Rudolph, doubtful, looked at the three fillies at work. They weren't very much organized, in addition to being in a foreign land, but they were putting their heart in each of their actions. In a way, it reminded him of his own people. That will to please. To offer something.

Looking up at the sky, which had just cleared, he remembered. Staring at the stars, he let out a sigh. Even if, for him, it was only a year ago, that time seemed so far away.

Scootaloo heard him.

"What's wrong?"

"I miss the aurora borealis..." he said, which was partly true.

"The what?"

"The symbol of my people's magic. Who knows, maybe you'll see them if you succeed."

The tone of his voice didn't leave much room for any doubts: He didn't believe in it.

"That'll be cool, then!" Scootaloo answered with a smile. "You'll show us that!"

On her end, Apple Bloom was still looking for something to clear out the snow. A bunch of branches would have been enough, but the forest was too far and too dark for her to go alone. Maybe she could find something to help her in the abandoned houses, but politeness led her to ask Rudolph instead.

"Do you have tools in your home by any chance!?" she yelled through the valley.

The reindeer looked up to her, dismayed.

"She's going to trigger an avalanche!" he said loud enough for Scootaloo to hear, not the earth filly.

The pegasus invited her friend to come over, understanding Rudolph's worries. She needed a reminder about where they were it seems.

"Stop shouting," Scootaloo scolded once her friend got closer. "There's snow everywhere, you're going to bury us."

"Yeah well I'm trying to gain time," Apple Bloom grumbled, still waiting for an answer to her question. "Can we go inside the houses to look for stuff to help us?"

"I would avoid that if I were you," Rudolph advised. "Taking the belongings of my people isn't a good idea."

"And yours?"

The reindeer's face turned a little darker. The wind appeared to succeed at piercing in between the mountains to blow in the valley, penetrating the fillies' coats. Something changed in the air as they began to shiver.

"Hum, Rudolph...?" Apple Bloom slowly asked.

The tall ungulate did not answer, suddenly exhaling heavily through his muzzle, as if he was angry.

"Please...?" Scootaloo tried, thinking good manners were important for him.

The reindeer slowly opened his mouth, speaking at a reduced pace, with a much deeper voice:

"You want me to give you something...? You come here and you expect to be able to take whatever you want...?"

"It's to clear out the snow," Apple bloom quickly said. "To help you. I'll give everything back after."

The black hooves clenched on the white ground, compressing it a bit in a muffled sound. Then, Rudolph's leg's muscles relaxed as he sighed.

"Sorry..." he sincerely whispered, filled with remorse. "My house is the one alone on its hill. You can take whatever you want in it."

Apple Bloom looked at the four mountain sides. Indeed, if every one of them had two or three houses, only one, a little bit further from the center than the others, had just a single cabin on it.

"Thanks!" she said, rushing towards it.

"Now come on! That tree isn't going to build itself!" Scootaloo said to herself, trying to forget the fact their guide looked less and less stable.

With her little hooves, she dug in the big snowball she had made. Trying to make it into the shape of a pine tree, she ended up stopping, noticing that the powder snow against her hoof didn't seem so cold anymore. In fact, she couldn't even feel its texture anymore, the tip of her hooves.

Meanwhile, Sweetie Belle was examining the lights on the ground. She had already seen similar ones during her sister's expositions, simple sources of magical light, contained in colored spheres. Well, "simple" not quite, since to have them last for so long, they had to be made by someone very talented. But the little unicorn was thinking she could make a few, which might last for the night.

Taking the broken ones, she began to try and inject her magic in them to put them back in working condition.

The little farmer arrived in front of Rudolph's house, after a slope that had seemed unending.

"I should have taken boots," she said to herself, annoyed, looking at her snow-covered legs.

Bringing her eyes back on the habitation, she quickly understood that she would have to dig. Only the roof and a window were still visible, poking out of the ground. Thankfully, the little luminescent path and a big tinsel showed her the place where she would probably find the entrance.

After a few minutes of each of them being busy on their own, under the attentive gaze of the reindeer, the three filly looked like they were making progress. The earth one was already almost done clearing out the door, the unicorn had brought their lights back to two houses, and the pegasus had already a nice base for a pine tree taller than her. The work done was still rough, but the simple fact of seeing his village given a second breath warmed the heart of Rudolph. But a question persisted.

"Why are you doing this? Nothing forces you to, you could have ran away, or tried to vanquish my people."

"We can't let Equestria down," Scootaloo answered, starting to form a second snowball. "Even if we had Ponyville evacuated, everything else would have ended up frozen. But I don't know if the Elements would have worked."

She thought about that option for a few moments. She didn't even know where the stones were kept. If it had been in Canterlot, they wouldn't have made it in time.

"Do you know some people outside of your village?" the reindeer followed.

"Not many, well not me at least. Apple Bloom has family in Appleloosa."

"What would prevent you from leaving all those strangers behind, then...?"

Scootaloo stopped, slightly surprised, turning her head towards Rudolph, before thinking.

"Because it's bad...?"

"You don't have to risk your life for people you don't know..." he sighed.

"Well, and you, why did you handed out gifts to ponies without ever even going and talking to them?" the filly asked. "Or why did you help us coming all the way here? Why are you still here, when we just asked you to bring us here?"

Rudolph readjusted his splint all the while slowly answering the three questions:

"It was vital, you have a debt to pay back to my people, and where we are, galloping would not be of any use."

"It was vital?" the pegasus repeated, unconvinced.

"Being generous is important for us, I already told you," the reindeer angered, beginning to growl.

"But you didn't need to go to the ponies."

"You think you know everything better than us!?" he suddenly yelled, standing up.

A strong wind almost knocked Scootaloo over. Rudolph was standing right in front of her, straight and menacing, looking at her up and down. His eyes had become white while his antlers seemed to have partially vanished.

The filly huddled up, terrified by this abrupt change. Even if she felt like every word could make the situation even worse, she defended herself with all the honesty she was capable of.

"N-No, it's just that the way you described it, things seemed to be different..."

"In what way!?" the reindeer shouted at the same moment the sky rumbled.

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle raised their heads hearing this, fearing that the windigos might already be here. Without noticing that their friend might soon be facing one of them.

"Y-You said you love to give... I thought it meant you do that for another reason than simply not transforming into windigos..."

"And what would that reason be!?" the ungulate growled, his voice covered by the icy wind, yet even more powerful in it.

Scootaloo folded on herself even more, shivering from fear.

"That you did all this because you find true enjoyment in being generous... You gave gifts to ponies simply because the act of giving makes you happy..."

The wind abruptly ceased, bringing back silence in the valley. Rudolph was immobile, his eyes straight on Scootaloo. Behind his anger now lied confusion. Why had he been generous?

A cold voice inside of him said it was to prevent himself from hurting others, by fear of becoming a monster. That he was naive for ever wanting to protect all those selfish creatures from who he was. Ungrateful thieves, this world was only filled with those. They didn't deserve him working so hard for them.

But that voice wasn't the only one. Another one, more distant but warmer as well, was trying to remind him. That heat in his heart when seeing his kind feast. That profound feeling when he gave a present to a friend. This wave of joy when, during his distribution, he felt the surprise and happiness from those strangers, discovering an unexpected gift. The simple pleasure in offering. In sharing.

His legs gave up on him as his eyes took back their natural brown shade. He collapsed on the ground, in front of the filly, burying his head in between his hooves, remembering. Oh, how he had become bitter. How much his heart had grown dark. Like theirs.

"Are you okay...?" Scootaloo hesitated, seeing him in such a state, shaken by all these sudden changes.

"No, little one..." he slowly answered. "For I had forgotten who I was..."

"Which is to say...?"

He put his hooves away from his head, revealing a tormented face to the filly. But he wasn't looking at her. His eyes were someplace else, along with his thoughts.

"I only have a few hours left, before I'll become a windigo as well... And I can't do anything about it..."

"How is it that you're only transforming into one now?"

"I beg your pardon...?" said the reindeer, slightly confused by her wording.

"All the others transformed, but not you," the pegasus pointed out. "Why?"

"Because I kept on giving despite their anger... When the tree was stolen, the day before Christmas, all of my people ceased their gifts. Even between themselves."

Rudolph painfully leaned on his forelegs again, getting himself to sit in the snow, his gaze still plunged in his own past.

"But it was Christmas. We had to do our round of the surrounding villages, to distribute our usual presents. Besides, it was my turn to proudly lead our sleigh to the other regions of the world."

The filly sat down in front of him, listening to what he had to say.

"But my people didn't want it... They demanded for the tree to be returned before anything else. And I... I thought that by giving, it would be given back to us. So, I gathered the gifts we had crafted before the other would destroy them, and I went for the delivery. Because for nothing in the world would I have missed this moment I had waited for during nine years... But the tree wasn't given back... Whoever was the robber, my gesture didn't touch them. My friends locked me in my home, to punish me. All year long, I tried to reason with them. All year long, they refused to listen to me. I couldn't give... I didn't want it anymore."

Rudolph's voice was slowly lowering as his story progressed. Scootaloo had trouble pinpointing what emotion he was feeling. Sorrow? Remorse? Coldness?

"When a year had gone by, when the day before Christmas arrived, they changed into windigos. I tried to get out of my home. To reason with them one last time. And the only answer I got was to be frozen. Until today."

"You just woke up?" the filly said in shock.

"This is why I still have a bit of time left... I was hoping I could fly south and give some of my belongings to someone. It would have prevented me from turning into a windigo too..."

The pegasus looked at him weird. Was it truly a problem? Could giving be that complicated?

"Why don't you offer me something then?"

"But what...?" the reindeer asked. "What could I give you...?"

Scootaloo arched an eyebrow.

"You have things in your sleigh, right? Or even snow could be enough, couldn't it? What matters is that you give something."

Rudolph's hooves tensed again. His teeth slowly unveiled themselves, as he was clenching them.

"A gift is only valuable if it is made out of the kindness of one's heart... I don't know how you proceed, but a forced present isn't a present... It is scorn, fear or pity..."

"That's what I was saying earlier," Scootaloo pointed out. "You need a true feeling. So giving your sleigh to someone wouldn't have helped you either way."

"No... But until I met you, I didn't have any other choice..."

The pegasus slowly gained back some confidence, going by his side. With an assured tone, she summed up:

"So, it's up to us to give you back that desire to give! To you and your kind!"

The great reindeer relaxed a bit, finding a semblance of peacefulness. But it was about the only thing he had found back.

"Maybe... I don't believe it much, little one..."

"Trust us!" said the filly, puffing out her chest.

"Mhh..."

"Well, I have to get back to work," she followed, returning to her hint of a pine tree made of snow. "Everything needs to be ready when the others arrive!"

As the pegasus was bringing her attention back onto her work, Apple Bloom finally managed to sufficiently clear the front side of Rudolph's house out, opening the door. Or, at least, she tried. The mechanism was frozen, surrounded by snow, which itself was frozen. Despite all the strength an earth pony her age could show, she wasn't able to make it move.

"Come on!" she begged, forcing her shoulder against the cold wood.

"Something's wrong?" suddenly asked a voice near her.

Once she landed back from her surprise-induced jump, the filly looked toward her friend. The unicorn was holding many little colorful and luminescent spheres, linked by a small cable.

"What are you doing here?"

"I come to hang decorations," Sweetie Belle answered. "Seeing as it's the first house you've shoveled the snow."

"But there's already a tinsel on this one," Apple Bloom noted, pointing at the frame of the door, indeed decorated.

The unicorn proceeded by exchanging it with her own tinsel, taking the other and examining it before replying:

"Yeah, but this one needs to be repaired. But then, what's your problem here?"

"I'm trying to get in the house, but the hinges are frozen."

Sweetie Belle looked at the tall door in front of them. From up close, the house really gave the impression to have been made by giants. Which wasn't surprising, seeing Rudolph's size.

After a short reflection, the small unicorn pushed on her magic, engulfing the edges of the door in it.

"Try to open it?" she said, staying focused.

Apple Bloom didn't need to hear it twice. After making sure the handle was turned, she slammed her shoulder against the door. It moved, a crack coming from her sides.

"It's working!" the earth pony said.

Taking a step back, she charged at the door once again. This time, it opened wide in the dull sound of ice breaking.

"Woooow!" Apple Bloom said, carried by her momentum in the cabin, her run ending on the floor after a meter or so.

Sweetie Belle calmly entered after her, looking around a bit, lighting the place as her filly friend was getting up.

"It's quite cozy here," the unicorn noted.

"It's as cold as outside!" Apple Bloom complained, as she was starting to freeze, attracting the uncertain gaze of her friend.

"What did you expect? It hasn't been warmed in centuries."

"I should have put on clothes..."

The two of them looked at the house. Everything was made out of wood, obviously. The entrance directly led into what was probably a living-room, judging by the decorations, the couch and the table.

"Now what? What were you coming here for?"

"Looking for tools! A shovel would be nice!"

"There must be a storehouse for that?" Sweetie Belle assumed. "If they live in the snow all the time."

"Surely. Can you light the way for me?"

"I don't have infinite magic. Here."

The unicorn laid a luminescent sphere in her hoof. It was shining dimly, but it was better than the pitch blackness of the night.

"I still have a lot to enchant," she continued. "I don't even know if I'll manage to do the second one entirely."

"Oh, don't worry Sweetie Belle, you'll do it," her friend reassured, looking at the sphere.

The unicorn filly went out while kindly saying to her friend:

"Thanks! Good luck!"

Leaving Apple Bloom alone in the darkness. The light was enough to brighten the walls, but not really much more. The sphere was also warming her hooves, slightly.

"Alright, time to look around!" she exclaimed, throwing herself into the house with enthusiasm.

Author's Note

So that's a bit more than hallfway through the whole thing, if you're wondering.