Chapter One: Gingerbread
It was already dark outside and the snow had shrouded Ponyville in white, almost resembling the whipped cream on a giant cake. In this white landscape there was a lonely shadow ploughing her path trough the snow. A pony who didn't like to think about cake at all, due to an unfortunate and embarrassing mishap some months earlier... Twilight Sparkle was herself shrouded in a thick, woollen coat that was a present from Rarity. She was on her way to Fluttershy's cottage with a basket of home baked gingerbread ponies to the shy pegasus.
When Twilight knocked on the door she was greeted by none other than Rainbow Dash. She wore pink, knitted hoofsocks with small kittens on them.
"Welcome, Twilight! I'm staying over at Shy's place this weekend. My cloud house is to cold this time of the year as I don't have a fireplace like her," Rainbow said.
"How fun!"
"Yeah, it's really nice of her to let med stay here. Yesterday I woke up with... Oh buck! Bucking hay!"
Rainbow Dash quickly discarded the hoofsocks and hid them in a basket with apples.
"Eh... he he... I... hm... Rarity forced them on me. I didn't want to make her disappointed so I just had to wear them for a while. But now she is gone, he he," she said, her cheeks slowly turning red. "They're totally not cool enough, I mean."
"Oh, was Rarity here earlier?" Twilight asked.
"Yes...no, maybe not earlier as in earlier today.. hm..."
Something yellow and pink appeared in the doorway behind the embarrassed Rainbow Dash.
"Um... Hello Twilight?"
Soon they were seated at Fluttershy's kitchen table and the yellow pegasus served them a cup of hot cocoa to go with the gingerbread ponies. With a loud crunch Rainbow bit the head of a unicorn. Fluttershy poked around in the basket after a piece of gingerbread that didn't resemble a pony that much. She apparently didn't like the thought of hurting a pony, even if it was made out of gingerbread.
"So, are you prepared for the new Midwinter's Night Celebration? Have you practiced your performances?" Twilight asked while stirring her cocoa. "This event is very important to princess Luna, as it is her version of the Summer Sun Celebration. This is the first time it takes place in a thousand years. Everything must be perfect."
"Relax, there's still plenty of time... The celebration is the day after tomorrow," Rainbow Dash said, devouring the rest of the unicorn.
"But you have to perform a very complicated stunt! Rainbow, this is serious!"
"Easy peasy..."
"All right... But you better not screw it up! The princess is counting on you. And how about you, Fluttershy? Have you completed the training of your animal choir?"
"Um... some of them have gone into hibernation... And some of the birds have migrated south... Maybe most of the birds. Oh, and Angel have a cold and needs plenty of sleep. But the rest of the animals are ready."
"And what animals are that?"
"Sally the skunk and Cluckelina the chicken."
"That's only two! We need to make it perfect! Princess Luna is coming and her last visit to Ponyville almost ended in disaster! We must not make her disappointed. The whole of Equestria will be watching us!"
"Oh, my!" said Fluttershy and dropped her piece of gingerbread into the cocoa.
Suddenly the ponies heard a knock on the door.
"Who cant that be?" said Fluttershy and rose from her chair to go and open the door.
When it swung ajar she saw a tall, dark shape cloaked in a hooded... cloak!
Fluttershy let out a frightened cry, ran across the room and threw herself under the bed! She immediately got her head stuck in an old chamber pot*. The sudden chock and loss of visibility made her retreat in panic from her hiding place, backing blindly into a small cupboard filled with porcelain figurines. They all fell over and shattered against the floor.
The embarrassed pegasus became stuck with her head in the chamber pot and her flank, along with its fake tail extensions, lodged in the cupboard. She very much resembled the crude caricature of a hermit crab.
When she had freed herself from this deadly trap, Fluttershy saw three ponies gathered around her in a circle.
"Art thou all right, dear Fluttershy?" a voice asked.
The voice belonged to princess Luna who obviously was the pony hiding under the cloak.
"Pr... princess Luna?"
"Yes, tis me. I come cloaked in disguise to your humble cottage, dear Fluttershy, to visit thou undetected by my subjects!"
"Um... but why in disguise, dear princess Luna?"
"I just said it! To be UNDETECTED AND DISCRETE!"
The booming voice made the curtains flutter in terror.
"Oh my"
"We need to make a great entrance on the eve of the Midwinter's Night, but we were growing impatient. So we decided to teleport ourselves Ponyville in an instant! We hope this was a good idea?"
Fluttershy discretely pushed the chamber pot back under the bed with the hoof of her hind leg.
"Um... yes! It was a great idea... dear... Luna... lunar princess!"
"And we remembered that this cottage belonged to dear Fluttershy, where we visited during last Nightmare Night."
"Oh."
After she had regained some of her calm, Fluttershy found herself back at the table, dipping a gingerbread pony in her cup of cocoa. Princess Luna and the others were eating their gingerbread too. The alicorn princess levitated a pegasus in front of her. She compared it to Rainbow Dash and found the resemblance convincing.
"Tis beautiful, dear Twilight Sparkle! We enjoy this. Have you made these?"
"Yes. Thank you, princess Luna!"
With a crunch Luna bit the head of gingerbread Rainbow Dash. The real one felt a shiver run down her spine.
"Now we have some more urgent matters to attend to," she said, still munching on Rainbow Dash. "How is the building of the great bonfire proceeding? And have you selected the one thousand ponies to be sacrificed?"
The three ponies in front of Luna fell silent with shock.
"Ha ha! We made a joke! Did you like it?"
* * *
And while they continued to drink their cocoa and enjoying their gingerbread, little did they know that a dark shadow was watching them from outside the cottage. It had stood there for a while, waiting and planning its next move. Slowly it turned around and left, carefully treading in Twilight's hoof steps not to leave any sign of its presence.