A rather strong heatwave had hit Ponyville one summer morning, the strongest one in decades and everypony was feeling the heat. Fluttershy's cottage was no exception and although the draconequi of the household could tolerate the heat as they can regulate their body temperature to ignore extreme temperature changes, the pegasi had no such advantage and were suffering as a result.
Fluttershy was panting and sweating as she tried to make some lunch for the girls. She tried fanning herself with her wing, but it brought little relief. I don't think I've experienced a heatwave this bad before.
A moan made her turn her head. Wildflower came walking into the kitchen. She wasn't faring any better than Fluttershy herself, wings limp at her sides as she panted with her tongue out.
"Ah, why is it so hot?!" she moaned. Fluttershy shrugged.
"Rainbow said something about a miscommunication at the weather factory or something. I don't know. I'm too hot to really remember. Ugh, this is horrible."
Wildflower nodded, "Yeah. Why aren't Discord and Raven boiling like us? I mean, I know they can tolerate weather better, but why is half of our family able to tough it out while we have to suffer?!"
Just then, Discord and Raven teleported into the kitchen. Unlike the other two, they looked fine. Almost as if there was no heatwave at all. Discord frowned when he saw his family sweating and miserable from the heat.
"You two okay?" He asked.
Wildflower rolled her multi-colored eyes. "No." She said flatly.
"We...aren't doing too great, but I think we'll be fine." Fluttershy said to try and make him feel better. "I've delt with heatwaves before I met you, honey. Granted, none this bad, but I can manage it."
Discord frowned further as he looked around. Angel, Chilli and Ginger were all huddled in a corner, with numerous ice packs and fans to keep them cool and they were still too hot. He felt bad that he and Raven couldn't feel the heat when the rest of his family he loved dearly could feel it and were in agony. He was the Master of Chaos so what could he do to help the ponies he cares the most about in his life?
His tail feathers turned into a lightbulb as he thought of a way to keep them cool.
"I have an idea to help us escape this heat." His girls turned their heads toward him as he snapped his paw. Just then, it started snowing outside, in the summer, without melting!
"Oh, and don't worry about the others in town, my dear." He reassured, "I sent a cool breeze their way so they get some relief. And I put a cooling spell on the house for the animals. But, I thought the girls might like playing in the snow to escape the heat."
Though Fluttershy wasn't completely happy with him messing with the laws of nature like this just for them, she admitted that some relief from the heat would be nice. Besides, it was nice of him to send Ponyville a cool breeze to help the others in town out so they won't suffer while they have wintery fun in summer.
Discord opened the back door and they walked out in outfits Discord put on them, Fluttershy in a light purple sweater and wool hat, as well as darker violet booties and scarf, Wildflower in a dark cerulean sweater and wool hat with royal blue scarf and booties and Discord and Raven just wearing red scarves. While they didn't need them, having something on helped ease Fluttershy's minimum concerns, even though she knew better.
It was a bit of a shock for even the draconequi to go from extreme heat to a cold winter. But once they got use to it, it was a wonderful change.
Wildflower stuck out her tongue to catch a snowflake. She succeeded and smacked her lips trying to taste it.
"Aw, I was hoping dad made special tasting snow." She complained.
Raven stared wide eyed at the dripping icicles forming on their house. They weren't normal icicles, as they were shaped more like a quartz crystal than a naturally forming icicle and they were beautiful.
Fluttershy walked up to her husband, flew up and kissed him on the cheek. "I'm not sure I completely approve, but thank you."
Discord smiled at his wife and kissed her cute little button nose, making her giggle.
Something cold and wet hit Discord on the side of the head making Fluttershy gasp. He shook his head and turns to sees Wildflower flying with numerous snowballs in her hooves with a gleam in her eyes.
Discord grew a smirk, "Ah, I see how it is, is it?"
Wildflower smirked back and threw another. This time, Discord was prepared, making his head disappear as the ball came to him. It flew past and hit a tree. He grew his head back and levitated a bunch of snowballs himself.
And the war began.
Fluttershy sat in the snow and watched her two troublemakers play with each other. Wildflower and Discord weren't too close, but they had loads of fun together regardless. She heard feet coming closer in the snow and turned, smiling when she saw her daughter Raven walking towards her. Raven smiled and sat in the snow with her.
Raven put her pegasus wing around her mother to make her a little warmer. Fluttershy smiled in appreciation and turned to watch Discord and Wildflower enjoy their little game.
After their game, Discord snapped up a frozen lake for them to skate on. Wildflower declined, instead sitting on the bank while Discord and Fluttershy skated together and Raven skated on her hind legs. Fluttershy separated from Discord to check on Wildflower. She did a little twirl before she stopped in front of her daughter.
"You doing okay?" She asked. "Are you sure you don't want to skate with us? Its' loads of fun."
"I'm fine mom, really." Wildflower said, hoping to get her to go away. Fluttershy wasn't convinced that she was fine. Something seemed off about her, so she tried to make sure she was happy.
"You sure?" Wildflower groaned. Why won't her mother leave her be?
"Really, I'm fine. Go skate with dad like the cutesy couple you two are." Fluttershy frowned.
"I just thought you shouldn't be left out if we're having fun but you aren't." Fluttershy pointed over to the others. Raven did a perfect figure eight while Discord spun around before leaning on one stake and numerous clones of his formed a cheering squad for them. Fluttershy smiled before turning to her eldest daughter.
"I keep telling you, I'm fine! Jeez, will you stop be a smothering mother for five seconds and realize I don't want do the one winter activity I can't even do?!" She screamed before covering her mouth with her hoof, having said the thing she didn't want to say. Fluttershy's eyebrows raised above her head.
"You don't know how to stake?" Wildflower looked away.
"Aw, don't be embarrassed, sweetie. It's nothing to be ashamed of. Here, I'll help you."
Fluttershy put on some ice skates on her, despite Wildflower's protests that she didn't want to learn how to skate. Fluttershy could tell her daughter was unhappy on not being able to skate. Once they were on, Fluttershy used her wing to support her as they moved into the ice.
"Alright, its not too hard. Just follow my lead, okay?" She said in a comforting voice. Wildflower gulped before looking down at her shaky legs.
It was so bizarre for Fluttershy to see her normally confident daughter look so nervous and frightened over something as trivial as ice skating. It reminded her of herself when she was a filly and learned to skate with her mother. She was so nervous about falling and breaking her wings on the ice or something. But soon, she was even better at skating than her mom was back in her youth. And now, she wanted to help her oldest daughter.
"Okay, so here's what we do. Just glide two hooves at a time. So, try starting with your front right leg and back left leg than the others. To speed up, keep your legs parallel to each other and to slow down or stop, point your hooves inwards. I'll keep a hold onto you so you don't fall to start with, okay?" Fluttershy instructed. Wildflower nodded nervously. It took her a minute, but after following Fluttershy's advice, Wildflower was skating. She barely even remembered that her mother was holding her, so when Fluttershy suggested she let go, Wildflower became a nervous wreck again.
"It's fine, honey." She reassured, "I'll still be nearby to catch you, but I can't hold you the whole way. You gotta learn to do it on your own." Wildflower took deep breaths before closing her eyes and nodding and her mother let go. She muttered Fluttershy's advice before realizing she wasn't falling. She opened her eyes and saw she was staking.
"I-I'm skating. Hey, mom, I'm staking! WOOHOO! She yelled in enthusiasm. Fluttershy smiled warmly at her daughter as she glided across the ice.
Her daughter went past her, yelling, "Catch me if you can, you old mare!" Fluttershy laughed and skated after her.
After the staking, they decided to make snow sculptures. Discord made a life size replica of the Castle of the Two Sisters in the Everfree Forest when it was in its prime, all from memory. He remembered messing with Celestia and Luna in the castle numerous times before he took over Equestria and was turned to stone. He even made life size replicas of Celestia and Luna themselves, standing just outside the castle. He made their names flow like on the real ponies and he carved their cutie marks with pinpoint accuracy.
Fluttershy did a much simpler one, two little bunnies holding paws that looked exactly like Angel and his mate who lived at the sanctuary with their many kids and grandkids, Coco, complete with her bent right ear.
Wildflower tried to make Zapp, her personal favorite Power Pony. It was a little lopsided and she was sure she messed up the signature necklace, but she didn't think it was horrible.
Raven made a life sized version of the Squizard from Ogres & Oubliettes and his skeleton army. When Discord saw, he helped her make their characters, Captain Wuzz and Lady Melody, depicting them fighting off the evil baddies.
After the snow sculpting, Discord made some sleds for them to go down a hill. Fluttershy politely declined, it not being her thing. Wildflower, however, started pushing her mother towards her sled.
"If I have to join in ice skating, you're gonna join me going down this hill." Fluttershy playfully rolled her eyes before going along with it. Discord chuckled at them before turning to Raven, who sat there in the snow.
"Guess we'll go down together, eh?" Raven looked down nervously. Discord looked sympathetically towards his daughter. He kneeled down to at more eye level to her.
"What's wrong, princess?" He asked.
"I'm scared, daddy. I don't think I'm going to like sledding." Discord grabbed her paw and claw with his own, making her look up to his red and yellow eyes and sincere smile.
"You don't have to do it, pumpkin." He comforted, "I just thought it'd be fun if we tried. How about we do one slide and if you don't like it, I won't have you do anymore? I would never force you to do something you don't want to do."
It probably would amaze some ponies how good a dad Discord can be. Heck, Discord himself was skeptical about him being a good dad both times Fluttershy was pregnant. But once he started getting into the swing of it, he found out not only was he a good dad, he loved being one. His kids and wife were his entire world and he'd give up just about everything just to make them happy.
Raven nodded and he smiled. He led her to the sled and helped her on. Raven stretched her neck out to see how far down it was. It wasn't too far, but she didn't like it either way. She soon felt her daddy wrap his tail around her waist. Her neck went back to normal length as she looked up and saw her daddy give her a supportive smile. She smiled back and the two of them headed down.
At first, she was screaming in fear as her mane whipped in the wind. When she opened her eyes, though, she realized she kinda liked it and soon screamed in joy and laughed as they headed down. The sled reached the bottom in no time and the two of them jumped off.
"Um, daddy. Can we...go again? That was fun." She asked.
Discord looked slightly in surprise before giving a grin. "Of course, princess."
The whole afternoon was spent in the snow before Rainbow Dash came over and told them they fixed the issue and the weather should be back to normal summer weather this evening. She briefly reprimanded Discord for making snow in summer, but eased up on him when she heard of the cool breeze being his doing.
After saying bye to Rainbow, Discord was about ready to clean up when a rouge snowball hit Fluttershy in the head. She turned and saw Wildflower, who was trying to aim for Discord, pretending to look innocent. Fluttershy soon had a gleam in her eyes as she smirked and gathered up some snowballs and put them in her tail. She flew up and launched them with her tail towards her daughter. Wildflower got pelted and landed on her back in the snow.
Discord and Raven were laughing loudly and Fluttershy herself was giggling as she flew above her. Wildflower's red-and-teal eyes opened through the snow and looked towards her mom.
"Can you teach me how to do that?" She asked. And everyone laughed even louder.
Soon, the snow was cleared and they went inside. The cooling spell was still active, so they took advantage of it and made some hot cocoa. Raven and Wildflower rested on the rug having sisterly cuddles sipping their mugs, while Discord and Fluttershy were on the couch, wrapped in a blanket as she lightly dozed on his shoulder.
It was the best snow day ever, even if it was still summer.