to be emitted from her as he chuckled at Cadence's worry.

"Dear, we've been through worse and I doubt Flurry will even be affected much by this little cold strain. I have faith that she's much stronger than most ponies give her credit for and so I have my faith that she won't get sick from this one just as she has yet to get sick from the other strains that plagued us in the past. Trust me, Flurry's going to be juuuuuust fine, Cadence."

Cadence, lifting Flurry from her high chair as the little filly wiggled and squirmed about, sighed and had some reservation on his thoughts, yet a small portion of her believed him since it was odd that Flurry never caught any of the strains before so maybe she wouldn't catch this one either.

Meanwhile, Flurry mostly just wanted to go play with her toys in the living room as she was placed down on the floor, waddling away from her parents as Shining attempted to steal another cookie from the cookie jar behind his wife's back as the spoke some more.

As she waddled through the halls on her short waddle-walk to the living room she came across some of the staff whom most cooed down at her as she waddled past, even giving her headpats as they trusted her to know where she was going indeed. As she walked past one room, she could overhear two maids speaking softly to one another.

"Did you hear what happened at the train station an hour ago? Apparently some stallion got a little aggressive and hit a mare as they were getting off the train. He even had the nerve to cough on her!"

"How rude! I hope he got arrested for it."

"He did. Just before the guards arrived, apparently he hit her again and began yelling at her which lead the guards right to them. They dragged him away as he was kicking and screaming and coughing up a storm. Some say he was travelling from some remote village away from other towns. Some were concerned that he might have caught some infection which is why he was acting the way he was."

"Oh my! How dreadful. I hope nopony was infected by him."

The two continued to chat but Flurry had walked out of range of their whispering, entering the living room as outside the big window that looked over one side of the castle town the clouds looked a little darker than they usually do, the frost on the window looking a little thicker than usual as Flurry got to work rummaging through her big toybox looking for her favorite toys.

She was left alone for a good half an hour before her father came in looking for her, her embracing him as he lifted her up off the floor in an affectionate hug, him giving her affectionate cooing and smooches as he carried her over to one of the many mudrooms within the lower portions of the crystal castle, helping her get her winter clothes on as Cadence wanted to go for a walk and clear her mind of the troublesome letter for now and just spend some time with her family.

Thankfully their walk goes without a hitch, the wind driving a little deeper through their clothes that afternoon, nothing seemed to be out of place and nopony appeared to be agitated on their path. There was a few ponies coughing in the distance but it didn't register with the prince and princess as they went along their way, chatting about the festival in Ponyville they would be attending within the next few days, Flurry Heart running about and jumping around in the snow happily with her little wings abuzz from time to time with excitement and joy to play with some much of that powdered happiness.

Author's Note

I'm not really sure how else to lengthen this chapter, so if anyone has any suggestions, geel free to leave them