"I told you we should have climbed up!"

"How did ya want to climb!? There wasn't nothin' to get a grip on!"

"We could have gone up with our backs against one another. Just like in the last Daring Do!"

"Urh, stop with that!"

Apple Bloom let out a sigh of exasperation, as she kept on moving forward in the snow with great difficulty, Scootaloo in her trail.

They had taken quite some time to find a reachable exit in this cave, but they were once more in view of the village. Despite the surrounding blizzard, they could see the dancing lights of the decorations.

Dancing? The filly became a little suspicious. What if those glowing lights meant something else?

"Do you think Sweetie Belle is doing okay?" Scootaloo asked at the same time. "Did she have time to finish?"

"Ah don't know, I have a bad feeling about this."

The two of them arrived at the town's entrance and quickly understood that something wasn't right. In the air, the shrilling sound of windigos flying echoed, and the snow was only getting more intense. On the ground, the pine wasn't there anymore, the houses were starting to disappear once more under the white powder. But what made the fillies' blood curdle was the sight of their friend, encased in a large block of ice, in the middle.

"Sweetie Belle!" Scootaloo panicked, immediately galloping towards her.

A heavy projectile crashed in front of her, forcing her to stop. Comet arose from the snow lifted by the impact, menacingly hovering towards the filly.

"W-What did you do to her!?" the pegasus asked, still taking a few steps back, intimidated by the cold gaze of the creature.

"You'll know soon enough," a voice hissed in her ear.

She jumped, staring with fright at Cupid standing right behind her. She was trapped. Further away, Apple Bloom was also surrounded by Prancer and Blitzen.

"So this young insolent didn't come alone," Vixen noted with a laugh, looking down at them from high in the air.

It was cold. Extremely cold. The fillies felt in each moment their bodies growing ever so slightly more numb.

"No! Stop!" Apple Bloom pleaded, looking for a way out.

"You don't understand!" Scootaloo shouted in terror. "The pine is right here!"

"This poor imitation your friend attempted to make?" Prancer spit. "You dare compare it to our most precious artifact!? To Christmas!?"

"No!" Scootaloo said, as the freeze was starting to get a grip on her hooves, preventing her from running away. "Christmas is here!"

"Urh, is this one of those pony things again?" said the windigo with a disgusted face. "Christmas is in us all or something like that?"

"That won't work with us," Cupid mocked.

"It is truly here!" Apple Bloom desperately interrupted. "Under the village!"

The great white horses stopped, taken aback. Cupid and Blitzen exchanged a glance, before looking towards Donner, in the air, seeming as lost as they were.

"What are you waiting for!?" Vixen scolded. "Freeze them! And once Dasher is back, we will head south! To castigate all those selfish people! Those greedy!"

Cupid ignored the words of their "chief" and got closer to Scootaloo.

"What do you mean by that?"

"I-In a cave under the town," the pegasus painfully replied, shaking so much it was interfering with her speech.

"We think there's been a cavin' in..." Apple Bloom struggled. "And snow covered everythin'..."

"The tree was never stolen!"

Scootaloo's cry seemed to freeze the windigos in place, as the wind stopped. The creatures looked at each other with confusion. Only Vixen didn't seem affected by the news.

"You're letting yourself be fooled by their lies!" the windigos thundered.

"Shut it!" Blitzen ordered.

"Oh come on!" Vixen replied, infuriated. "We would have heard if it had collapsed under the village!"

"There was a huge blizzard that night," Donner pointed out. "It could have covered the sound, couldn't it?"

"J-Just go and check..." Scootaloo weakly said, as her eyes were starting to freeze behind her tears.

Prancer and Comet cast an eye over the center of the town. The remains of the snow tree were still standing, and the tinsels kept on melting them, even attacking the ground, for the ones who had fallen.

"How do we remove the snow to check?" Prancer asked. "Comet can't just bash himself into it."

"What do I know!?" Blitzen vociferated. "It's red-snoot's job to make heat, not mine!"

Despite the windigos not having some, Vixen clenched her teeth. All a bunch of incompetents...

"Let's ask him, then," Cupid suggested.

With a slow movement, the creature abandoned the cube of ice in which the small earth filly was now set, walking towards the crater where they had left Rudolph. He was still there, lying, unconscious.

"Hmm, that won't work."

A violent lightning bolt suddenly smashed the remains of the snow-made tree, attracting everyone's attention. Vixen was furious.

"You are even dumber than I thought...! To believe the lies of little thieves!"

But the windigo was once more ignored. In the middle of the impact, a little cloud of smoke was rising. Continuously. And the others couldn't help themselves but to watch. What could be burning to release this smoke?

Cupid went to see, searching for a few moments in the ground, before pulling out something with magic. The windigo turned around, brandishing a needle reddened by the heat. The others couldn't believe it. Was it possible? After all this time?

Sweetie Belle painfully opened her eyes. She felt like she just had the worst nap of her life. Akin to sleeping on an iron plate, while being constantly smashed against it. She was then surprised, to say the least, to make out the face of her friend, Apple Bloom, right in front of her.

"You'll be alright?" the earth filly worried.

"How many buffaloes stomped over me...?" the unicorn asked, holding her head.

Her friend smiled a bit.

"Not that many."

Sweetie Belle rubbed her face, before she looked around, the current situation coming back in her thoughts little by little. The windigos, the snow, the cold. She was about to panic, but what she saw stopped it. The blizzard had ceased and, in the center of the village, there was now an immense hole the creatures were gathered around. The unicorn felt that something wasn't right but that, weirdly, she didn't need to worry.

"What's going on...?" she asked, her eyes staying on the great white equines.

"We found the pine. Come and see."

Getting one leg under hers, Apple Bloom carried her friend up to the pit. Even if the unicorn threw a concerned eye at the windigos, she lowered her gaze to observe what was laying down there.

It was here. Slightly poking out of the middle, leaning on the side, the majestic tree of some twenty meters high was slowly getting exhumed from its secular snow prison. It wasn't very radiant, its branches folded towards the bottom by the weight of years worth of freezing. But it was far better preserved than one would expect from a pine buried for one thousand six hundred years.

"How...?" the filly began.

"A collapse," the earth filly explained. "There's a cave right under, the rock probably yielded under the weight."

"So... All this time, it was simply there?"

Sweetie Belle found that a bit easy for an explanation. Cliché, even, she was sure she had read stories where something similar happened.

"They had no indication," Scootaloo explained, getting to their level. "If we hadn't fallen into that cave, we would have never known either."

"And we'd probably be freezin' by now."

"Scoot!" Sweetie Belle rejoiced. "You're okay!"

She threw herself onto her friends for a hug, relieved. The pegasus returned her embrace with an amused smile.

"Yeah, sorry I got you worried."

A loud noise made the three fillies jump, while a red lightning violently hit the village. A husky scream coming from another realm made the accumulated snow on the mountains' sides shiver.

Rudolph jumped out of his crater, a collection of ethereal red veils swirling around him, as he rose in the air.

"Rudolph!?" Scootaloo shouted, since she hadn't seen him in that state yet.

"Oh no..."

Apple Bloom turned to the other windigos, panicked.

"You need to do somethin' for him!"

The creatures slowly looked away from the pine, turning their attention towards their enraged peer, with a... sad face?

"What can we do?" Vixen asked with calm regrets. "The tree has been found back, yet we are still in that form."

"His darkness comes from a different place than ours..." Cupid said. "We do not know how to stop it..."

Apple Bloom couldn't believe it. Were they desperate? To not turn back to reindeer after recovering their tree? The filly had expected to see many things on that night, but certainly not windigos feeling depressed. But maybe it was better than to see them angry.

"Yer gonna stay like this and w-"

A rumble of thunder cut the filly mid-sentence, as Rudolph glared at the creatures down below, infuriated.

"Rudolph, stop!"

Sweetie Belle hurried towards him, even if he was levitating a few meters in the air. The unicorn pleaded:

"The pine tree has been found! There's no point in getting angry anymore!"

"But they are still there!" the red windigo vociferated, pointing an accusatory hoof at its ashen congeners. "They haven't paid for what they stole from me!"

"But you won't get anywhere by becoming like them!"

Apple Bloom looked at the creatures, begging:

"Y'all have to apologize! Please!"

"I don't see why we would do that," Blitzen grumbled.

"We didn't do anything."

Prancer's answer got the filly angry. They had not lost their bad temper one bit, even after all of this!

"It's you who-"

She was interrupted again, this time by someone clearing their throat. With incomprehension, she turned to Scootaloo, wondering what she wanted in such a critical moment.

"If I may," the pegasus began, standing next to the sleigh. "Rudolph?"

The ruby colored creature directed its gaze towards her, electricity sparkling around its ethereal veil. The pegasus was shaking inside, but tried to appear confident, staring at the entity, trying to discern the eyes of the reindeer that had brought them here.

"They won't bother you anymore for the gifts distribution," she calmly said, still pushing her voice loud enough to cover the wind.

The thing's eyes showed surprise upon hearing those words. It looked like they could still reach it.

"You'll be able to go for it," Scootaloo followed. "We can even help you craft some presents."

The pegasus clenched her hooves on the snow slightly, even if she could barely feel them. She continued.

"But for that, you need to turn back into who you were."

"You have to give something," Sweetie Belle carefully suggested. "It is in your nature, right?"

The windigo growled, a sound like one of a storm.

"What could I ever give to those things!? To them, who took so much away from me, and don't want anything except the death of the world!"

"A second chance," Scootaloo simply replied, with conviction.

The growl ceased, as the other windigos raised their heads towards Rudolph. A semblance of peace settled in the valley, all awaiting the answer.

"But they won't change..." the red creature mumbled.

"They're already changing," Sweetie Belle countered, making a broad gesture with her hoof towards the patiently waiting windigos. "Please, Rudolph."

Silence. The dark-red eyed being took in a slow breath, then let it all out in a long sigh, getting back to the ground. The fillies got closer, to encourage him to say it.

"I... agree to give them a second chance."

The Cutie Mark Crusaders gave the reindeer a gentle and encouraging smile. Even if, internally, they all let out a deep sigh of relief.

A little whistle was heard and a fissure appeared on Rudolph's torso. After a dry sound of ice cracking, a flash of light temporarily blinded the scene. When they opened their eyes again, all the equines present saw the reindeer, turned back normal.

"Yes!" Apple Bloom exulted.

"It worked..." Rudolph assessed, despite not believing in it before, looking at his hoof.

"So it is possible!" said Scootaloo, turning back to the other windigos.

They were stunned. Well, as much as their faces allowed them to express such emotions. But their gazes were clear: a glimmer of hope had just seen birth inside them.

"Did you see?" the pegasus said, moving towards them. "You just have to agree to give once again. And things will only improve."

Sweetie Belle joined her, adding:

"Find back the generosity inside you... The one you've repressed for so long."

"You sound like an add for Iron Will's lesson," her friend discreetly pointed out in a whisper.

The unicorn rolled her eyes.

"But what can we give...?" Vixen asked.

The three fillies looked at each other.

"Er..." Scootaloo hesitated. "Just give us a sec!"

They grouped up in a circle, talking in low-voice.

"We need something they can do right now," Scootaloo said.

"Leavin' us alive and not freezin' Equestria doesn't sound that bad as a gift, doesn't it?" Apple Bloom suggested.

"It won't be enough," Sweetie Belle said. "Maybe something that would involve their magic?"

The pegasus evaluated the proposition of her friend. But that wasn't really her department, so she asked:

"Do you have an idea? You know better than us what they could or couldn't do."

"I don't think they can create a gift from nothing," the unicorn replied, worried. "And with the state they're in, we should avoid advanced magic."

"Can a windigo do somethin' other than blizzard at least?" Apple Bloom asked.

The two other fillies thought about it. It's true they should at least consider this as their starting point if they were to ask anything.

"Anything that is connected to ice, cold and the north," replied a voice right above their heads.

Rudolph looked at their surprised faces with a little amused smile, following before they could even talk:

"I owe you some thanks, but they will be for later. You need to find something they could give to you."

"If they can manipulate ice, we could ask for a great castle," Sweetie Belle suggested.

"No," the reindeer immediately contradicted. "It needs to be something that demands effort, that demands courage to their heart, but that also does good to it."

"Could you elaborate a bit?" Apple Bloom said, arching an eyebrow.

"Imagine confessing to your best friend that you lied to them, even though nothing forces you to do so, and you're doing it simply because they asked you."

The farmer exchanged a gaze with her friends. They seemed to have understood as well. It wasn't going to be that simple.

"Is this why it worked with you?" Scootaloo asked, even if she knew the answer.

"Yes. Giving them a second chance, even though they took so much away from me... But they are still my friends. It was the right thing to do. It is what I wanted, deep down."

The little mares went back to their thoughts. They had to find something like that.

"Well, then, not freezing Equestria ain't that bad?"

"You can't ask it like that," Sweetie Belle said, rubbing her chin.

"I know!" Scootaloo exclaimed, getting out of the little circle and walking to the windigos.

"Hum, you're sure?" the unicorn hesitated, fearing her friend might do something reckless.

"Trust me!"

Sweetie Belle winced. Last time she had said that, her plan was to make a snow pine tree. But, after all, it had worked. More or less.

Scootaloo went in front of the patiently waiting creatures. The events had calmed them down, but for how long?

The pegasus cleared her throat, before pronouncing:

"Your anger once led you to wishing for the destruction of the world. And for ponies, it almost signified the end of our existence. But in the end, it allowed for the creation of Equestria and harmony."

"Ah think you could get to the point," Apple Bloom whispered.

"You distributed gifts for many years," Scootaloo continued. "Could you do it once more this year, and give a present to Equestria?"

"Didn't we say it was impossible?" Sweetie Belle said to the earth filly in a low voice.

"She must have an idea..."

Cupid observed the small pegasus with a strange melancholia, asking slowly:

"What gift would you want us to make in so little time...? The day has almost passed..."

Scootaloo stared at the creature in the eyes, confident but not insolent.

"Show Equestria the aurora borealis... Show them that the north doesn't just bring the cold. I won't ask you to show yourself, or even to wake up the inhabitants. But if you're feeling remorse for what you've done... it would be a great way to apologize. And a great gift for Rudolph."

"The what?" Sweetie Belle asked in a whisper, looking at her neighbor, who didn't have the slightest idea what their friend was referring to.

The windigos, on their end, seemed a little more intrigued by the idea. Despite their impassive face, the pegasus felt a little discomfort in them. Had she said something wrong?

Rudolph went to Vixen and whispered something in her ear. The white creature turned a slightly surprised face towards him, to which the reindeer replied by a simple, light but sincere smile.

"So be it," Vixen said, slowly taking altitude. "Even if it doesn't turn us back into who we were, we can't refuse that to the ones who gave us Christmas back."

"Before that," Rudolph nonetheless interrupted. "Do you know where Dancer is? She still hasn't arrived."

"Dancer?" Vixen said with surprise, looking at one of her peers. "Blitzen, when was the last time you saw her?"

"I don't know, one thousand five hundred and thirty years ago, I think? She left one day, but not for the south."

"I see..." Rudolph sighed. "So she probably won't come. Let's leave without her, then."

"Do you have more sleigh?" Scootaloo asked. "We won't make it in time otherwise."

Sweetie Belle's eyes went wide, suddenly scared.

"Twilight is going to scold us if we're not back before morning..."

"Don't worry," Cupid reassured. "We can all harness ourselves on it at the same time."

"Then there's no time to lose!" Scootaloo said. "We have a blizzard to clear and reindeer to transform back!"

The fillies set forth towards the sleigh, joined by many of the creatures. Rudolph looked at them with a smile.

Vixen landed by his side, staring in the same direction as him, seeing ponies and windigos helping each other.

"Where did you find such fawns? Ponies have never been kind-hearted, especially during winter."

"The times have changed," the reindeer answered with a little smile. "And I think they say foals for their young. I found them by chance, and I don't know how they managed to make me come back here. But I think there's hope coming out of them..."

The two watched in silence, as the windigos were busy clearing the sky from its big dark clouds.

"I'm sorry for Dancer..." Vixen said. "I know she was the one you were getting along best with."

"If she left but no legends talk about her, then she found some form of peace."

"Maybe..." Vixen let out in a little strident sound.

A ringing went to everyone's ear. The sound of delicate metal rolling, attracting attention.

Scootaloo was very much interested by Sweetie Belle explaining she had hung the jingle bells to the reins to add a little touch of decoration on the sleigh. Apple Bloom waived at them from the seat to invite them to hop in.

The windigos hitched themselves to the sleigh, with the help of the reins present in the strange packets the fillies had seen in the back. The three of them took place.

"In the end, it ain't that bad," Apple Bloom concluded, happy that things seemed to get better.

"Oh yes, I have been frozen, we almost lost Equestria and Rudolph, but honestly, it was quite a peaceful evening," Sweetie Belle ironically said.

"Hey, we still helped to save a whole town. And we're still alive, not even hurt."

On their end, the creatures were trying to agree on the steps to take.

"Not too fast, Dasher," Blitzen mumbled. "Otherwise, y-"

"Blitz..." Cupid let out in a surprisingly cold tone, even for a windigo.

The creature scowled with a grumble, as Vixen was taking the lead of the cortege, declaring:

"I set the pace, that way we know no one will be left behind."

"It's true that, without Dancer, you're the slowest of the bunch," Prancer mocked a bit.

"Do we really have to bring him with us?" Comet sighed.

"No discussion!" Rudolph thundered. "I remind you that we're trying to thank the ones who brought back Christmas, so show a bit of manners!"

"Mm, yeah..." Prancer growled.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders looked at them with a bit of unexpected surprise.

"In the end, they're not that different from us..." Apple Bloom whispered, as she hadn't thought she would see them bicker around.

"Are you ready, in the back?" Vixen asked, turning her head towards them.

"Reading!" they all said in unison, grabbing onto the sleigh, not wanting to be thrown out once more.

"Then, onward!"

It was always a cozy feeling, for Twilight, to be snuggled in her bed sheets, as the snow was calmly falling on her window. Knowing that she was in the warm, while outside was cold, gave her a nice sensation. Even in her sleep.

But a strange noise pulled her out of her dream. A ringing, high-pitched, that she didn't recognize right away. The sound was muffled and a little bit far away, but enough to wake her up.

After a bit of doubt, her mind clouded, she noticed the noise was coming from outside. Very little odds of it being the work of the three little devils she was keeping, then. But her snow-covered window didn't allow her to see what it was. And that sound wasn't stopping. A metallic swinging, regular, plentiful.

Her curiosity got the best of her and she stood up, without a noise, climbing down to the door of her library.

As soon as it was opened, she stopped from sheer surprise. Ponyville was covered in snow, yes, but was displaying unusual blueish and greenish reflections. Raising her eyes, the unicorn saw that, in the sky, great glimmers were dancing in curves, bathing the surroundings with their colored hues. Too astonished by this unknown but magnificent vision, she didn't notice the little hooves disappearing by the window on the second floor.

Once inside, the Cutie Mark Crusaders turned back to the sky, right at the same moment when Twilight caught a glimpse of the origin of that peculiar noise. In front of the moon, a long form passed. A great sleigh, pulled by eight strange equine figures. Seven of them possessed a white light on the muzzle, and the eight one, right in the middle, had a red one.

The three fillies made great gestures with their hooves, as a goodbye. The reindeer still had many places to visit in Equestria and in the world, now that they had come back to their senses. Their form had returned as soon as they had flown above Ponyville.

"Is everything in place?" Vixen asked, laughing.

"At your command!" Comet joyfully shouted, already focusing his magic in his antlers.

"Come on!" Vixen threw.

In concert, the eight pairs of horns illuminated, the eight heads rose, eight magical beams left.

Seven went to the sky, firstly exploding quietly, in the middle of the few clouds present. The blow completely cleared the sky, leaving the aurora even more visible. But if white snowflakes stopped falling, the snow itself didn't cease. Small glimmers, light-green, yellow and blue, began to slowly descend towards Ponyville, forming a thin shiny layer.

Ponies were starting to get out of their homes, wondering what was happening. And they didn't need to go further than their doorsteps, stunned by the spectacle unveiling before their eyes. Few noticed the red beam heading for the forest, nor the brief illumination that followed.

Many thought they saw shadows go by the moon, but they couldn't distinguish their precise shapes.

The reindeer had powerful laughs of joy, of liberation. And as Equestria was getting flooded by light on that winter night, without knowing why, the world remained unaware that this vision meant the disappearance of a threat which had always been looming. And all of that, thanks to three fillies.

Maybe they would try to explain, in the morning, what had happened to the others. But, without any proof, who would believe them?

In any case, it was something they didn't have the strength to think about for now. Weariness suddenly managed to catch them, and they all fell asleep untidily on their bed. Without knowing that one last gift was awaiting them, in the forest, right in the spot where they had met Rudolph.

A little engraving on a stele made of ice, in the form of a sleigh, where one could read "To the three fillies who managed to restore our generosity, and saved Christmas."

Author's Note

It's too long.
But I still love it. Heard writing Christmas episode was sometimes the low-point of a writing career, and while it was true for me if I look at the state I was in during the 6 years needed for this one-shot to come out, it has nothing to do with that story. It is a great story, maybe just poorly written, and that's on me, not on the story.
Either way, thanks for reading.