//------------------------------//
// Snowflakes and Surprises 
// Story: In the Clouds 
// by Thought Prism 
//------------------------------//

	A few days later, and Tamiyo had pretty much gotten acclimated to life on Equestria. It was quite quiet, really, which was nice. Currently, she and Twilight were sharing a pot of tea in her living room by the fire, each reading a book. Much to Tamiyo's amusement, it seemed Twilight also couldn't bear to read something new without taking records, and both of their scrolls sat on the table between the plush chairs in which they sat. The more she spent time with her, the more she realized that Twilight was her kindred spirit in many respects.

The occasional glance away from her borrowed copy of The Crystal Empire: Past and Present afforded Tamiyo an interesting point of comparison, however. Twilight's style of note-taking seemed to be far more concise than her own, but she was covering practically everything within her tome, as opposed to full transcriptions of the most notable passages.

Time flew by as the vivid descriptions of sharp towers and joyous celebrations leapt off of the page to form themselves anew in her mind. But just as she was about to ask Twilight if Spike truly had been 'brave and glorious' during their shared quest, the door slammed open with a harsh, echoing crash.

A mare with a mane that surely couldn't be naturally colored was flying over to them, sweating from stress. They had never met, but Tamiyo inferred that this must have been Rainbow Dash.

Twilight snapped her book shut and pouted up at her. She took a deep breath. "Rainbow, this had better be important. Tamiyo and I were in the middle of study buddy time!"

Rainbow nodded frantically. "Of course it is! You see, umm..." She rubbed the back of her head with a hoof sheepishly. "Do you remember what happened last year just as winter was scheduled to start?"

Twilight's eyes narrowed. "Yeees?"

"Well... as I kinda-sorta completely destroyed the weather factory, Ponyville's weather team won't be getting any snowclouds this year. Or any of them after that for a while." She preemptively cringed away.

Twilight sighed in relief. "Oh, is that all? No snow for winter? We'll be perfectly fi—THIS IS A DISASTER!" The alicorn immediately began hyperventilating. Dash slowly backed away.

Then Twilight leapt up and started pacing in circles. "I can probably get the proper forms filled for a royal pardon for you and get the clouds back but I'm already so busy and even when I get them done they won't be filed in time for this winter and then everypony will be so disappointed that—"

"Twilight!" Tamiyo exclaimed. "Please, calm down. It's not the end of the world." Tamiyo would know.

She stopped, turning to her. "You're right, Tamiyo. We can fix this somehow."

"Look, for what it's worth, I'm really sorry," said Rainbow. "I'd totally help if I could."

"I know you would, Dash," said Twilight. She paused, and then the spark of an idea flashed across her features. "Actually, you can help."

"How?"

Twilight was already trotting out of the room. "By helping me find a spellbook that can teach me to conjure clouds."

Rainbow opened her mouth as if to object, but instead ended up groaning. "Ok..." She flapped off after her.

Tamiyo followed as well, her body moving on its own without real input. Twilight's idea reminded her of the fact that she actually already knew a spell that could make snow. But she wasn't sure she could blanket an entire town by herself. Moreover, the last time she had used it was to combat Avacyn.

She had not been eager to fight that night, but that naïve Jace had insisted. The mad archangel's face was still almost visible every time Tamiyo closed her eyes. Such a holy being, plagued by the same force... she understood Avacyn now, and that made it seem worse. Especially when the vampire had disintegrated her before their very eyes, her last scream of rage lingering in the still air of the cathedral.

Would it really be that bad to help Twilight now, though, to get involved again? This was a much less dire problem, but it was one with a known cause, and the mare in question would work to fix her error. It wasn't Tamiyo's responsibility, nor was it her fault that the weather wasn't automatic here. Yes, it would be better to leave the problem in the hands - er, hooves - of the ponies.

They were in the library now, Tamiyo suddenly noticed. Twilight and Dash were starting to comb through the books in the Magic section at a rapid pace. There was no reason she couldn't aid in their search, she realized, and went to grab some volumes. Tamiyo skimmed the indices of random spellbooks for anything related to weather. There wasn't much.

"Twi, I'm coming up empty," said Rainbow.

She groaned, smacking her face against one of the books hovering around her horn. "Me too. I was hoping to find something, but pegasi have dealt with the weather for over a millennium. I didn't expect much to begin with. There wouldn't ever be a need for a unicorn to invent any weather spells."

Dash's wings sagged. "Can't you make one?"

Twilight shook her head. "I've never been the creative type."

"Horsefeathers! What are we gonna do, then?" Dash wailed.

"That's," started Twilight, "umm..."

Rainbow stomped her hooves. "Even if everypony forgives me, they shouldn't have to miss out on snow because of me!"

Tamiyo's instincts screamed for her to go and console Rainbow, but she held herself back. Still, she couldn't bear seeing both of them this stressed over such a relatively minor problem any longer. She steeled herself. Surely if she meant well, everything would work out, right?

"Actually... I know a spell that can make snow," said Tamiyo gently.

Both Rainbow and Twilight turned to face her, eyes widening. 

"Really?" Twilight exclaimed.

"That's great! Why didn't you say so earlier?" Rainbow asked. 

"I'm sure she has her reasons," said Twilight, carefully.

"Oh, whatever," Rainbow said. Hooves outstretched, she lunged over to Tamiyo.

Tamiyo sidestepped out of the way, and Rainbow's attempted glomp met with the ground instead. "Sorry," Tamiyo said. "I would prefer to keep my personal space right now."

Rainbow stood, brushing her coat back into place. "It's cool." She smiled wide and jumped back into the air. "Just be ready to whip up some white stuff all over everypony tomorrow!" With that, she sped off, back to who-knows-where.

"Phrasing!" Twilight shouted after her. When Dash failed to reply, she shook her head.

Now, it was just her and Twilight. Tamiyo averted her eyes for a moment. "Thanks. For covering for me."

She just smiled. "What are friends for, Tamiyo? Besides, I've already drafted a whole list of questions to ask you later! What's a few dozen more?"

They stared at eachother for a minute, then burst into a fit of giggles.


*  *  *


Tamiyo stood with Twilight and Rainbow out on the castle balcony overlooking Ponyville, a chill breeze ruffling her clothes. The view was quite stunning, but would look even better with snow shrouding the earth. For that, she needed to concentrate. Rainbow's impatient hoof-tapping wasn't making it any easier.

"Are you ready?" asked Twilight, quill and scroll in her aura.

Tamiyo nodded in reply, then faced away, up into the heavens. She closed her eyes, pressed her hands together, and remembered. The grand, white vistas of Oboro, the mists which danced around her home in Otawara, every rock and waterfall from her homeland, all of them lent her their power. For a spell of this magnitude, she would need that much mana and more.

Her body shaking from the barely-contained energy, Tamiyo began to direct it. The words of Winter's Howl welled up from her heart and mind, almost as if the spell wished to make its impact on the world. It wanted to unleash itself at once, as a blast of supreme ice to freeze all in its wake, but Tamiyo spun the magic into a different form, one of volume instead of force.

Once the energy left her body, Tamiyo collapsed, and then forced her eyes back open. A huge storm cloud was hovering above, already producing snow.

"Are you alright?" asked Twilight, already at her side.

Tamiyo forced out an affirmative "Mhmm."

"That was awesome!" exclaimed Dash. "Rest up, girl, I'll take it from here." She smirked, then shot off like a prismatic arrow, breaking off pieces of the cloud with her hooves and beginning to ferry them all over town.

Tamiyo was so totally drained that she almost didn't notice Twilight waving her tail. "Come on, Tamiyo. There's something else I think you'd like to do today."

Slowly rising to her feet, Tamiyo shambled behind her down the stairs. She really needed a pick-me-up cup of tea right about now, or her own story might end in a most embarrassing manner.

"That illusion spell you have is quite something," said Twilight. "If it wasn't for the unique magical signature I was picking up, I really would have believed I was watching a powerful unicorn mage!"

"Mhmm."

Tamiyo couldn't see it, but she suspected Twilight was rolling her eyes. "I know, you're exhausted. I've been there. You try carrying a Ursa Minor halfway across town without alicorn magic. Seriously, that was—" she stopped herself. "Oh, we're here."

She turned the corner after Twilight, and was immediately assaulted by screams of "SURPRISE!"

Tamiyo nearly tripped from the shock. Standing in front of her were Spike, Starlight, and four other mares. Behind them, there were tables laden with food set up, along with multicolored balloons. A large banner hung overhead proclaimed 'Thanks for saving winter! Also, welcome to Ponyville!'

Once Tamiyo's ears had stopped ringing, she actually managed to process the fact that this was a party, and one for her at that. She shook her head. "You didn't have to do this."

The pink mare's jaw dropped. "Uh-huh, yeah we did! Twilight said she'd made a new friend, so of course I had to throw you a welcome bash! But then she told me you were shy, and I had to cancel it. But then Dashie said you were being a huge help, so I figured just a teensy-weensy one would be fine. So, here we are!" 

"Yeah, what Pinkie said," added Spike.

Tamiyo sighed, and smiled. It would be too rude to just leave with no explanation. And she had nothing better to do. "Oh, all right."

The party was quite fun, Tamiyo admitted to herself later. First, she had been introduced to the other Element Bearers, each of whom matched their descriptions. They were all so different, and yet clearly shared special bonds. Spending time with lot of them at once was somehow both exhilarating and draining at the same time, especially once Rainbow returned from her weather duties. Even Starlight and Fluttershy, who both kept their distance, relatively speaking, were clearly close to everyone.

As it turned out, Rarity had heard about what she had done for her shop and slipped her some gems, not taking no for an answer. At the same time, Pinkie had provided her with a much more welcome gift: homemade green tea flavored sweet buns. Upon tasting them for the first time, Tamiyo had immediately proclaimed waffles to be inadequate and stuffed her face, producing a chorus of laughter.

By the time it was over, Tamiyo had barely thought the party had even gotten started. There hadn't even been any liquor! Ravnicans did always say that time flew by when you were having fun, but she hadn't truly understood what they meant until then. This type of unbridled joy, not motherly or scholarly... it was like a whole new level of friendship. Such feelings as those were the kind she hoped she could experience always.